Greetings everyone!
My name is Anubhav Panigrahy (BA username anubhav92) and I am from Bhubaneswar, Odisha. I completed my B.Tech in Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Rourkela in 2014. I received an offer to work for IBM India but I turned that down to go to Delhi and prepare for UPSC Civil Services Examination which had always been my dream. And that is where my struggle with competitive examinations began.
Although I had prepared quite hard for CSE-2015, the decision to make the CSAT paper only qualifying in nature hugely dented my chances and I couldn’t clear the prelims. But I decided not to give up and I came back to my hometown and resumed my preparation for 2016. But fate had other plans and yet again failed to clear the CSE prelims in 2016. This failure was absolutely soul-crushing for me as two years had passed since graduation and I had nothing to show for it. My self-esteem was at an all-time low. I was starting to feel like I would never get a job while my friends were all either earning big bucks in the IT sector or pursuing MBA at reputed institutions. And this is when I decided to gravitate towards banking and insurance sector examinations.
I kicked off with RBI Grade B examination 2016. I cleared Phase-I quite comfortably but missed a call for the interviews as my Phase-II score was 6 marks less than the cut-off. However it was enough to boost my confidence and I prepared harder for the rest of the exams that I took then on in 2016-17 – IBPS PO, NIACL AO and IPPB PO. Ultimately I got success as I was shortlisted for NIACL AO and also as PO at PNB. I will be joining as AO at NIACL.
My marks in all examinations for reference:-
RBI Grade B (Phase-I): 123.75/200, (Phase-II): 170/300
IBPS PO (Pre): 79/100, (Mains): 109.25/200, (Final): 57.1/100
NIACL AO (Pre): 97.5/100, (Mains): 157/200 attempts
I was taking test series on multiple websites, Career Power test series being one of them. In fact, I was almost wholly dependent on mock tests for my preparation as I wasn’t solving questions from any specific books. By taking mock tests regularly one is thoroughly prepared for all kinds of questions in the real examination. I used to do a detailed time-based analysis of every mock test that I took, which was extremely crucial for me in judging which questions I should attempt and which ones I should leave. Ultimately, the marks that I scored in the actual examinations were more or less similar to my performance in the mock tests that I took. Because the General Awareness section was my weakness my only aim was to study enough to score about 40-50% in order to clear the sectional cut-off. And the Monthly Capsules of Bankers Adda were like a boon for me in this regard. I would just go through these a few days before the examination and score enough to comfortably clear the section. For Computer Awareness also I referred to Bankers Adda’s Computer Capsule.
If I were to be asked the key to whatever little success I have found, I would say it was my frustration and desperation. When one has failed multiple times, there’s a voice in his mind that keeps pulling him down, keeps scaring him that he will probably always remain a failure. A person can either submit to this voice and give up, or channel this restlessness into productive work. I did the latter. I used to have sleepless nights out of anxiety for my future but I spent those nights studying and practicing hard.
This is not the end of the journey for me. I still aim to prepare for RBI Grade B as well as UPSC CSE in the future. But at this point in life, I needed these successes to feel confident about myself again. I hope my story can inspire you too to overcome your failures and achieve your dreams.
“Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life”.
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