{"id":19020,"date":"2021-07-04T18:11:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-04T12:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oliveboard.in\/blog\/?p=19020"},"modified":"2021-07-04T19:02:37","modified_gmt":"2021-07-04T13:32:37","slug":"success-story-prince-bansal-rbi-sbi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oliveboard.in\/blog\/success-story-prince-bansal-rbi-sbi\/","title":{"rendered":"Success Story of Prince Bansal – RBI Grade B #AIR1 2017 & SBI PO #AIR1 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Success stories are created by people who have gone after their dreams till they achieved what they wanted. The same is true for Prince Bansal. Let us go on and read his story in his own words.<\/span><\/p>\n

Success Story of Prince Bansal<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

“You are the driver of your own success. Go after it”. Here is the Success story of Prince Bansal (RBI Grade B<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span> #AIR1 2017 & SBI PO<\/strong><\/a> <\/span>#AIR1 2016)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“I’d like to begin this answer by saying there is no strategy as such other than doing one right thing after other. Things never go as planned and mid-way course correction is much more important than following a strategy to the T.<\/span><\/p>\n

I must also admit at the outset that when I was preparing I did not have a strategy in mind. When the notification was released in May, I was working with SBI as Probationary Officer and expecting RBI Prelims<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span> to be held in September. Just last year, RBI had shifted its exam schedule from November to September and I didn’t think that RBI would shift it again, much less thinking that it would be in June.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I expected the exam to take place in September, I was planning to start my preparation from May which would have given me 4 months to prepare for it. I had already taken the exam twice, therefore had some idea about what is asked and what should be prepared.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the notification was released, I was taken aback. For some time, I had made up my mind to give an honest attempt for RBI<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span> in 2017 and 1.5 months seemed like too little time to make that happen.<\/span><\/p>\n

*<\/span><\/p>\n

Although I had given the exam in 2015 and 2016, I had not prepared for it on both occasions. In 2015, I failed to qualify for Prelims and in 2016, since the exam was two months before schedule, it clashed with my SBI<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span> Interview. I did not prepare for RBI as I did not think it was wise to distract myself from SBI preparation where I was in the last stage and desperately needed some success under my belt.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although, I was able to clear Prelims because of my preparation for SBI, without any focused preparation for Mains, and with a poor score in English (54 out of 100), I missed the Mains cutoff by 9 marks.<\/span><\/p>\n

*<\/span><\/p>\n

When the notification<\/strong><\/span><\/a> <\/span>came out in May 2017, I had half a mind to drop the year and give the exam in 2018. I took a day to make up my mind and finally decided to take the plunge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since there was only 3 weeks time between Prelims and Mains, I knew I had to prepare simultaneously for both, that too in a way that gave me the best shot at clearing both the exams.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

RBI GRADE B PRELIMS PREPARATION<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

As I had performed well in SBI PO last year, I had some confidence about my preparation for RBI Prelims<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span>-, particularly English, QA and Reasoning sections. In an ideal scenario, I would have liked to brush up my concepts in these sections as it had been around a year since I gave SBI PO. But in those circumstances, I decided to take some risks with my Prelims and focus only on the General Awareness section.<\/span><\/p>\n

For General Awareness, I focused mainly on current affairs which I knew would equally help me in Mains. I knew that from my experience with RBI Mains<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span> 2016. The majority of the questions in ESI and a few questions in FM come either directly from current affairs or from some topic that has been in the news recently.<\/span><\/p>\n

At this point, I must tell you that everything I studied was freely available on the Internet except the newspaper \u201cThe Hindu\u201d which I love to read on hard copy. I had already purchased JAIIB books and did not buy any other books or online course material. I did purchase mock series for both Prelims and Mains, but that wasn’t much help either. It’s not that the mock series<\/strong><\/span><\/a> <\/span>weren’t helpful but that I had very little time to give the Mocks.<\/span><\/p>\n

For SBI, I purchased two mock series – Oliveboard (OB)<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span> and Practice Mock (PM) for both Prelims and Mains. I also gave the free mocks provided by a few other websites.<\/span><\/p>\n

For RBI, I purchased only Oliveboard<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span> as I had very little time. The notification came out of the blue in May and I hardly gave 3\u20134 mocks for both Prelims and Mains. Here too, I tried the free Mocks provided by other websites.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

My experience:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

For SBI PO-both Prelims and Mains<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span>, and RBI Grade B Prelims, the mocks do a wonderful job in showing the mirror to your preparation. If nothing else, you get to know where you stand vis-a-vis your competition. While OB<\/strong><\/span><\/a> gives a percentile score, PM gives you an AIR. The difficulty level is also comparable to the actual exam.<\/span><\/p>\n

For RBI Grade B Mains, I feel no mock series comes close to the actual paper. By giving mocks, you will learn a few things, find new concepts you have forgotten to touch, get some practise for numerical, but that’s it. Your Mocks score will fluctuate within a wide range and isn’t much relevant. Your final score in the exam may be vastly different from your Mocks score.<\/span><\/p>\n

*<\/span><\/p>\n

Before we move ahead, allow me to shed some light on the dots that connected to get me into RBI.<\/span><\/p>\n