How To Prepare for SEBI Grade A Officer

An organization like SEBI is considered to be one of premium institutes in the country. Therefore, when we discuss about the most prestigious examinations which take place nationwide, the exam of SEBI Grade A comes up in mind subsequently.  

Lakhs of aspirants apply each year for this exam which is also one of the reasons for its competitive nature.  

To begin with, SEBI is the apex regulatory body of the security market of India. Constituted by the Indian Government, SEBI is handled with the task of protecting the interest of investors and furthering the development of the securities market of India. 

Now, given the gravity of responsibilities vested on the shoulders of the organization, it is only understandable that the people working at SEBI be the absolute Crème de la crème from amongst the young population of our nation. 

Therefore, needless to say, these extremely able-minded men and women working for SEBI are selected through one of the most stringent multi-stage selection processes in the nation today. 

This selection process called the SEBI Grade A exam, is taken by thousands of hopeful candidates every year, and as mentioned before, only a select few manage to clear all the stages unscathed to finally be recruited as a SEBI Grade A officer. 

In this article, I have talked in detail about the SEBI Grade A Preparation strategy that you should adopt for a successful SEBI Grade A exam preparation. 

I have made this SEBI Grade A preparation strategy after taking into account the experience of thousands of students that I have had the privilege to teach and also to learn from. 

I have carefully considered the reasons as to why someone fails to crack the exam, even after having slogged so hard in their SEBI Grade A exam preparation. 

You can say that the SEBI Grade A preparation strategy that I am sharing with you here in this article is the final cog that you’d need for a successful SEBI Grade A exam preparation. 

Therefore, if you are one of the aspirants planning to appear for this exam, then I have good news for you regarding that, as in the page I will discussing the preparation strategy with you that you can effectively utilize to ace this exam. 

And, now about the update I promised you about SEBI Grade A 2023. Well, here’s it, as per a dependable source, the notification may come in December 2023 or in the following months. 

So, now you know, hence now is the most ideal time to recognise the relevancy of this blog. 

Soak every information that has been provided. 

Thus, without wasting any more of your time, let us dive right in. 

Preparation Strategy: SEBI Grade A Phase 1 & 2

In this section, I have divided the SEBI Grade A preparation strategy into several topics. If you go through each of them thoroughly, read carefully all the points stated in them, and act exactly according to what I have mentioned in them, you’ll be able to ace your SEBI Grade A exam with flying colours. 

Along with the topics, I have also included a time-bound, detailed, and subject-wise study plan in the sections down below that you can use to schedule your SEBI Grade A exam preparation. 

The greatest feature of this study plan is that it is very easy to grasp and is in a tabulated format. 

Anyway, let us start with the most important topics related to the SEBI Grade A exam preparation: 

Study Sequence

1. When you start with your preparation, take at least 3 mocks of both Phase 1 and 2 to identify your strong and weak areas. Score < 50% shall be considered weak.
2. Categorize subjects falling under strong and weak categories, after carefully evaluating which of them you are strong in and which of them you are weak in. Be honest.
3. Create a Study Timeline: Divide the preparation time into week-wise phases. Select 2 subjects at a time, one that you are strong in, and the other you are weak in. You can also use the timetable given by me below. It is divided into morning and evening shifts.
4. Brush up on Current Affairs: You can make use of ‘Spotlight’, and ‘Finance Current Affairs’ to study current affairs. If you have limited time, start with current affairs when you are done with at-least 50% of your syllabus. Do not begin your preparation with current affairs.
5. Practice Writing: Attempt a test of Essay every week to improve your writing skills.

Important Techniques

1. Schedule your day before leaving the bed in the morning and stick to this as far as possible.
2. Revise either daily or weekly, depending on your timetable. Working aspirants can follow weekly revision schedule and students can follow a daily revision schedule.
3. Analyze previous year’s paper: It would help in listing the important static part of Subjects and indicate the Shifting trends/Changing patterns.
4. Self-Assessment: Always observe yourself, you are the best guide of yourself. You must know where you lack and how much time you need to devote to a topic.
5. Don’t devote too much time to reading the newspaper. Current affairs magazines are more helpful before interviews. Argumentation and opinions help in the interview stage more. You can rely on monthly magazines for Phase 1 and Phase 2.

