How to Prepare for RBI Grade B? Check Insights from Pushkar Pahwa

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How to Prepare for RBI Grade B?

“It is indeed a proud moment for me to share with you some tips regarding preparation for the RBI Grade B exam. But since many of you appearing for this exam are civil services aspirants, I would like to devote a paragraph to you before I start with the strategy.” This blog post is dedicated to the success story of Pushkar Pahwa who cleared RBI Grade B 2016. He has shared his strategy to Crack RBI Grade B with us all here. Let us go on and read about his extraordinary journey to gain lessons from his hard-learned experience.

How is UPSC Preparation linked with RBI Grade B Sucess?

Being a civil services aspirant since 2011 and after many failed attempts in several competitive examinations including state civil services, believe me, I am very aware of your struggle and understand how frustrating your journey might be.

To reassure you, I would like to mention that a major credit for my success in this exam goes to my civils preparation because it helped me score well in General Awareness & English Sections (in Phase I) and Economics & Social Issues Paper (in Phase II).
Although most of you may not be able to taste the direct fruit of your hard work, believe me, all of you will be rewarded for your hard work in numerous indirect ways, and I hope selection in the RBI Grade B exam is one of those for many of you.
For those of you who have already failed in multiple CSE attempts, I want you to have a look at the list of the exams I failed to qualify for so that you don’t lose heart.
Also, never forget the fact that none of the examinations is a judgment of your capability and intelligence. There are many variables at work that lead to your success/ failure and all of them are not in your control. Your job is to prepare well and give your best. I wish you all the best for your journey.

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List of Exams

For the civil services aspirants looking for motivation, here is an extensive list of the examinations Pushkar Pahwa appeared for but could not qualify for:

S. No.	Exam Name	Result/Outcome
1	UPSC 2012	Failed to qualify in Mains
2	UPSC 2013	Failed to qualify in Mains
3	UPSC 2014	Failed to qualify in Mains
4	UPSC 2015	Failed to qualify in Prelims
5	UPSC 2016	Appeared only for IFoS. Failed to qualify in Prelims
6	Punjab Civil Services 2013	Failed to qualify in Prelims
7	Punjab Civil Services 2014	Appeared for the interview. Couldn’t make it to the merit list. The last seat was allocated to rank 75. My rank was 76.
8	Punjab Civil Services 2015	Appeared for the interview. Couldn’t make it to the merit list. Was awarded poor marks in the interview.
9	RBI Grade B 2013	Failed to qualify in Phase 1
10	RBI Grade B 2014	Failed to qualify in Phase 2
11	RBI Grade B 2015	Failed to qualify in Phase 1
12	APFC 2021	Failed to qualify in the 1st stage of the exam itself
13	APFC 2015	Failed to qualify in the 1st stage of the exam itself
14	CAPF 2013	Appeared for the interview. Failed to make it to the merit list.

Download RBI Grade B 2024 : The Complete Guide Here

How to Prepare for RBI Grade B – Complete Strategy

Let us see all the factors while preparing the strategy for Phase 1 of RBI Grade B Exam:

How to Prepare for RBI Grade B – Evaluating the competition

This is the most difficult part of the examination in terms of numbers as the level of competition at this stage is fierce. Just to give you an idea of the challenge, and the success ratio, refer to the following table regarding the trends in 2014, 2015 & 2016:

Batch	No. of candidates appeared in Phase 1	No. of candidates appeared for phase 2	Phase 1 Cut off (aggregate)	Percentile required to clear phase I*
2014	118630	1598	104	98.65
2015	74661	2617	88.50	96.49
2016	105715	3234	98.50	96.94

* Assuming that all the successful candidates of Phase I appeared for Phase II. So that means you must score a minimum of 96.5 percentile i.e. be in the top 3.5% to get through Phase I.

How to Become a RBI Grade B Officer – Strategy to attempt RBI Grade B Exam

First, you need to go through the RBI Grade B Syllabus and your previous marks sheet (if you have already appeared in Phase 1 of the Grade B exam) and figure out what are your strong and weak sections. Accordingly, you will have to focus more on your weak areas. Secondly, by looking at the previous cut-offs, you will get a rough idea of how much you need to score in each section. From these two inputs, you should decide the following three things:

The order in which you will be attempting the different sections of the exam.
The time you will be spending on each section.
The number of questions you will be attempting in each section.

