RBI Grade B Success Story: Ms. Aditi Haldar Cracked the Exam at the Age of 22

People only from a commerce or science background can clear the RBI Grade B examination. You require years of study to clear this examination, and freshers are not prioritized during the interview. These are some of the most common myths that you must have heard of, right? 

Ms. Aditi Haldar’s achievement shatters these myths as she cracked the RBI Grade B exam in her first attempt. Despite having no background in commerce or science, no work experience, with just 10 months of preparation, she cracked the RBI Grade B exam at the age of 22. 

In this article, Aditi shares her journey, explaining the strategy and resources she used that helped her achieve this feat. 

Background

• In 12th I followed core Humanities subjects
• My background is in English literature
• I graduated from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, in 2022

Why RBI Grade B?

During my school days, I frequently discussed appearing for the UPSC exam. This is why I chose core Humanities subjects that would be beneficial for UPSC preparation. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I became interested in cryptocurrency trading and developed a desire to pursue a career in finance. At that time, the Reserve Bank of India came into play, and I thought that this exam might be my gateway to the field of Finance.

Also, my family always wanted me to do a government job and the RBI Grade B officer also satisfied that. So my family was really happy that I was choosing the path by myself, and they supported me throughout my preparation. My father even went the extra mile by creating notes for me.

UPSC Vs. RBI Grade B 

There’s a common perception that UPSC officers hold more power, enjoy greater luxuries, and receive more benefits compared to their counterparts in the RBI. Of course, that is one way of seeing it. However, I’m a glass-half-full kind of person. I am very optimistic and look at the brighter side of the RBI Grade B exam.

RBI Grade B manager is a highly sought-after job. It offers the advantage of avoiding the political sphere, which doesn’t align with my interests. I’m not someone who’s craving for power. So, I believe that UPSC and RBI both are really good government jobs but RBI is more like an underdog. For me, RBI is a good opportunity to do something creative and contribute to the nation’s development.

My RBI Grade B Phase 1 Strategy

Here is my subject-wise strategy for RBI Grade B Phase 1:

RBI Grade B Quant and Reasoning Strategy

I hadn’t touched quant and reasoning for five years until 2022, when I decided to tackle it again. I looked at the previous question papers and observed that RBI has been constantly increasing the difficulty level of quant and reasoning questions.

So, to understand my current level, I took a free mock test on Ixambee but found that my performance was not up to the mark at all. I then thoroughly studied the RS Agarwal book to strengthen my foundation. Only after feeling confident with my basics, did I move on to practicing with Ace Quant and Ace Reasoning by ADDA 247, and I practiced these books at least two to three times.  

One key observation I made during my preparation was that understanding the types of questions asked in the exam was more beneficial than merely reviewing the previous year’s questions. For instance, rather than directly asking about number series, they could present it within a quantity comparison format, making it more complex and time-consuming. 

Similarly, you would not get direct syllogism questions, they might ask you “reverse syllogisms”, “some not questions”, “only questions”, etc. So, while the quant and reasoning section may not necessarily be very difficult, it tends to be lengthy in nature.

When choosing question types for quantitative ability (quant) and reasoning, I was highly selective and accurate.

Focused Preparation for Weak Areas

The first two months of my RBI Grade B exam preparation were all about preparing for quant and reasoning. Knowing these sections were my weak spots, I went all-in, dedicating a solid six hours daily to them. It was an intense period of focused study, but laying this strong foundation early on proved crucial for my success. However, I still managed to squeeze in 2 hours for social media scrolling. 

• For quant, I prioritized quadratic equation questions which came in the form of quantity comparison. 
• In reasoning, I prioritized critical reasoning, tackling questions like syllogisms and machine input/output first. I decided to omit puzzles and seating arrangements entirely.

Accuracy Over Quantity

Instead of attempting a large number of questions, I prioritized accuracy. My goal was to answer just enough to comfortably clear the cut-off, focusing on a smaller number of high-confidence attempts. This minimized the risk of careless mistakes, costing me valuable marks.

