Your path to clear NABARD Grade A Topper Suryanshi’s Insightful strategy

For NABARD Grade A | 11th September 2024 – 12 mins read

When aspirants make up their minds to prepare for competitive exams, especially an exam as popular as NABARD Grade A, they assume they must be absolutely serious throughout their preparation.

But is that true? Not really.

Because when I talk about NABARD Grade A Topper 2023, Suryanshi Ravi, she didn’t just manage to clear the NABARD exam in her first attempt, but did so at a tender age of 22 years.

Suryanshi stands out because she managed to become the youngest Grade A officer while not giving up her hobbies and indulging in fun activities like singing, dancing, and cooking.

She has set an exemplary example for aspirants by showing them that you can achieve what you want while having fun. This is possible only when you focus on working smartly instead of toiling hard day and night.

If you wish to take inspiration from her story and prepare your best for the exam, you can read and explore Suryanshi’s early life and motivations, her strategy, which helped her clear Phase 1, Phase 2, and the interview in the first go.

Are you excited to know more? Let’s get started.

Her early educational background

She hails from Lucknow and completed her B.SC. for her graduation.  In 2022, she decided to prepare for NABARD Grade A exam for a year. She is currently pursuing her master’s in Commerce.

What were her motivations to join NABARD?

During her graduation, she got to know about the RBI, SEBI, and NABARD exams through her elder sister, who was preparing for the regulatory bodies’ exams at the time.

It was then that she decided to prepare for NABARD.

After knowing the objectives of the organization, she found out it aligned with her inner calling of contributing towards social welfare and ultimately realized her true purpose in life.

The significance of syllabus and PYPs

Having cleared the exam in the first attempt itself, she emphasizes on the significance of knowing the syllabus and PYPS well early on in her preparation.

Over a period of time, she identified the key topics and understood what types of questions were asked in the exam, which gave her preparation the right direction.

To know more about topics and sub-topics, you can check the latest NABARD Grade A syllabus for Phase 1 and Phase 2 exam that I have provided.

Her Phase 1 preparation strategy

For non-merit and qualifying sections like QRE

Since she was a non-banking aspirant, she paid adequate attention to non-merit sections like Quant, Reasoning and English.

While the English section is relatively easy and can be prepared by just solving mock tests. For Quantitative Aptitude and Reasoning sections, she allocated 2 hours consistently for 2–3 months. For this, she referred to YouTube videos available on channels like Adda 247.

Talking about the decision-making section, she referred to the notes and PDFs made available on the various coaching platforms and studied selectively.

For Merit sections like General Awareness, ESI & ARD

For ARD & ESI static section, she referred to the notes and study material provided by a coaching platform. Additionally, she also solved PYPs to know what type of questions were asked in the exam.

The current portion of both the ESI & ARD consists of questions asked from schemes, reports, and PIB news. She focused heavily on schemes and covered schemes that were in the news for the past 9 months.

Now, that you know how important PYPs are in your preparation, you must carefully go through NABARD Grade A previous year papers

What sources to cover for current affairs?

Talking about the sources she used, she clearly states that referring to plethora of resources in NABARD Grade A preparation is not a good idea.

Instead, you must consciously choose to go for selective sources, even while covering comprehensive sections like government schemes or reports and revise them multiple times.

So, for the current portion, she recommends NABARD Grade A current affairs sources like PIB 247 and Spotlight, available on our website as well as on the YouTube platform.

The importance of doing mock tests in preparation

Suryanshi believes that solving mock tests is a great way to boost your confidence. But the catch is to focus on improving your performance rather than the scores on the test.

However, she advises aspirants to take mock tests seriously, i.e., practice in real-time settings and take mental note of the time you are taking in attempting questions.

For both Phase 1 and Phase 2, she solved approximately 40–50 mock tests on a regular basis, along with small quizzes, during her prep time.

How did she analyze her mock test performance?
After completing a particular test, she would take an A4-sized plain sheet and divide it into sections, which were as follows:

• Total number of questions,
• Number of questions she attempted
• Number . of correct and incorrect answers,
• The number of questions she guessed
• And lastly, the number of correct and incorrect answers within her guess work

By solving  and analysing many  NABARD Grade A mock tests, she mastered the technique of elimination, which helped her attempt a good number of questions in the real exam.

Her Phase 2 preparation strategy

Since the Phase 2 exam consists of both objective and descriptive portion for ESI and ARD, the objective portion of these two subjects is closely similar to what is asked in Phase 1 exam.

For the English descriptive and the descriptive sections of ESI and ARD, she practiced writing answers early on in her preparation. But it was only after Phase 2, she began writing answers in a timed environment.

As she suggests referring to limited sources, you can take a look at the NABARD Grade A free study material that I have compiled.

Her Interview Preparation & Experience

The Interview comprises questions related to the NABARD organization, the candidate’s educational background, personal details, and events of national and international importance.

• For current affairs:
  She referred to newspapers to cover current affairs and major issues in news. She went through the NABARD website rigorously and covered the schemes, reports, Union Budget, and Economy Survey of that particular year.
• For Subject-Related Questions:
  Since she was pursuing masters in economics, she was well prepared for the questions that could be asked from the subject, i.e., major economic terms, policies, etc.
• For HR-related Questions:
  She also prepared a lot of questions related to personal details such as hometown, hobbies, schooling, and education.

The real experience!

Talking about her interview experience, it was cordial and pleasant. The members of the panel made her feel comfortable.

The panel asked her questions related to her background, her motivations to join the NABARD, and some situation-based questions.

For example, “Why do you want to join NABARD? When did you first know this was your inner calling?”

While she answered most of her questions well and in a confident manner, there were a few unexpected questions for which she wasn’t too sure. However, the panel members were warm and welcoming towards her responses, which made her Interview go well.

The key takeaway from her journey!

From her personal journey, she admits that anxiety is natural for aspirants, especially when they prepare for a competitive exam like NABARD.

 

But to give your best, you must focus on your strengths and dwell on negative beliefs and doubts during your preparation.

 

So, shut off all the unnecessary noise, including your inner critic. Focus on giving your all because you truly can make a difference!