Approach to mocks

1. Writing mocks every week is very important. Mocks can be sectional or comprehensive, depending on the stage of your preparation. You can start with sectional tests of SEBI Phase 1 and Phase 2. When the examination is 1 month away, you can begin comprehensive mocks.
2. Sectional as well as comprehensive tests help by improving time management skills of the aspirant.
3. Mock analysis is as important as mocks itself. You can analyse mocks by dividing your answers into 3 parts- correct, incorrect and not answered. You need to work on questions that got correct by fluke and the answers that got wrong due to silly mistakes. Try to minimize these two.

Here’s a couple of Free Mock Tests, covering both Phase-1 and Phase-2 of SEBI Grade A. These Mock Tests are personally designed by me.

4. Work on elimination technique to score higher and also enhance your accuracy. Under elimination, you eliminate all options before finalizing your answer choice. It is certainly more time consuming but more accurate as well. (Elimination is not always successful in quant and reasoning. If you have arrived at the right answer by solving a question, no need to apply elimination)

Do’s and Don’ts

1. Cramming Wisely: Question papers have become a mix of concepts and facts – this needs a holistic approach wherein you are cramming and understanding concepts together.
2. Limited Sources: The source is like an old trusted friend, which will always help you in your time of need. There is no time for reading new books, which our brain usually forced us to do, decide on a few and stick with them.
3. Aptitude tests: Don’t forget to practice the Aptitude mock test as it has emerged as a villain. Cover aspects like comprehension, mental ability, and logical reasoning while taking aptitude tests.
4. Time Management: Do not spend your energy by talking and discussing unusually. Avoid stressful people and follow Eat, Sleep, Study & Meditate strategy for better results.
5. Say no to Facebook, Instagram, Web series or any other social media platform which can easily distract you.
6. Do not use your phone while studying. If you don’t have a laptop, get an old laptop or desktop. Phones aren’t meant to study. Keep your phone in another room or in a drawer while studying. This is rule 101.

These are all the important points that you’d need to be mindful of while preparing for the SEBI Grade A exam.

Now it is time for me to share with you the Day-wise study plan that I have designed for you all in the form of tables, but before we go over to that, let me just list out some salient points that will help you understand the study plan better.

Day-Wise Study Plan

1. The plan has been divided into- Phase 1 Quant, Reasoning and English; Phase 2 Finance Theory & Numerical; Phase 2 Management; Phase 2 Companies Act & Costing; Phase 2 Accounts & Economics. Based on your priority, you can pick up any one of it.
2. If you have more than 4 months in hand for your prep, it is advisable to start with Phase 2 F&M plan, followed by Phase 2 Companies Act & Costing, then Phase 2 Accounts & Economics and finally Phase 1 QRE. However, there is no hard and fast rule for the same. You can also start with Phase 1 QRE, if you feel that you are very weak in the same.
3. Pick up a maximum of 2 subjects in one day, as described in the study plan. Do not pick up more than 2 subjects at one point.
4. If you are a working aspirant, you need to divide your studies into 2 slots- morning and evening. Get up before other aspirants and start your day with the morning targets provided in the below study plan. Try to leave your office by 6 PM, come back home and sleep for 1 hour straight. Start studying by 8 PM and give only 3 hours. There’s no need to burn the midnight oil.
5. Repeat the cycle after you have completed your syllabus once. In the second reading, start with current affairs too. You need to cover Phase 1 and Phase 2 current affairs together. You can use Daily Current Affairs by Neha Ma’am and Finance Current Affairs by Gulabsa Ma’am to cover current affairs daily. (Available on YouTube).

Phase 1 (Paper 1) – STUDY PLAN (Quant, Reasoning & English)

Phase 1 & Phase 2 (Paper 2) – STUDY PLAN (Finance, Management, Commerce & Accountancy, Costing, Companies Act and Economics )

Conclusion

With that, we arrive at the end of the article. To conclude, I want to say that this article is extremely important as SEBI Grade A exam preparations are concerned.

What I have mentioned above in this article would be massively beneficial to you, provided you read it with the utmost sincerity and earnestness.

Having said that, I’d like you to know that I have full confidence in your ability to crack the SEBI Grade A Exam, and I wish you all the very best for the preparations that lie ahead.

Have a great day!