Moreover, as the time is limited in the exam, you can not do more than 10 to 12 questions in quant, even if you are really good at it. 

RBI Grade B English Strategy

With my background in English Literature, I felt confident tackling the English section without additional resources. I simply attempted multiple mock tests, which allowed me to assess my strengths and weaknesses, ensuring I was exam-ready.

RBI Grade B General Awareness Strategy

I was one of those confused aspirants who had subscribed to several sources and tried reading them. I found them bulky, and sometimes I could not retain most of them. So, for GA, I completely relied on EduTap’s content. I read EduTap’s Schemes Tap, Reports Tap, and Current Tap which had both the current and PIB news, especially for Phase 2.

For the General Awareness section, I initially aimed to cover the last six months of current affairs and began preparing in January. However, with the RBI Grade B Phase 1 scheduled for July, I realized I couldn’t retain information from January. Consequently, I prioritized studying only the most recent four months of GA.

Apart from that budget economic survey, I created daily schedules to ensure I covered specific topics each day. While I didn’t set strict time limits, I aimed to complete several current affairs topics daily. I also made my schedule more realistic by adjusting it according to my capacity. For example, if I knew I couldn’t cover four current affairs topics in a day, I scheduled to cover only two. There were times when I couldn’t complete my schedule, so I already allocated buffer days for that purpose.

Types of GA Questions Asked in the RBI Grade B Exam

In the GA section, it was crucial to grasp concepts thoroughly, as questions were often detailed and required a deep understanding to answer correctly. For example, 

1. Instead of asking “who attended the ASEAN summit” or “where the summit was held”, they will ask you to identify the outsider out of a list of five member countries of ASEAN. 
2. For reports and ranking questions, instead of asking, “Who was in the top three”. They’ll ask who ranked after India in a specific report or who held the seventh position. 

This demanded in-depth reading and a strong grasp of current affairs beyond just skimming headlines.

RBI Grade B General Awareness Strategy Tips

It is important to understand the “First in News” in the RBI and SEBI news. Apart from that, you should also visit the RBI website at least once because some of the questions came directly from it. 

I also recommend covering at least the basics of your Mains syllabus to understand topics such as:

• What are derivatives 
• What are the basic Norms 
• What is risk management 
• What are the different types of risks
• And more.

RBI Grade B Mock Tests Practice

When I took mock tests, I skipped the general awareness section at first. This allowed me to see how I was scoring in quant, reasoning, and English. My goal was to ensure my scores in these sections were at least between 35 and 40, and the GA was just add-on marks.

How I Overcame Self-Doubts

There were times when I felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information and struggled to recall anything. It even crossed my mind that maybe the RBI Grade B exam wasn’t the right fit for me. Despite these moments of self-doubt, I remained consistent with my studies—No holiday and No festival—dedicating myself to daily review. I believe the key to remembering data is to revise the same facts over and over again.

My RBI Grade B Phase 2 Strategy 

I was so confident in clearing the RBI Grade B Phase 1 exam that I had already completed my Phase 2 syllabus before the Phase 1 examination. All I needed to do then was to revise it again and practice answer writing.

As I mentioned earlier, the first two months were completely devoted to quant and reasoning. I did not prepare for any other RBI Grade B subject at that time. After completing the quant and reasoning syllabus, I started preparing the RBI Grade B Phase 2 subjects. I focused on one Phase 2 subject at a time and completed management first.

While I was giving mock tests of Phase 1, I was also revising the quant concepts that I had done before. I was dedicating only 2 hours to the mock tests and allocated the rest of my time to studying management and finance, focusing on understanding the concepts thoroughly.

Throughout my journey, my father supported me by making notes and helping me with concepts, whether it was for Phase 1 or Phase 2. He made management notes and sometimes assisted with General Awareness too. His short notes were invaluable for quick revision and memorization.

