Precis Writing looks straightforward: read a passage, identify the important ideas, shorten it and give it a suitable title.
Yet many RBI Grade B aspirants lose quality not because they fail to understand the passage, but because they make small mistakes during selection, compression and reconstruction.
Some retain too many examples. Some remove essential arguments. Others simply copy sentences from the passage. A candidate may even meet the exact word limit and still produce a weak precis.
The good news is that these mistakes are highly correctable once you identify them.
Here are the most common mistakes in RBI Grade B Precis Writing and how to avoid them.
1. Starting to Write Before Understanding the Passage
One of the biggest mistakes is reading the first paragraph and immediately beginning the precis.
This often results in excessive focus on the beginning of the passage while important arguments appearing later receive little space.
How to Avoid It
Complete the first reading before writing anything.
Then ask:
“What is the author essentially trying to say?”
Try expressing the central message in one sentence.
Only after understanding the passage as a whole should you begin selecting ideas.
2. Treating Every Point as Equally Important
A passage may contain:
Main Argument + Supporting Points + Examples + Statistics + Explanations + Repetition
All of these do not deserve equal space in your precis.
For example, if a passage explains the benefits of digital finance using UPI, mobile banking and digital wallets, you may not need to mention all three.
The core idea could simply be:
Digital technology can reduce barriers to accessing financial services.
How to Avoid It
Classify information into:
Must Keep | Useful if Space Allows | Can Remove
This simple habit dramatically improves selection.
3. Copying Sentences from the Original Passage
Many candidates use the “copy and cut” approach.
They select sentences from the original passage, remove a few words and join them together.
This may reduce length, but it does not necessarily demonstrate comprehension.
How to Avoid It
First identify the meaning.
Then temporarily move away from the original wording and reconstruct the idea naturally.
Think:
Meaning -> Reconstruction
rather than:
Original Sentence -> Synonym Replacement
Technical terms need not be replaced unnecessarily, but the overall expression should reflect your understanding.
4. Retaining Too Many Examples
Examples make a passage easier to understand, but they are often among the first things that can be compressed.
Suppose a passage says:
Extreme weather is increasingly affecting communities through floods, droughts, heatwaves and severe storms.
You may not need to retain the entire list.
A concise version could be:
“Climate change is increasing communities’ exposure to extreme weather events.”
How to Avoid It
Ask:
“Is this an essential argument or merely an illustration of one?”
Retain the argument unless the example itself is essential to the meaning.
5. Removing Too Much Information
Over-compression is just as dangerous as under-compression.
Suppose the passage argues:
AI improves productivity but may displace routine jobs, making reskilling necessary.
If your precis says:
“AI improves productivity.”
you have shortened the passage—but destroyed a major part of its argument.
How to Avoid It
Before finalising, create the passage’s logical skeleton:
Development -> Benefit -> Challenge -> Response
Your precis should preserve all major stages of that skeleton.
6. Repeating the Same Idea
A candidate may write:
“Digital literacy is essential for financial inclusion. People need financial knowledge to use digital products. Lack of awareness can prevent effective use of digital banking.”
These sentences substantially overlap.
How to Avoid It
Merge related ideas:
“Adequate digital and financial literacy is essential for effective participation in digital finance.”
Precis Writing is about compressing ideas, not merely shortening sentences.
7. Changing the Author’s Meaning
This is a serious mistake.
If the original passage says:
“Automation may displace some routine jobs while creating new employment opportunities.”
do not write:
“Automation will cause widespread unemployment.”
The second statement is stronger and one-sided.
How to Avoid It
Preserve important qualifiers such as:
may, can, often, partly, potentially, however, although
These words sometimes carry essential meaning.
Never make the author’s argument more certain, extreme or one-sided than it actually is.
8. Adding Your Own Opinion
Precis Writing is not Essay Writing.
Suppose the passage discusses the risks of artificial intelligence.
You may personally believe that strict AI regulation is necessary, but if the author does not make that argument, it should not suddenly appear in your precis.
Avoid expressions such as:
“In my opinion…”
“I believe…”
“The government must…”
unless they accurately reconstruct something already present in the passage.
How to Avoid It
Remain faithful to the source.
Your job is to represent the author’s message, not improve it with your own ideas.
9. Forcing Difficult Vocabulary
Some aspirants believe sophisticated vocabulary will make the precis stronger.
It often does the opposite.
Using an unfamiliar synonym can change the meaning or create an unnatural sentence.
For example, there is no need to replace a precise technical expression such as financial inclusion merely to demonstrate vocabulary.
