RBI Grade ‘B’ Officers Exam (Phase-I): Paper Pattern and Preparation Strategy for General Awareness

This article addresses the general awareness section of the RBI Grade B (Phase-I) Exam. This section has 80 questions, and is generally considered to be quite tedious to prepare for. Let’s first take a look at the pattern of the paper. It is as follows:

This makes the category wise pattern as:

 Let us take each category individually:

1. Banking:

This category is divided into RBI theory and banking terms and theory. A total of 19 questions can be asked in this section. This makes it around 25% of total 80 marks and hence an important category to prepare. Prepare for the following terms:

a) Banking               

• Assets
• liabilities and working capital of a  bank
• KYC
• Types of bank customers
• Types of  Bank Accounts
• Negotiable instruments
• MICR
• IFSC code
• CTS System
• Clean Notes policy
• Fake notes
• White  Label ATMs
• NEFT
• RTGS
• Banking Correspondence agents
• Kisan credit card

b) RBI Theory

• Definition of various RBI rates and their significance.
• RBI Published notifications on its website
• RBI functioning
• Hierarchies: Organizational structure of RBI
• RBI intervention on currencies
• RBI Committees

c) Banking services:

• CBS
• ECS
• SWIFT
• BankNET
• RBINET
• INDONET
• Digital Signatures
• Bank guarantee
• Letter of Credit
• Bancassurance

2. Organizations: For organizations, you need to understand functions, jurisdictions, name of key current and past persons in positions of responsibility and geographical location. A maximum of 4 questions can be asked from this section. Read about the following:

• Banking structure of India
• RBI
• NABARD
• Banking Ombudsman
• SIDBI
• EXIM Bank
• Cooperative  Banks
• CIBIL  Planning Commission
• 5 year plans
• Finance Commission
• CRISIL
• LIC
• Bretton Woods
• BASEL
• World Bank
• IBRD
• IMF
• SENSEX
• NIFTY
• Moody
• S&P
• Fitch
• GIC

3. Yearbook: Yearbook refers to various Government Schemes, Acts, Bills, Legislation and Budget related information. It carries 10-11 marks which means 12-14% of marks. The following information should be covered to solve this section correctly:

a) Acts, committees  &  legislation

• Bank  Nationalization
• Information  Technology  Act
• Economic Survey 2013
• SARFAESI Act
• Companies Bill 2013
• Budget 2013
• FEMA
• Tarapore  Committee
• Narsimhan Committees
• FRBM

b) Budget 2015

• announcements
• tax ceilings
• deductions
• FDI
• policy changes

4) Current Affairs

The main category with more than 35 questions. Like it or not, this will make or break your sectional cutoff marks. To prepare current affairs do the following:

• Read pratiyogita darpan, chronicle or any other competitive magazine to brush up your knowledge.
• Read Newspapers : The Hindu, Economic Times or Mint
• Read General Awareness  Partiyogita Darpan. You can also use any other current affairs magazine like CST, Chronicle or Wizard.     

Focus on the 5-6 most recent issues of the magazine.
Focus on the following topics within the magazine:

Economy
International Affairs
Politics

Banking and RBI topics mentioned earlier

5) Static: This is where they ask ‘trivial’ information. Things that you should memorize but it’s generally very hard to. Do not get obsessed with trivial information i.e. Absolute dates and numbers. Read about the following terms:

• GDP
• GNP
• PPP
• HDI
• Inflation
• WPI
• CPI
• IIPSLR
• CRR
• Repo rate
• Reverse Repo
• Bank rate
• MSF
• Liquidity adjustment facility
• Priority  sector  lending
• NPA
• Capital  Adequacy  Ratio
• Credit  Ratings
• Derivatives
• Options
• Futures
• Currency
• Swaps
• VAT
• GST

Tips to clear sectional cutoff for General Awareness RBI Grade B

1. The sectional cutoff for General Awareness of RBI Grade B Phase I will be 40-45. 
2. Read regularly: Read newspapers and magazines daily for atleast 2 hours. There is no harm in going through all the information mentioned and being updated with the latest news.  Do not wish for information to reach you by downloading apps and watching newsfeeds. Set your targets. Read about atleast 5 new informations everyday.
3. Take Mock quizzes: Timed quizzes(mock tests) are designed to according to exam pattern inorder to simulate the exam surroundings. They will help you reinforce your knowledge. Also answering questions is better for learning as compared to reading information and memorizing it.
4. Whatever you read in the morning, revise at night. By revising we don’t mean that you should read it again and again till the time you memorize it. Just go through the material at night once. It is a fact that whatever you read or think about right before sleeping, is retained in your memory. Do it without fail.
5. Do not mug up the numbers, names and dates. Read the story and understand the topic being discussed. If you associate information with a story it is always easier to recall it.
6. Read various notifications put out by RBI on its website. 

If you follow these tips and methodologies, you are on a surefire path towards acing your exam. Practice is the key to success as the old adage says. Practice and no one can stop you.

This Article was written by Vaibhav Mehta, Education Consultant at www.MockBank.com, a Bangalore-based test preparation company for government / PSU jobs