My Experience with Competitive Exams

CAT, RBI, SEBI, Banking - In the two (not so) wonderful years ruled by Covid-19/20/21, I tried my hands on many country-level examinations. Successes and failures combined, it was nothing but an enriching experience. Despite the fact that I never managed to clear any of these exams within the expected time period - Aug'19 : Sep'21 - I always felt thankful for the learning that they bestowed upon me.

Before diving deep, let me list down my journey in bullets -

• May 2018 - Graduated from IIT (ISM), Dhanbad with a Major in Computer Science & Engg and a Minor in Financial Management. Also cleared Level 1 of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program in college.

• Aug 2019 - Resigned (after working for a year) from my full-time job where I was trading financial securities in the international stock exchanges. Took this step to prepare for RBI, the sole purpose of my existence at that point in time.

• Dec 2019 - Failed to clear mains of the exam. The first big failure of my life (been waiting for that moment for years)

With the onset of Covid-19, followed by a nationwide lockdown, the unpredictability of government body exams became clear. Hence I started seeking opportunities wherever possible.

• March 2020 - Failed in the interview round of LAMP fellowship. Really wanted to enter policy-making through this one.

• April 2020 - Failed to clear even the first interview round of Goldman Sachs

• June 2020 - Did not hear from the HR of Morgan Stanley after the 6th round

• August 2020 - Failed to clear the interview of CollegeDuniya

• Aug-Nov 2020 - Failed to clear the prelims of all the 3 banking exams that I had appeared for (although didn't matter as I didn't practice much as compared to the requirement)

• 1st Nov 2020 - Purchased a mock test for CAT 2020, which was scheduled for Nov 25th.

Point to be noted - The above activities constituted only 5% of my 2020. I had devoted all my time to preparing for RBI (and then for some time, SEBI) throughout the year. Practiced quants and reasoning and mugged up current affairs for the whole of the year for the exams that didn't even happen in that year - the exams for which I had ended the relationship with my company on a sour note.

• Jan 2021 - Achieved 98.9 %ile in CAT but didn't receive a single MBA call because I had scored 65 %ile in VARC (English)

• April 2021 - Failed to clear mains of SEBI 2020

• September 2021 - Missed the final merit of RBI 2021 by 1 mark

• October 2021 - Through a friend's reference, got a job in a startup where I used to work minimum 10 hours a day.

And then fast forward 9 months..

• June 2022 - Received offer letter from RBI after they moved the waiting list of 2021

• June 2022 - Cleared SEBI 2022 with AIR 20 with 1 week of theoretical and 1 week of interview preparation

Woah! After writing it down in this way, it seems like one hell of a journey to me myself! And this blog seems to incorporate much more than just my experience with competitive exams :P

Now, If you found my little journey interesting and feel that you're willing to risk some more of your time for my insights from it, keep reading. It's going to be long, but definitely not redundant.

I'll try to answer few questions that every aspirant has or touch some issues that they face during their journey.

1. The best strategy - Frankly speaking, today, I won't use the strategy that I used in 2021 (that eventually gave me the fruits). Because I no longer have the whole day to give to studies. I'm a full-time working professional now, which wasn't the case back then. The point being made is that strategies are strictly individual and situation dependent. I never read anyone's strategy. In fact, I strongly despised the idea of it (partly because of my confidence and partly because of my over-confidence). To everyone reading this, an honest advice - stop asking every selected person about their strategy. There are tons of them already on the internet. Read a few of them, analyze and then make your own based on your time availability and capability. You can always take assistance from seniors, if stuck. But never try to copy anybody blindly.
   

2. Is coaching necessary? - It saves time. It's like taking a tiffin service when you live alone in your flat vs cooking your own food twice a day (job employees will relate to this). And since the vendor is serving a lot of people, it is economical for all the parties involved. But the problem is - it may not be serving what you like. In fact, it can very soon feel like a complete waste of money. Then, what's the best solution? Use both. Use coaching materials only for specific topics that you feel are best covered there and that reading from there will visibly save time. And parallelly, keep making your own notes from self-study. As for me, I had purchased a very economical course for RBI that provided me with various compilations like important reports, topic-wise MCQs, etc. But I had prepared almost 75%-80% by my own. And that unarguably worked. But, again, point no. 1.
   

