RBI Grade B Exam Preparation

Phase I
Maximum Marks: 200
Time: 130 Minutes
Scheme of the Examination:

(i) General Awareness

Make newspaper reading a habit. It will help you in GA, English and prepare you
for the interview too. I prefer The Hindu, but you can go for ET/ Mint or any other
economy special paper your are comfortable with.
For current events refer to any of the online portals as they consolidate important
news pieces from multiple newspapers, category wise. ( bankersadda, jagranjosh,
affairscloud, etc.)
There are a lot of free mocks available online. Take one whenever you get time.
There will be things you will know, and if not you will learn something new.
(ii) English Language
I did not prepare for English separately. Just referred to Wren and Martin for some
basic grammar rules.
Reading is the only way you can improve your vocabulary and English writing skills
If you face problem in English, practice as much. You will get used to the grammar
rules, learn new words and learn sentence formation.
(iii) Quantitative Aptitude
Book referred: Arihant Fast Track Objective Arithmetic (Feel free to use any other
book you are comfortable with, or you think is better for maths)
You just need to have a good reference book for all the short cut techniques

 Jot down all the possible topics and try to practice all types of questions from each
topic using the shortcut techniques.
You cannot afford to lose time using the long procedural formulas for solving
questions in this section
PRACTICE as much as you can on a daily basis
(iv) Reasoning
Book referred: Arihant (Cracking the CSAT Paper 2)
Again, nothing special about the book, but its a decent buy. Has a lot of practice
questions as well as solved examples
As for Quant the keyword here is PRACTICE

General Things to Keep in mind for Phase I

Remember Phase I is just qualifying, so you need to strategize how you can
meet the sectional cut-offs and also maximize your overall score
Identify your strong and weak sections
Attempt your weak section somewhere in the middle, so that you do not
perform too poorly in the end, as some pressure does build up as the time is
running out (This works for me, it could vary for you)
Do not get stuck in the Quant and Reasoning Section on particular question
if it is taking >3 minutes. You have limited time in hand. Use this time to
maximize your score in some other section. And you will learn to identify
such questions only if you have practiced enough.
TIME MANAGEMENT is the key to success for Phase I
Sectional Cut Off:

It is a safe bet to try and attempt at least 50 per cent questions in each
section.
Phase II
Maximum Marks: 3 X 100= 300
Scheme of Exam:

1. Economic and Social Issues

References and Books:

Ramesh Singh (This is a good basic book to start with for people who are not very
comfortable with economics)
NCERT Economics Books: for those who need to go though economics basics
Indian Economy: Uma Kapila
Economic Survey (Very Important for Both ESI and Economics)
Pratiyogita Darpan Economics Publication
Newspapers: Hindu (But again, you can refer to any online compilation of current events,
that covers important issues from 2-3 newspapers)
RBI Bulletins
Bank adda economic capsules/ other online sources

Paper Pattern
6 questions: 5 marks = 30 marks
19 questions: 2.5 marks = 47.5 marks
15 questions: 1.5 marks = 22.5 marks
Total 40 questions
A lot of these based on Current Affairs.

 Factual data based questions asked

Many questions were asked from Economic Survey
Government schemes
Some topics on which questions were framed:
1) Who has been appointed as President of NDB Bank?
2) Aim of National Manufacturing Policy?
3) Aim of MUDRA Bank?
4) Main aim of National Mission for Green India with MGNREGS?
5) Which services payment bank can provide?
6) What are the special benefits provided under PMJDY?
7) Global Competitiveness Index Report 2014-15, Indias rank has changed from which
level to which level?
8) Chairman of 14th Finance Commission?
9) How much share enhanced in the recommendation of 14th Finance Commission?
10) Who wrote Poor Economics?
11) India is not a member of SAARC/ASEAN/BRICS/FATP?
12) The saving rate of the country for the year 2013-14 was?
13) The Economic Survey estimated the GDP of India at current market prices for the
year 2014-15?
14) According to the Economic Survey 2014-15,the contribution percentage of the
services sector?
15) Foreign Exchange Reserves of the country as at the end of the 30th October was
around?
16) Which Index RBI is using for measuring Inflation?
17) According to Census 2011, Indias current urban population and how much they
contribute to Indias GDP?
18) What change make GOI in the method of calculating GDP?
19) Which CM heads the Task Force for Skill Development under NITI Aayog?
20) Current sequence of the scheme rural credit?
21) Which area is not covering by Bali Trade Agreement?

