Success Story of Shivankar Tripathi – From Multiple Failures to RRB PO & Clerk Selection

Every banking aspirant faces challenges during the preparation journey. Some struggle with concepts, some with consistency, and others with failures in multiple exams before finally achieving success. Shivankar Tripathi’s journey is a perfect example of how discipline, consistency, and the right preparation strategy can turn failures into success.

Starting his preparation in May 2021, Shivankar appeared in several banking exams such as SBI Clerk, SBI PO, IBPS PO, RRB PO, IDBI Assistant, ECGC PO, and IBPS Clerk. Although he faced many setbacks initially, he kept learning from his mistakes and improving his strategy. His hard work eventually paid off when he cleared RRB PO and RRB Clerk and secured a position in Madhya Pradesh Grameen Bank.

Below are Shivankar Tripathi’s responses shared through the Google Form, presented exactly as he submitted them.

Tell us about your preparation journey

I started my preparation in May 2021 after the notification of SBI Clerk recruitment came. Initially, I did not think too much about the result and just decided to give the exam with whatever preparation I could do. I started studying for around 6–7 hours daily and gradually it increased to 8–9 hours. During this journey, the biggest lesson I learned was that discipline and consistency are extremely important. I followed a proper routine in my daily life. For example, if I decided to have dinner at 8 PM, it would always be at 8 PM. Such discipline helped me stay consistent with my studies as well.

When I appeared for SBI Clerk, my attempts were not very good, but I learned an important lesson that accuracy matters a lot in competitive exams. I attempted 63 questions and got 62 correct, which motivated me because I had completed only about 60–70% of the syllabus at that time.

One of the biggest mistakes I made in the beginning was ignoring the Arithmetic section in Quant. After appearing for exams like SBI Clerk, RRB PO, and IDBI Assistant, I realized that clearing the exam without arithmetic preparation is very difficult. After this realization, I started focusing heavily on Arithmetic. I practiced questions from Rakesh Yadav Sir’s Arithmetic book and solved around 200–250 questions daily from different chapters.

Along with Quant practice, I regularly solved puzzles from PracticeMock for SBI PO and IBPS PO level. Gradually, I noticed improvement in my mock test scores. I started attempting two mocks daily and focused heavily on analyzing them to identify weak areas.

This consistent practice and structured preparation helped me improve my performance and eventually led me to clear multiple prelims and finally secure selection in RRB PO and RRB Clerk.

Which exams did you appear for and what were the results?

SBI Clerk 2021 – Not Cleared
RRB PO 2021 -Not cleared
IDBI Assistant -Not cleared
SBI PO – Cleared Pre but not mains.
IBPS PO – Cleared pre + mains but not final selection.
ECGC PO – Not Cleared
RRB PO – Cleared and got MPGB Bank
RRB Clerk – Cleared and got MPGB Bank
IBPS Clerk – Cleared pre and gave mains, results TBA
IBPS PO MAINS – cleared pre and mains Results TBA
SBI Clerk – Cleared pre and gonna give mains on 15th of Jan
SBI PO – Results TBA

How did you prepare for English?

For English Section, i read Newspaper and Editorials are the best source to sharp your Reading, after reading editorials, i mark 5-6 words daily and learn them which helps me a lot in Vocab building. I’m interested in Indian Economy and related articles so read all the articles from Moneycontrol or from Business standard, The Mint, The Hindu or from any other sources. My strategy is to read more and more because in banking exams, i think the role of grammar is not so much so I’ve not done any classes for English grammar. For any reference book for grammar, I’d suggest Neetu Singh’s Plinth to paramount.

How did you prepare for Quantitative Aptitude?

Quant was not my favorite part but now it’s my favorite. For practicing questions in starting months, i used to follow PM sectionals or quizzes and also questions from Rakesh yadav Sir book which is purely an arithmetic book. And then attempted mocks and learned how to approach a DI and in quant section or in any section what’s important is which question you’re picking. We are not there to solve all the questions in mains and no one can do this even the examiner. In quant many aspirants try to learn concepts from classes of any teacher. With due respect to all the teachers, I’d suggest all the students to attempt questions in your own way first because self learning is the best learning. I’m not boasting about this but I’ve never watched a video for mains. Try to solve all the questions on your own and don’t watch the solution until you solve the questions.

How did you prepare for Reasoning?

For reasoning, I used to watch YouTube lectures for solving puzzles. After completing the syllabus, attempted free quizzes and mock questions of reasoning section from Practice Mock (PM), the main thing was the analysis, like if I’m not able to solve questions in a specific time period then i try to solve that question in analysis and i used to mark the time like in how many minutes I’ve done this puzzle so next time this should be done in less than this.

How did you prepare for General Awareness?

For GA, I’d tell you all that this section should not be treated as a scoring section. No one can read all the news from the Newspaper or from PIB or from any other sources. So, for GA i used to follow Affairs cloud PDF Daily sometimes or weekly and for last time revision Practice Mock quizzes and Study IQ top 300 and their Banking Awareness.

Conclusion

Shivankar Tripathi’s success story highlights that discipline, consistency, and learning from failures are the real keys to success in competitive exams. Despite facing multiple failures and setbacks, he never gave up on his goal. Instead, he improved his strategy, practiced more mocks, and focused on analyzing his mistakes.

His journey proves that success does not depend on being a top student in school but on staying determined and consistent during preparation. For banking aspirants, his story is a powerful reminder that with the right routine, self-belief, and continuous practice, clearing banking exams is absolutely achievable.

Start Your Preparation Today by Taking the Best, Exam-level, and Affordable Banking Preparation Subscription – Click Below and Enroll Now