Read 13 comments as:
Filter By
Hi LI users,
Since yesterday I have been thinking of preparing for the SEBI Grade A exam (legal stream) but a part of me thinks that i'm a bit late as the exam is expected to be in March 2023. The internet tells me that the exam is difficult and the syllabus is vast which is kind of true. I would like to hear your opinion on the same. I'm an average student. A 70% grade student but I'm smarter than most people. Do you think it is possible to be prepared for the exam in 6 months?

Also, how is working in SEBI like? The salary looks good and since i'm a private uni student i would hardly get that salary at a law firm as an A0.
It can be done within 3 months with 3 hours of prep each day. The SEBI and allied acts are very simple. Companies Act can take some time. Read last time's notification and only prepare what will come in the course. A lot of chapters are not part of syllabus. Skip CPC, CRPC, IPC, IBC if you dont have time. These acts will only account for at max 5 questions out of 50. Make sure you write killer essays to boost your score.
Thank you for the response. Well, the SEBI Act and the Companies Act are my forte. Those two subjects are the ones I am actually good at. Also, can you tell me what kind of essays comes in the exam? is it law-related or something related to policy or something very general?
Essays in mains seem to be about abstract general topics. I remember in 2021 I wrote someone about free speech and internet censorship.
First of all, no one knows when the exam will be. The being said, if we assume it is in March 2023 then believe me, you have ample time to cover the syllabus multiple times. Focus more on the securities and company law. Go through their bare act as many times as you can. I cleared Sebi grade A's pre last year with a couple of months of preparation although i couldn't make it through mains due to over attempting the questions. And don't forget the part 1 of phase 1 exam, the reasoning paper. People often ignore it only to not being able to clear the pre itself because of that.
Thank you for the response. I have a few follow-up questions if you could kindly answer them.

1. What did you mean by over-attempting the questions? I should be wary of it.
2. Did you take help of any resource material (online/offline) to prepare for it? (legal papers and the part 1 papers). A google search leads me to multiple websites but i want to hear your opinion on if any one of them is a trustworthy source that can be relied upon.
3. I'm confident in the securities law and company law part (it is why i got the interest) but i'm equally underconfident about the Constitution law and CPC part. Any suggestions on what to specifically focus on?

Thanks.
1. There is negative marking for every wrong attempt. I attempted 48 out of 50 legal questions in mains which took my score down, should've left it at 42-43.
2. I did not take any resource for the legal papers, was also preparing for Judicial services so i was used to reading bare acts in a preparation mode. I did saw some videos to tackle the reasoning part on youtube. I dont think you have to take any coaching for that. The only thing you should once take a note of is the previous year questions to get an idea of what you will be getting. There are multiple videos on YT for that too.
3. Constitutional law you will have to do, there is no other way. Again, keep reading the bare act only.
They only ask a couple of questions from CPC in both pre and mains. It won't be your downfall, it won't get you to clear the paper. Just get a reading of the important parts. Get to it only after you've covered everything else.
Getting through to mains isn't as hard, clearing mains and the interview is where the real test lies. I appeared for SEBI Grade A 2022, fairly easy with a few months of prep, scored decent in Prelims but screwed up bad in the Mains exam. Also, there's no guarantee 2023 it'll be held, a lot of Ed-tech prep sites have all but confirmed that there will be SEBI in 2023 without any solid proof. Generally, SEBI is held once every 2 years, since the last 10 years or so. In that case, and if you qualify under the age bracket, you have ample time to prepare for SEBI 2024 which will be held no doubt.
I happen to work in a BKC law firm. It pays about 15LPA at A1, which seems to match the starting SEBI CTC.

Since I already have a law firm job, is it worth attempting SEBI / RBI / PFRDA? What are some interesting perks available to governmint legal officers?
How can i have a talk with you, am a LL.B. student and want some guidance or want to ask some doubts.
SEBI used to hire directly from NLS. The guy who got in from our batch will be making your lives difficult now. :D
Mr M. Damodaran, the (then) Chairman of SEBI visited NLSIU in 2007 (or 8) and delivered what was at least partly, a pre-placement talk. In course of this session, he categorically mentioned that he didn't expect "bright" law graduates to remain with SEBI for more than a couple of years. His pitch as a recruiter was that SEBI offers a good and reasonably well paid "first job" and one should not join with the intention to spend his/her entire working life with SEBI. From what I have gathered (over the past few years) after speaking with few friends and acquaintances working with SEBI, pay and allowances wise, among "public sector" employers, it is perhaps one among the best, but working hours depend mostly on the team/Member one works with and promotions aren't time-bound or as regular they need to be.