RBI Grade B Finance and Management Strategy

For Phase 2 of the RBI Grade B exam, I relied entirely on EduTap’s course. I learned finance and management concepts from their comprehensive concept notes. Aspirants usually have a notion that FM is quite bulky, which is true, but if your concepts are clear, FM becomes more manageable.

In EduTap’s concept notes, they used a lot of examples, which not only helped in solving MCQs but also helped me write descriptive answers. I did not refer to the summary sheets as much, I just went through the concept notes over and over again. For my quick revision, I summarized my points in one page every time I read one chapter. Also, I wrote down some data points for finance and even for management, although it was a static portion. 

For example, for a motivation topic, I used to check on the internet to find any company that is helping or has helped with that motivation topic and wrote them down. These handwritten notes not only facilitated quick revisions but also assisted me in composing descriptive answers effectively.

For the descriptive section, I also followed Dr Amit K Lal’s course. I extensively practiced descriptive writing, where he gave me personalized feedback, allowing me to identify my mistakes and work on them. I had practiced a lot of application-based questions, and the same goes for the RBI Grade B ESI paper.

RBI Grade B Reports/Schemes Strategy

While all the aspirants read schemes for Phase 1, I completely skipped it because I thought 80 questions were there for Phase 1. Let me just skip it for Phase 1 and cover them in Phase 2. I only focused on limited schemes, such as 

• Flagship schemes
• Schemes from important Ministries
• Schemes that are in the news
• schemes mentioned in the budget economic survey  

For Phase 2, I kept on revising the same things and followed EduTap’s SchemesTap. More application-based questions were asked in the exam form schemes. So, you cannot just read the factual points in the schemes, you also have to understand how to apply those schemes in a particular situation.

Direct descriptive questions were asked from reports in the exam. Unlike the questions asked in 2022 and 2021, where questions were easy, in the 2023 exam, you have to know the very specific details of the report to write descriptive answers. 

So you have to focus on reports and schemes as if they are a descriptive portion of your syllabus, and there is no other way around. As I practiced a lot of descriptive writing, I did not find it difficult to meet the word limit as well.

RBI Grade B ESI Strategy

For the short marker questions, there were some static portions. Both the FM and ESI papers are overlapping subjects. So, you will find topics from ESI that might come in the finance section or Finance topics that might come in the ESI section.

One or two ESI questions were static in nature, but most of them were dynamic, even in finance. In the exam, many questions were related to the current topics. For example, there was a descriptive question on ONDC, which was the current affairs’ topic.  

For static questions you will be able to write directly if you know the topics by heart, making it easy for you to write the answers. However, application-based questions require more than just just memorization. They demand that you apply your knowledge and understanding to solve problems on the spot.

I practiced a lot of application-based questions. This turned out to be very helpful because when faced with those types of questions, the solutions came to me readily. After all, I had trained myself to think critically and apply my knowledge in real-time scenarios.

RBI Grade B Descriptive English Strategy

Before jumping to my RBI Grade B descriptive English strategy, I want to share a tip that worked for me during Phase 2 exam revisions for Finance Management and Economic & Social Issues (ESI), especially for FM. While revising concept notes, I analyzed the topics that had appeared in the 2022 and 2021 RBI Grade B exams. 

Based on this analysis, I focused on revising the topics that hadn’t been covered in those previous exams. This strategy increased the chances of encountering questions from those less-tested areas, especially the static portions of the syllabus. Therefore, my advice to RBI Grade B aspirants would be to prioritize these less-tested topics. You’re likely to encounter at least one or two questions from them.

Now, let’s talk about my essay preparation.

RBI Grade B Essay Strategy

In preparation for the essays, I had compiled information on all the current happenings. For instance, since artificial intelligence was a hot news topic, I had written essays on various aspects of it. I tackled a broad topic essay encompassing everything about artificial intelligence, along with more specific essays on AI in the banking sector and healthcare sector. I even created sub-points for each essay for a quick revision.

I had written around 10 essays and none of them came in the actual exam. I ended up having to write on a completely unexpected topic. I can say most of these essays are quite random but you would get at least one or two that might fit in your bracket. 

