Preliminary phase of Reserve Bank of India Grade B is scheduled for 17 June, which will be conducted in two different slots.

This exam would comprise of 200 questions that need to be attempted in two hours.

Since numbered days are now left, here are eight important things that you should avoid while preparing:

• Do not forget to give proper emphasis on each section: You need to clear the cut off of this exam at sectional as well as overall level. For this, make sure that you go through the previous year cut off of RBI Grade B prelims exam once. This will help you understand the minimum number of questions which you should attempt accurately in each section. Note that general knowledge and reasoning are important sections with higher cut off.
•  Do not forget to manage your time efficiently: Prelims phase of RBI Grade B exam does not have sectional time division. Thus, while attempting the exam, ensure that you devote sufficient time to each section to get through the cut offs of both levels. Try to implement the same time schedule while attempting mock tests so that you get used to this time frame.
• Do not compromise on accuracy: You need to avoid wild guesses in the exam, especially in the general awareness section. Any wrong answer would cost you a penalty of 0.25 marks. So, it is essential that you mark your answers accurately and prefer answering the questions for which you are sure of. Educated guesses are important but make sure you don't make too many guesses.
• Avoid spending too much time on a particular question: Students usually end up spending too much time on one particular question if they fail to attempt it correctly. Remember, you do not need to attempt every single question of the exam. You just need to attempt sufficient questions to clear the cut off of this exam. You can improve your exam score with the help of the section that you are strong at. Now that we have covered the common mistakes, let's have a look at the things that you should avoid while attempting individual sections of this exam.
• What to avoid in English language section: This section is the most intimidating for most students. While attempting, try to avoid reading comprehension based questions in the starting, since going through the passage would consume quite a lot of time. Try to start with simpler topics like spotting errors, fillers or cloze test. Once done with these topics, move on to the difficult ones, if time permits.
• Reasoning ability section: This section tests the thinking ability of students, as it is a major section in the Grade B exam. If prepared well, you can score quite a lot of marks. While attempting this section, try to avoid attempting puzzles in the beginning. Questions based on puzzles and arrangements are usually complex and consist of various possibility cases. If you go wrong at any point while solving these questions, you will end up losing all the time that you invested in that particular question. Try to start with easier topics like Inequalities, Blood relations, Syllogism, Input- Output etc.
• Quantitative aptitude section: You need to be particularly good with calculations in this section. Try to avoid miscellaneous questions at the start. Begin with simpler topics like number series, simplification, data interpretation, etc.
• General awareness section: Do not apply guess work for this section and do not take for granted. This section, if prepared well can prove to be the most scoring segment for you, since you can answer more number of questions in comparatively less time. Prepare current affairs for last five to six months, especially finance/ economy related news. Also, have a thorough look at static banking awareness. You can go through RBI bulletins as well. GK Tornado 2017 and banking awareness questions published by grade up will help you go through the above mentioned topics easily.

For efficient preparation of bank exams, you can download gradeup app, where you will find all the study materials, quizzes for all topics, live discussions with subject experts as well as mock tests in a single place.

The writer is CommunityMmanager, banking exams, Gradeup