Entrance exams are in plenty for various careers. Before learning for a competitive exam, going through the syllabus and understanding the major topics and lessons is the essential step to acing your competitive exam. For the preparation of various exams, there are subjects like Quantitative Aptitude, reasoning, English language etc. In which aspirants focus a lot but General Awarness or General Knowledge shouldn’t be skipped.
For both college applications and jobs, general knowledge paper is important. People who are appearing for exams must update themselves on current affairs of the nation and GK questions. In any competitive exam, more than 25% questions are based on GK topics.
As to why General knowledge questions are found in these papers is to test the aspirants’ ability to keep themselves updated and knowledgeable and score better marks and improve their communication skills in interviews and group discussions. Some of the topics covered under this general knowledge are:
- Physical geography
- Indian and world geography
- Indian and World History
- International Organizations
- Everyday Science
- Awards and Honors
- Indian Economy
- Indian Polity Constitution
- Current Affairs
- Miscellaneous GK
For acing the GK questions, you have to study them regularly and develop a pattern of reading habit. You can read newspapers, magazines, listen to newscasts, watch interviews to gain some general knowledge.
Reading Habit:
For general knowledge competitive exams, reading, at least two newspapers is recommended. Newspapers are the storehouse of knowledge and this will improve your focus and concentration. Reading the editorials of a few previous issues will be helpful. The recommended way is to read one newspaper of your native language and other of the English language. The Hindu, the Economic Times, The telegraph, times of India etc. Are a few of the newspapers that are good sources of knowledge and magazines like “The Chronicle”, “India Today” are also helpful.
News watching:
The Television can be used for both entertainment and educational purposes. Making the best and optimal use of the television is apt for an aspirant. You can choose your favourite news channel, your favourite program or even your favourite reporter and follow the news meticulously.
Schedule the best news times and make notes of all that ensues. Make sure that the headlines and breaking news are regularly updated. Below listed are some of news channels which will provide good sources of knowledge.
- Prime time shows with feature articles, important/significant headlines like BBC News, Al Jazeera, NDTV, CNN and some Indian and International private news channels.
- Lok sabha and rajya sabha sessions in Doordharshan, national television channels etc.
- Minutes of the parliamentary sessions discussed in the radio or television.
- Quiz shows or discussions or debates.
If you wish to source for knowledge, there are plenty of places to go to. Choose what is best for you.
Notes:
Whatever you learn, writing them down is a fool proof way to keep yourself from forgetting them. Moreover, you can always revisit these notes and revise them before the exams. Write down everything that you hear, about global events to the local ones. Words hold a certain power. Also, for notes you don’t have to write down elaborate paragraphs. Jot down the important ones, maybe 1 or 2 liners, write down the keywords, highlight annotate etc. Do whatever makes the learning process easier and less complicated.
Make use of the internet:
The internet is the largest storehouse of knowledge and on there, you can search literally anything. General knowledge questions are available in plenty and Wikipedia, YouTube etc. Are beneficial. Many websites have mock test question papers, practice sheets which are all extremely useful for aspirants.
There are even online platfrm like urExam. On the websites of the competitive exams, you can see previous years’ question papers and Identify the important questions and the repeated ones. Some websites offer free access to these question papers and release monthly PDF about general knowledge.
If you are in a time crunch, you can catch a gist of the news’ events on the website. Interesting discussions regarding the recent current affairs topic are talked about here and through these, you can gain some knowledge and also, get to see different perspectives.
You can also follow the social media pages of news channels and this is a guaranteed way to get legit and quick news. They give preparation strategy for these exams and also, important announcements are said about in them. Online quizzes on the said topic can be taken to assess yourself and also boosts confidence and morale. Self-evaluation instils a deep sense of confidence in the said person.
Pre-planned approach to the subjects:
The scope and subject matter of general knowledge is vast and no matter how much you try, there will always be stuff that is beyond your grasp. That is why, GK and current affairs need to be studied extensively. Choosing varied subjects / topics and planning out the questions is mandatory for learning general knowledge. You have to formulate a plan, schedule and timetable to approach the broad subject of general knowledge.
Covering major topics:
There are many topics to cover in general knowledge. While all of them are important, a few topics are above the others like:
- Sports
- National and International Geography
- Current affairs (of state, nation and global)
- Everyday Science
- Awards and Honor
- National and global history
- Indian Economy
- Literature
- Static GK
- Indian Polity
Toprankers.com, suggests that it these topics are thoroughly learned then 80-90% can be gained. But the lesser important topics shouldn’t be ignored, they should also be learnt side by side.
Books and magazines:
Books and magazines specializing in current affairs and general knowledge are numerous in number and those books contain lots of information about recent subjects.
Year books like Manorama can be referred to for this purpose. A regional or national magazine can be subscribed to for learning about recent events. There are even a few books that are exclusively published for such competitive exams which detail the events of the last 6 months. For sports exam, you can follow sports magazines etc. And for other topics you can subscribe to political magazines, religion magazines etc.
These are some of the ways you can prepare for a general awarness paper on any competitive exam.