22) Which organization published World Happiness Index 2015?

23) During 10th Plan period to 11th Plan period change in the contribution of
agriculture sector to the Indian Economy?

(Taken from http://www.affairscloud.com/review-of-rbi-grade-b-mains-exam/)

2. Economics Optional
The suggested reference books in the RBI notification are the best for conceptual understanding
of the technicalities of economics
(a) Microeconomics
1. Consumers behaviour and firms; value of resources like land, labour and capital
2. Markets-monopoly, perfect and imperfect competition
3. General Equilibrium of price and activity, economic welfare and case for regulatory / policy
interventions
References: 1. Intermediate Microeconomics : A modern Approach(8th edition) by Hal R.
Varian
2. Microeconomics, Student Value Edition (8th edition) by Robert Pindyck, Daniel
Rubinfeld
Referred to these books in Graduation and Masters. Very comprehensive. Amongst the
Indian authors one can refer to Dr. H. L. Ahuja also.
Practice using graphs. You arent needed to draw these, but the understanding. Shifts of
graphs, etc. will be helpful in answering a lot of questions.

(b) Macroeconomics
1. Measuring national income and its components; basic macro identities and idea of macrobalance; Goods and Financial Market Equilibrium (IS-LM Framework)
2. Major macro-economic school of thoughts; Classical, Keynesian and Monetarist
3. Consumption and Investment demand; demand management policies and their effectiveness
4. Money demand and supply; monetary and fiscal policies
References: 1. Macroeconomics(2011) by Rudiger Dornbusch, Stanley Fisher, Richard Starz
2. Macroeconomics by N. Gregory Mankiw, (Seventh Edition)
Avoid repetition of topics from multiple books.

 Identify the book with which you are comfortable for a particular topic
Make notes in case of multiple references.
Graphs are very important even here. Shifts, movement along the curve, exogenous and
endogenous changes
(c) International Economics
1. Benefit of International trade; comparative and absolute advantage; effect of International trade
on resources allocation and factor price equalisation; non-conventional trade barriers, optimum
currency areas and effect of customs union
2. International finance and exchange rates issues in an open economy, benefits and costs of an
inter-connected financial markets; evolution of international financial architecture
Reference: International Economics (2013) by Domimick Salvatore
This one book suffices
(d) Public Economics
1. Public Goods, instruments of financing, government tax and non-tax revenue
2. Direct and Indirect taxes, efficiency costs of commodity taxes, income taxation, labour supply
and savings, corporate taxation and corporate behaviour
3. Government expenditure policy-various components, deficit financing and its impact on the
economy, government debt and crowding out of private capital
Reference: Public Finance in Theory and Practice (1989) by Richard Abel Musgrave and Peggy
B.Musgrave

(e) Indias Economy and Development Issues

1. Indias experimentations with planned development models and the outcomes, structural issuessavings and investment, demography, urbanization, productivity, etc., issues with poverty,
inequality and employment
2. Agriculture- policy and developments, manufacturing competitiveness; what is holding India
back, role of public sector enterprises in the key economic sectors, Indias resilient service
sector; trade, tourism, communication, ITES, etc.
3. Financial sector regulation and reforms-banking, insurance and capital market, fiscal policy and
the changing priorities of government, emergence of monetary policy and its new role
References: 1. Indian Economy since Independence (2014) edited by Uma Kapila
2. Economic Survey for latest sectoral updates
3. Yojana

Paper Pattern
In this paper, there were 51 questions. The break-up of the questions is as follows:
a) 20 questions- 1 mark each = 20 Marks
b) 25 questions- 2 mark each = 50 Marks
c) 6 questions- 5 mark each = 30 Marks

General things to keep in mind:

