Can RBI Grade B and Civil Services be prepared simultaneously?

RBI Grade B and Civil Services Preparation : Being a competitive exam aspirant, you must be no stranger to uncertainty. The chances of selection in RBI Grade B and Civil Services is less than 1%. Hence it would be pragmatic to prepare for several overlapping exams at a time. The syllabus of both the exams is quite exhaustive. Is it really possible to study for both the exams simultaneously? Read further to know complete details.

For your preparation to be successful, the syllabus of both the exams must overlap to reduce time and improve efficacy. Read along to check the overlapping topics of both the exams.

Overlapping topics for RBI Grade B and Civil Services

Some topics that will be useful for both the exams – Civil services and RBI Grade B preparation are as follows :

RBI Grade B and Civil services : Current Affairs

Current Affairs carries a significant weightage in Civil Services and RBI. You can expect more analytical questions on current affairs in Civil Services Exam.

Current Affairs topics in RBI Grade B

• Daily News (for Phase 1 & Phase 2)
• Sports
• Awards/Film Festivals
• Obituary
• Appointments/Committees/Constituencies
• Meetings/Summits
• Schemes/Campaigns/Portals
• International News/India’s initiative with other countries
• Miscellaneous – Ports/Industrial Parks, museums, Power plants, nuclear plants, any missile launch etc
• Reports/Indices
• Economic and Financial news (like news related to Monetary Policy; Important Guidelines)
• Union Budget (for Phase 1 & Phase 2)
• Important RBI Circulars, Notifications, Reports (For Phase 2)
• Government Schemes (Union & State Govt. Schemes) (for Phase 1 & Phase 2)

Civil Services Current Affairs topics

If you compare this with the current affairs topics of Civil services Prelims syllabus, then the Civil Services Prelims Topics that would be covered include :

• Current Affairs of National and International importance
• Economic and Social Development – Sustainable development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives etc.

Civil Services Mains Syllabus Topics that overlap include :

• Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilisation of resources, growth, development and employment
• Government Budgeting
• Infrastructure – Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

RBI Grade B and Civil services : Economy

While RBI Grade B Exam majorly on Economy, Economy is a part of 1 (Paper 3) of the 9 papers in UPSC Mains.

Important Economy topics you need to cover for RBI Grade B are as follows :

• SECC 2011 (for Phase 1 & Phase 2)
• Static Banking GK (For Phase 1)
• Census 2011 (for Phase 1 & Phase 2)
• Economic Survey (for Phase 1 & Phase 2)
• Union Budget (for Phase 1 & Phase 2)
• Banking Terminology (Phase 1)
• Headquarters of Banks (Phase 1)
• Economic and Social Issues can be comfortably prepared alongwith Civil Services as topics overlap significantly.

1. Growth and Development (Phase 2)
2. Indian Economy (Phase 2)
3. Globalization (Phase 2)
4. Social Structure in India (Phase 2)

• General Finance can be challenging to prepare alongwith Civil Services as it involves a lot of facts and very deep reading.

1. Banking System in India
2. Financial Institutions
3. Changing landscape of banking sector
4. Impact of the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-08 and the Indian response 
5. Financial Inclusion
6. Corporate Governance
7. Role of e-governance
8. Inflation
9. FinTech

Civil Services Economics topics in the syllabus includes :

• Economic and Social Development – Sustainable development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives etc.,
• Inclusive growth and associated issues/challenges
• Effects of liberalisation on the economy (post 1991 changes), changes in industrial policy and their effects on industrial growth
• Investment models (PPP etc.,)
• Infrastructure – Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.
• Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilisation of resources, growth, development and employment

RBI Grade B and Civil services : Quantitative Aptitude and Reasoning

Quantitative Aptitude of RBI Grade B covers 30 marks in Phase 1. In Civil Services, Quantitative aptitude and Reasoning are part of the Qualifying Paper 2 in Prelims (Marks = 100)

• The difficulty level of Quant and Reasoning in RBI Grade B is much higher than in Civil Services.
• Time limit for Quant in RBI Grade B Prelims is 25 minutes and Reasoning whereas there is no sectional time limit in Civil Services Prelims. The duration of Paper 2 is 2 hours.

RBI Grade B and Civil services : English

In RBI Grade B, English language carries 30 Marks in Phase I (Objective) and 100 Marks in Phase 2 (Descriptive).

In civil services, English forms a part of Paper 2 in Civil Services Prelims and Paper – B (300 Marks) of Qualifying Papers in Mains. It will also help you in composing good essays in Mains Paper 1

Topics in English for RBI Grade B

Phase I

Cloze Test, Fillers, Spotting the Errors, Para Jumbles, Idioms and Phrases, Word Rearrangement, Column Based Questions, Sentence Improvement, Paragraph Completion, Grammar, Reading Comprehension,

Phase II

Essay writing, Letter writing, Precis writing

Topics in English for Civil Services

Prelims

Comprehension and Interpersonal skills including Communication Skills

Mains

Comprehension of given passages, Precis, Vocabulary and Usage, Short Essays

Exam Pattern and Syllabus of RBI Grade B and Civil Services

Check complete details of RBI Grade B Exam Pattern and RBI Grade B Syllabus here

Check complete details of Civil Services Exam Pattern and Civil Services Syllabus here

Conclusion

Preparing for Civil Services can go hand in hand with RBI grade B preparation even though there is variation in the way you need to prepare in certain topics. RBI needs additional focus on Quantitative Aptitude and Reasoning. It also needs deeper understanding of Banking and Finance sector, and Management. RBI focuses mainly on facts and statistics whereas Civil services requires comparatively less statistics and more analysis. For civil services aspirants, this ensures you cover Economy syllabus but the detailed knowledge of Economy will help you in improving the quality of your Mains answers and tackle any Economy related question in interview.