2019

Current Affairs:

Sports 1
Defence 3
Banking & Insurance Personality 1
Banking 1
IT & Technology 3
Agriculture 1
Government Schemes & Facilities 5
Health 1
Authors and Books 1
Actor & Awards 1
Railway 1
Polity 1

Quantitative Aptitude

Missing Numbers 5
Mixtures & Allegations 1
Ratio & Proportions 1
Length, Area & Volume 1
Work & Time 1
Age 1
Caselets 4
DI 5

ESI

Government Scheme full form 2

Government Scheme 25
Government Body Establishment 2
Who’s Who 1
Agriculture 3
Ingural Day 1
Women Empowerment 1
Rural Population & Household 3
Finance Institute Schemes & launch 1
International organisation 1
ARD

Milk & Dairy 2

Animal Husbandry & Breeding 1
Cattle Breeding 1
Government Rural Scheme 17
Research Institute for Animal & Agriculture 3
Crops Plantation & Cultivation 3
Crop market export & import 1
Agriculture statistics 3
Static Agriculture knowledge 3
Soil Types 1
Agriculture market 2
2018

Current Affairs:

Sports 5
Banking 1
Agriculture 2
Government Schemes & Facilities 4
Health 1
Authors and Books 1
Actor & Awards 3
Railway 1
International New MD & Executive 2
International Co-operation & Organisation 1
Day Ingaural 2

Quantitative Aptitude

Mixtures & Allegations 1

Ratio & Proportions 1
Length, Area & Volume 1
Work & Time 1
Age 1
Caselets
DI 5
Profit & Loss 3
Simplification 4
Income & Expenses 1
Trains, Boats, Pipes and Cisterns 2

ESI

Government Scheme full form 1

Government Scheme 8
Rural Population & Household 4
Finance Institute Schemes & launch 2
International organisation 1
Static Economics 7
Economics Statistics 9
Banking 2
Social Issues Statics 5

ARD

Milk & Dairy 2

Animal Husbandry & Breeding 1
Cattle Breeding 3
Government Rural Scheme 4
Crops Plantation & Cultivation 8
Agriculture statistics 2
Static Agriculture knowledge 5
Soil Types 7
Agriculture market 2
Climate & Session 4
Rural 1
Fisheries 1
Now let us talk about the NABARD Grade A and its Preparation Strategy
in detail.
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 puzzles part (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 from
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 writing an essay on one of the three topics is 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.