Analysis of RBI grade B Preliminary Exam and how to prepare for it.
Section #1: General Awareness (GA).
| Topic | No. of Questions in 2014’s Exam |
| Economy | 56 |
| Yearbook | 13 |
| Diplomacy | 7 |
| Geography | 3 |
| Science | 1 |
| Total | 80 |
How to prepare Economy for RBI exam?
As you look in the last paper, you’ll see some questions are based on “static (theory) portion and rest are based on “dynamic (current affairs). I’ve given the reading list accordingly.There are mainly 5 type of questions that can be asked in economy related MCQs.
- You’re given a term and four definitions. You’ve to find the correct definition. (or vice versa)
- You’re given a 4-5 organizations and their functions, and you’ve to “match the following”.
- Name of some person and which organization he’s related with. (or vice versa)
- Name of some Government policy/ Act is given, and some statements are given. You’ve to find the correct statements associated with that policy/act.
- Trivial: “Absolute dates and numbers”. For example How much money did Government allot in xyz fund sector? Or what was the repo rate in xyz month? or In which year NABARD was established?
How to prepare Static Economy (theory)?
- NCERT economics: can be downloaded for free by clicking me
- NIOS (National Open School) study material for Economy (can be downloaded for free by clicking ME
- Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh (TMH Publication)
- For practice-Mock questions given at the end of General studies (GS) manual.
- Don’t try to get in minute details (for example many topics in NCERT Class 12 Micro economic.)
- As I keep saying, no point in wasting time in Mishra Puri, Dutt Sundaram, Uma Kapila etc. books they’re written from academic point of view = not very helpful in competitive exam, time is luxery we don’t have.
- If you have one, then well and good.
- If you don’t have one, then borrow from some friend or visit Government library. There is absoutely no need to specially buy a GS manual for RBI exam.
How to prepare Dynamic Economy (Current Affairs)?
Prepare highlights of budget 2013 + Economic Survey (lot of content already covered in Mrunal.org/economyAny one magazine
- I assume you’re in the ‘competition business’ since many months. So you’d have a good collection of current affairs magazines @home. Whether it is CST or Pratiyogita Darpan, Chronicle or Wizard doesn’t matter. Just go through its monthly Economy portion.
- Following are the Priority areas in a magazine in descending order of their importance.
- Economy
- International
- National
- Science tech
- Persons in News
- If you don’t have magazine, no worries, go to Government library of your city, all of these magazines will be available. You don’t have to read all of them, just pick any one and go through it.
- You can also visit Competitionmaster.com (he gives monthly current affairs)
- You can also read Pratiyogita Darpan online for free: http://pdeng.pdgroup.in/Index.aspx
- Question: which magazine to refer? If your sole aim is IAS exam then go for Civil Services Times.
- But if you’re simultaneously preparing for IAS+State PSC+Bank/RBI/SSC type of exams= go for Pratiyogita Darpan. Because he also provides papers for those exams.
Any one newspaper: The Hindu or Indian Express
How to read newspaper = already explained in following articlehttp://mrunal.org/2012/06/current-affairs-ias.html
You must remember that if you qualify in preliminary exam, you’ll have to face the descriptive papers (phase II). And hence, newspaper reading = essential.
And finally the main villain: Mrunal.com/economy
How to prepare Yearbook
- As you saw in the table, 13 questions came from Yearbook.
- By the word “Yearbook”, I mean Government schemes, social Development etc. (boring) stuff.
- There is again no need to buy the book specifically for RBI exam because, I’ve already covered most of the important stuff related to Government schemes, projects etc from the India yearbook in my summary artiles on Economic Survey (freely available on Mrunal.org/economy).
- Please keep in mind “yearbook” doesn’t mean only the stuff given in that book. They can ask something from those topics, from current affairs. So do read the newspapers, do go through the current affairs magazine.
How to prepare International Affairs
- Any one magazine AND OR Competitionmaster.com
- Any one newspaper: The Hindu or Indian Express
- mrunal.org/diplomacy
How to prepare everything else!
- I mean to say the “miscellaneous topics” for RBI exam (seeing last two years’ papers): history, polity, geography, science = these are all non-important miscellaneous topics.
- But still it’d be mistake to go completely blank on other topics. What if some really easy 3-4 questions come?
- Therefore I suggest you go through Lucent’s General Knowledge book.
Section #2: Quantitative Aptitude (QA)
Priority areas in Quantitative aptitude (QA)
- Operation on brackets
- Linear equations
- Average + alligiation
- Ratios
- Profit, Loss, %, SI and CI : all can be solved if you’ve clear concept of % calculation.
- Arithmetic and Geography progression.
- TSDW (Time speed distance and Work): all can be solved using the “STD” table, if you go through my old articles on Mrunal.org/aptitude
- Permutation, Combination, Probability : all can be solved without problem, if you go through my old articles.
- Geometry: Area and Volume
- Venn Diagrams
Non priority areas in QA
- Geometry: things other than Area, Volume, Perimeter
- Coordinate Geometry
- Logerithms
- Trigonometry
- Functions and graphs.
Data Interpretation (DI)
In this QA (maths) portion, they also asked Data interpretation (DI) questions worth 15 marks, in 2014. There is hardly any theory in DI, all you’ve to do is –practice. Speed (quick calculation) is extremely important here, otherwise you might end up wasting 20+ minutes in doing barely 5 sums of DI.Basically DI requires speed in Addition and % calculation and lot of practice from old Bank/IBPS papers.
Section #3: English Grammar and Comprehension
Priority Areas of English Section
Reading comprehension
There are no secret tricks. Just one word: Practice.Now where to find practice? Plenty of resources, if only you look for them
- Pagalguy forum has dedicated threads for it.
- Just google “GMAT reading comprehension” or CAT reading comprehension you’ll come across plenty of sites providing mock questions.
- You can also use previous years’ papers of UPSC, IBPS, Bank PO to practice.
Sentence arrangement/ Correction, Fill in the blanks etc.
- I feel the best way to master it = Pagalguy forum’s CAT thread for it.
- For grammar book, If you already have grammar book (R.S.Agarwal, A.P.Bhardwaj) etc. use it. If you don’t have any book, I suggest you go for objective general English by SP Bakshi (Arihant Publication).
Vocabulary
- will helps indirectly in the fill in the blanks + comprehension.
- In short, overall approach would be more or less the same as given in earlier “How to prepare English for APFC”
Section #4: Logical Reasoning
If you donot practice enough at home, the Logical reasoning questions
can be “Sitters” (i.e. you waste lot of time trying to figure out blood
relation and sitting arrangement etc.
How to approach LR?
- Solve the sums given in this book: Verbal and Non Verbal Reasoning by Dr. R S Aggarwal
- Problem: the book has about 600 pages and you don’t have that much time.
- Well atleast do 10-10 questions from each variety. + ignore the “non-verbal” portion because it is not that important for RBI (although important for IBPS).
Priority areas for Logical reasoning
Following topics are important, because usually atleast 4 questions come from each of these.- Blood relations. (generally a “case/parapgrah” followed by 5 questions)
- Sitting Arrangement . (generally a “case/parapgrah” followed by 5 questions)
- Coding –decoding
- Input output
- Inequality (x>y and y<z …)
- Data sufficiency
- Number series- find the next number.
- Assumption and inferences
- All cats are dogs. Syllogism (technique also explained in Mrunal.org/aptitude)
0 comments:
Post a Comment