3. Newspapers in the era of current affairs capsules? - Yes bro, of course! There's no escaping from newspapers, especially for exams that give good weightage to current issues (eg UPSC, SSC, RBI, Banking, etc.). You have to read newspapers everyday. Is not reading a newspaper a confirmed ticket to failure? No. But reading is a guaranteed help in developing your overall knowledge, understanding and personality, which will always help you at some stage, sooner or later. It will not only improve your debate/discussion skills but will also hone your answer writing ability. However, you must have some sense of judgement about which article to pick. Reading the newspaper end to end is strictly advised against. Be selective.
   

4. The motivation roller coaster - You've made up your mind to crack the exam and you've set out to conquer the world. And then one fine day, you don't feel like doing so. You not only feel down but even start questioning your decision of appearing for the exams at the first place. It seems tough to get yourself standing after losing steam. But that's the main point. The already high cutoffs would have gone through the roofs if it were that easy. In my opinion, maximum candidates don't fail because they're incapable of covering the syllabus but because they're unable to keep themselves going during their down times (which, by the way, occur a lot). So what's the tonic, you ask? Discipline. When you feel like studying, ride the motivation wave as high as you can. But when you feel down, get yourself disciplined. This essentially means that when you don't feel like studying, get up and sit on that chair. No problem if you do nothing. Just get up from your bed, and sit at your study place for 1 hour. Without mobile or other gadgets. Do this every time you feel 'unmotivated'. When motivation doesn't get you up, discipline will create motivation. Try it!
   

5. The limited memory space - We can get a 500 GB SSD when our laptop slows down due to a shortage of memory but we can't do the same with ourselves. And mugging up daily current affairs, the entire history, geography, economy, polity etc sure fills up most of our brain's C drive, thereby driving down retention and productivity. There's no escaping that. Every aspirant has to go through it. To tackle this, I resorted to physical activities. I downloaded a 7-minute workout app and followed it for months. I also started listening to Bhagvad Gita on Youtube to calm my nerves down in times of despair. Moreover, I used to have 4 soaked almonds every morning. And I did have some good retention power. Now there might not be exact causation between the activities mentioned above and my retention ability but there was sure a correlation. You can choose any avenue to relax your brain but make sure it doesn't involve watching screens.
   

6. Oh fcuk, answer writing! : Ever since regulatory bodies have introduced descriptive papers in their recruitment, most of the candidates find their dream organization farther. Writing is indeed not a cakewalk for those who haven't been doing it. But then it also isn't like lifting Thor's hammer. My simple suggestion to those struggling with it - make a start. Start by writing short paragraphs, say, of 50-100 words on some topic that you know very well, say, a short description about your favourite sport/movie/series etc. Initially the idea is not to test your knowledge or quality of the answers but to remove fear and instill confidence. Once you start feeling that it is doable, increase the topic relevancy, word limit and difficulty. Reading newspapers, model answers, fodder materials and continuous practice will surely help you further improve your answer writing skills.
   

7. Secret tips to ace English descriptive - Sorry, but there isn't any. This is a mystery that no one knows how to solve. I'll accept someone's claim of having cracked it only they've scored above 65-70 thrice. However, there are a few pointers that I received from some people and I believe they did make some sense and helped me avoid completely disaster marks - - Content takes the backstage - Focus the most on avoiding grammatical mistakes. Spelling, punctuation, and sentence construction errors have to be minimized at any cost. - Prefer short sentences - Long ones are more prone to unnoticed grammatical errors - Stick to the word limit - NEVER write even a word above the prescribed limit. But also, don't fall too short of it. - Practice typing - Your aim must be to complete the test in the given time and also to take a quick revision, if possible, to eliminate errors.
   

8. Chakravyuh - The Vicious Cycle - It grieves me a lot to see a huge chunk of the youth of our country wasting the whole of their 20s in preparing for some government exam only to feel defeated, dejected and devoid of self-respect. When I resigned from my job, I had planned it for a year and a half only, to cover two cycles of my target exam. When I didn't clear both of them, I instantly paused everything and started looking for a job in the private sector. With some reference, I did get a job for which I'll always be thankful. The point is that you should never enter into the world of competitive exams going all-in with all your youth on the table. Not having a backup may still be fine but not looking for one even after consecutive failures should ring some alarm bells. Now many would disagree with me on this point and that's okay. This one is completely subjective so everybody has their own thought process and priority. But my only point is that you should take another shot at an exam only because you want to and not because you can't do anything else now.
   

