Success Story of an ‘Accidental SBI PO’ who survived because of BA

Yes, you read it right… I survived because of BA & lots of unknown colleagues I found on BA. Before explaining you why and how I will first apologize for making this story a bit longer. I am a silent reader of BA, very silent that I don’t even have a disqus account!!!!! But I used to spend time and read all the positive comments of disqus users, the inspirational posts and success stories of other people that are posted on BA along with my intake of daily updates from BA’s GA posts, static awareness, current affairs posts etc. Have lots to say thinking in what order I could convey because I read & understood that a lot of girls in BA are in the same mindset of what I were till yesterday.

Now the story of a girl who dreamt, breathed, ate and conceived ‘Bank exams’ is gonna begin. As in 90% case of B’tech students, I too chose B.tech to fulfill my parent’s dreams, got placed in an MNC, worked for 4 years with the inner dream of becoming a banker in future. I am a 2011 passout from a popular college in South India, and I was writing bank exams since 2011. It took me 6 years to achieve my dream not because I was capable, but because I was not analyzing my failures. The very first IBPS exams that was conducted in 2011 brought me scorecards for both PO and clerk, but I missed both marginally during the final selection. At the same time my placement in an MNC happened. And my marriage too in the same year. As per the compulsion from my parents and husband’s family, I decided to pause my bank career dreams and worked with MNC till last year. But I used to give bank exams then and there, without much preparation. Just like we buy new dress on festive season, I had a habit of giving bank exams whenever I see a notification. The donation for IBPS,SBI etc continued this long…It was all because I WAS NOT ANALYSING MY PAST FAILURES,BUT I WAS SIMPLY TRYING TO PURSUE MY DREAMS WITHOUT TOILING HARD ON MY WEAK AREAS. GA was my biggest fear initially and I hope for most students it is. Believe me, I didn’t have the habit of reading newspaper daily, I used to mug up 3 month’s important affairs on the previous day of exams and will somehow clear sectional cutoff and score decently in other sections. But in 2014 I understood this is not helping me much! I didn’t have any guidance until then and came to hear about BA. After giving few interviews and getting dejected finally, I understood that though I qualify in exams, my marks were not that good to give me a final selection unless I have an exceptionally good interview. Then I thought of improving my GA. Started writing notes in GA from BA but I was still doing a mistake. Though I write it daily, I was not learning or recollecting it till 1-2days before the exam because I thought that would help me remembering it easily. That was my second mistake. I was confused with similar options in exams, ended up marking wrong answer!!! Though my book always had all the answers, I failed in recollecting that in my brain!!! Then I did continuous revision on GA but still my scores and cutoff had a meager difference only. Friends and family used to tease me that every time I will clear prelims, mains then attend interview for getting finally dejected. I felt shattered by their comments. Then I thought of leaving my MNC job, take proper coaching and try again. Though my basics in Quant & English were strong, I thought coaching would help me improve scores and it had. Reasoning was my strongest area.

Coming to the hurdles I faced….I suffered a lot of mental pressure from my husband’s parents on my decision to quit MNC job and prepare for bank exams, but I got a supportive husband and cute little baby. We were staying quite near to my parents’ home, and I used to  drop my 4 year old kid with my mom, go for classes, do preparation and comeback by evening..Other than to my mom, I should be thankful to my kid who at this small age was so understanding. My parents-inlaws continued pestering me with words telling that I am roaming in the name of classes & without looking after my kid. To this my hubby remained silent and later he too scolded for chasing a career which is pretty unsure and have <50% chances to be success in this highly competitive world. Adding spice to this, my history of continuous failures!!! It made me think to the extreme step that one could think of (Can’t reveal the extent of tortures from my parents-inlaws and their abuse for not earning money for them since this being a public platform). Friends, I just left my 3month old baby after my delivery and rejoined the MNC for earning cash to my greedy parents-inlaws!!!! And still they are not understanding about my interests and thinking of making me mentally ill. When their source of income from me stopped, they didn’t even cared to give me food. My husband being unwilling to move to separate home as he being their only son have to take care of them, my life went miserable. Forgetting my kid, I even tried ending everything after the failures in last IBPS clerk/PO exams marginally. Then I learnt few things…why I should leave my life for these creatures’ greed? Failure wrecks you…but you have no other option but to rise.

Achieving something after toiling a lot makes the success even more grand and pleasant. Now after seeing the unexpected result of SBI PO (got selected finally after lotzzzz of failures), I feel like showing my middle finger to my inlaws…seriously….You cannot think of an extent to which I suffered.

I had no study schedule, followed no books, but only BA and the 6 month coaching that I took. I felt helpless after giving SBI mains and felt sorry for BA on seeing other people’s comments over here. But friends, like us the changed pattern was surprising for BA also.I appreciate their revisions based on the new pattern and believe me friends BA is toiling harder than us for our success without expecting anything in return. Proud to be a very very silent BA’ian.

I remember few interesting disqus profiles

Ruby Al203=the iron lady I should say.Her posts helped me fight back during tough times. I admire the way she helps people. I silently downloaded your study material drive links and was silently grateful to you dear.I read that you cleared lic aao,rbi,upsc and became SBI PO…really hats off…

Flash, Atharva, Gorilla= genius teachers

aRun limitless=lady Ruby

Thor=a genuine guy I felt, able to crack instant jokes.

Dufferboy, VijayRaaz, Baba for sarcastic posts

Maruti=the divine presence,

Kaashvi, Dianaprincess, chandni, Happy minion ladies

Cute pagla, S Chand-fake, Dhiren Thakkar, HiRen, Mr Srivastava etc etc…

believe me.. I know lotzz of you people, I would silently read you and get inspired.

Last but the most valued mods of this group.. Prashant sir, Nimisha mam, Guneet mam, Ishita mam, Ankita mam, Kabir sir, Narendra siretc. (I read you silently ,inspired and learnt from you,survived and then achieved my dream.)

I just dreamt of becoming SBI clerk, but after so many hardships and so many years of waiting, I got the most valued banking job after RBI, The ‘SBI PO’

Thanks to all and love to God.

Friends no matter how painful were the hardships you faced, please survive. If you really want to pursue a banking career, it is important to be patient as the competition is harder and you have to sharpen your skills.

I didn’t really believed I would ever get a chance to write all this,but it happened to me today and it will happen tomorrow to all serious aspirants over here.

Girls and Guys dont think of ending your life or quitting, And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it-I am the biggest example.Just live ,breath,eat and work harder for a banking career.

And please stop counting your failures,but make sure you learn from it. Also try converting your weakness into your strength.

As an ending note-“Trust Me, I never Lose; I either win or learn”

Thanks for your time on reading this.

Love you BA

(I left many negative things as it is. Its not meant to make you negative but the purpose is to make you aware that some people despite of having all the odds make it to the final. And we keep complaining about petty issues. Friends, after reading this, I can only say that she is a winner to continue for this long.)