How to prepare for General-Financial Awareness for SEBI Grade A

Preparing for the General/Financial Awareness sections of any exam can be tricky and with SEBI Grade A Exam around 18 days away it is important that you take this section seriously and start preparing for it if you haven’t yet started already. We wish to remind you that the General/Financial Awareness section has a considerable weightage and consist of a certain number of questions in total (it had 20 questions in 2020), which needs to be solved in 60 minutes along with questions of other sections as there was no sectional timing. This section can be a tricky piece to prepare as there is no fixed syllabus that you may refer to. However, at the same time, it can also help you score well provided you approach this section smartly. Hence, before we get into the tips for preparing this section, let us look at some of the possible topics that you should be looking at.

Suggestive topics to be covered for General/Financial Awareness section:

Below are the few topics that we suggest you look into while preparing for the General/Awareness sections for your SEBI Grade A Exam 2022. Although, this may not be an exhaustive list, the questions in exams generally revolve around these. 

Current Affairs

-Current Affairs National and International -Indian Economy -Basic Economic terminologies -Award and Honours -Books and Authors -Recent appointments in various government organizations -Schemes announced by central/state governments recently -Sports news -Information about important organization like the RBI, SEBI, MCA, and other regulatory bodies. -Structure and Functions of RBI Electoral Bonds -Credit rating agencies, both national and international -FDI limits in various sectors -RBI monetary policies of 2021-22 and any other announcements made by it -News related to Mergers and Acquisitions and Buyouts -Important Financial Terms

Static Affairs

-Indian Finance System -General Knowledge related to Banking -Important Banking Terminologies -Information about NBFCs and how it is different from any other banks -NPAs and SARFAESI -BASEL guidelines -Information about organizations like NABARD, Planning Commission, Finance Commission, World Bank, etc. -Economic/ Financial terms & concepts such as GDP, GNP, PPP, HDI, Inflation, WPI, CPI, IIP, SLR, CRR, Repo rate, Reverse Repo, Bank rate, Mutual Funds, Open Market Operations, Money supply, Reserve Mortgage Loan, Priority Sector Lending, NEFT, RTGS, Banking Correspondence agents, Bancassurance, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana -BASEL norms and GST -Assets, liabilities and working capital of a bank; -India’s Foreign Exchange Reserves -Balance of Trade and Balance of Payment -Budget 2022, Companies Bills 2013 and any recent important amendments in it -Stock markets and bond markets -Primary markets and Secondary markets -Financial Inclusions and various initiatives towards it

How to prepare for General/Financial Awareness section?

We are sure you would now be wondering how to prepare for this section. Well, you may follow the below-mentioned points to prepare for the General/Financial Awareness section.

• Read at least two newspaper daily, with one mandatorily being a financial newspaper. The financial newspaper can either be The Economic Times or Mint or Business Line or any other financial newspaper of your choice. Spending about 25-30 minutes on each newspaper should be sufficient.
• We would also suggest you to read any current affairs magazines like the Chronicle, Wizard or CST. You need not read everything in it but ensure that you read at least 4-5 most recent issues covered in the magazine.
• Besides the newspaper and magazine, you should also watch news for about 15 minutes every day as it may help you be aware of the current happenings of the world.
• In case you have time then you may refer books on General/Financial Awareness by Arihant Publishers. However, we still believe that the best resource for preparing for this exam is newspaper, magazines and news channel.
• We understand that there can be no end to the preparation for this section, hence we suggest that you first focus on covering the last 6 months current/static affairs.
• Ensure that you are aware of the Budget 2022 as it was the most recent thing. In this, you should focus on learning the important facts and figures pertaining to the schemes announced.
• Refer to Weekly Current Affairs PDFs Capsules.
• Take a mock test pertaining to this section every alternate day as it will not only help you in gaining confidence for the exam but also make you aware of current/recent happening in the world. Make sure that while appearing for the mock test, you time yourself.

Daily Quantitative Aptitude | Reasoning | English | Current Affairs Quizzes for Banking & Government Exams

Finally, it goes without saying that this section is important as it can actually be a differentiating factor between you and your competitors and can reserves a berth for you in the final merit list if you do well here. Hence, taking this section lightly will be a big mistake you will be making. Also, as we already mentioned earlier, this section can be tricky but can be cracked with a little bit of smart study. So, pull up your socks and start investing at least an hour and a half daily in preparing for this section.

We hope this article was helpful to you and wish you luck for your exam.