Success Story of Naveen Kumar Singh – Cleared RBI GRADE B 2016 (AIR 49)

Read the success story of Naveen kumar singh , who was once so inspired by the speech of RBI Governor, that he went on to clear RBI GRADE B exam in 2016 with flying colors. So, make your life a masterpiece; imagine no limitations on what you can be, have or do.

Here is his inspiring story:

Hello Everyone, I am Naveen. I have graduated from IIT Kharagpur in 2015 with a dual degree course. I have done my B.Tech in Mining Engineering and M.Tech in Financial Engineering. When I was in my 1st year, the then governor of RBI, Dr. D. Subbarao was the chief guest in our Institute’s Foundation day. His speech and intellectual ability gravitated me towards RBI. I decided to sit for this exam straight out of college. So I took the exam in 2015 and results were declared in 2016.

Before sharing my strategy I would like to share answers of the few frequently asked questions to me related to RBI GRADE B .

Different department in RBI & their scope

• A detailed list can be found on RBI’s website. As you can see, it covers a diverse set of functions like monetary policy, research, issuing currency, regulation, financial markets, financial inclusion, forex management and being a banker to the banks & governments..

 RBI Allotments & transfers

• After my induction training was over at Chennai, I was allotted a 2 BHK flat at Tapovan, the official RBI’s officers’ quarters at Malad, Mumbai. RBI ensures that its grade B officers get well-renovated flats at posh locations. 
• The transfer policy is also very well thought of. After one completes the 3-year term at a center, one is eligible for transfer. As we have RBI owned residential quarters in almost all capital cities so accommodation is never a problem.

Is it possible to prepare for RBI with your job?

• It is very much possible to prepare for RBI with your job. Though I gave the exam straight out of college, however many of my batchmates successfully cleared the exam along with their jobs.

Below are the list of books which you guys can refer.

• For phase-I exam 
  • For Quant, I solved Arun Sharma’s Quantitative aptitude book for CAT 
  • For reasoning, I solved R.S. Agarwal’s reasoning book.
  • For G.K. I referred to the Banking and current affairs magazine of Kiran Prakashan and made my own section-wise short notes for revision.
• For phase-II exam 
  • Latest Economic Survey and budget – many tricky 6 markers were based on economic survey’s data
  • Govt schemes and plans
  • Mrunal’s lectures and articles
  • Either read one business newspaper/ Vision IAS’s monthly current affairs ( I preferred latter)
  • My optional subject was ‘Statistics’ which is no longer optional subject now, so no point in listing its books.
  • I did not read anything for the English section 

Preparation Strategy: 

Prelims is an elimination round. Even if you are AIR-1 in prelims it doesn’t matter. Hence the more logical thing to do is to give equitable time to each and every section. Remember – failure to clear even one sectional cutoff and you are out of the race. Even though 2800 people eventually clear prelims, at least 4000 people must have cleared the overall cutoff but couldn’t progress because of a bad score in quant (and sometimes in reasoning). Hence ordering of sections to attempt becomes very important. I do not advocate any particular ordering but I am writing my order of sections.

I started with GK and my effort was to complete GK + para-jumbles in 30 minutes. Sometimes when GK itself took 30 minutes then I would leave PJ otherwise GK+PJ in 30 minutes. So now 90 minutes left for 115-120 questions. Then I would attempt the non-DI part of quant in about 20 minutes. So 70 minutes left for some 100-105 questions. Then I would attempt the whole reasoning section in one go. This took 55 minutes (I never attempted more than 45 questions in reasoning). So now I am left with 15 minutes with 25 questions from english and 2-3 DI caselets of quant. I would complete 20 English questions in 8-10 minutes and would choose the easier of the DI caselet and solve as many questions in it as the time permits.

Though I started my preparation only 1 month before the exam. However, I would advise prospective aspirants to start at least 4-6 months prior to the phase-I exam. Both phases test different skills. Prelims test quick calculations and factual knowledge, whereas mains test more analytical knowledge. However, one must prepare for both the stages simultaneously because there is very less time between phase-I results and phase-II exams.

Life as an RBI Officer

I am currently working as a manager in Operational Data Management Division of  the Department of Statistics and Information Management (DSIM). Our division is responsible for handling all data of operational areas pertaining to banking, non-banking, and cooperative banking supervision, financial inclusion, financial markets, foreign exchange, payment and settlement systems, internal debt management, and state finance reports. 

My usual work days are spent solving data related queries and analyzing data pertaining to different RBI operational departments. Besides that, I am also working on strategic projects the impact of which will be felt on Indian banking and non-banking sector. Overall, RBI provides immense job satisfaction.

So , I hope my preparation strategy and other tips that I have shared with you guys would be immensely helpful in strategizing your preparation for RBI Exams.

All the best to everyone!

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