SEBI Grade A

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SEBI Grade ‘A’ is one of the most important examinations, that gives you a chance to serve in the Government sector while broadly being entrusted with the responsibilities of protecting the interests of investors in securities, promoting the development of and regulating the securities market. Once you are completely sure about applying for the job, it is necessary to know the main highlights of the examination.

Conducting Authority	Securities and Exchange Board of India
Website	www.rbi.org.in
Posts	Grade A officer: General/Legal/Information Technology/Research
Mode of application	Online
Application form release	June 2019 (Expected)
Application form last date	July 2019 (Expected)
Stages of Exam	Prelims, Main, Interview

SEBI, or Securities & Exchange Board of India, was first established in 1988 as a non-statutory body with the aim of regulating the securities market. It was given statutory powers by the Government of India with SEBI Act 1992 being passed by the Indian Parliament. Since then, SEBI is referred to, as an autonomous body. Every year SEBI releases its vacancies to recruit eligible candidates for its various posts. This year also, the notification for SEBI Grade A Officer 2019 is expected to be released soon. Interested candidates may apply online through the official website: www.sebi.gov.in, after the notification is released.

SEBI Grade A Officer Exam can be counted among all the top level examinations, as it allows you to serve through one of the most coveted jobs in India. SEBI also follows the standard pattern of examination. The SEBI Grade ‘A’ Officer 2019 examination can also be expected to have a similar pattern as it has been following since a few years. It consists of ‘three’ phases - Phase I (200 marks), Phase II (300 marks) which will also include an English descriptive paper, followed by Phase III - Interview stage.

Level	Examination
Phase I	On-Line screening examination for 200 marks
Phase II	On-line examination consisting of three papers for total 300 marks
Phase III	Interview

Phase I On-Line Examination:

Stream	Tests	Maximum Marks	Duration
General, Legal, Information Technology and Engineering	General Awareness	40	120 minutes
	English Language	40
	Quantitative Aptitude	40
	Test of Reasoning	40
	Awareness about  Securities Market	40

Phase II On-Line Examination:

Stream	Paper	Maximum Marks	Duration
General	Paper I: Securities Market	100 marks	40 minutes
	Paper II: English (Writing Skills)	100 marks	60 minutes
	Paper III: Economic & Social Issus and Finance & Management	100 marks	40 minutes
Legal / Information Technology / Engineering	Paper I: Financial Sector	100 marks	40 minutes
	Paper II: English (Writing Skills)	100 marks	40 minutes
	Paper III: Specialized subject related to stream	100 marks	40 minutes

The Marking Scheme for SEBI Grade A 2019 and penalty for wrong answers (Applicable to Both (Preliminary and Main Examinations) is as follows:

SEBI Grade A Marking Scheme
For correct answers	1 mark
For wrong answers	-0.25 marks
For not attempted	0 (no marks)

Both the Objective and Descriptive Tests are conducted online. Kindly note, all questions (in both Preliminary and Main Examination, except the Test of English), are available bilingually in English and Hindi.

Preparation phase is the one that precedes all the exam phases. Before you actually start your preparation for SEBI Grade ‘A’ 2019, make sure that you are well aware of what all do you need to study in each subject. For that, you need to go through the SEBI Grade ‘A’ syllabus, which is expected to be on the same lines as it has been in these previous years.

To be able to apply for any examination, you should meet the specified eligibility criteria. Therefore, to ensure successful completion of the SEBI Grade ‘A’ 2019 application process, you should be eligible in all respects (as mentioned in the notification). Except a few of the relaxations, all the applicants need to follow certain criteria which will further be updated once the official notification is released.

Educational Criteria

All the candidates need to comply with the educational criteria according to the various categories that is specified in the notification, or your application will be subject to cancellation. To avoid any confusion, check the educational details given below

Stream	Educational Qualification
General	Bachelor’s Degree in Law OR Master’s Degree in any discipline OR Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering OR Chartered Accountant OR Company Secretary OR Chartered Financial Analyst OR Cost & Work Accountant
Legal	Bachelor’s Degree in Law
Information technology	Graduate in engineering (electrical/Electronics/ Information Technology / Computer Science OR MCA OR Graduate in any discipline with PG )
Civil Engineering	Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering
Electrical Engineering	Bachelor’s Degree in Electric Engineering

Age Criteria

A candidate must not have exceeded the age of 30 years as on August 31, 2019 i.e., candidate must have been born on or after September 01, 1989.

