Many dream of a career with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), but for Tejdeepthi Nimmakayala, it wasn’t just a dream; it was a calculated move fuelled by ambition. This engineering graduate from Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, defied all odds to crack the prestigious RBI Grade B exam.
In this success story, Tejdeepthi shares her journey, from initial struggles to strategic preparation, proving that with dedication and the right approach, anyone can achieve their dream.
Background
- Studied civil engineering at Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati
- Gained banking experience by working in a cooperative bank in Kadapa
- Prepared for UPSC for a year, but dropped the plan due to the COVID-19 pandemic
- Narrowly missed the SBI PO interview by 0.5 marks
- Could not clear the RBI Grade B Phase 1 in the first attempt
Brief Introduction
I belong to Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh. It is not a very big town, just a normal one. My schooling happened in Kadapa only, till the 12th standard. I studied civil engineering at Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. When I was in engineering, I wasn’t sure of my career choice, then soon after engineering, I tried preparing for UPSC for a year. But the COVID-19 came and changed many plans. So, I started preparing for banking exams. I took the SBI PO exam and went to the interview stage but lost it with merely 0.5 marks.
I missed the opportunity by a very narrow margin. I was really disappointed that day and thought it would be over if I got selected but lost it. But at that time, my family always stood by me when I was in that position. Then I started searching for other exams in the sector of banking.
Obviously, the Reserve Bank of India is the best banking exam. So, I saw the pattern of the RBI Grade B exam first, followed by the previous year’s notification. Engineering is a completely different background and RBI requirements are entirely different. Before knowing the RBI Grade B exam pattern and syllabus I thought it was just like any other banking exam but after getting to know the Mains syllabus, I was shocked for a moment then I thought I wanted to do it and I took it as a challenge.
How I Came to Know About the RBI Grade B Exam
As I mentioned above, people from South India are not informed of something like the RBI and I was one of them. However, after missing out on the SBI PO final cut-off by 0.5 marks, I started looking for other exams that I could take. To be frank, I was searching for the highest-paying jobs in India and came to know that the RBI Grade B exam is one of them.
I was searching for the highest-paying jobs in India and RBI Grade B is one of them.
How I Tackled My Fears
I am from an engineering background and subjects like Finance, Management, Economics, etc., were mentioned in the RBI Grade B exam syllabus. So, those were completely different subjects for me. My background was entirely different and the things that I had to study for the RBI Grade B exam were completely different. I hadn’t even touched these subjects. So, the fear was definitely there.
But again it all depends on what you want to do. Whether you take it as a challenge or accept it and step back. I took it as a challenge.
My background was entirely different and the things that I had to study for the RBI Grade B exam were completely different.
My Strengths
Between finance and management, my strength was management. Even though I wasn’t a student from a management background, I still found it very interesting and very practical. I could see that the applicability of management is everywhere around. That’s how I studied, focusing on practical examples.
How I Overcame Self-Doubts
While I was looking at the RBI Grade B toppers’ interviews, I saw most of the people who cleared the exam were from NIT, IIT, and IIM. This made me wonder if I would be able to clear it myself.
Also, here in Andhra Pradesh, or anywhere down south for that matter, there wasn’t much awareness about the RBI Grade B exam. When I told people about the RBI, they would ask me things like “Is it in Kadapa?” or “Is it even in our state?”. People were generally quite unaware of the RBI. Since I didn’t know anyone working in the RBI, I didn’t have any guidance from actual employees.
I was afraid of taking the RBI Grade B exam. My mind was filled with thoughts about the exposure that people from IIM and IIT get, the contacts they have, and so on. Despite all these doubts, I somehow managed to clear the RBI Grade B exam.
I was afraid that my competition was with NIT, IIT, and IIM graduates.
Impact of Friends On My RBI Grade B Journey
Having a good friend circle definitely impacted the way I lived my life, and my friends had a significant impact on mine.
