The syllabus and exam patterns for RBI Grade B or Nabard are more or less same. Both RBI Grade B and NABARD have three phases as a preliminary exam, mains exam both of which are online tests and a final interview. Although there is a close similarity in the exam patterns as well as syllabuses for both NABARD and RBI Grade B, a close and in-depth analysis shows a few differences. Before looking at the differences, let’s get to know what are the syllabuses and exam patterns for either of them.
RBI Grade B Syllabus and exam pattern
The syllabus for RBI Grade B for all phases is discussed in detail below:
Phase 1 syllabus and exam pattern
RBI Grade B Phase 1 is a primary screening process which is an online exam conducted for a duration of 120 minutes with 200 questions to answer for a score of 200 marks. Phase 1 is a scoring part of all the three phases. The various subjects that are covered in phase 1 are General Awareness, English Language, Quantitative Aptitude and Reasoning Ability. Here is the syllabus for each subject mentioned:
- General Awareness – Banking and financial along with economic news, current affairs, and static GK.
- English Language – Reading comprehensions, cloze test, paragraph jumbles, and spotting.
- Quantitative Aptitude – Number series, data interpretation, quadratic equation, miscellaneous questions that may include concepts like profit and loss, ratio and proportion, time and work, boats and streams and many as such.
- Reasoning Ability – Syllogism, seating arrangement based on blood relation, linear arrangement, puzzles, input and output, logical and analytical reasoning, data sufficiency, inequality, coding and decoding etc.
Phase 1 exam pattern with the details of respective questions and marks count of each subject are listed in the table below.
| S.No. | Name of Subject | Number of Questions | Maximum Marks |
| 1. | General Awareness | 80 | 80 |
| 2. | English Language | 30 | 30 |
| 3. | Quantitative Aptitude | 30 | 30 |
| 4. | Reasoning Ability | 60 | 60 |
Phase 2 syllabus and exam pattern
Those qualifying candidates of phase 1 RBI grade B exam can appear to the Phase 2 exam. Phase 2 being the mains exam has both objective and descriptive parts spread across 3 papers. The concepts under every 3 papers are listed below.
Paper 1: Paper 1 has all economic and social issues as growth and development, economic reforms in India, Globalization, Social structure in India, etc.
Paper 2: Paper 2 is all about English writing and is framed accordingly to assess the writing skills.
Paper 3: Paper 3 of RBI grade B is concentrated on assessing the finance and management skills and includes test on concepts like financial system, financial market, general topics as risk management, financial inclusion, the union budget etc and other management concepts.
The exam pattern of Phase 2 with the respective subjects along with time allotted and marks count is put on in the table below.
| S.No. | Name of Subject | Time Allotted in min | Maximum Marks |
| 1. | Economic and Social Issues | 90 | 100 |
| 2. | English Language | 90 | 100 |
| 3. | Finance and Management | 90 | 100 |
| Total | 270 | 300 |
NABARD syllabus and exam pattern
The prelims exam is actually a screening test and those qualifying candidates are eligible to be called for mains exam. The scoring in Phase 1 is essential to get qualified for Phase 2 and so the scoring is not considered for the final exam calculations.
NABARD Grade A and B syllabus
The syllabus for both Grade A and B is same and includes the concepts listed below for each phases.
Phase 1 – Reasoning Ability, Quantitative aptitude, English language, General awareness and computer knowledge.
Phase 2 – Phase 2 has both objective and descriptive parts in 2 papers. English writing under paper 1 and economic and social issues under paper 2.
Phase 3 – The concepts that are tested in this phase are from development economics, statistics, finance and management.
NABARD Prelims Exam Pattern for both Grades A and B
| S.No | Name of the subject | Maximum Marks |
| 1. | Reasoning Ability | 20 |
| 2. | English Language | 40 |
| 3. | Computer knowledge | 20 |
| 4. | General Awareness | 20 |
| 5. | Quantitative Aptitude | 20 |
| 6. | Economic and Social Issues with Rural India as focus point | 40 |
| 7. | Agricultural and Rural Development | 40 |
| Total | 200 |
NABARD Grade A Mains Exam Pattern
| S.No. | Exam | Post | Name of Test | Maximum Marks |
| 1. | Phase 1 | Common for all | General English | 100 |
| 2. | Phase 2 | For general post candidates | Economic and social issues, agriculture and rural development | 100 |
| for posts including economics, agriculture, agriculture engineering, animal husbandry, plantation and horticulture, food processing, fisheries, forestry, environmental engineering, social work, chartered accountant and company secretary, water resource development and management | Paper on the corresponding related discipline |
NABARD Mains Exam Pattern for Grade B
| S.No. | Exam | Name of the Test | Maximum Marks |
| 1. | Phase 1 | General English | 100 |
| 2. | Phase 2 | Economic and social issues along with the agricultural and rural development for general posts and agriculture for managerial posts. | 100 |
| 3. | Phase 3 | Development Economics, Statistics, Finance and management | 100 |
Now, you can notice there isn’t much difference in syllabus and exam pattern for both RBI Grade B and Nabard exams.
In-depth analysis of paper pattern for RBI Grade B & Nabard
- An extra part of letter writing in English paper of NABARD is included when compared to that of RBI Grade B.
- Phase 2 exam of RBI Grade B has no sectional cut off as seen in phase 2 exam of NABARD.
- Interview weightage of NABARD accounts for lesser marks than that of the interview weightage of RBI Grade B.
- When it comes to eligibility criteria, NABARD doesn’t consider 10th and 12th marks as RBI Grade B.
For recorded material, Visit online study material and test series for RBI Grade B page