Sr. No.	Category	Upper Age Relaxation
1.	Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe	5 years
2.	Other Backward Classes (eligible for reservation)	3 years
3.	Persons With Disability	10 years
4.	Ex-Servicemen/ Disability Ex-Servicemen	5 years
5.	Widows, Divorced women and women legally Separated from their husband who have not remarried	5 years
6.	Persons ordinarily domiciled in the Kashmir Division of the State of Jammu & Kashmir during the period 1-1-80 to 31-12-89	5 years
7	Existing Employees of The New India Assurance Co. Ltd.	5 years

 

SEBI, being one of the most popular and highly-paying organizations, offers an attractive salary to its eligible candidates who are selected for the post of Assistant Manager under Officer - Grade ‘A’. The details of the expected salary for SEBI Grade ‘A’ officer are as follows:

Post	Salary
Grade A Officer (Assistant Manager)	Rs. 28150-1550(4)-34350-1750(7)-46600-EB-1750(4)-53600-2000(1)-55600(17 years)

Before filling it is important to know about the vacancy details for SEBI Grade ‘A’ Officer 2019. In the year 2017, SEBI had released around 38 vacancies, inclusive of all the various categories in Grade A. Further, in the year 2018, the number of vacancies took a leap and increased to 120. Therefore, we can expect a similar or probably higher number of vacancies this year. Looking at the pattern, we can expect the number of vacancies to increase. The changes will be updated as soon as the official announcement is made.

Stream	Number of posts
	UR	OBC	SC	ST	Total
General	49	19	11	1	80
Legal	12	4	2	0	18
Technology	4	2	1	1	8
Civil Engineering	3	1	1	0	5
Electrical Engineering	4	0	1	0	5

To apply for the post of SEBI Grade ‘A’ Officer ( Asst. Manager), you will be required to apply online by visiting the official website of SEBI: www.sebi.gov.in only when you have ensured that you are eligible and fit to apply through. You will have to fill in your details accordingly step-by-step and then upload your scanned photograph & signature, according to the mentioned specifications.

Once you have entered all your details in the online application form for SEBI Grade ‘A’ Officer 2019, and completed the uploading part too, you will be asked to submit the application fee and if you fail to do that, your application will not be considered complete and the submission of the form will not be possible. You can save the details and come at it later until the specified last date to submit the application fee.

The expected ‘Application Fees/Intimation Charges’ for SEBI Grade ‘A’ shall be as follows:

Category of Applicant	Amount of Fee (Non-refundable)
Unreserved & OBC (NCL)	Rs. 850/- as application fee cum intimation charges
SC/ST/PwBD	Rs.100/- as intimation charge

Since the SEBI Grade ‘A’ examination is also held in the online mode, various examination centres are allocated where this online facility is provided. The exam centres for SEBI Grade ‘A’ 2019 will be confirmed once the official notification is released and they will be updated here immediately. Once you are allocated a particular centre, no request to get it changed will be entertained. Though you are given a choice to select your exam centre, SEBI reserves the right to change, cancel or add more centres in the list of exam centres at its discretion

After the application process is completed, SEBI will release the admit cards for the same including the details of the ‘date, time and venue’ of the examination. The admit cards will probably be released a few weeks before the examination. The candidates will be required to bring the copy of the admit card along with a copy of their valid identity proof. For the details of the same, you will have to refer to the instructions given in the admit card.

The SEBI Grade ‘A’ 2019 exam calendar is expected to be released soon.Once the official notification is out, you will get all the required details that would help you in your further planning and preparation. Till then, you may refer to the tentatively expected exam dates to get a fair idea, so that you can draw a preparation plan for yourself and avoid the last moment rush.

