Best Resources To Crack the RBI Grade B Exam: Books, Newspapers, Websites and Magazines

RBI Grade B 2023 exam is right around the corner. The exam is all set to take place on July 9 for Phase I. Phase II of the exam will quickly follow on July 30. Aspirants must start their RBI Grade B preparation today if they are to crack this exam.

There is no one source for RBI Grade B. The key is to understand that the requirement for this exam is not that of a typical banking or public service commission exam – it’s a mix of both. To make your journey easier, EduTap has prepared a complete study guide covering all basics you need to develop your RBI Grade B study plan. You can find the guide below.

In this article, we going to discuss the best possible RBI Grade B books to help you effectively navigate through the entire syllabus in the limited time that you have. We are going to break things down into Phase I and Phase II and cover each component separately. For common components such as current affairs for RBI Grade B, we will discuss in Phase I itself.

RBI Grade B Booklist for Phase I

There are 4 components –

1. English Language
2. Numerical Ability
3. Reasoning Ability
4. General Awareness

Let us take a look at each separately.

RBI Grade B Books for English Language

The English language needs an understanding of grammar, a generous knowledge of vocabulary, and day-to-day practice. As such, it is hard to recommend a book for it. The best advice we can give you is to take multiple mocks and correct the mistakes you make along the way.

But if you do want books to improve your skills, these are the two books we recommend –

1. General English for All Competitive Examinations by Arihant Publication – This has all the different patterns of questions asked in different competitive exams. You can use it as a practice bank.
2. Word Power Made Easy by Normal Lewis – This will help improve your vocabulary.

RBI Grade B Books for Numerical Ability

1. Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Examinations by R.S. Aggarwal – If you are a beginner, approach each topic mentioned in the syllabus chapter-wise from this book. Once you feel more confident in your abilities, move to the next book.
2. How to Prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for CAT by Arun Sharma – This is the only book you need to prepare for numerical abilities for RBI Grade B. The questions are at par with the RBI Grade B exam. Make sure you solve all level 1 and level 2 questions. You can leave out level 3 if you do not have the time.

RBI Grade B Books for Reasoning Ability

A Modern Approach To Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning by R.S. Aggarwal – This book is all-encompassing as far as reasoning is concerned. However, as it is meant for all competitive exams, the selection of chapters as per the RBI Grade B syllabus is required. So, keep in mind to practice only from chapters relevant to the syllabus.

RBI Grade B Study Material for General Awareness

There is no one source for General Awareness for RBI Grade B. If you pick up compilations meant for Banking Exams, they will not have the right information such as details of Reports and other such RBI-related publications. Similarly, UPSC compilations that may have some of these missing items, will cover them analytically and not factually, as is the need for RBI Grade B.

Thus, the best way to cover current affairs for RBI Grade B is to pick a UPSC magazine of your choice and selectively cover relevant news. If a scheme or report is being covered, use Google to find a summary of the original report and collect factual data from it. The best websites for RBI Grade B here would be the Press Information Bureau website or PIB and RBI’s official website.

There is no static portion you need to study specifically. Almost all static questions are derived from the current affairs you have already covered. For example, the Raimona National Park has been in the news lately. So there can be questions about the region of western Assam or about the species it houses. So while studying current affairs, use Google to enrich your related static knowledge as well. 3 to 5 months of current affairs coverage before Phase I is enough.

RBI Grade B Booklist for Phase II

If you are planning to start your Phase II preparation after being done with Phase I, let us stop you right there and tell you that your RBI Grade B strategy is going in the wrong direction. The syllabus for Phase II is vast and it is not possible to completely cover all aspects in just the 3 weeks between Phases I and II. Instead, start today, so that by the time you are done with Phase I, you are confident in your ability to crack Phase II.

There are 4 key components in the Phase II exam –

1. Economics and Social Issues (ESI)
2. Finance and Management (FM) – Both finance and management are to be covered separately.
3. Descriptive English (DE)

We will now go through each of these subjects and try to find sources to cover them one topic at a time.

