Role of General Awareness in CMAT is as important as that of Quant, Verbal or Logical Reasoning. General Awareness has equal share of weightage in CMAT and according to Prof S K Agarwal, Expert on CMAT preparation, General Awareness section can be prepared well by devoting 15 minutes a day regularly. A good attempt in GA section can change the game and you can sure score high with the help of this section.
AICTE will conduct the second CMAT 2015 in a 4 day test window from February 19 to 22, 2015 across the country for admission to MBA/PGDM 2015-17 batch in 400+ B schools.
National Level Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) 2015 is an online computer based test and is conducted by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) twice a year. The first CMAT 2015 was held in September 2014 while the second CMAT 2015 will take place in 62 cities all across India from February 19 to 22, 2015. There will be 2 test sessions of 3 hours each on every day; the first one will be from 9.30 AM to 12.30 PM and the second one will be from 2.30 PM to 5.30 PM.
What to read
General Awareness or General Knowledge has a separate section in CMAT with 25 questions. It is as important as other sections as the merit list is prepared by taking into account the scores from this section as well. It is a tool to improve your overall score. You are supposed to continue preparing the General Awareness and keep yourself updated from all the sources namely-
1.Latest editions of Books on General awareness like Manorama Year Book
2.Regular reading of newspapers and periodicals and taking notes from them
3. Digital and Electronic media updation like TV, internet
4. Focus on appointments, business, corporate news, policy changes, economic policies of the Government, recent achievements-national and international, political activities going on around the world, sports, tragedies. In fact there is no limit to explore the areas of study in General Awareness section.
Divide GK in parts to prepare
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.)
Award due weightage to each section. You can prepare Conventional GK with the help of GK books available in market; Current GK which is based on current reading of newspapers and periodicals; Business & Economics GK -for example changes in Fiscal and monetary policy, CRR, Repo Rate, Devaluation and up valuation of Rupee, this should be updated regularly with the help of specific news papers like Economic times, Financial Express and by watching economy based news. Please remember current GK-whether Business, national and international has an on-going preparation method and thorough reading of the newspaper only can keep you updated.
Material for conventional GK
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.
Where to find stuff on 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.
Please 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 Loksabha or RajyaSabha’, ‘Which company is not included in the NAVRATNA companies of India’ and so on.
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.
How to update Current Affairs – India: Put more emphasis on last few years’ events in the country – Important changes, Events like Cricket World Cup, Victory at Lords after 28 years, Recent announcements by Government, 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 ones 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.
Affairs 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.
Probable GK topics
While year 2014 has seen many changes in national and international scenario, 2015 is poised to witness even more. Following question topics in different forms could be of great help for CMAT Feb 2015 aspirants
-Fiscal deficit & Monetary controls; Tools & authority using them
-Goods & Services Tax (GST); status; key features,
-International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS)
- FDI in Defence, Infrasturure, insurance and other sectors; proposals, present and proposed maximum limit
-Basel-III; what it is, to which sector it is related, what is the next level II or IV
-Smart city project; the announced cities; key features
- Proposed IITs and IIMs; number; where to be established; when to start functioning
-Past and proposed GDP growth rate
-Personal Income-tax exemption limit
-Which country won the FIFA 2014 world cup; where was the final held
-Which country lost its 2 passenger aeroplanes with 500+ passangers on board in 2014
Please remember there will be 25 questions based on General Awareness in CMAT in the form of MCQs (Multiple Choice questions). Every correct answer will award you 4 marks improving your score and awarding you higher place in merit. All the 4 sections have equal number of questions, General Awareness will play the same role in pushing up your merit position in CMAT as other sections can do.
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