Find out everything about NABARD Grade A Examination Preparation for 2019: Strategy to Crack NABARD 2019 Phase 1 & 2 with Free PDFs.

How to crack NABARD Grade A Examination?

NABARD GRADE A PREPARATION STRATEGY AND IMPORTANT BOOKS FOR  EXAMINATION 

Want to learn about NABARD Grade A Preparation, Exam Pattern, and Strategy to clear the exam. Read the following information.

NABARD Grade A Examination is held in 3 Phases: 

[A] Phase I 

[B] Phase II 

[C] Phase III (Personal Interview) 

Let us talk about the Preparation Strategy for Phase I. 

REASONING ABILITY & QUANTITATIVE APTITUDE 

Let us start with Quantitative Aptitude. 

DI is an important section of Quantitative Aptitude. Apart from DI, other sections like Time and Work, Boat and Stream, Mensuration, Ages, Mixture and Alligations, Partnerships, Time, Speed and Distance, Percentage, Pipes and Cistern, Profit and Loss, Simple Interest and Compound Interest, etc. all these are equally imp because the questions asked from these topics are comparatively easier than DI questions. But you cannot identify 4–5 topics because there is a good mix in the examination. So, probably 10 topics can be good to prepare for the examination. 

Talking about Reasoning Ability, In Reasoning, Puzzles is an important section of Reasoning Ability. Apart from Puzzles topics like Syllogism, Inequalities, Data Sufficiency, Sitting Arrangement and Vertical Arrangement, Scheduling, Direction and Distance, Input-Output, etc. all these topics are asked. 

In Reasoning, you need smart work rather than hard work. You can leave the part of the puzzle (if you find questions to be difficult). Now, it may sound a bit strange to leave puzzles straight away but there are reasons behind this. Nowadays, the questions asked in the puzzle section are very tough. You may or may not be able to solve them in the examination. Moreover, in the pursuit of solving them, you may lose a lot of time. So, in lieu of wasting time on such questions, you can focus on the other questions. 

Now, coming to the books that are important keeping in mind the Quantitative Aptitude and Reasoning Section of NABARD Grade A Examination. 

Arun Sharma is popular for Quantitative Aptitude section but his reasoning books are not that good, in fact, they are very bad. So, you can refer to Arun Sharma for Quantitative Aptitude. 

I would recommend that you go for Banking Services Chronicles (BSC) books, which are of decent quality. They have their monthly magazines too, which are also very good. 

You can also go for TIME or Career Launcher material for CAT. Do not go for their Banking or CLAT or CSAT material. Those books are of decent quality and they are almost in-line with the level of questions that are asked in the Quantitative Aptitude and Reasoning section in NABARD Grade A Examination. 

ENGLISH LANGUAGE 

In English, Reading Comprehension is an important part. Apart from Reading Comprehension, questions are asked from topics like Cloze Test, Error Spotting, Para Jumbles, One Word Substitution, Synonym and Antonyms, Phrase Replacement, etc. 

Reading Comprehension as a portion involves answers written within, so, read the comprehension carefully. For answering the questions asked in the comprehension try to frame the answers in your own sentences mixing them with the words given in the comprehension. But just do not copy the language of the comprehension. If you are preparing for Essay and Precis, then comprehension will be prepared on its own. You do not need any extra preparation for Reading Comprehension. 

GENERAL AWARENESS 

In the General Awareness Section, questions are asked from Current Affairs, Schemes, Yojana, MOUs, Geography related questions, Dams, Festivals, etc. Basically, the question can be asked from anything under the sun. So you must be well prepared for this. 

General Awareness should be covered on a regular basis whether daily or monthly. There are many online and offline sources available for General Awareness. You’ll find a few online sources that will give you current affairs on a daily basis but will not provide you with an adequate explanation for the same. Just going through questions or CA without adequate knowledge on how they can be asked in the examination won’t be beneficial in the long run. In the exam, you may be asked questions in a different way than what you have studied through MCQs. So, it is really important to have adequate knowledge about every aspect of MCQs that you go through. 

To add on to your knowledge, you can prepare for General Awareness from the Daily MCQs that I am providing on my website. PDFs of the same are also present on the website. Also, you can take help from my YouTube channel where I provide daily current affairs through video lectures. Those are the types of questions that are asked in the RBI Assistant Examination. 

COMPUTER KNOWLEDGE 

In this section questions are asked from various topics like Networking, Input-output devices, DBMS, MS Office, Internet, History of computer & generations, Shortcuts, Abbreviations are always asked. 

You can take help of the Computer Awareness Capsule provided by me in which I have covered the entire Computer Awareness Syllabus in a Comprehensive Manner. 

ESI (ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL ISSUES) 

• Cover Historical Basis of Indian Economy. 
• Basic Terms related to Economic and Social Issues are important. 
• Current Affairs are important for Phase I. 

• Cover Stats related to Current Affairs (Minimum Past 3 Months) and Economic Survey. 
• Organizations, International as well as National, are important. Especially, which are related to the Economy. 
• Books and other Sources which you can refer to are: 
  • Ramesh Singh 
  • NCERTs 
• Monthly Magazines like Banking Services Chronicles. 
• For Banking Knowledge you can refer to Newspapers like Financial Express or Livemint. 

ARD (AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT) 

• For Phase I, you do not require any specialized knowledge. Very Basic Concepts of Agriculture and Rural Development are required. 