RBI Grade B Books for ESI

In ESI, 35% of the questions asked are based on current affairs, whereas 65% are based on static knowledge. The most important topics to cover in Economics are –

1. Growth and Development
2. Inflation
3. Balance of Payment
4. Monetary and Fiscal Policy
5. Sustainable Development

The recommended books for ESI are Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh, Indian Economy by Uma Kapila, Sociology by C.N. Shankar Rao, and Social Issues by Ram Ahuja. Among these, Ramesh Singh and Ram Ahuja can help you cover most of the syllabus with easy. Although both Uma Kapila and C.N. Shankar Rao are excellent books, they are far too bulky to be cost-effective.

Newspapers for RBI Grade B Exam play a crucial role. You do not have to read the entire newspaper, but as 50% weightage of this paper is on descriptive answers, reading editorials is a must. You can use monthly compilations of current affairs, government schemes and reports available on the internet. 6-8 months of coverage before the phase II exam is enough.

Remember to cover the Economic Survey and Budget for this year. Any UPSC magazine will give you the basic summary and details of both.
You can find a chapter-wise breakdown of the ESI syllabus here.

RBI Grade B Books for FM

Management

The three books you must read for Management in RBI Grade B are –

1. Principles of Management by L.M. Prasad
2. Organizational Behaviour by L.M. Prasad
3. Ethics and Corporate Governance by B.N. Ghosh

There are other popular books such as the one by Stephen P Robbins, but they are far too bulky and not cost-effective for your RBI Preparation.

Both L.M. Prasad and B.N. Ghosh are Indian authors and hence, have used very easy English to explain most of the concepts. These books are also heavy on Indian examples and case studies, making it easier to understand the topics as well as use these in your descriptive answers. There are no current affairs asked for this portion.

You can find a chapter-wise breakdown of the Management syllabus here.

Finance

In this section, we want to start with the books you should avoid for your Finance preparation for RBI Grade B – Bharati Pathak and Prasanna Chandra. Both of these books are very good in their own right, but they are not the right fit for RBI Grade B. Pathak is a very lengthy book with too little data to help you in this exam. Chandra on the other hand is filled with numerical, which are not generally asked in RBI Grade B.

The following books are your friend when learning finance for this exam –

1. Principles and Practices of Banking (Macmillan Education) by Indian Institute of Banking and Finance – Most of the topics in the RBI Grade B syllabus will be covered in Modules A and C of this book. Module B covers certain aspects like Self Help Groups, Financial Inclusion, etc. as well. Use the syllabus to navigate through this book and choose the chapter to study.
2. Bank Financial Management by Indian Institute of Banking and Finance – Module A in this book covers Forex markets and Module B risk management; if you have already studied risk management in the other book, you can skip it here. Module C here covers derivative products.

Finance does have a fair share of current questions. Go to PIB to check out the articles under the Ministry of Finance and other relevant ministries. Use the Hindu and Livemint to supplement these articles. For example, if RBI has a report on “Benchmarking India’s Payment Systems”, copy the name of the report and Google it with the additional keyword of “The Hindu” or “Livemint”. You will find a detailed coverage and summary of the report on the news portal. This will help you prepare the otherwise technical and bulky reports easily.

You can find a chapter-wise breakdown of the Finance syllabus here.

RBI Grade B Study Material of Descriptive English

For descriptive English, start with watching any good video on YouTube, explaining the differences between Essay, Preci and comprehension and features of each. Read an editorial each day from a newspaper of your choice. Wait 2 days and on the 3rd day, try to recall what you read and write an Essay or a Preci about it.

Editorials will help you get a better grasp of the English language while supplementing your knowledge. Use a notepad to write your essay or precis, copy the writeup and paste it into Grammarly, find the mistakes you made and correct them. There is no other source for Descriptive English.

Limited Sources, Maximum Revision

If you have already started your preparation, do not use this article to change your sources. The ultimate goal is to maximize the coverage of the syllabus from the minimum possible sources. Keep revising, keep practising by taking mock tests, and soon enough, you might find yourself as a manager in RBI. Best of luck!