However, reading sample essays and going for the exam will not help you a lot. It doesn’t necessarily develop your writing skills as much as actually sitting down and composing your own essays.

Every time I felt that a particular current topic was important, I used to write the current topic down. For example, the green finance topic. I used to write down the topic “green finance” and search it on the internet when I was writing my essays. This helped me get data points for the topic and make my essay more opinionated by including better viewpoints.

I always searched editorials on the internet. I used to search “green finance editorial in Hindu or Indian Express” to get opinionated viewpoints from the people who wrote these articles. Then, I used this information to develop my own content. I also searched for important government schemes relevant to the topic and examples of live companies doing certain things for green finance. I tried to include these points in my essay, which automatically made my content data-ready.

And don’t forget the basics of essay structure—introduction, body, and conclusion. I always tried to make my writing more flowy.

To make notes, I used Evernote. I wrote my notes there and kept revising them. For example, I had to prepare an essay on ONDC and that came in the FM section which actually helped me as I knew the essential data points by heart. 

RBI Grade B Phase 2 Result

I was a little bit doubtful about the Phase 2 result as I did not attempt many MCQs. I tried to be selective but accurate. So, I felt that I had attempted fewer questions as compared to most of the aspirants and felt that I might not be able to clear Phase 2. But, I cleared the RBI Grade B Phase 2.

After giving Phase 2, I waited for quite some time till they gave the results. Thereafter, I started my preparation for interviews. During this time period, I was continuously counting marks to see how much I could actually get. In the meanwhile, I wanted to keep myself occupied and I started preparing for the RBI assistant exam. 

The reason for choosing RBI assistant and not NABARD assistant was that I was already prepared for the RBI Grade B exam. Moreover, agriculture was not my cup of tea. I thought that agriculture was not a topic that I could prepare in such a short amount of time. So, I completely eliminated that option and prepared for the RBI assistant exam instead. Later, I gave the RBI assistant exam as well, but that was way after my interviews because I was waiting for the final result.  

I want to tell every aspirant that you must know your strengths and weaknesses and be practical about them.

My Support 

During my preparation, my family had also made a lot of sacrifices. The entire environment that you are studying in actually makes a lot of difference. So, it is the environment, the efforts of my family, and my hard work and consistency—all of these came together and allowed me to crack the RBI Grade B exam in my first attempt. 

I have a very small group of friends, and they are very much aware that I was taking this examination from my graduation days. They have their own respective fields. They have never put any pressure on me to meet and not interact as much as I used to. 

They have been my silent cheerleaders. In the genZ language those are the green flags in my life. 

My RBI Grade B Interview Strategy

I only had around 15 days for my interview preparation because my interview was on the 3rd of October, while the other candidates had their interviews spread out until the 8th of December.

During the RBI Grade B interview preparation, I received a lot of help from fellow aspirants. I met them through a Telegram channel, “We Learn Here” and Dr. Amit Lal’s group. These fellow aspirants had a lot of experience with this exam and helped me immensely by constantly questioning me. They had asked me multiple questions over calls, helped me frame my answers, and consistently provided me with news from the Press Information Bureau (PIB).

Overall, it was a great group, and many people from the group itself had passed the exam, so following their approach really worked for me. You can find such people from these channels as well and form your own study groups for support.

Apart from this, I prepared from the RBI website. I prepared the homepage really well and covered all the 7 icons on it in detail. For example, for example, there was the UDGAM icon and I read it in detail. I also covered the workings and functions of RBI, this information is also available on the RBI website’s homepage in PDF. This PDF is a bit bulky, but I suggest my fellow aspirants to please go through the entire thing as direct questions had been asked from the RBI workings and functions in the interview.

I had covered the Preamble by heart. Sometimes, the interviewer may ask you to say it word for word, so knowing it by heart would have helped me. There were some of the questions asked from the RBI and BR acts such as “does RBI pay the income tax”. 

I had thoroughly prepared my biodata to answer the HR questions. My suggestion is that you must know all the keywords that you’ve used in your biodata. You cannot leave out anything.

