[Study plan] RBI Grade B Officers (Preliminary) Objective Phase-I Exam: Booklist, Strategy,

Previous question Paper

1. Reserve bank of India 2011
2. RBI Preliminary exam: structure
3. Section #1: General Awareness (GA)
How to prepare Economy for RBI exam?
How to prepare Static Economy (theory)?
How to prepare Dynamic Economy (Current Affairs)?
How to prepare Yearbook
How to prepare International Affairs
How to prepare everything else!
4. Section #2: Quantitative Aptitude (QA)
Priority areas in Quantitative aptitude (QA)
Non priority areas in QA
Data Interpretation (DI)
How to get speed for DI?
5. Section #3: English Grammar and Comprehension
Priority Areas of English Section
6. Section #4: Logical Reasoning
How to approach LR?
Priority areas for Logical reasoning
7. To sum up
8. Essential booklist/Preparation sources for RBI Grade B officers Exam
9. Appendix: Topicwise Breakup of RBI 2011 Paper.
Reserve bank of India 2011
RBI Grade B officers 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.
Im extremely grateful to my trusted friend from pagalguy forum csl80, for providing me the
paper of 2011s exam and all other background information on this exam.
This whole strategy / study plan is based on that.
RBI 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 1/4
th
of the marks allotted to a question)
According to RBIs pattern in 2011s 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 2013s Prelim: there is sectional cut off but
no sectional timing. Theyll 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 2011s RBI preliminary exam.

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

You can find the actual questions in the appendix below. Even 2010s 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, youll see some questions are based on static (theory) portion and
rest are based on dynamic (current affairs). Ive given the reading list accordingly.
There are mainly 5 type of questions that can be asked in economy related MCQs.
1. Youre given a term and four definitions. Youve to find the correct definition. (or vice versa)
2. Youre given a 4-5 organizations and their functions, and youve to match the following.
3. Name of some person and which organization hes related with. (or vice versa)
4. Name of some Government policy/ Act is given, and some statements are given. Youve 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 5
th
type of questions. But youve to bow down to
the fact that there can be no end to trivial question. What if you prepared NABARDs
establishment year but they asked about LICs 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 (can be downloaded for free by clicking following links
India People and Economy Class 11 Download
India People and Economy Class 12 Download
Microeconomics Class 12 Download
Macroeconomics Class 12 Download
2. NIOS (National Open School) study material for Economy (can be downloaded for free
by clicking ME
3. Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh (TMH Publication)
4. For practice-Mock questions given at the end of General studies (GS) manual.
^this is more than sufficient.
Dont 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
theyre written from academic point of view = not very helpful in competitive exam, time is luxery
we dont 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 dont 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 youre in the competition business since many months. So youd have a good collection of
current affairs magazines @home. Whether it is CST or Pratiyogita Darpan, Chronicle or Wizard
doesnt 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 dont have magazine, no worries, go to Government library of your city, all of these magazines
will be available. You dont 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 youre 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
http://mrunal.org/2012/06/current-affairs-ias.html
You must remember that if you qualify in preliminary exam, youll 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, Ive 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 doesnt 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 itd be mistake to go completely blank on other topics. What if some really easy 3-4
questions come?
Therefore I suggest you go through Lucents 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 logarithms.
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 youve 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. Logarithms
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 youve 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 Trachtenbergs 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 Trachtenbergs speed maths
more user-friendly and convenient than Vedic maths.)
Section #3: English Grammar and Comprehension

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 youll come across
plenty of sites providing mock questions.
3. You can also use previous years papers of UPSC, IBPS, and Bank PO to practice.

Sentence arrangement/ Correction, Fill in the blanks etc.
I feel the best way to master it = Pagalguy forums CAT thread for it.
For grammar book, If you already have grammar book (R.S.Agarwal, A.P.Bhardwaj) etc. use
it. If you dont 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 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?
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 dont 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
For General awareness: Revision important.
Priority areas = Economy + Yearbook
For aptitude: Practice important.
Priority areas (already given above)
Essential booklist/Preparation sources for RBI Grade B officers 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. Lucents General knowledge
3. R.S Agarwals 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 KapilaAny 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 2011s RBI Grade B officers 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 indias 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 indias 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 womens 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 12
th
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 womens 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 No. of Q.
Operation on Brackets e.g. 27^25-31+4=?? 5
Solve the Linear equations, find values of x,y and z and find relation
between them (e.g. is x<y=z? etc)
5
Series of numbers is given; youve to find the next number. 5
Data interpretation case based on Venn Diagram concept. 5
Data interpretation case based on Radar graph. 5
Data interpretation case based on huge table of year wise 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
This is provided by my friend from Pagalguy Mr.CSL80, through RTI
Sectional Cutoffs 2010 (Phase I)
(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
Highest marks scored by
individuals in different category
SC ST OBC GEN
122 122 132 148

RBI Grade B Officer Exam Phase- I Cut
off 2013