1. Reserve bank of India 2011
  2. RBI Preliminary exam: structure
  3. Section #1: General Awareness (GA)
  4. Section #2: Quantitative Aptitude (QA)
  5. Section #3: English Grammar and Comprehension
  6. Section #4: Logical Reasoning
  7. To sum up
  8. Essential booklist/Preparation sources for RBI Grade “B” officer’s Exam
  9. Appendix:Topicwise Breakup of RBI 2011 Paper.

Reserve bank of India 2011

RBI Grade “B” officer’s exam, follows the same “structure” of UPSC Civil service exam.

This RBI exam has three phases

  1. Phase I (Objective Type Test)= Preliminary stage (Multi choice questions)
  2. Phase II Descriptive Exam (we already discussed this in old article, CLICK ME)
  3. Phase III Interview.

I’m extremely grateful to my trusted friend from pagalguy forum “csl80”, for providing me the paper of 2011’s exam and all other background information on this exam.

This whole strategy / studyplan is based on that.

RBI Grade B Officer Preliminary exam: structure

  • No of questions= 200
  • Sectional Passing marks = yes. (just like bank exam. It means Candidates have to secure minimum marks separately for each section.)
  • Negative marking = yes (minus 1/4th of the marks allotted to a question)

According to RBI’s pattern in 2011’s exam, here is the breakup

Topic No. of Qs Marks Time
General Awareness 80 80 45mins
Math 30 30 20mins
English 30 30 20mins
Reasoning 60 60 45mins
Total 200 200

UPDATE (August-05-2013): As per the RBI Handout for 2013’s Prelim: there is sectional cutoff but no sectional timing. They’ll give 200 questions to you at once, and you can solve them in any order within 130 minutes

Section #1: General Awareness (GA)

Let us look at the topic wise breakup of General Awareness, in 2011’s RBI preliminary exam.

Topic No. of Questions in 2011’s Exam
Economy 56
Yearbook 13
Diplomacy 7
Geography 3
Science 1
Total 80

You can find the actual questions in the appendix below. Even 2010’s exam had more or less the same breakup: heavy emphasis on Economy and Yearbook type of questions. So now let us see how to approach each of above topics.

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.

  1. You’re given a term and four definitions. You’ve to find the correct definition. (or vice versa)
  2. You’re given a 4-5 organizations and their functions, and you’ve to “match the following”.
  3. Name of some person and which organization he’s related with. (or vice versa)
  4. 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.
  5. 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?

Problem:

  • Students devote all their energy in mastering 5th type of questions. But you’ve to bow down to the fact that there can be no end to trivial question. What if you prepared NABARD’s establishment year but they asked about LIC’s year? So the Cost:Benefit ratio is not good.
  • Therefore Donot get obsessed with trival facts. Because no war is won without sacrificing a few soldiers. And Nobody expects you to score 100/100 marks – whether it is UPSC, RBI or CAT.

Now here is the reading list/ suggested books.

How to prepare Static Economy (theory)?

  1. NCERT economics: can be downloaded for free by clicking me
  1. NIOS (National Open School) study material for Economy (can be downloaded for free by clicking ME
  2. Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh (TMH Publication)
  3. For practice-Mock questions given at the end of General studies (GS) manual.

^this is more than sufficient.
BOOK-ramesh singh 5th

  • 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.

Once this is done, use the General Studies manual, and solve all the mock questions given at the end of its Economy chapter.

  • 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/economy
Any 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.
    1. Economy
    2. International
    3. National
    4. Science tech
    5. 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 article
https://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

  1. Any one magazine AND OR Competitionmaster.com
  2. Any one newspaper: The Hindu or Indian Express
  3. 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.

With this I conclude how to prepare the General Awareness (GA) portion of RBI Grade “B” officers’ exam.
Now let us move to the aptitude part.

Aptitude

(I put Maths, logical reasoning and English  – all three into aptitude)

Section #2: Quantitative Aptitude (QA)

The maths is more oriented towards data interpretation rather than conventional profit-loss type stuff. Go through the old papers (posted at bottom), and prepare topics accordingly. And to clear the basic concepts of maths, you may use the approach shown in the RBI Assistant exam article click me

  • Many articles on mrunal.org/aptitude
  • Practice old Bank PO question papers (can be googled).
  • ignore trigonometry, geometry (other than area volume perimeter), coordinate geometry and logerithms.

Priority areas in Quantitative aptitude (QA)

  1. Operation on brackets
  2. Linear equations
  3. Average + alligiation
  4. Ratios
  5. Profit, Loss, %, SI and CI : all can be solved if you’ve clear concept of % calculation.
  6. Arithmetic and Geography progression.
  7. 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
  8. Permutation, Combination, Probability : all can be solved without problem, if you go through my old articles.
  9. Geometry: Area and Volume
  10. Venn Diagrams

Non priority areas in QA

  1. Geometry: things other than Area, Volume, Perimeter
  2. Coordinate Geometry
  3. Logerithms
  4. Trigonometry
  5. Functions and graphs.