• Past and Present Schemes related to Agriculture and Rural Development are important. 
• Prepare Current Affairs with special emphasis on Agriculture. You can take help from Kurukshetra magazine. 
• Stats related to Agriculture especially from Economic Survey are important. 

Let us talk about the Preparation Strategy for Phase II. 

ESI (ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL ISSUES) 

• Cover Historical Basis of Indian Economy. This has more importance in Phase II as compared to Phase I. 
• Cover Stats related to Current Affairs (Minimum Past 3 Months) and Economic Survey. 
• Organizations, International as well as National, are important. Especially, which are related to the Economy. 
• Magazines Kurukshetra and Yojana are important for Phase II. Focus on the ESI part of these Magazines. 
• Books and other Sources which you can refer to are: 
  • Ramesh Singh 
  • NCERTs 
• Monthly Magazines like Banking Services Chronicles. 
• For Banking Knowledge you can refer to Newspapers like Financial Express or Livemint. 

ARD (AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT) 

• You should have a good Geographical knowledge of States and Soils present in the country. 
• Go through Kurukshetra and Yojana Magazines. Focus on the Agriculture part in these Magazines. 
• You can cover the basics of ARD from the book “Agriculture at a Glance” by R.K. Sharma. 
• Go through the Reports provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Rural Development and NABARD on their Website. 
• Also, the report provided by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is important. 
• Cover the Agricultural Census provided by Ministry of Agriculture. 
• Press Releases by Agriculture and Rural Department, i.e., PIB Releases. 
• Cover State of Forest Report provided Bi-annually by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. 
• Prepare Current Affairs (Minimum Past 3 Months), Stats and Economic Survey. 

ENGLISH DESCRIPTIVE 

Essay writing or Writing in general (if one has to consider broader picture) has become a very important part of the NABARD Grade A Examination when we talk about Phase 2 of these examinations. 

The English Descriptive paper comprises of – 

• One Essay (40 Marks) 
• One Precis (20 Marks) 
• One Comprehension (20 Marks) 
• One Letter/E-mail/Memo (20 Marks) 

Let us discuss the preparation strategy of- 

1. Essay

The essay is generally between 200–400 words which keep on varying every year. Now, first, you choose three topics to prepare for essay writing. Then you research online about those three topics and collect all the relevant information and note down the points. It will take around 2–3 hours. Let’s say you did this in the morning. Now, in the evening you again pick up the same three topics and now decide on which topic you want to write an essay. Although you are prepared with all three topics there will be one or two topics out of the three which will not be as good as the third one or you might not even like one or two topics. Also in this time gap of 5–6 hours, you must have forgotten exactly what you read online. Then write an essay on one of the three topics are going to show your capability of writing an essay. If you write immediately after reading information online then you will be just copying what you read. 

2. Precis

For Precis, pick up any editorial of around 600–700 words. The aim is to compress this editorial without losing its meaning. Then prepare a rough structure. If you will not make a rough structure then precis will just be a cut-paste of the original paragraph. While preparing the rough structure, just try to understand what is the main theme of the paragraph or comprehension. Also, try to identify, what is the structure of the information that is provided in the paragraph. Say, for example, the paragraph is talking about corruption. So, first, it tells you about Jan-Lokpal Bill, then how Aam Aadmi Party came into existence. Then it tells how corruption also crept in Aam Aadmi Party or how it has been effective in dealing with corruption. So, basically, a chain of things is formed in the paragraph. So, you also have to create a similar chain or structure of things in your mind and note them down on paper in the form of points. Now, you know these are things that you will discuss or write in your Precis. Then, try to frame sentences in your own words keeping in mind the important points which you have noted down from the paragraph. An important thing to be kept in mind while writing the Precis is that you can pick up facts or keywords from the original paragraph or comprehension but do not take the entire sentence. 

3. Comprehension

Comprehension as a portion involves answers written within, so, read the comprehension carefully. For answering the questions asked in the comprehension try to frame the answers in your own sentences mixing them with the words given in the comprehension. But just do not copy the language of the comprehension. If you are preparing for Essay and Precis, then comprehension will be prepared on its own. 

4. Letter/E-mail/Memo

The important thing to prepare for writing a letter is to understand the format of the formal and informal letter. Once you are familiar with the formats, you can easily write a letter according to the topic given in the examination. Similarly, for E-mail and Memo, you should be familiar with the format. 

I had discussed the preparation strategy for the Essay. Now let us talk about “How to write an Essay”. 

Before thinking about the introduction or conclusion, think about the pointers which you are going to write in the main body. Say, for example, the question is “How can corruption be removed from India”. Now you have to search for arguments, how can it be actually removed from India, like there should be appropriate legislation, implementation of those legislations, culture should be changed where we have accepted corruption. So these are the arguments which you have to think at first. Prepare a rough structure of these arguments. Now you know these arguments are to be written in the body paragraph. 

Now, for the introduction part, identify keywords from the topic. Like in the topic, “How can corruption be removed from India” keywords are corruption, removal, and India. In the introduction, you are going to define corruption, the importance of the issue in the present scenario. Like you can say this is an issue because it has become such a big part of our everyday life and affects our capacity for development. 

So, now the introduction and body part is ready. In conclusion, you have to just conclude the entire thing which you have written in the body. The conclusion has to be simple. 

In this way, the essay has to be written. First, prepare the body, then Introduction and then at the last conclusion. 

You can also check about the NABARD Grade A Selection Process, Syllabus, and Salary of a NABARD Grade A Officer.