I have two very close friends who stayed with me throughout my RBI Grade B journey. I met them in my 12th standard, and we have been together since then. Actually before RBI Grade B Phase 1, we went on a short trip together because I was feeling very nervous. On my interview day, they both came with me to the interview venue as well.
So, they were always there for me, holding my hands and never leaving me during my highs and lows. When I felt low and couldn’t prepare anymore, I used to go to them to get some fun and emotional support, which helped me calm down. After that, I would return to my studies with renewed focus.
It wasn’t just these two friends; other people were also there throughout my journey and celebrated my success just as much. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all.
Having friends is really very important because they motivate you when you are down. They definitely celebrate your success more than you as well.
My Motivators
The salary was definitely one of the motivating factors. Because, in my previous employment, I was getting a salary that was just enough to live in Kadapa, but definitely not in cities. I wanted to live in one of the metropolitan cities, that was another factor for me. I was looking for a good life enrichment, including everything.
Unawareness Regarding the RBI Grade B Exam
I came across EduTap’s videos about the RBI Grade B exam. I went through the videos and got to know everything about the exam. Later, I understood that very few people knew about this exam in South India because I used to discuss this with my friends and even they were not aware.
Everyone knows about SBI, Union Bank, and other banks that people go to but not RBI. They don’t even know that the RBI conducts an exam to recruit managers directly.
Now that I have cracked the exam, I want to make people aware that there is an exam so that more people can have the opportunity.
I came across EduTap’s videos about the RBI Grade B exam. I went through the videos and got to know everything about the exam.
Why EduTap for RBI Grade B Exam Preparation?
I had gone through other courses and every course had its own YouTube channel. I looked at those videos as well. However, the clarity in the faculty that I found in EduTap was exceptional. It was the major reason for me taking EduTap. I have seen them saying very crisp matters in a very proper way that I could understand easily. Also, the notes that they provided in the telegram group before taking the course were very informative.
I especially followed Kritika Ma’am’s videos because I didn’t have a finance background and had a little trouble understanding concepts before.
The clarity in the faculty that I found in EduTap was exceptional. It was the major reason for me taking EduTap. I especially followed Kritika Ma’am’s videos for finance.
Why Did I Leave My Job to Prepare for the RBI Grade B Exam?
I wanted to prepare for the RBI Grade B 2023 exam and I had made up my mind. I had already made an attempt in 2022 which was not very serious. As a result, I couldn’t clear it. I wanted to make a serious attempt this time, so I took the risk of leaving the job.
Leaving the job was not an easy decision for me and I was very much confused about whether to do it or not. However, my father gave me support and said “It’s okay you can do it, if not this, you can try for another job. But you have been dreaming of RBI so just decide to leave the job and go prepare for it”. My father is my source of motivation but my mother is my whole emotional support.
However, leaving my job and preparing for the RBI Grade B Exam was my choice. My suggestion to my fellow aspirants is that it is totally a personal choice. I may or may not work for you. If your final ambition is RBI and you are feeling really dissatisfied in your job and if you are feeling that the job is stopping you from achieving something you may take a chance. But it’s completely a personal decision depending on your family and financial situation.
Leaving the job was not an easy decision for me and I was very much confused about whether to do it or not.
How I Motivated Myself After SBI PO Interview Out
SBI PO was the first interview of my life, and I was very excited about it. I had cleared Prelims and Mains and went for the interview. I had even given the interview very well (that’s what I thought then) but the result came in the night and I was devastated to see it because I lost it with just 0.5 marks.
I had been actually planning what my next step would be if I got selected. So, all these things I would be doing, everything just got shattered suddenly. In addition to this, my father was infected by COVID-19, so that was a tough phase in my life. I had to be very responsible. Also, there was a little financial crunch and all those things made me change my thoughts. I wanted to take up a job, which was the main reason for me joining the Kadapa Cooperative Bank. But when I was working I constantly felt that I was meant to do something bigger.
It’s the support of family and friends that also helped me motivate myself. I have this personal habit of checking myself every day. So, my main motto is that “you should sleep with satisfaction by the end of the day”.
I used to think about how my day went every day and checked if I had done anything wrong. If I was facing any dissatisfaction, and this dissatisfaction of not thinking about what I wanted to achieve was constantly there for me.
When I was working I constantly felt that I was meant to do something bigger.
My Stress Busters
Dance is one of my biggest hobbies. I learned Bharatnatyam for a while, but right now I’m just pursuing the informal dance. I used to go to Zumba classes and I danced my way out. It was a stress Buster as well as a physical activity every day to keep me active the whole day.
The Zumba session was in the morning at 6:00 which motivated me to wake up early every day. I used to have a long day that decided my timetable and I could follow my timetable just because I was waking early.
Also, there were times when I could not concentrate. At that time, I just would take a paper and pen and draw something that diverted me from what I was doing at that time. Then I could go back to studying.
Zumba classes set the tone for the day which I had to follow and painting kept me calm.
My RBI Grade B Journey
I took the course somewhere in January 2023 but I could not open the course till March as I was doing my job. Then, in March I gave my resignation, and in April I started preparing from the EduTap’s course.
From April to June (when the RBI Grade B 2023 exam notification came) there was very little time and I could not go through all the videos. I have seen some of EduTap’s videos for some particular topics that I thought I could not understand. For the other topics, I went through EduTap’s concept and summary notes. I filtered out certain important things because time was less.
Summary sheets and mind maps were great for quick revision. After finishing the topic when I wanted to revise it after a month one quick revision would happen through mind maps. I had done it exactly a week before the exam so my mind maps were my source of preparation. I wanted to go through all the topics right so only mind maps helped me.
I have seen some of EduTap’s videos for some particular topics that I thought I could not understand. For the other topics, I went through EduTap’s concept and summary notes.
My RBI Grade B Phase 1 Strategy
I was good in Quant, Reasoning, and English. So, I didn’t take any particular preparation for it. I used to follow the YouTube videos, solve questions that were asked in those videos, and give mock tests only to practice. I gave around 10 to 15 QRE sectional mocks.
The tough thing was GA. So, for that, I had to look at the videos every day. I had not particularly followed any current affairs material. I did not read any current affairs cloud magazines as they felt very bulky to me. I covered current affairs through videos only for the last 4 months. Through videos I covered, PIB news, finance news, etc.
For GA, I didn’t attempt any mock tests. I just followed the marathon sessions of EduTap. So, I played as per my strengths.
For QRE, I attempted sectional mock tests, and for GA, I just followed the marathon sessions of EduTap.
My RBI Grade B Revision Strategy
In engineering, a lot of exams were given just by studying a day before the exam. That is how engineers take exams and I was one of them. So, I lost touch with studying for long hours and revising those things again and again. So for me, the hardest part of this journey was the revision period.
I used sticky notes and cute stationery, I used to write down little important things using some color pens. So that when I wanted to revise it again I would find it interesting to read.
In the beginning, I used to revise once after completing the whole topic but later on, when May and June started, I started revising everything the other day like I would read entirely today the very next day I would read for two hours what I have studied.
As you can see in the above image, I would set a daily timetable for different slots (starting from morning to the end). This was my strategy. However, you must understand that every aspirant is different.
Some people can study in a slot and some people can study continuously. Some people select the topic, study the whole topic, and then take a break but I value time so much. So, for me, time is very important. I used to make slots to create a timetable and I used to change it every week, depending on the requirements. I used to stick to those timetables.
Having a timetable gives me a kind of direction.
I used to note down my progress every day. If I had finished something, I used to reward myself for it by just ticking a checkmark. Those small achievements later contributed a lot.
I used to plan my day every morning so that I didn’t have any confusion. I had faced certain days where I got confused and used to read a topic after an hour or two and got confused about what to read further. So, I tried to address this and started making a list of what I have to study every day in the morning.
Things will start looking easy once you strategize them and divide them into bits and pieces.
My RBI Grade B Phase 2 Strategy
My source of preparation for the RBI Grade B Phase 2 exam was EduTap only. After purchasing EduTap’s course, I started with management communication because that’s a general topic when you open the syllabus it was the first topic.
The EduTap course was to the point. Videos on the other hand took a lot of time, so I used to watch them at 1.5x speed. I watched videos of only selected chapters.
For example, for communication, I didn’t watch any videos. I just read it from the course. There were certain topics like corporate governance for which I needed to watch videos. For many of the finance topics that I was not aware of, I needed to watch the videos, particularly for balance sheets.
For some general chapters, I read EduTap’s concept notes to build conceptual understanding. For technical chapters, I watched the videos. The summary notes and mind maps helped in the revision.
For my entire descriptive writing preparation and objective questions, I solved questions that were given in the middle of the course. I understood in what depths the questions were being asked.
My source of preparation for the RBI Grade B Phase 2 exam was EduTap only. I read EduTap’s concept notes to build conceptual understanding. The summary notes and mind maps helped in the revision.
My RBI Grade B Finance and Management Strategy
For me, in finance and management, management was a static subject and also I found it really interesting. For management, I made Onepage notes for revision, other than I didn’t make notes for anything physically.
My RBI Grade B ESI Strategy
I gave a little less importance to the static part as compared to the current part and I was playing with the reports, schemes, and other things. I used to give little importance to numericals because there were some numerical also that we needed to do. There was a lot of data in ESI and I used to remember what I could and leave the remaining things but I used to read the whole concept.
For digital notes, I used the EduTap notes and I used to highlight in them what I had to read. For current affairs, I used to make some physical notes. My whole source of preparation for reports and schemes are EduTap videos, EduTap Scheme Tap, and material that they used to give.
My whole source of preparation for reports and schemes are EduTap videos, EduTap Scheme Tap, and material that they used to give.
My RBI Grade B Descriptive Writing Strategy
After finishing any topic in EduTap’s material, I used to practice answer writing to the questions provided at the end of the topic. Then I checked the answers that EduTap gave. In the beginning, I could see I used to write terrible answers; I could see it myself. Later on, I went through the EduTap answers and tried to apply them to the next topic. That was how I started my descriptive writing. I used to write hardly one answer a week for management and finance pre-notification.
The preparation phase was one thing and writing the answers in the exam was two different things. I didn’t think that it would be so tough for me and I felt that was the biggest thing for me because I had never practiced enough for it. I used to write answers with pen and paper but I didn’t really start typing and felt it was enough. However, in the exam hall, I faced a problem, as I had to prepare and type the answer. I was getting blacked out and I couldn’t type. Also, the systems that we used in exams were not as easy as laptops, which was another challenge.
At home, you sit alone and type, allowing you to concentrate, but in the exam hall everyone will be typing and you just listen to the tu tu tuck sound everywhere and your brain stops functioning. Also, you didn’t have any breaks between descriptive English and ESI, so you had to type continuously. That was one of the biggest challenges that I faced.
But somehow I managed to ace through. I was short of 50 to 100 words in every answer
I didn’t reach the required word limit but the quality of my answers was good.
For management and finance particularly, I had certain examples. If anything about a particular topic would be asked I had already prepared quotes for them. Also, I used to have small mnemonics to remember answers, so when a question came they helped me recollect the answer. I also prepared short notes in the rough sheet provided then I started typing. But ESI was a bit different, as it has a lot of static portions in it.
In the morning session of finance and management, then the afternoon session of Descriptive English, by the time you gave ESI, you were already tired. The pressure of finance and management gets transferred to ESI if you don’t perform well in the FM.