The interview also included questions related to the mains syllabus, such as what the basel norms are, what the regulatory sandbox is, etc. Along with these questions, the panel also asked some other basic questions like why do you want to join RBI, what do you know of RBI, which department do you want to work in, etc. 

I had used chat GPT and Bing to frame these types of questions and then I prepared my answers. 

RBI Grade B Mock Interview Experience

I had appeared for all the mock interviews of all the platforms and I got a similar kind of response from all the mock interviews about my speed of speaking and how I interrupt. So, I had to work on both of those points. 

For the EduTap mock interview, I can say that it was more factual in nature in the sense that the panel was actually testing my knowledge there. So when I gave the EduTap mock interview, I wasn’t that prepared. From the interview, I got to know that I have to read the Preamble and the RBI Act. The feedback from the panel actually helped me as I was asked about the Preamble in my actual interview. 

After the mock interviews that I had given, one of the major reviews that I got was that I am very confident. The review actually worked for me because I was very confident I would never compare myself to other people. 

Actual RBI Grade B Interview Experience

When I walked into the actual interview, I saw a lot of people. I am sure that all of them are competent aspirants but then I knew so am I. If I have my place there, I am as competent as anyone else. I deserved my fair chance there. That was something I kept reminding myself as positive affirmations work really well if you are telling yourself out loud. I followed this approach throughout the journey.  

The fellow aspirants I was talking to inspired me a lot, and then there are my parents, who motivated me a lot. So, all of that created lots of positivity.

The interview panel asked me a question that, “the way you talk you are really good with words but how good are you with numbers”. To answer that question, I took them back to my prelims time. I told them that I’ve cleared the prelims and I am decent enough with numbers and also because I’ve cleared the prelims. They had a laugh over my answer, seeming to appreciate the point. 

They were very understanding of any candidate’s journey and recognized the hard work invested in reaching this stage—it wouldn’t be possible without a significant effort. That respect was evident, regardless of background: fresher, gap year, working aspirant, etc. They treated everyone with respect because clearing both the Prelims and Mains is a significant feat in itself. So, even if an interview might not be my shining moment, reaching that stage earns respect for the preparation invested in the written exams.

How I Overcame Self-Doubts

Self-doubts do creep in and I too could not escape it. So, I kept on telling myself that I was going to crack it in my first attempt no matter what happens. There weren’t any what ifs that were going to come in my way and I was going to do it this time which is why I had just focused on RBI Grade B actually and I had thought I would not give any other exams because of this. 

Finally the interview happened and then for two months I had to wait. I would keep on calculating marks day and night and get nightmares. What if I’m not clearing this exam? So, sometimes it does creep and you cannot help it. At that moment I thought about preparing for the RBI assistant exam.

Final RBI Grade B Result

Finally the result came out and all of us (me and my parents) felt relieved together that it is over and we are done with it. We don’t have to study for the same exam all over again.

RBI Grade B Preparation Tips

Here are some tips that I would like to give to my fellow RBI Grade B aspirants. 

• Don’t drop your weapons before you go to The Warfield. Don’t question yourself whether you will be able to do it or not. Be that exception and go there and win the war that is how it works.
• You will learn a lot of things from failures of different aspirants as well. You will get a lot of stories from them and try to cherry-pick things from everyone’s strategies.
• Do not follow anyone’s strategy blindly, make a strategy of your own. 
• Stay curious and consistent.
• Try to keep aiming for the eye of the bird and you will surely get there.

Here is a video in which Aditi Haldar explains her RBI Grade B preparation strategy.

Conclusion

Being from a non-commerce and non-science background, Aditi Haldar cracked the RBI Grade B exam in her first attempt at the age of 22. In her inspiring journey she stresses the importance of crafting a personalized study plan, staying consistent, and believing in oneself. While acknowledging self-doubt, she emphasizes overcoming it with a positive attitude. Her journey offers valuable advice for future RBI Grade B aspirants.

Best of Luck!