Pushkar Pahwa’s sequence of attempting and section-wise targets were as follows:

English: Target 25 in 18 -20 minutes.
General Awareness: Attempt 65-70 questions in 20 minutes with high accuracy. Don’t panic or attempt wrong if you don’t know some questions. You have room to leave 10-15 questions.
Quantitative Aptitude: Target at least 15 correct in 25-30 minutes. After doing 15 correct moves to the next section & if time permits come back to do 3-4 more correct questions.
Reasoning: Min 35 questions if you attempt all correct. Otherwise 40 with high accuracy in 45-50 minutes.

Now once you are done with deciding the above three targets for yourself, you need to start with the preparation. There are two parts to preparation:

Acquiring Knowledge and Skills

Quantitative Aptitude (QA) & Reasoning: To know questions from what topics in Quant and LR are asked in the exam. My reference for this was the following list of topics I found on the internet:

Topics for QA:

Data interpretation (percentage, ratio, fractions, Venn diagram)
Permutation, combination, probability
Pipes, Trains, Boats, Race
Profit, Loss, Discount
Averages
Mixtures, Alligations
SI, CI – (do not invest too much time on CI questions as they involve long calculations)
AP, GP, HP
Linear & quadratic equations
Geometry – area & volume
Series completion & find the wrong one in the series – Leave ‘find the wrong one’ if they take time.
Time & work

Topics for Reasoning:

Statement and conclusion (syllogism, which conclusion is true)
Statement and conclusion (based on inequalities, mathematical equations)
Statement and conclusion (which conclusion is true)
Sitting arrangement (circular, row, building floor) – These are the tough ones. My approach was to attempt them at the last once I have gone through the rest of the questions in the reasoning section.
Input-output machine – Practice a lot. It will help in recognizing patterns quickly. Target full marks in such questions.
Statement and inference
Statement and assumption
Blood relations
Data sufficiency (can you answer the question with one, two, or three statements)
Name-place-color-thing mapping – Again time-consuming. Should be attempted at last.
Direction test
Series completion – pictures

Prepare topic-wise quick problem-solving tips and tricks and practice a lot of questions on each topic. You can refer to popular websites and YouTube videos for practicing assorted topics. Make short notes of tips and tricks which you think you might forget.

General Awareness: This part is highly factual and you need to cover questions related to the banking sector. Those preparing for civils tend to ignore this part, assuming that they know enough about current affairs which is very risky as the kind of facts asked in this exam is very different from the civil services exam. You will clear the cutoff but it is highly likely that you fail to score well. So, keep in mind that scoring high in this section assures you that you clear the overall cutoff even if you are marginally above the cutoff in comparatively tougher sections of Quant and Reasoning.

It is for this reason that I would recommend going through at least the previous 6 months’ current affairs notes/capsules available on banking examination-related websites. The factual nature of current affairs makes them very confusing, so make sure you revise them plenty of times. This will make sure that you score above average in this section.

English: If you are a regular reader of a newspaper, your knowledge of English will be more than enough for this section. The scoring in this section will depend more upon how much you practice as the options in this section are very confusing. However, you can work on your vocabulary and learn new words daily to increase your confidence level and thus the chances of scoring high in this section. But the key will be practice. Especially you need to practice the questions by arranging the sentences in order so that it makes a meaningful passage. Again, keep in mind that this is the section that will help you clear the overall cut-off. So, your aim should be to maximize your score in this section.

Implementation/ Putting your Knowledge into Practice

Once you have learned the basics of each section and the tips and tricks for QA and LR, it is time to implement your strategy by practicing as many questions as possible. To start with, solve a few random questions of all sections from the question banks. You can also practice a few reasoning questions from the book – A modern approach to Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning by RS if you have time, though I did not do it.