^these topics are important for SSC exam but not much for RBI

Data Interpretation (DI)

In this QA (maths) portion, they also asked Data interpretation (DI) questions worth 15 marks, in 2011. 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.

How to get speed for maths calculations?

  1. Understand this two-digit long division technique explained here click me
  2. Understand the Trachtenberg’s method for multiplication, especially for 5,9 and 11. plenty of articles on google, start with this one: click me
  3. Then practice maximum questions from previous years’ IBPS/Bank papers.

(There is no harm in learning Vedic maths techniques either but I find Trachtenberg’s speed maths more user-friendly and convenient than Vedic maths.)

Section #3: English Grammar and Comprehension

RBI Grade B english Cutoff
30 questions came from English portion in RBI 2011 exam.

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

  1. Pagalguy forum has dedicated threads for it.
  2. Just google “GMAT reading comprehension” or CAT reading comprehension you’ll come across plenty of sites providing mock questions.
  3. You can also use previous years’ papers of UPSC, IBPS, Bank PO to practice.

Sentence arrangement/ Correction, Fill in the blanks etc.

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” article Click ME

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?

verbal

  • 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)

To sum up

  1. For General awareness: Revision important.
  1. Priority areas = Economy + Yearbook
  • For aptitude: Practice important.
  • Priority  areas (already given above)

Essential booklist/Preparation sources for RBI Grade “B” officer’s Exam

Free

  1. NCERT Economy Class 11,12
  2. NIOS studymaterial on Economy
  3. Pagalguy.com forum (particularly for grammar, comprehension.)
  4. Mrunal.org

Not Free but recommended

  1. Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh (TMH Publication)
  2. Lucent’s General knowledge
  3. R.S Agarwal’s book on Verbal Reasoning
  4. Any one newspaper (Hindu / Indianexpress) [Free if you read online]
  5. Any one magazine.  (Pratiyogita Darpan / CST/ Chronicle/ Wizard) [Pratiyogita can be read online for free, on its official site)
  6. (optional) Previous years’ Bank PO / IBPS paperset for practicing aptitude
  7. (optional) GS Manual for practicing Economy and Yearbook questions.

Not free AND Not recommended

  1. Mishra Puri
  2. Dutt Sundaram
  3. Uma Kapila
  4. Any readymade book from any jholachhap publisher/coaching class titled “RBI all in one guide/study material”.

    Appendix:Topicwise Breakup of RBI 2011 Paper.

    Here is the Breakup of questions from 2011’s RBI Grade “B” officer’s exam
    You can download the the prelims (phase 1) papers of RBI 2011 and 2010 by clicking me

    Section 1: General Awareness

    Economics

    1. meaning of least developed countries
    2. statement about India’s GDP
    3. persons associated with reserve bank of India
    4. reforms needed after Satyam scandal 2009
    5. International commodities responsible for cost push inflation
    6. features of special economic zone act
    7. definition of GDP
    8. components of human development index
    9. how to measure economic growth of a country
    10. contribution of agriculture sector in total GDP of India
    11. contribution of service sector in the total GDP of India
    12. how is India’s national income majored
    13. Fiscal reforms adopted by government of India
    14. component of current account and capital account
    15. What is the purpose of know your customer scheme?
    16. Name of the organisation responsible to promote micro, small and medium industrial sector in India.
    17. Why market borrowings of the union government have gone up in the year 2011?
    18. Which of the following, is not an example of core industry?
    19. What is the full form of DEPF scheme
    20. recently, coal Ministry of India has allocated some coal blocks in four states. Which of the following are not among those four states?
    21. Which of the following is an example of nontax revenue?
    22. Full form of MRTP act.
    23. Which of the following is not an industrial sector?
    24. Who among the following is a deputy governor of RBI?
    25. Which of the following acts, helps a bank in its day to day activities?
    26. Lack of access to financial services, is technically known as.
    27. Which of the following is not a function of NABARD?
    28. Banks in India required to maintain a portion of their demand and time liabilities with the reserve bank of India. What is the technical term for this portion?
    29. Example of major risks faced by the bank in their daily business.
    30. Which of the following schemes was launched by RBI in 2004, under which government of India stated that securities could be issued to absorb surplus or durable liquidity?
    31. What amount was allocated for raising credit to farmers in union budget 2012
    32. full form of MFI.
    33. What is the size of women’s self-help group development fund created by government of India?
    34. Which of the following statement is true about International monetary fund.
    35. Definition of bank rate.
    36. Which of the following term is associated with banking and finance.
    37. Which of the following is a millennium development goal?
    38. Which of the following countries got a new bailout package with the help of private sector?
    39. Goods and services tax will be implemented from which year?
    40. Full form of TIEA
    41. Which of the following, is not a credit rating agency?
    42. Who is the president of the World Bank?
    43. Which of the following is a contentious issue between WTO and India?
    44. Who is the head of National Manufacturing competitiveness council?
    45. Member of G8 among following
    46. major issue emphasised by Mohan in his UN speech
    47. what is Robin Hood tax.
    48. Features of 12th FYP
    49. the central banks of five developed countries came together recently and decided to provide unlimited dollar loans to banks in their areas. What was the purpose of this?
    50. Name of the payment and settlement system used by banks in India.
    51. Federal reserve is the central Bangkok which country?
    52. Why was FH Malegam committee constituted?
    53. The controller and auditor general of India recently got appointed an external auditor of which international organisation?
    54. The special drawing rights are provided by which international organisation?
    55. Indian citizen is allowed to invest overseas freely accept which country?
    56. Who got the Nobel Prize for economics in 2011?