Basic concepts need to be very clear. This years paper checked your conceptual
knowledge and its applications. Shallow knowledge will not help. You need to be
thorough with the concepts. It was a very well set paper and evidently so on the tougher
side.
Figures and facts for the Economy portion are relevant. Do not struggle too much to
memorize all figures you come across, but try to remember rough values at least. There
were exact statements picked up from RBI reports containing factual information. So, if
you are good at grasping numerals learn the important data. However, do not waste too
much time in just mugging up data. There is a trade off involved, thus you need to utilize
your time judicially.
Keep a copy of the syllabus handy. Often, when referring multiple books or the internet
we get swayed away by the sheer expanse of information repository at hand, and tend to
go into too much depth. But, one does not have that kind of time in hand. Thus, strictly
proceed topic wise. Try to consolidate inter-linked topics at one place, to avoid repetition.
Instead of referring to much material, keep your references limited and revise the same
thing over and over again
If remembering data is a problem, analyze the trends. Has a certain growth rate been
increasing or decreasing over time, remember ranking (for e.g. sectoral contribution to
GDP. Even if you do not remember exact figures you should remember the ranking of the
sectors)
3. English

Paper Pattern
1. Precis (50 Marks)
2. Essay (50 marks)
1. Prcis Writing
Google the rules for prcis
Generally accepted norm is : reducing the given text to 1/3rd the word count

Do not exceed the word limit, or the whole purpose of a prcis gets defeated
Try to give the central idea of the passage in your own words
Frame a rough sketch first, so that you can keep a tap on the word count
Practice writing a prcis of some newspaper editorials
Do not forget to give a TITLE to the prcis
Do a grammar and spelling check

The prcis given in the 2015 Exam was an ET article:

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-09-11/news/66434790_1_skill-indiaindustry-minister-nirmala-sitharaman-dipp
2. Essay (50 Marks- 400 words)
Topics:
1. Gold Monetization Scheme
2. Climate Change Related topic
3. Chinese slowdown
One essay to be written
Read about current events of national and international importance. Editorials are a great
help as these give you an analysis and not just facts.
You can easily create a question bank of 20-25 expected essay topics and prepare a 400500 words write up on these. Or just read on these topics, so that you have sufficient
fodder material for your essays in exam and you do not have to think from scratch
Writing about traditional topics also in the light of current events reflects your awareness
and knowledge about the current happenings
Frame the structure of the essay in rough. There is enough time to do so. There should
ideally be 5 paragraphs: introduction, 2-3 body paragraphs containing 4-5 ideas and a
concluding paragraph
Try to avoid repetition in the concluding paragraph. It should be more about expressing
your opinion for or against an issue, writing about way forward on some topic, etc. Make
the concluding statement reflectory and not something factual.
Stick to the word limit +/- 10 %
There wasnt a letter to be written this time, however the possibility of this cannot be ruled out
for the future exams. Thus it will be a good idea to prepare letter formats.
Phase III: Interview
Prepare an impressive Resume

 Dress up formally and carry yourself confidently. Dressing up well makes you feel good
about yourself, and of course coveys a good first impression.
Aim for a 30 + in the interview to keep your chances high.
My interview did not go that well. It was more of a discussion, so there could have been
some difference of opinion. I wasnt clear with the diction of one of the interviewers
hence did not understand the question very well. But if something like this happens, its
always a good idea to politely request the person to repeat the question.
Personally I feel, the more grilling an interview is, the better chances you have if you
have prepared well. My interview lasted just ten minutes, and I wasnt really asked much.
A good discussion, subsequent questions, cross-questions give an interviewee to put
across the knowledge one has. So, do not be scared of a rigorous interview. I might have
been able to perform better had I got the opportunity of more questions.
Questions asked in the interview:

Growth vs development debate

Monetary Aggregates
What is there on the homepage of RBI website?
What is the job of an Economic Advisor? (I worked under the EA at the Ministry of
Commerce as a Consultant)
Viability of Professional Photography as a career option (I mentioned Photography as
a hobby in my Bio-data)
Meaning of my name
Regarding disclosing about your UPSC preparation: I do not think lying about it is an
option. They mention about UPSC only when they are very sure that you are preparing
for it. So lying about it will only reflect badly. Cleared or not, in whatever phase of
preparation you are be upfront about it. I do not how positively or negatively it will
impact your interview score, but answering their questions well in those 15-20 minutes of
the interview matters more than these considerations.
Do not lose your calm even if you are unable to answer some of the questions. It will
only hamper your score further
Prepare your subject well
Be up to date with the current happenings. I wasnt asked any of it, but others have been
asked about recent conferences, economic survey, etc.
Be extremely thorough with whatever you write in your bio-data, be it your work
experience or your hobbies
Maintain eye contact with everyone in the panel while answering
Do browse through that days newspaper even if briefly

All the very best everyone!! Happy studying