RBI Grade B Success Story: Ms. Prashasti Godara Cracked NABARD, SEBI, and RBI Exams

This is the story of Ms. Prashasti Godara’s journey to cracking the RBI Grade B exam. It wasn’t a straight shot to success. After two failed attempts at the UPSC prelims, she felt discouraged but never gave up on her dream. 

During her RBI Grade B journey, she cracked the NABARD Grade A and SEBI Grade A (Assistant Manager) exams, but still she wanted to join the Reserve Bank of India as a Manager. After a 3-year of struggle, she finally cracked the RBI Grade B exam. 

In this article, Prashasti shares the strategies she used to conquer each stage of the RBI Grade B exam, from Phase 1 to the interview. 

Brief Introduction

• Graduation from IIT Roorkee 
• Worked as a Software Developer for around 1.5 years after Graduation.
• UPSC preparation: 2 attempts. Could not clear prelims both times.
• Worked as ASO in AFHQ for around 2 years.
• Cleared NABARD Grade A and SEBI Grade A in her first attempt

RBI journey 

• 2021: Flunked in Phase 1 due to low score in reasoning
• 2022: Reached the interview stage, scored 18/75 marks in the interview
• 2023: Cleared with a total of 231.75 marks:
  • 65/200 in Phase 1
  • 176.75/300 in Phase 2
  • 55/75 in interview

After getting familiar with my journey, let’s discuss how I prepared for the RBI Grade B exam, starting from my Phase 1 strategy. 

Phase 1 Strategy 

Below is my subject-wise RBI Grade B Phase 1 strategy.

English

I only practiced mock tests, analyzed results, and revised mocks. Preparation done during placement season in college for these subjects helped a lot in every exam. Didn’t need to do anything more in English. 

Quant

For quants, sometimes revised concepts for a few areas from Arun Sharma’s book for CAT Quantitative Aptitude.  

Reasoning

I feel only the ability to pick the right questions can help. As the level of questions has become very high, it is difficult to score much. It seems safe to pick a few questions that you are certain of getting right and solving those. Scanning through the question paper quickly is essential to choosing the right questions. In case you are unable to pick a good number of questions, take calculated risks.

General Awareness

Attended marathon sessions run by various institutes just a few weeks before the exam to familiarize myself with banking exam type GA and to get into the rhythm of the exam. However, since the level of GA is increasing year after year, current affairs preparation done from a Phase 2 perspective is immensely helpful in solving these questions.

Now that you have understood how I prepared for the Phase 1 subjects, let’s move on to understand my Phase 2 preparation strategy. 

Phase 2 Strategy 

Below is my subject-wise RBI Grade B Phase 2 strategy.

Descriptive English

I had taken quite a good number of mocks during NABARD preparation which ensured that I finished the paper in time. Material prepared for phase 2 is helpful here too. Also, just to get some confidence, I glanced through the material that gets uploaded in Telegram channels during exam days. 

ESI

Most of the preparation was focused on Current Affairs. For static, directly attempted quizzes/tests. If concepts were lacking in some area or low confidence, I took a cursory glance through the summary sheets.

FM

Since the syllabus here is static in nature, I found the playlists of previous years’ marathon sessions related to FM very very helpful. As the level of questions is increasing, conceptual understanding is needed to solve the questions. 

Now let’s move on to understand how I prepared for current affairs. 

Current Affairs

Below is my current affairs strategy:

• PIB News is of utmost importance. For this, I referred to both EduTap and Anuj Jindal’s respective YouTube playlists. In fact, for Phase – 1 GA also, I relied on PIB news.
• Finance Current Affairs by Kritika Ma’am (EduTap).
• Government Schemes: Mostly by Manish Sir in Anuj Jindal’s YouTube Channel. One can also refer to old playlists related to Govt schemes at EduTap as well since the basics of the schemes mostly remain the same.
• There is a Telegram Channel—Descriptive English: RBI SEBI NABARD NHB IBPS GIC CSIR—that posts important news articles daily. I found reading those articles helpful in my preparation.

After understanding how I prepared for current affairs, let’s understand my Interview strategy. 

Interview

Below is how I prepared for my interview:

• Took mocks provided freely by various institutes and worked according to the provided feedback. Also took a paid mock from CrackGradeB during NABARD interview prep, which helped a lot (profile-based questions that sir asked were also asked in the real interview).

• For content, go through reports released by the organization like annual reports, functions and working, and things like your district-specific report (in the case of NABARD). Also, prepare the websites of respective organizations intensively. 
• Regarding newspapers, I followed the Economic Times and Livemint. For NABARD, focus on news related to the Agriculture sector. 
• Prepare well your biodata – this goes without saying.

Miscellaneous RBI Grade B Preparation Tips

Here are some miscellaneous preparation tips that helped me prepare for the RBI Grade B exam:

• For NABARD Prep: Clarity4sure is a very good Telegram channel. Relied on its master notes for ARD. Cards uploaded in the channel provide very good content for the exam – I had revised these around 3 times which helped me in answer writing.
• Since my journey in this space has been quite long, I ended up buying courses from 2 institutes. One EduTap and some others. The other institute’s platform didn’t add much value to my preparation (but again, that’s subjective, someone else might have found that more useful).
• Regarding paid courses, here are my 2 cents:
  • If you want to cover everything exhaustively and have a lot of time at your disposal, EduTap is a good resource. It’s summary sheets are useful in covering the syllabus. Further, I followed a reverse approach, that is, solving MCQs first and then reading the content. It helped me tailor my studies so that I could focus more on weak areas in the first instance itself.
  • Though I did not buy the CrackGradeB course, by going through their sample material and having seen a few reviews in Telegram groups, it looks good for a working aspirant who has a paucity of time and needs to-the-point information.
  • Regarding my approach to studying the EduTap course, I rarely watched videos, except when the topic was completely new. Other than this, if I got stuck with something in Summary sheets, I referred to concept notes. Or, googled the subject area.
  • EduTap course: Go through once, solve MCQs, and revise accordingly.

All the Best!!

Conclusion

The RBI Grade B exam can be a challenging nut to crack, but with the right strategy and dedication, success is achievable. As you can see from Prashasti’s journey, perseverance and a focus on continuous improvement helped her crack the RBI Grade B exam. Here are some final takeaways from her successful journey:

• Focus on building a strong foundation: Leverage resources like the ones she mentioned to solidify core concepts, especially in Phase 2.
• Master current affairs: Stay updated with current affairs, particularly those relevant to the financial sector.
• Practice consistently: Mock tests are best for learning time management and identifying weak areas.
• Find what is right for you: Everyone is unique, so find a study strategy that works for you.

All the best for your RBI Grade B exam preparation!