Strategy for Phase I

This question reminds me of August 2019. I was in vacation mode after exiting from d8a (Our aviation analytics startup) and I was looking for new exams to attempt. The day I thought of appearing for RBI 2019, I was amazed by the lack of quality resources and the prevailing information asymmetry.

I was lucky to have one of my college junior (Shreerang) already working at RBI. He cleared the exam in his first attempt with a good rank. I just called him and as suggested by him kept my strategy very simple, and luckily it worked for me.

A lot of aspirants fail to make it to the final list not due to lack of strategy, but due to “Overload of Strategy and guidance”. They try to go through each and every strategy video available win Youtube, Quora etc.

• It starts with 60 days Plan (approx time between Notification and Phase 2),

• Then 30 days strategy

• 7 days super crash course and then again…..

• How to crack RBI {this year +1} i.e. next year exam

Here I am sharing few pointers. You might be disappointed if you are looking for a long booklist and coaching names. May be because it’s too simple but it is what it is!

• GA: Try to score 65+ in GA. It can be easily done with targeted preparation i.e. keep your sources limited and revise it at least 20 times

• Quant: Practice Number Series and DI question. It would be enough to score 15+ marks in quant

• Reasoning: Important topics are Syllogisms, Critical reasoning, Directions, Coding-decoding, Input-output. Don't stress about puzzles. I would suggest you to leave it in exam (Thats what I and Shreerang followed)

• Management and Finance: DO NOT WASTE TIME IN COACHING MATERIALS. Highly overrated topic. Don’t worry, questions are going to be simple. Prepare your own and to the point notes. I’ll be sharing a list of important topics of Finance and Management, focus more on these topics.

• ESI: Underrated Topic. Instead of FM, focus more on ESI. RBI is increasingly making it more analytical. One can refer Sriram IAS, Vision PT 365 Economy and Schemes Doc.

• Current Affairs for ESI and FM: Instead of reading bulky and useless coaching material, focus more on current affairs for ESI and FM. One can expect around 50–70% questions from current affairs.

• English Essay: Practice at least 10 essays before appearing in exam.

• Most Important: You’ll get less than 10 days after declaration of Phase 1 to revise for Phase 2. Make sure you have your short notes ready!

More or less, this was my strategy for RBI. As I mentioned earlier, it’s a simple and easy exam. I can say after having experienced almost all competitive exams. If I can do it, so can you.

Keep it simple!

No, Simple != Easy.

Detailed strategy for GA, Quant, reasoning and English to be uploaded soon.