The Blueprint to Crack RBI GRADE B Examination Through Self-Study

For RBI Grade B | 10th April 2023 – 12 mins read

“Start where you are, use what you have, and do what you can.

Arthur Ashe, the legendary Tennis-player put it best, when he shared this thought about taking on new challenges. There are two types of pursuers in this world, students. One, for whom things are relatively easier and the other, who must go the extra mile and work extra hard to achieve the same things. Everyone might want to belong to the former category, but the people from the latter group are the ones who are stronger and wiser.”

– Anuj Jindal

Sometimes, it’s a lot easier to prepare for any exam if you are enrolled in a trusted course or program. But if you don’t have that resource for whatever reasons, then it becomes a different matter to be able to clear your exams with good marks.

It becomes a little more difficult, but by no means anywhere near impossible. 

How to prepare for RBI in the next 6 months using self-study? This is the question a lot of students have been asking me, and I totally get it, achieving a goal without a personalized mentorship is one of *the* hardest thing to do.

 So, if you are a student who wants to crack RBI Grade B exam by self-studying, I’m here with a GAME-PLAN for you to follow to make your RBI Grade B dream a reality. But remember,

You will have to be able to do exactly what I tell you without being lazy because this will NOT be a walk in the park, but guys, we all know, don’t we, that nothing worthwhile ever is. 

So, let’s see what you are gonna be doing for the next 6 months to clear your RBI exam.

 I can’t stress enough that this is the perfect time to start your preparations for RBI Grade B. If you start any later, I hate to break it to you, but you aren’t gonna make it.

Because even if you somehow manage to cover the syllabus, you will miss out on revision. And trust me where career is on the line, you don’t wanna take a risk like that.

 In this blog,

I will give you the precise strategy to crack the RBI Grade B examination and I’ll break that down into tangible steps you can follow. It will be perfect or a near-perfect plan, that will make you able to create a personalized timetable for you.

We’ll first dive into the sources you’re gonna need to study. Then we’ll divide our syllabus into an executable timeline between working and non-working students, and then we’ll take it forward. I hope that sounds good.

So, first, let me give you a brief idea of what you need to study to crack RBI.

Resources

Phase 1

These are the resources you need to cover the qualifying round of Phase 1

1. Quant & Reasoning

For Quant and Reasoning, there’s a YouTube channel called FEEL FREE TO LEARN. They cover quant and reasoning of banking level.

I like their content because their teaching method is very sorted. There is no extra noise or too much focus on shortcuts. You don’t need those things to prepare for RBI examinations.

 2. English

I won’t recommend any YouTube channels, because, honestly, they are quite bad. They teach English in Hindi, which is a WRONG way to teach English, to say in the least.

I would instead recommend that you practice from CAT books and banking books. A lot of monthly magazines come with questions and answers. You can also use them to practice.

Engvid.com- If your English is very weak, you can use this website to learn, not specifically for the exam, but to become better at English overall. After this, you will need to practice from the sources I told you about.

 3. Phase 1 Current Affairs

• Spotlight–

It is the magazine that I roll out monthly. It’s freely available on our website Anujjindal. in. This will cover your phase 1 current affairs.

Now, remember, you’ll have to cover both phase 1 and phase 2 current affairs before the phase 1 exam because both phase 1 & phase 2 current affairs are in the Phase 1 exam syllabus.

So, you’ll have to be thorough with the entire current affairs before the phase 1 exams.

So, now that we are done with phase 1 syllabus, let’s cover the exam that is the real deal since this is the one that will decide your merit in the RBI Grade B examination.

Phase 2

1. ESI

In ESI, you need to cover the syllabus and current affairs. The syllabus part can be done by Sriram’s book, or Nitin Singhania’s book and NCERT.

NCERT is not an *or* option. It doesn’t go in-depth; it’s just a preliminary method that gives you a basic idea from the surface.

And by NCERT, I mean, macroeconomics and the Indian Economy of both 11 and 12 classes, NOT microeconomics.

Sriram’s book and Nitin Singhania’s book, both cover the Indian economy. Sriram’s book is usually meant for UPSC prep, but since its syllabus is the same as RBI, it’s an excellent resource for you to prepare.