Activity	Tentative Exam Dates (SEBI reserves the right to make any change in these dates)
On line Application and Payment of fee On-Line	September, 2019 to October, 2019
Availability of Call Letters on SEBI website (for On-Line Examinations)	Will be intimated by email/SMS
Phase I On-Line Examination	November,2019 (Expected)
Phase II On-Line Examination	December, 2019 (Expected)
Phase III Interview	Dates will be intimated

Before you commence your preparation, it is extremely important to make yourself fully aware of the level of the previous year examination, which you can get by going through the previous year cut-offs that give you a direct idea of the level. If the cut-off is high, the level can be understood as easier as compared to the case when the cut-off is low, which indicates that the level was tough. Check out the previous year’s cut-off below:

General Stream

Stream	Category	English Language	Reasoning Ability	General Awareness	Quantitative Aptitude	Total Cut -Off
General	Unreserved	15	11	10.25	10.75	112.75
	OBC	10	6.5	7	6.5	106.5
	PWD HH	10	6.5	7	6.5	66.25

Research Stream

Stream	Category	English Language	Reasoning Ability	General Awareness	Quantitative Aptitude	Total Cut-Off
Research	Unreserved	15	11	10.25	10.75	83.75
	ST	10	6.5	7	6.5	83.75

Legal Stream

Stream	Category	English Language	Reasoning Ability	General Awareness	Professional Knowledge	Quantitative Aptitude	Total Cut-Off
Legal	Unreserved	14.25	8.25	8	10	7.5	97.75
	SC	10	4.75	5.25	7	3.5	91
	PWD VH	10	4.75	5.25	7	3.5	60.25

Information technology

Stream	Category	English Language	Reasoning Ability	General Awareness	Professional Knowledge	Quantitative Aptitude	Total Cut-Off
Information Technology	Unreserved	14.25	8.25	8	7.25	7.5	116.75
	OBC	10	4.75	5.25	4.75	3.5	107
	SC	10	4.75	5.25	4.75	3.5	92
	PWD HH	10	4.75	5.25	4.75	3.5	56.5

Official Language

Stream	Category	English Language	Reasoning Ability	General Awareness	Professional Knowledge	Quantitative Aptitude
Official Language	Unreserved	14.25	8.25	8	7.25	7.5
	PWD HH	10	4.75	5.25	4.75	3.5

If you are able to qualify through all the three phases and are selected for the job, you will be designated as - Assistant Manager in Grade ‘A’. If you are recruited to the post of Officer Grade ‘A’, you shall undergo probation for two years. Once you enter the organisation, your work profile will depend on the stream that you must have chosen while filling the application. Each stream has different sets of functions which are within the bounds of the overall responsibilities and functions of SEBI. Within these streams as well, the selected candidates would be assigned to different departments of SEBI. Some basic functions that a SEBI Grade A officer duty entails are :

• Approval and amendment of stock exchanges by-laws.
• Inspection of accounts of stock exchanges and various players.
• Identify and investigate any malpractices within securities market.
• Taking steps for increasing Investors knowledge on securities market.
• Suspension of security tradings of a stock exchange.
• Granting and withdrawing recognition of a stock exchange.

SEBI Grade ‘A’ exam being one of the most awaited and significant examinations should be prepared for, well in advance in a proper & planned manner. Being a higher-level job, the examiner will try to test you on various parameters. While you prepare, it is also necessary to keep your strengths & weaknesses in mind, so that you can make one stronger and work on the other. There is no fixed strategy for preparation that fits all. Each individual should make a strategy accordingly. Your preparation will vary according to the various phases.

Phase I consists of five sections that test the candidates' knowledge in various subjects. You will have to secure minimum marks in each of the sections to qualify in Phase I. To learn more about how to prepare yourself for the various subjects, watch the video given below: 

Phase II Preparation Strategy

Phase II online examination consists of three papers in two different streams, i.e. General & Legal / Information Technology / Engineering. As Phase II is one level higher,  naturally it requires a much more focused and planned strategy with much more hard work. To get more guidance related to Phase II preparation, refer to the video provided below:

There is no end to learning and collecting more and more knowledge. Thus, you should be open to all sources of knowledge and information which may add up to your preparation. You can refer to the below-mentioned blogs that have some useful information relevant to SEBI Grade ‘A’ Exam 2019.

