Step by step guide to boost your GA prep of RBI Grade B

For RBI Grade B | 07th May 2024 – 15 mins read

“Overcoming your inner fears is the first step towards the positive realization of your goals and dreams and optimizing your potential to the fullest.”

– Manish Mishra

Remember the days when you used to play puzzles in your childhood, endlessly searching for every piece to fit in the block so that it finally became whole?

As you are familiar with the rules of the game, you know it doesn’t end until you put all the pieces together.

Well, when you are preparing for a competitive exam like RBI Grade B, your journey will also feel similar to solving a big jigsaw puzzle.

The difference that lies here is that instead of pieces, your focus is now on completing the syllabus, which includes covering different subjects as well as current affairs.

However, one major piece that is often overlooked or feared by aspirants, is covering the General Awareness section.

Given the fact that Phase I comprises 80 questions from the GA section and the QRE section is getting increasingly difficult over the years, you can’t afford to skip this section!

Apart from this, the ESI objective portion of Phase II too contains questions from General Awareness but the factor of dynamism associated with the section usually makes aspirants feel scared and anxious.

Since the pattern for General Awareness undergoes frequent changes, I understand that aspirants often find themselves nervous as to how to tackle such uncertainty.

But before you become an aspirant, I hope you remember that you are a human being, right?

Well, the simple purpose of reminding you of this fact is that if this section is undergoing changes from the past few years, we as humans have been on an evolutionary journey for billions of years now.

So, do you think the fear of tackling dynamism in the GA section stands a chance in the presence of your inherent trait of availability? Absolutely no.

All you need to do is adopt a smart strategy while preparing for the exam, which also includes the GA section.

To help you with that, I am going to share the sources, topic areas, techniques to cover and revise the GA section which shall help you eliminate your fears and make you more confident on the exam day!

What are we waiting for? Let’s get started!

I. Realizing the scope of GA in RBI Grade B exam

First of all, it is important to understand the significance of GA section since it forms a important part of Phase I, Phase II and the Interview as well.

While Phase I consists of 80 questions, the ESI subject in Phase II consists of total 30 questions, which include current affairs and govt. schemes as part of the GA section.

Now, this is might be surprising, but in the Interview too, the candidates can be asked about general topics or issues trending at the RBI or recommendations given by monetary policy committee.

Understanding the weightage of different subjects in all phases will be easier if you become familiar with latest RBI Grade B exam pattern and go through phase-wise marks distribution of subjects.

II. How to get started with the section

The next important question is: if you want to understand the level of general awareness, then you need to carefully analyse how General awareness questions are asked in the exam.

For that, there are three key factors that you can analyze to gain a proper understanding of the GA section.

1. Go through and analyse previous year papers

You must carefully analyze past year papers from the last 5 years and check the type of questions that are being asked in the exam. It would also familiarize you with the weightage of the GA section over the years.

For this, you can check the RBI Grade B previous year papers that I have compiled to know the type of questions asked in the exam.

2. Identify the topics

Having gone through the past year’s papers rigorously, it will help you recognize the topics that have been repeatedly asked in the exam.

3. Prioritize the topics

Once you have identified the key topics, you need to prioritize them as per their weightage and then focus on covering these topics. So, this is how you can begin your preparation.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, prioritizing the topics becomes easy when you have a proper understanding of the detailed RBI Grade B syllabus first. So, you go through the same if you haven’t done so yet.

III. Areas that you need to work on

The next step is to cover the topics that are generally asked in the exam. The topics that you are required to cover are as follows:

• National and International news
• State news (not much in detail)
• Government schemes & Defence news
• Reports, Indices & GDP forecasts by international organizations like IMF, World Bank, Asian Development Bank etc’.
• Banking, Economy & Finance current
• Appointments/ Important Days/ Awards/ Sports
• Annual Surveys like Union Budget, Economic Survey, PFLS,
• RBI website

IV. Sources to refer for GA section

Now, that we have discussed what you need to study, but another important question that comes up is – from where?

To help you with that, you can refer to the lecture series that are available on my platform which comprehensively cover the current affairs that too for absolutely free, i.e., PIB 247, RBI 247 and Spotlight monthly current affairs.

• In spotlight monthly current affairs magazine, you shall cover topics such as National & International news, state news, defence news, reports and indices, Banking & Economy, GDP forecasts, Appointments, Important days, Awards and Sports are extensively covered.
• In RBI 247 current affairs series, current affairs related to finance and latest RBI press releases are covered.
• Lastly, in PIB 247 current affairs series, current affairs related to General awareness of Phase I as well as Economic and Social Issues subject of Phase II is covered.

You can check and go through the carefully compiled RBI Grade B current affairs, which I have provided on my website.

V. How many months of current affairs are needed

Another important and most-asked question from students is the time period for current affairs that the aspirants must cover. The most suitable time period to cover current affairs is between 6-8 months before the actual exam.

It will initially take 2 months for you to get used to covering the current affairs and 6 months are more than sufficient to cover the section. 

VI. How to revise GA section

A major question which is often asked by majority of aspirants is: how do we make sure that we retain such extensive information after covering the GA section?

There are 4 ways to effectively learn and memorize it. These are as follows:

1. Rote Learning

Since GA section is factual and there is less scope for conceptual understanding, you must memorize the vast pieces of information through rote learning.

To give you an example, you cannot escape learning facts like launch year of a particular scheme or who has been appointed as an MD of HDFC bank? You have to learn that; there is no other way!

2. Connecting the Dots

Now, the method of rote learning becomes easy once you how to connect different pieces of information.

This is where I talk about joining the dots. For example, If I talk about inflation, then we can talk about GDP forecast.

3. Doing Active Revision

Given that there is such extensive information, remembering it can be difficult if you don’t make sure to recall it on a timely basis.

To memorize these facts effectively, you must devote your weekends to revising current affairs and cut down on your relaxation time.

There are other tips you can utilize to memorize vast pieces of information, and for that, you can refer to the RBI Grade B preparation tips and techniques that I have devised for aspirants.

4. Create Concise Notes

While referring to PIB247, RBI247, and monthly Spotlight magazines is more than sufficient, you can make short notes from these magazines for faster memorization.

For this, I will suggest you make 1-2 pages of short notes covering important points to go through within a short span of time or for last-minute revision.

Along with that, to save your time going through multiple sources, check the RBI Grade B free study material, which includes notes and video material on different subjects.

Advice to the aspirants

Instead of referring to the plethora of resources to cover the syllabus, I suggest students adopt smartness in their preparation, for I have already mentioned RBI 247, PIB 247, and Spotlight current affairs.

Make effective use of these sources to comprehensively cover the General Awareness section and current affairs.

Apart from this, ensure that you effectively revise the GA section with the help of the techniques that I mentioned above.

I hope that by applying the tips and techniques I mentioned above, you will be able to cover General Awareness effectively and perform your best in this section on exam day.

Remember, dreams are often a step away from realization, and we can cover that step if we positively believe in ourselves to take the required action.

So, work on your shortcomings, embrace the challenges that come along, and you shall find yourself on a personal journey to excellence!