9. The role of luck - Ah, let's address the elephant in the room. Most of the candidates consider themselves starved of luck when it comes to success. They feel that they've really worked hard but couldn't get the result due to bad luck. On the other hand, they also see some batchmates who put in little effort and reap all the gains. Why is that? Or is that even true? Let me give show how luck played its role in my case- 1] I worked my a%# off for RBI 2021. Read every possible thing on my own. Ministry websites for schemes, pib notifications, RBI circulars, reports - I've read all of these from the original documents. Even referred to the bare Companies Act while preparing for SEBI. And the result? Missed by ONE mark in RBI final merit. Got 251.25 vs 252.25 required. I didn't like the interviewers giving me just 54 marks out of 75. I felt my interview performance deserved more (judge yourself by reading the transcript - https://qr.ae/pv5Hgv). As for SEBI, I had given a good time of covering the syllabus but missed mains by 2.33 marks. Received 57 in English despite good practice. So, I peacefully accepted that it wasn't my time. Luck was not in my favour and therefore I could do nothing but move on. 2] Since I was working in a startup, I didn't have any energy at the end of the day to study. And this is why I decided not to appear for RBI 2022 despite multiple people advising me the opposite. When SEBI notification came, I applied to it with the thought that I have my notes ready from the previous attempt, so just a proper revision would be sufficient. - For prelims, I had studied for 2 days in which I only revised FM. Cleared it. - For mains, had studied for 3-4 days and covered the other portions. Again, Cleared it. - For interview, I had taken a one-week off from my job to prepare. Couldn't cover technicals at all. And in the interview, they weren't asked. Most of them were based on my profile. And therefore could handle them well (again, judge by yourself here - https://qr.ae/pvkVfw). Result - Cleared it! When marks were out, I was shocked to see that the cutoff for mains was 62.34 and I had received just that, point by point! I didn't clear the cutoff, I was the cutoff. In English, got 62 with zero practice for one year (most selected people had received 50-60). Looks like when the universe wants you to have something, it will align all stars to make it happen! Meanwhile, also received a call from RBI as the waiting list moved. Within 15 days, I went from zero to 2 officer-level job offers!
   

10. Then what's the point of doing hard work, anyway? Is this the first thought that came to your mind after reading the last paragraph? If not, good. If yes, let me tell you why it's not good. I strongly believe that I had already done my share of hard work at some other time. I still was doing it, though for a different purpose (my job). I didn't receive anything for free. The honest efforts of 2020 & 2021 reaped fruit in 2022. I have seen a lot of motivational quotes, memes and videos. This felt like a real life example of that. Shree Krishna told Arjun that you make your own destiny through your actions. So eventually, you are the owner of your actions. The results are not solely dependent on them. But unexpected results should never discourage you from performing your absolute duty at the moment. Your actions create your destiny for your current as well as future lives. Again, despite having no connection between the two, I would always believe that I got my offer letter for RBI only because I kept working hard in my job. I can never justify the gravity of this philosophy through my words. It goes as deep as a human brain can. It's best that I leave it here -

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन। मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥ (2:47)

Congratulations if you've come all the way till here! You really have some good reading skills as well as patience. It took me a week to finally complete this blog. I just wished to focus on certain soft issues apart from the syllabus. There might not be any tangible output from this blog but I hope I provided at least some clarity to the readers of the vast community of aspirant-veers.

Lastly, I always feel sad about the infinite difference in society's perception of the two sides of the glass wall. A person somehow managing to cross the cutoff suddenly becomes a celebrity and the one who just missed it becomes a no-one. Even I could write this ~3000 word long blog only because I had managed to cross the fence. But there are so many out there (even I was, at one point), who deserved much more than others but didn't get anything. And their voice becomes unheard. They simply become the epitome of serial failures. Nobody goes down to check the decimal points by which they missed the cutoff or the arbitrariness of marking in the written or interview exams. In the end, it all just boils down to selection. I know it's sad, but then, it's also something that one could gain advantage from. When I missed my cutoffs by thin margins, apart from feeling bad, I also felt more confident each time because the fact that I was capable of it was getting proved every single time. Having my luck on my side was never in my control and so I never bothered to. I just kept working as long as I was happy with my performance.

I give all my best wishes to everyone out there studying day and night to crack some exam with a handful of seats. You all are heroes of your own story. Or if not, then you're at least that side character (read Pankaj Tripathi) who is currently struggling for recognition but is bound to get it when his time arrives. All the best, rockstar!

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P.S.: Click on the heart and share it with your friends if you found this blog helpful. Also, getting selected in my dream organization through waitlist and then giving all this knowledge-baazi makes me feel like this man below.. :P