    Yearbook

    1. MNREGA definition
    2. statements from Census 2011
    3. scheme launched for school children
    4. name of government act related to sustainable growth.
    5. Which of the following is a woman empowerment program?
    6. Full form of AAY.
    7. Which of the following organisation of women in India,has arisen out of the confluence of three moments – labour movement, cooperative movement and the women’s movement is on Gandhian philosophy.
    8. Second Green Revolution will be launched in north-eastern states to increase production of which crop?
    9. Which of the following factors as now a check on migration of agricultural labourers from one place to another place in India?
    10. Which of the following is not a program launched by government of India?
    11. Name of the scheme launched to provide prenatal and postnatal care to mother and child.
    12. Name of the scheme for improving the desert areas.
    13. Name of the scheme to make Indian cities, free from slums.

    International affairs

    1. Function of high IAEA.
    2. South China Sea dispute (why China raised objection against India).
    3. India entered into an agreement to purchase LNG from East Asian nations, under which policy?
    4. G-7 summit of 2011, was held in which city?
    5. Which of the following organisation gave warning tp the nations that there may be increased risk to global financial stability in the world?
    6. Which of the following agency did pollution survey and found that Indian cities are most polluted in the world
    7. Who represented in India in the first South Asia Forum meeting held in 2011?

    Geography

    1. Sardar Sarovar dam is built on which river?
    2. Rashidpur Gas fields are located in which country?
    3. Which country is the largest producer of chemical fertilisers in the world?

    Science and technology

    1. greenhouse gases are responsible for what?

    Section 2: Maths / quantitative aptitude

    Topic number of questions
    1. Operation on Brackets e.g. 27^2×5-31+4=??
    		 5
    1. Solve the Linear equations, find values of x,y and z and find relation between them (e.g. is x<y=z? etc)
    		 5
    1. series of numbers is given, you’ve to find the next number.
    		 5
    1. Data interpretation case based on Venn Diagram concept.
    		 5
    1. Data interpretation case based on Radar graph.
    		 5
    1. Data interpretation case based on huge table of yearwise animal population.
    		 5
    Total 30

    Section 3: English grammar and comprehension

    Comprehension. 8
    Sentence Rearrangement 5
    Fill in the Blanks 12
    Sentence Correction 5
    Total 30

    Section 4: Logical reasoning

    Topic number of questions
    Blood relation 9
    Inference and assumption based on paragraph 3
    Coding – decoding 7
    Data sufficiency 5
    All cats are dogs 6
    Seating arrangement (two cases are given) 10
    Weight arrangement (Abhishek is heavier than..) case 2
    Inequality based statement-conclusions (i.e N<O<R and R>A) 5
    Input output 5
    Logical reasoning based on paragraph. 5
    Find the odd words in the group 2
    Total 57

    Cut off for RBI Prelims 2010 (Phase I)

    This is provided by my friend from Pagalguy Mr.CSL80, through RTI

    Sectional Cutoffs

    (minimum marks / sectional cut-offs) Number indicates correct questions.

    Section SC ST OBC GEN
    GA 8 8 8 12
    English 7 7 7 11
    Quant 3 3 3 6
    Reasoning 11 11 11 17

    Total cut off score for selection to phase 2

    SC ST  OBC GEN
    85 93 94 104

    Highest marks scored by individuals in different category

    SC ST OBC GEN
    122 122 132 148

    Previous phase I papers, Salary and Allowances for RBI  Officers

    provided by CSL80, Here is the PDF File: CLICK ME