All About GK Section!

CMAT Exam, SNAP Exam
Why is GK Important? GK-based questions, due to their inherent nature, provide you with a distinct opportunity to enhance your accuracy. This is because, if you know the answer to a GK question, there is no scope for confusion! However, this is only applicable if you do not indulge in blind guesswork. Further, the GK section is highly time efficient, as there is no calculation-work and analysis involved. You can use this to your advantage by allocating more time to other sections of the examination. GK section can act as a good back up, especially if you feel you are weak in any of the traditional sections like Quant, Verbal, DI, Reasoning, etc. In this article, we will make methodical strategy to prepare for this key section in an effective and efficient manner. Important Areas:
  1. Current headsof major Global / Indian companies.
  2. Information on brandsand companies as in ‘Dettol is a brand of Reckitt Benckiser’.
  3. Taglinesof major Global / Indian companies.
  4. Major booksreleased in 2011-12, business related books and business biographies.
  5. Current Business Affairs– Major economic decisions, mergers & takeovers, etc.
  6. Terminologies / Abbreviations – Related to the banking sector, economics & general business.
Here are a few tips that will help:
  • To prepare for these, you can look at some of the lists on Google. You can then go to the wiki pages of these companies. Do not waste time reading the entire page but just the top i.e. above the index and the sidebar on the right.
  • There are plenty of presentations available for brand taglines on slideshare.
  • Go through the bestseller lists on Flipkart & Amazon for recent books of note. You can also search on Google for business books and you will get a sliding window at the top which will help you browse. It is a new feature on Google and is well-timed.
  • Current business affairs is slightly tricky in nature but you can tackle that by searching for major events.
  • You can go through the list of Business & Management terms available on Google. It is neither practical nor suggested that you try to mug up this entire list. Do keep in mind that the questions that you will get in the XAT/SNAP will be objective in nature and you will have to choose an option. What I suggest is that you spend an hour on these pages and hopefully that hour will help you eliminate options and fetch a question or two.
  • From the RBI website, you can download a list of abbreviations. Another good list of Finance & Business Abbreviations is on Wikipedia.
Some of you might be wondering that ‘Is this enough?’ The answer to that question is – ‘It can never be enough’. General Knowledge as a topic does not have any prescribed syllabus but one can never underestimate the importance of preparation. Also, it is important that your preparation is focused and directed towards a goal. Imagine that you went fishing in the sea. The fish can be found in any portion of the sea but there will be some areas which would be more densely populated than the others. It would do you good that you fish in those areas. So, from this sea of knowledge, I recommend that you concentrate on the areas that I have listed above because the probability of catching a question in the exam is higher from these areas. I have seen a lot of students make the common mistake of reading too much or reading everything that comes their way at the last minute. Attempting the GK section: Ideally, you should not devote more than 10-12 minutes on the GK section. This will allow you to allocate more time for other time-consuming sections. Further, we advice you to follow a 2-cycle method of attempting this section: Cycle 1
  • Identify the very easy questions and mark their answers
  • Identify and mark the questions, which you think you can attempt i.e. you feel that if you spend more time on such questions, you may be able to guess the correct answer.
  • Identify the questions, which you think you CANNOT attempt i.e. question about which you have no idea. These questions are best left untouched.
Cycle 2 In the second cycle, mark the answers of maximum possible questions that you have identified in Step (2) of Cycle 1 through intelligent guessing using option elimination. You should look at previous year papers of various exam to understand what they ask for. It will give you an idea of important areas. You can get them from your Login Id. General Knowledge Mock Tests: A lot of students find it helpful to give mock tests specially for GK. I recommend that you do that too. It does not really prepare you for the GK section as the GK syllabus is kind of infinite in nature but it does tell you a thing or two about your current level of preparation. It also tells you how much time you need to devote to the GK section in the actual exam.

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CMAT Exam, SNAP Exam

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