Success Story of Alok Sharma – Selected in IBPS RRB Clerk

If you are preparing for banking exams and sometimes feel tired or doubtful, I want you to read Alok Sharma’s story. His journey is very real and relatable. After graduation in 2018, he started appearing for different exams like SSC, Railways, and Banking. There were many failures and many attempts where he could not clear the mains. But he stayed patient and kept preparing. Finally, his hard work paid off when he got selected as IBPS RRB Clerk. Let’s read his story below.

Success Story of Alok Sharma – Selected in IBPS RRB Clerk

Q1. Please brief us on when did you start preparing for the competitive exams and how was your preparation journey?

My first job exam was IBPS Clerk 2018 just after my graduation. After that, I attempted all the exams of 2019 which are Railways JE and SSCs. But I realized that Banking will be the one for which I should prepare. So in 2020, I prepare seriously for the banking exams. In 2020 I cleared the IBPS Clerk pre but could not clear the mains. Following that, in 2021 I cleared RRB PO PRE and IBPS PO PRE but could not clear the mains again. In 2022 I attempted almost all the exams from ECGC to ICAR but can clear only RRB CLERK PRE, IBPS PO PRE, and SBI CLERK PRE and finally got selected for RRB CLERK. In between these exams, I also cleared RRB NTPC phase 1 but could not clear phase 2.

Q2. Which exams did you appear in till date and what were their results?

Since 2019 I’ve appeared in almost all the major exams of SSC, Railways and Banks. The results of these exams are mentioned above.

Q3. How did you prepare for the English section?

Being an Assamese medium student I accept my English was not good but I used to watch a lot of tv series and movies during my graduation days, which helped me in understanding the RCs. Also from 2020 to 2021 I always read at least two articles from newspapers like the Hindu and followed financial articles from financial newspapers also. Following this, I noted down all the words whose meanings I did not know. I also have a subscription to unacademy from 2020 to till date, from which I watch countless videos of Nimisha Bansal Ma’am. I also completed her 120 rules of grammar. At last, I want to tell you that just don’t leave this subject aside. Always kept touch with it by reading, listening to songs, movies etc.

Q4. How did you prepare for the Quantitative Aptitude section?

For quant, I can’t exactly take the name of only 1 teacher because I used to learn different approaches for each chapter from different educators. I was an average student of maths but somehow I love this subject. There are countless videos, class series, DI books, adda Ace book, bundle pdf and whatnot, I’ve solved thousands of maths questions I think. But I followed Ashish Arora for the basics of maths during my starting days. Later I found a method which I believe will help every aspirant to succeed. What you should do is note down the questions you can’t think of properly in a copy. I used to write the questions in which I stuck in a chapter-wise manner in my copies. After this, I tried to give time to those questions and think if I can solve them in other short ways or try to find short methods to solve them from various teachers from YouTube or unancademy. Just solve, solve and solve and try to find different ways to solve questions. And kept two days of the week for it.

Q5. How did you prepare for the Reasoning section?

Reasoning was my strong point I think as in all the exams of 2022 I attempted 90%+ questions of reasoning. In RRB CLERK MAINS I’ve solved all the questions of reasoning. I believe Reasoning is a subject of interpretation. There aren’t any hard and fast rules for this subject. Just learn how to solve the questions and try to use your understanding and practice tons of questions. The more you solve the questions you’ll find the keynotes to solve every question. In reasoning, there is always a link from which you can start the question and can connect the dots. Just practice that amount of questions by which you can find the starting link in every question. Also for this subject, I’ve followed too many teachers from YT and unacademy. I tried to find short methods for the questions and practice practice and practice.

Q6. What was your strategy for the General Awareness section?

The best way to cover GK is to give a maximum number of MCQs from various websites you can. And I believe it is more important than studying tons of pdfs. I bought the best MCQ book by Gaurav Garg sir and read it thoroughly while highlighting the points. Then I watched the best 300 and banking awareness videos of the sir. After that, I attempted the MCQs provided with the video and then attempted MCQs of practice mock and affairs cloud. The free MCQ of PM for current affairs is very helpful because it gives 100 MCQs per week, so you’ll get 400mcqs per month which is more than enough for the selection. The method to solve MCQ is that first, you must attempt the test then revise it properly, and then take screenshots of the questions in which you got stuck. Revise them and attempt the test again. Follow the same method for various platforms. This will help you to choose the exact answer.

Q7. What was your overall strategy? Did you follow a study schedule? If yes, please share the details.

I did not have any fixed study plan but one thing is for sure is that I must attempt a pre-mock test every day. I just made to-do lists and tried to complete that all before every exam and before a certain time. A detailed plan was described above.

Q8. Did you face any hurdle as well? How did you overcome it?

“Hurdles, that’s the worst thing during an aspirant’s preparation time which chooses your success or failure. Being the eldest of my family there was a constant pressure always built upon me to get a job. But I always want a respectable job which motivated me to study at least 3 hours every day during my preparation. Also, I’ll not hesitate to say that I belong to a place where people will motivate you by saying that – “”you want to take science stream, remember many people failed in their 12th because of this. Bank exams, don’t get trapped, many people have wasted their lives because of it. Sometimes I doubt whether he has completed his graduation or not.””
So, you can imagine how many hurdles/insults I faced. The number of people who told me to prepare well to get a bank job can be taken at my fingertips. Apart from that sometimes you break down because you don’t have the amount you want to purchase something you want. I stopped visiting anyone or talking to anyone except my friends and uninstalled every social media to keep myself away from the outside world. And whenever I sat at my table and study all my insults and taunts faded. So I pushed myself to sit at my table as much as I can. But the support i got from my friend is just uncountable. But, I luckily have friends who gave me their account to access the subsection of studyiq, uncademy etc. And most importantly they always push me to cross the limit to attempt all kinds of questions.”

Q9. Did PracticeMock help you in your success? Please elaborate.

PM has been a constant backbone of my preparation since 2019. And I can clearly say if you can master the pre-mocks of PM, nobody can stop you from clearing pres of any exam. But I believe the level of a few mains mock of PM is very hard. But from that too you can learn things like how to tackle pressure in exams, how to choose the right questions etc. I’ve already discussed the subjectwise preparation guide and just practice and practice and try to invade methods of solving questions from your own. You’ll get selected.

Q10. What’s your message for the fellow aspirants who are preparing for competitive exams?

I just want to tell you all that I can, you will too. Just have patience and never think about quitting. It’s just a test of your patience, just think like that. Just have some friends who can motivate you. Keep two or more mocks. There were times when people told me to my face that I’ll not be able to do anything in my life. But today everything has changed. Try to meditate for at least 5 min every day to keep your mind calm. And most importantly try to sit with questions. At least dedicate one day to solve questions you noted from mock or from various sources. Try to invade methods on your own and search for short methods taught by different educators. This only can help you to crack the exam. Watching only videoes will not help. If you don’t interpret your method in the questions it’ll be very hard to crack the exams.

Conclusion

Alok Sharma’s journey shows that success in competitive exams is not about clearing everything in the first attempt. It is about patience, consistency, and believing in yourself even when others doubt you. He faced pressure, criticism, and many failures, but he kept studying, practicing questions, and giving mocks regularly. Slowly things started changing, and finally he achieved his goal. His story reminds every aspirant that if you keep going and never quit, one day your efforts will surely pay off.

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