My RBI Grade B Descriptive English Strategy
For descriptive English, I didn’t give any particular time for it and hardly prepared it for 10 to 15 days, not more than that. However, it was a comprehensive preparation like when you were preparing for ES and finance and management, you were already preparing for your English descriptive. You had to particularly prepare for the precis writing only.
If you are confident enough in English, 10 to 15 days would be enough for you.
My RBI Grade B Interview Preparation
I was confident that I would clear the RBI Grade B Phase 1 but I was not confident for Phase 2.
I was not sure of the quality of the answers that I wrote. So, I was not sure that I would definitely clear the RBI Grade B exam, but my family and friends believed in me.
My interview was on 18 November in Mumbai. As soon as I got the date, I understood that there was a lot of time for the Phase 2 result and interview. I was already losing track of what I had studied. So when you get a lot of time the problem is that the interview is something you don’t continuously practice for, so you lose track of your day and you get time to have fun. I definitely faced that problem.
I prepared for my interview for around 20 days. I studied all the current affairs that happened during that time. I also covered the important schemes and reports. Also, I started knowing about myself from where the questions could be asked. I remember they asked me in the interview who was the RBI Governor from Kadapa. Luckily I had read about him.
I felt excited rather than tense on the day of my interview. Because that was the first time, I cleared the RBI Grade B Phase 2 and visited Mumbai. My excitement took over my tension and nervousness. I tried to be as calm and as confident as possible but the first question they asked me was, “You hail from Kadapa and there is a person from Kadapa who was RBI governor. Do you know him” I said yes sir, it’s Yaga Venugopal Reddy. After that, they asked me the formula of compound interest as you’re a banker. I couldn’t recollect it immediately because I was expecting something else from finance and banking. I fumbled a bit then I told the answer then my whole interview went on Cooperative banking which didn’t let me stay confident. So it was a kind of a mixed interview.
Thanks to EduTap, the faculty is putting 100% effort into what they are doing. The study material is crisp and to the point because I had prepared for it in very little time. I used only EduTap’s material and I cleared the exam.
Thanks to EduTap, the faculty is putting 100% effort into what they are doing. The study material is crisp and to the point because I had prepared for it in very little time. I used only EduTap’s material and I cleared the exam.
RBI Grade B Exam Result
The RBI Grade B final result was out on December 13th around 7:00 p.m. I got to know that the PDF was out. I asked one of my friends to check the result because I was not sure. She saw the result and just shouted “You cleared the exam”. I was still in shock and tears were rolling down my eyes. She just came and hugged me while I was still trying to accept that I had cracked the RBI Grade B exam. A sense of calm washed over me, and I felt happy.
In the meanwhile, she called my mother also and told her the news. Everyone got to know the news within five minutes. Cracking the RBI Grade B exam was my first pretty big success in my life which I would count on.
After that, an immediate party happened. At that time, I was staying with my friends so they got me a cake and bouquet and asked me to give my first autograph.
RBI Grade B Preparation Tips
Here are my three RBI Grade B preparation tips:
- Approach it as a learning journey, not a burden: Take the RBI Grade B exam preparation as a journey, not a burden. Go through it as if you are learning something, not that you are overburdened by some material and you have to do it and you get disappointed every day.
- Maintain a positive attitude for optimal learning: Keep your heart light so that you can take a lot of inputs as I used to go on continuous trips. I even went on a trip on my interview day as well. After finishing the interview I took a trip later from Mumbai to Kachchh.
- Strike a balance between dedication and mental well-being: The seriousness lies in the preparation but don’t overburden yourself with it that would not let you study further.
Here is a video in which Tejdeepthi Nimmakayala explains her RBI Grade B preparation strategy.
Conclusion
Tejdeepthi Nimmakayala’s story serves as an inspiration for all RBI Grade B aspirants. Despite her non-traditional background and initial setbacks, she took some hard decisions, and ultimately cracked the RBI Grade B exam, proving that anyone with dedication can achieve their dreams.
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