 2. Finance

In Finance, you need to cover the syllabus and current affairs in this. There are two sources you can use.

• Functions and Workings of RBI–

It’s a pdf available on the RBI website. I provide its summary to my enrolled students in the form of a book but if you are preparing yourself, you can download it from the RBI’s website. Your first objective will be to thoroughly cover this.

• Indian Financial System by Bharati V Pathak-

You can find this book easily. This is a good source to cover the course syllabus on Finance.

3. Management

There are two books on this subject you should go through,

• Principle of Management- T N Chhabra, C B Gupta
• Organizational Behavior- T N Chhabra, C B Gupta

Both are necessary, relevant and strict as per the syllabus of the RBI. This category has a lot of dependable authors you can refer to.

There is C. B Gupta, and there is T N Chhabra. Both are good, but I would recommend either of the two.

This was the syllabus of phase 2, now let’s get into the current affairs of both phases.

 4. Phase 2 Current Affairs

• RBI 24 7 – it covers finance current affairs.
• PIB 24 7– it covers PIB which is a website by the government of India. It’s the most reliable website to cover everything that’s happening in Indian Economy.

Both are magazines whose videos are available on our YouTube channel. You can use those videos and whatever PPTs and PDFs that are available to cover the current affairs of phase 2.

• Government Schemes– Government schemes are all the schemes of all the ministries. Surveys which include annual surveys, economic surveys, and budgets, all come in the category of surveys.
• Reports– Annual reports include RBI reports and a lot of other reports, like the Sensus which is the decadal report, and the Family Health Survey (the sixth one just came out). Like these, a lot of reports keep coming out, and you’ll have to keep covering them. As you start reading PIB’s current affairs, you’ll start to know about the different reports which are coming out.
• GDP Forecasts

Finding all these resources in one place for you’re self-studying is simply not possible. But no need to be disappointed, you will be able to find them from a variety of sources, if you do a little hard work. Google them and research them. You can refer to a lot of UPSC sources to cover these.

Now, current affairs are the trickiest area of your syllabus for two reasons.

One, because you can’t find all of them in any one place, and

Two, because there is a lot of effort required from my end also, so very honestly, I am not able to provide everything to you for free.

Because even here, I’m not working alone, there are a lot of people, a big team working on it. Just like you are looking for a job, these guys are also working here as a career.

Their passion is teaching, but they also need to pay the bills, right? Everyone needs money to survive, so we have to charge some amount at certain places. 

If you want thorough information on the precise booklist for the RBI Grade B examination, go and check out THIS BLOG or this video.

Now that you know what to prepare, let’s go to the part on how to prepare them.

Timetable

I have divided the entire timetable of six months into two major categories. Working and non-working students.

 1. Working Students

If you are a student who works, good for you, but you’ll have to be extra careful about how you spend your preparation time. And I have just the formula for you.

• Two subjects per day-

You’ll have to cover a maximum of 2 subjects per day. Don’t even think about doing more than two subjects a day, if you try to, you’ll hurt yourself, you’ll not be selected, I can guarantee you that. You can also take one subject per day, but at no cost, more than two.

• One day a week revision-

You’ll have to keep one day a week for revision. And by revision, I mean Active Revision.

If you don’t know what active revision is, then please go watch my video on Active revision

I have explained active revision in depth in this video. Because it doesn’t matter that you covered the entire syllabus if you don’t remember them.

Your objective is to remember everything you studied. And how you’ll remember them? By actively revising regularly.

• One day a week, phase 2 current affairs.

You need to Study Phase 2 Current Affairs one day a week.

• One day a week, tests

This crucial step becomes problematic. If you are going for self-study, where will you take the tests from?

We provide them about 1.5 to 2 months before the examination. Right now, we give chapter-wise, and section-wise mock tests. I have also started English comprehensive mocks.

It becomes a difficulty but not an impossibility. You’ll have to find a lot of resources through online research. You can get them from there and cover your weekly tests.

But, if we remove tests from your equation, seeing that you don’t have them, then you’ll have 2 days a week for revision, and cover the syllabus in 4-5 days a week.