How to Avoid It
Prioritise:
Accuracy -> Clarity -> Conciseness
Use simple professional English.
A clear sentence is better than a complicated sentence containing incorrectly used vocabulary.
10. Writing Extremely Long Sentences
While trying to compress several ideas, candidates sometimes place everything into one sentence.
The result may contain multiple clauses, connectors and grammatical errors.
Compression does not mean:
Five Ideas = One Sentence
How to Avoid It
Combine only closely related ideas.
If a sentence becomes difficult to read, divide it.
The precis should be concise, but it should also remain comfortable to understand.
11. Writing Disconnected Statements
Consider:
“Technology is expanding. Banking access is improving. Cyber fraud exists. Literacy is low. Regulation is important.”
The ideas may be relevant, but there is little logical flow.
A better version could be:
“Although digital technology has expanded access to banking services, cyber risks and inadequate financial literacy can limit its benefits, making consumer protection increasingly important.”
How to Avoid It
Identify relationships such as:
Cause -> Effect
Problem -> Solution
Benefit -> Limitation
Development -> Consequence
Then connect the ideas accordingly.
12. Ignoring the Word Limit Until the End
Some candidates write freely and only check the word count after completing the precis.
If the response is substantially over the limit, they begin deleting words randomly.
This can damage coherence and remove important ideas.
How to Avoid It
Plan according to the prescribed limit from the beginning.
If the draft is too long, compress in this order:
Repetition -> Minor Examples -> Unnecessary Modifiers -> Wordy Expressions -> Secondary Details
Do not begin by deleting core arguments.
Always follow the word-limit instructions given in your actual examination.
13. Choosing an Inappropriate Title
A title may be too broad:
“Technology”
Or too narrow:
“Mobile Applications”
when the passage is actually about digital financial inclusion.
How to Avoid It
Ask:
“What title represents the passage as a whole?”
A good title is:
Short + Specific + Representative
For a passage discussing technology, access and financial inclusion, a title such as “Digital Technology and Financial Inclusion” may be more appropriate.
14. Focusing Only on Grammar During Review
Grammar matters, but your review should not stop there.
A grammatically perfect precis can still fail if an essential argument is missing.
Use a Three-Level Review
Content:
Have I captured the central idea and major supporting points?
Language:
Are my sentences clear, concise and grammatically correct?
Technical:
Have I followed the word limit and provided an appropriate title?
This makes the final review much more useful.
The Biggest Mistake: Attempting More Mocks Without Correcting Previous Errors
Suppose your first precis contains too many examples.
You receive feedback.
Instead of rewriting it, you attempt another precis.
The second contains the same problem.
Then the third.
After ten mocks, you have completed ten tests—but the underlying weakness remains.
This is why practice alone does not guarantee improvement.
A better cycle is:
Attempt -> Evaluation -> Diagnosis -> Correction -> Rewrite -> Reattempt
If your weakness is core-idea identification, work on that first.
If it is compression, practise reducing paragraphs.
If it is language, work on reconstruction.
If it is word-limit management, practise controlled compression.
Your next exercise should respond to the weakness discovered in your previous one.
Create Your Personal Precis Error Checklist
After every evaluated precis, note your recurring problems.
For example:
[ ] Missed central idea
[ ] Retained too many examples
[ ] Omitted an important argument
[ ] Copied original wording
[ ] Added personal opinion
[ ] Repeated ideas
[ ] Used awkward vocabulary
[ ] Poor logical flow
[ ] Exceeded word limit
[ ] Weak title
Before attempting the next precis, review the checklist.
The objective is simple:
Do not repeat the same mistake unconsciously.
Final Takeaway
RBI Grade B Precis Writing improves when you stop thinking only about how many precis attempts you have completed and start examining what is changing from one attempt to the next.
The most common mistakes are usually connected to:
Comprehension -> Selection -> Compression -> Reconstruction -> Language -> Word Limit -> Title
Identify which stage is causing your problem.
Then correct that specific weakness.
For RBI Grade B 2027 preparation, you can begin with the Bank Whizz RBI Grade B 2027 Precis Diagnostic Mock without using ChatGPT, Google, Grammarly, model answers or external assistance.
The purpose of a diagnostic attempt is not to produce a perfect precis.
It is to reveal your actual weaknesses.
From there, follow:
Attempt -> Evaluate -> Diagnose -> Correct -> Rewrite -> Improve
Because completing more Precis mocks is useful only when the mistakes from the previous ones are gradually disappearing.
Bank Whizz | RBI Grade B 2027 Descriptive English Mentorship