But the most crucial step in preparation for Phase I will be practicing mock tests. I opted for Oliveboard mocks for phase 1. I particularly like the kind of analysis they provide regarding your attempt and scoring pattern after each mock test. Initially, it would be difficult to adhere to time limits decided by you for each section as you might not be able to solve the target number of questions. But don’t worry, as you keep practicing you will achieve the desired accuracy. For this, you must attempt at least 10-15 mock tests before appearing for phase 1.

Related Links	Related Links	Related Links
RBI Grade B Apply Online	RBI Grade B Eligibility	RBI Grade B Syllabus & Exam Pattern
RBI Grade B Selection Process	RBI Grade B Exam Date	RBI Grade B Admit Card
RBI Grade B Previous Year Papers	RBI Grade B Result	RBI Grade B Salary

Note: A very important factor that decides your marks in Phase I is your decision to leave a question if it takes a long time to solve. Many times the question will be very simple but involve long calculations. It is better to skip such a question at the first instance and come back to them if time permits rather than clinging onto it thinking ‘how can I not attempt such a simple question? Remember that apart from the subject knowledge, your time management skills play a key role in the Phase I paper. This planning worked well for me and I could clear Phase 1 with flying colors. I am sharing my mark sheet along with my section-wise attempt for your reference.

Pushkar Pahwa’s Final Scores for RBI Grade B Exam

My attempt in Paper 1 was as follows:

GA – 51
Reasoning – 35
English – 30
QA – 14

Few Important Points for all the Aspirants

I would like to clarify that each year, candidates from diverse backgrounds crack this examination. It includes Chartered Accountants, finance students from renowned institutions, civil services aspirants, professionals already working in government as well as private financial institutions/ banks, those working in the corporate sector/ IT, journalists, and fresh graduates to name a few. So, do not, at any stage of the examination, consider yourself an underdog. You have equal chances of getting selected as any other candidate has.
While going through this document, multiple times you may feel that I have stated the obvious. But believe me, there is an enormous difference between ‘knowing the obvious’ and ‘doing the obvious’. It is very few of us not only ‘know’ but also ‘do’ the obvious and that is what makes the difference.
The moment you decide to write the RBI Gr B exam, make sure you join the RBI Gr B preparation threads on various online forums and the ‘RBI Gr B exam guidance Facebook page. These will prove to be important sources of information and discussion throughout the preparation.

I would also advise you to dig the internet for a couple of strategies to crack this examination before you start your preparation because smart work is as important as hard work in cracking this examination. However, you should always remember that while these strategies worked for different aspirants at different times, you should not follow them blindly. Read 2-3 strategies and on their basis, formulate your strategy as per your strengths and weaknesses.

Wish you all the best!

Topper’s Corner	Topper’s Corner	Topper’s Corner
RBI Grade B 2023 Topper Gorakh Jayswal	RBI Grade B 2023 Topper Aviral Agrawal	RBI Grade B 2023 Topper Prachi Dhurandhar
RBI Grade B 2023 Topper Diksha Shinde	RBI Grade B 2022 Topper Strategy by Aneesh J	RBI Grade B 2022 Topper Strategy by Samyak Bhandari
RBI Grade B 2022 Topper Strategy by Saurabh Gupta	RBI Grade B 2022 Topper Strategy by Vinodh Kumar	RBI Grade B 2022 Topper Strategy by Nikhil Bharate

RBI Grade B Preparation Material – Free Ebooks

Hey aspirants!! We have specifically kept this section for the free ebooks. Here, you will get all the topic-wise ebooks. We will keep on updating fresh and new ebooks on different topics so do not forget to bookmark this blog. To download this ebook, all you need to do is log in. Also, download RBI Grade B 2023 Memory-Based Papers below:

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Saloni Singhal

Hello there! I’m a dedicated Government Job aspirant turned passionate writer & content marketer. My blogs are a one-stop destination for accurate and comprehensive information on exams like Regulatory Bodies, Banking, SSC, State PSCs, and more. I’m on a mission to provide you with all the details you need, conveniently in one place. When I’m not writing and marketing, you’ll find me happily experimenting in the kitchen, cooking up delightful treats. Join me on this journey of knowledge and flavors!

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