SEBI Grade ‘A’ 2019 is an important examination that requires a lot of hard work along with smart work. Preparation is incomplete without good and trustworthy study material. You should know which books to go for, so that you do not waste your precious time in reading and rejecting certain books.

Paper	Subject	Book
Securities Markets	Capital Markets & Securities Laws	N.S.Zad
Economic and Social Issues	Indian Economy	Uma Kapila or Mishra Puri
	Indian Economy	Ramesh Singh
	Sociology	CN Shankar Rao
Finance & Management	Financial Management	Prasanna Chandra or IM Pandey
	Indian Financial System	Bharti Pathak
	Principles of Management	LN Prasad
	Organisational Behaviour	SP Robins
Quantitative Aptitude	Quicker Mathematics	BSC Publications
	Quantitative Aptitude	RS Agarwal
	Class Notes	SS Bharti
Reasoning Ability	A modern approach to verbal & Non-verbal reasoning	R.S. Agarwal
	Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning	S.Chand
	Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning	Arihant Publication
English Language	English Grammar	Wren & Martin
	Made Easy for English	Norman Lewis
	Descriptive General English	SP Bakshi
General Awareness	Lucent GK Knowledge	Lucent Publication

 

To help you ace your SEBI Grade ‘A’ 2019 Exam and provide you with all necessary information and knowledge, ixamBee has put together a comprehensive and well-curated SEBI Grade ‘A’ Online Course that consists of ‘just what you need’. You will find every important detail that is necessary to excel in the examination and attain your dream job.

While preparing for SEBI Grade ‘A’ 2019 Exam, you need to make sure that you leave no stone unturned and try your best to excel. Therefore, during your preparation, you need to include practice and testing of your knowledge. This needs to be made sure that you not only learn but also practice what you learn which will help in testing your knowledge. Thus, we at ixamBee are providing free mock tests for SEBI Grade ‘A’ 2019 Exam.

SEBI Exam Analysis

SEBI has been one of the most important and awaited exams of all times, and therefore it should be ensured that you are well aware of all information related to the examination along with knowing the level of the examination. To get a fair idea about the SEBI Exam level, you should go through the previous exam analysis that will help you in sketching an effective preparation plan. Refer to the video below for the 17th November Exam analysis:

Question. Can those students who are appearing in final year of Graduation apply for any post in SEBI Grade ‘A’ recruitment?

Answer. Yes. Candidates who have appeared for the final examinations and waiting for the results are eligible to appear for the Phase I, Phase II and Phase III of the selection process.

Question: In SEBI Grade ‘A’ exam, can I choose Hindi language as the exam language?

Answer Yes, SEBI Grade ‘A’ exam is bilingual (i.e, Hindi & English). You can choose your preferred language either Hindi or English.

Question: Is the SEBI Grade ‘A’ examination in ONLINE or OFFLINE mode?

Answer. SEBI Grade ‘A’ 2019 exam will be in online mode.

Question: Is there any sectional CUT-OFF in SEBI Grade ‘A’ Exam?

Answer. Yes. SEBI Grade ‘A’ exam will have sectional cut-off along with the overall cut off.

Question: Is SEBI Grade ‘A’ Officer Job transferable?

Answer: Yes, SEBI Grade ‘A’ Officer is liable to be posted anywhere in India, also depending on the job profile and department being served.

Question: How many attempts are there in SEBI Grade ‘A’?

Answer: There is no such limit on the number of attempts for SEBI Grade ‘A’ exam. You can appear for this exam till the time they are eligible according to the eligibility criteria provided by SEBI in the notification.

Question: What is the age limit for the SEBI Grade ‘A’ post?

Answer: The minimum age of the candidates must be 21 years & maximum age limit is 30 years as on 1st March 2019.

SEBI Useful Videos

To excel in any of your examination, it is extremely necessary that you grab every opportunity that comes your way which may give an edge to you over other candidates. The opportunity may also be in the form of additional information regarding the examination / study material in the form of notes , online PDFs or videos. ixamBee provides some useful information through the various helpful videos given below: