Yes we can - How to tackle World Affairs

Hello aspirants!

To any student in their last year of school, this time of the year is associated with endless cups of coffee, staying up the whole of the night cramming as much as possible and those nervous few minutes before an examination begins. While HSEE is a competitive exam with a small success rate and very few seats, it is definitely possible to crack the exam without years and years of preparation. All of us who have made it to IIT M can vouch for that.

When you check the syllabus you’ll notice that General Studies takes up 50% of the total marks. World Affairs is the one section which has the potential for fetching you the most possible marks. It is something which doesn’t require much preparation but has a far-reaching consequence on your end results. It doesn’t matter if you are not preparing for CLAT or are not a quiz whiz kid. Current Affairs is easily manageable.

Current Affairs:

World Affairs seems daunting at first because literally anything could be asked in this section but looking at the past HSEE papers, you’ll realize that there is a trend. Out of the 18 questions, Current Affairs takes up only 3-4 questions. If you have been reading the newspapers diligently, these questions would be a breeze. Pay special attention to the last few months leading up to the exam and be aware of any conferences or news-making events that have occurred during the year. For example, Brexit and the U.S Presidential Elections are events that cannot be missed.

Basically everything else: 

Moving on to the rest of the questions (what most coaching centers dub as ‘Static G.K’), there are a few important fields from which questions can be asked. International organizations are quite crucial. You might be asked who the head of certain organization might be or when it was founded. Make a list of all the organizations and their heads starting from IMF, World Bank to NATO and so on. Google is your knight in shining armor. It might seem a taxing affair but it pays to do it religiously. 

International dates and wars will definitely feature in HSEE. Keep track of all the wars, countries which fought them and their key leaders in the movement. Make sure you make a list of all the important dates such as World Environment Day and International Day for Biodiversity. Apart from these, be thorough in all important International Conventions and Conferences and the cities they were held in, such as the Rio 21 conference or Copenhagen Climate Conference. Most of this might be familiar to you but you are bound to make slight screw ups. Also pay attention to the Nobel Prize winners and other award winners. This is another potential area from where you could be tested. Keep in mind that there might be few questions related to India such as the Constitution or important facts. It doesn’t mean you need to mug the constitution but know what Article 19 and Article 21 is.

How to deal with this: 

This is not an exhaustive list - there are so many things that could be asked in this section that is not possible to predict accurately. I found it useful to make a personalized list of all these things because in the process of looking for facts, you find yourself learning a lot more which comes handy in entrance exams. Pick up any of the CLAT centric G.K books or banking entrance books. I keep mentioning CLAT because they are your fellow poor souls who have to go through this too. You might find Manorama Yearbook or the Pearsons’ Concise Guide to General Knowledge mighty useful in preparing for this section as well as the other sections in History, Indian society and Ecology. 

For Current Affairs, websites such as gktoday and a lot of others are modeled for the competitive examination pattern and they help you in cracking questions instead of making you cram your facts. Also, periodicals like CSR (Competition Success Review) give a very comprehensive summation. For prepping on the go, try Inshorts, it's a pretty cool moblie app that sums up important news in an attractive and easy to use format. (it works offline too!) 

There is no right way to go about preparing for World Affairs- be it mugging, making your own lists or any other method you have come up with. Just remember to not be afraid by the sheer number of possibilities in this section and rather dive headfirst into solving questions. Do a lot of mocks and past papers (try CLAT papers too, *sigh*) - many questions are often repeated and you'll get an idea of what can be asked, so that you can avoid junk while you prep. You’d realize that this is one of the best ways to start learning. Because if there's one tip we can give about world affairs or GS as a whole, is that you can never learn enough, so quit learning, and take tests. Learn from your mistakes. 

And remember the golden rule of mock test taking - "Never go wrong at a question you once went wrong in."

Exam Strategy

It's simple, and quite straightforward. Don't waste time. This is a section where you either know, or don't know. Don't assume that if you sit and meditate on a question for too long you'll figure it out. Click away. Hit all the questions you know. As for stuff you have no clue of, either avoid it or make quick guesses (ONLY IF the paper says there is NO negative marking. Do check this. Just because it wasn't there last year, doesn't mean it won't be there this year.) 

In short, don't spend more than a few seconds per question. Time saved here can be invested on Math and logic and stuff that really need time. Be smart.

We hope you find this useful and in time for your preparation. Chill out and hopefully we see you here soon enough. Till then, happy mugging!