And this is the weekly division of the timetable for working students.

2. Non-working Students

If you’re a non-working student and just study full-time, then you have a little advantage of having more time, but also a disadvantage, that your anxiety increases, since you’re not financially independent and hence, under more pressure.

• Two Subjects a day for you is the maximum.
• Daily active revision
• Daily phase 2 current affairs.

Keep this in mind that you must cover current affairs and revise every singe day, it’s not optional.

Timeline

Timeline

You have the resources and weekly study routine, let’s understand the timeline for them now.

So, I’ve divided this timeline into two different parts. From now (September) to December and the other is from January to April.

1. September to December

We have four months in this timeline.

• September-

In September, you’ll be covering ESI and Management, and you’ll try and cover the entire ESI in September itself.

• October-

If you couldn’t cover ESI in September, then you can stretch that to October, let’s say till 15 October. Since Management has a broad syllabus, you’ll cover finance and management in October.

• November-

In November, you’ll continue with Finance, and you’ll also pick Reasoning. Why I’m picking Reasoning and Quant?

It is logical, so easy to start, and its weightage is 60 marks in phase 1 which is more than quant and English. That’s why put Reasoning first.

• December-

In December, you’ll start with quant & English, and you’ll complete your phase 2 current affairs. Since you have been studying that from the beginning, here, you can cover all the gaps, if there are any.

You can clearly see that I am picking 2 subjects at once, and no more than that. And this way, by the end of December, you’ll be done with the entire phase 2 preparation.

2. January to April

During this time, we’ll focus mostly on revision. And you’ll have to make sure that you are revising at least twice. Although I want you to complete the revision 3-4 times.

• January-

You start with the revision of ESI and Management, and phase 2 current affairs, that we picked in December, if you couldn’t complete it in December, then you’ll complete that.

• February-

You’ll start the revision of Finance and Reasoning and then you continue with phase 2 current Affairs. Now, why are we pulling current affairs so long? Two reasons.

One, its weightage in phase 2 is maximum and two, your focus will shift to phase 1 before two months before the exam.

I want you to be thoroughly prepared with Phase 2 current affairs. Since it’s gonna be useful in phase 1 and phase 2, it’s one of the most important parts.

• March-

You start with phase 1 current affairs which is Spotlight. And it’ll be January onwards. You’ll take the Spotlight of Jan, Feb, and so on.

When it comes to phase 2 current affairs, we have PIB current affairs and RBI 24-7. Now, you’ll need to cover these from the events of May 2022, because you must cover at least one year’s current affairs.

If you want to clear the exam, then don’t get caught in the shortcuts. You’ll have to cover at least this much. You can go back in time instead of starting in May.

What I would do as a student is that if it’s September then you’ll do the September now, then August, then July, and so on. Go in reverse chronological order.

This way it becomes easier and faster. The same method is in Spotlight too. So, if we start it in March, we’ll cover March first, then Feb, and so on.

You’ll revise Quant and English in March. When I say revision in English, I mean practice.

You’ll literally have to practice thousands of questions. If you don’t then you won’t be able to clear phase 1, no doubt.

• April-

In April, you’ll revise phase 2 once more, because if the exam is conducted in May, let’s say May 30, it was May 28 in 2022, then, you’ll have the entire month of May to revise quant, reasoning, and English and the current affairs of phases 1 and 2. So, in April, you can revise phase 2 yet again quickly.

So, in short, you’ll spend all your strength revising Quant, Reasoning, English, and Phase 1 and Phase 2 Current Affairs, which is doable because you have already been covering it multiple times.

And aspirants, this is everything. If you manage to cover this syllabus in this timeline, no one can stop you from clearing the exam.

This is the same timeline that my enrolled students have been following too, we teach through this exact pace. You can prepare through MY COURSE or you can prepare by yourself, too, thanks to this blog.

I have armed you with the weapons, and now it’s in your hands to prepare in a way, that the probability of you failing the RBI Grade B examination becomes Zero. It will be tough, but certainly attainable.

 

So, go ahead, this is the right time to start your preparations to turn your dream of becoming an RBI officer into a reality