As you must be looking to utilise best the next one month for preparation of May CMAT 2013, this article of MBAUniverse.com Prep team of experts brings you strategy for preparation of General Awareness section which tests your knowledge and IQ.
‘General Awareness’ section in CMAT carries 25 questions of 4 marks each, thus carrying a total of 100 marks.
The section carries questions from politics, business, finance, social life, sports, cinema and various awards associated to them, and many other areas. Some question are framed on literary world of authors-their works, famous personalities, inventions and discoveries, important events, revolutions that changed the world scenario etc.
With so much to capture, what should be your strategy for GA preparation in CMAT?
The time for gradual preparation is over. One month, if not much, is not very less a time to refresh, revise and prepare well in this area. You are required to meticulously follow the guided path and rest assured- if you do it, you will succeed.
The Division – Before beginning to go for preparing the General Knowledge, you may divide the General Knowledge section in four parts - A. Conventional B. Business, Finance & Economy based C. Current Affairs India (Political, Social, Sports, Films, awards etc.) D. International (personalities-past & present, global events etc.)
1.Conventional – Good books on GK are available in the market and may be considered the best to prepare in a short time like Manorama Year Book, General Knowledge refresher, General Knowledge by S. Chand & Co. and so on. Devote a few minutes every day and try to learn this type of GK as much as possible. You may even mug it up-if you can but better way will be to relate one event to the personality, it will help you to prepare more than one question in a single reading. You may have questions based on the topics like Authors of the books, Historical facts & events, Personalities, places, questions based on inventions, discoveries and Geography, Physics, Chemistry, Biology etc
2. Business, Finance & Economy –This is one of the most favourite sections of GK that appear in the CMAT entrance examinations. Business and finance oriented General Knowledge improves your understanding of economic environment, strengthening your IQ and making you better equipped to face the Group discussions and Personal Interviews. Try to cover hot topics in Business, Finance and Economy. Going through them will help you to prepare better for your forthcoming CMAT examination. Following tips will be a great help to you-
i) Read whatever stuff is available on such topics as you may confront these questions in different manner like ‘ What is the current CRR’, ‘Difference between CRR & SLR’ ‘Instruments for money control’, “The authority that can change the Bank Rate of the Country’ , ‘Which is the petroleum product from which subsidy has been fully withdrawn’, ‘Budget speech of the President marks the beginning or the conclusion of budget session’ ‘ Where the budget is presented first in Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha’, ‘Which company is not included in the NAVRATNA companies of India’ and so on.
ii) Regularly read the business, economy page of newspapers like The Times of India, The Economic Times. Periodicals like The week, India Today, The Economist – mark the striking events. Read editorials and other articles analyzing various national and international events. Year books, purchased by you, will also be a good help in the preparation.
3. Current Affairs – India - Put more emphasis on last decade events in the country – Important changes, Events like Cricket World Cup, Commonwealth games, creations of additional states, appointments – Private and Public sector, awards etc. Global happenings that mark their impacts in the country must be well read. Although there is no syllabus for GK, you must brush up whatever you have read. Draw a quick plan to revise and learn. Regular reading of the national events in the newspapers like The Hindu and the above mentioned one will be quite advantageous. You need to spend around 15 minutes a day to it and one event will link you to another. Read the associated events as they are also the probable questions.
Since examination paper must have been prepared, at least a fortnight before the examination date, you may eliminate such events which take place a fortnight or so prior to examination date.
4. International - Answers to Questions based on International affairs sometimes are difficult to distinguish due to the close similarity in names, cities, figures etc. So the important part is to find out some key word in the articles wherefrom you learn and prepare the GK.
Put more emphasis on last decade events and global happenings like global depression, mutiny in certain countries, economic swings that made impact on Indian Economy, Appointments – like the second term of Obama as the President of America- his core international policies that may impact our Country, etc.
No doubt the pressure becomes more when the examination is at hand; so have a balanced approach. Too much of mugging or burning mid-night oil may not be so effective as you may get confused or may forget whatever you learnt last night. It is better to revise the items that you have already studied and keep pace to keep you up-to-date.
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more prep articles on CMAT.
