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How NOT to prepare for your GK.

 Tuesday, July 10, 2012, 14:00

This is to people who mail me asking this:

“Hlo aymn, Im doin epw, hindu, toi, outluk, fntline, lst spplements, sriram spplments, ims modules, cg mdules, pd, csr, csc, n few oder buks,lyk pearsons, universal, lexis nexis shd it b enuf????????????”

Overkill. What are you going to write? A subjective paper of 200 marks – all on GK? No. GK comes for 50 marks. F-I-F-T-Y. Meaning that, while these fifty are important, they aren’t the world.

Here’s the bottom line: Clutter your table, and drop a year. Keep it simple, and save two.

So, here’s what you have to do for General Knowledge:

  1. Spend time with one newspaper. The Hindu, preferably. Read the editorials, and everything. Take interest.
  2. One magazine – choose whatever appeals to you, Frontline or Outlook , that is what we recommend. The Economic and Political Weekly is a very good source. But do it only if you can bear it.
  3. One monthly magazine - Pratiyogita Darpan, ’nuff said.
  4. Supplements – one of the most important sources. Don’t go out of the way to get them. But if you get them somewhere, lay your hands on them.
  5. Lexis Nexis is the only book that you should look at. Others are all boring, long and a BIG pains in strange places.

These are the important sources that you should follow. Of course, this is the basic area that you should look at. But follow the other article for a more detailed thingy on GK prep. Here are a few other things that you should remember:

  1. Aim for a Law School. Not Law entrances.
  2. You get all “geared up” and buy all sorts of reference books and waste your parents’ hard earned (or otherwise) money. Not really worth it. Keep it limited, keep it simple.
  3. Stay aware of what’s going on.
  4. Take interest. Don’t “study”, instead “learn”.
  5. Enjoy the process. Don’t make it monotonous. You can never mug-up and vomit.
  6. They say that curiosity killed the cat. They lie. Stay curious.
  7. January 2009 is irrelevant. Trust me. Don’t be such a moron to get yourself newspapers of the last year.
  8. If GK is boring. Apply for Symbi’s B.A/ B. Com courses, have fun!
  9. If it gets too boring. Do some logic and reasoning or listen to some music or whatever. But get back to GK.
  10. All of us are ignorant. But ignorance is like diabetes – you can only fight it, not overcome it. But fight, you have to. Else, you lose a lot.
  11. Reading 6784894 reference books will not improve your chances of getting to NALSAR, or any decently reputed Law School for that matter. But reading one good reference book, and reading it well, will.
  12. The CG supplements aren’t put up there because the editors were jobless and needed to have fun. They’re there for a reason. Guess?
  13. When you don’t know something, which is often. Google. If you fail, use the Ask Us page.
  14. Do you listen to Guns N Roses? The song, “Civil War”, which event made the songwriters write the song? Or “Winds of Change” by The Scorpions. Do you know the event that is shown in the video? You might do a hundred things, but stay curious, you’ll learn a lot
  15. If you are forgetting what the capital of Saudi Arabia is, while you know that you’ve “memorized it from the module”, time to think of alternative careers (I did this, by the way, BA. Political Science)

I am sorry if I’ve been mean. I’ve had SEVEN emails on the same lines. Please understand, GK is not a monster, at least not a man-eating one.

CG.

PS: The rudeness is not intended. No one should take this post personally.

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75 Responses to “How NOT to prepare for your GK.”

  1. Om said on Thursday, November 25, 2010, 4:10

    Amazing post… :)

    Reply


  2. Zacarias said on Thursday, November 25, 2010, 8:35

    “If GK is boring. Apply for Symbi’s B.A/ B. Com courses, have fun! ” LMAO :)

    Reply


  3. Vikram Lakshman said on Thursday, November 25, 2010, 10:31

    no offence take…..just one question is pratyogita drapan better than Competiton success Review???

    Reply


  4. Asad said on Thursday, November 25, 2010, 10:42

    @ Vikram… way better unless you wanna read ads!

    Reply


  5. akhila said on Thursday, November 25, 2010, 14:38

    lol :P

    Reply


  6. Apurva said on Thursday, November 25, 2010, 15:31

    Brillant Asad…Loved this one…Even i know many people who are killing themselves….

    Reply


  7. Asad said on Thursday, November 25, 2010, 15:40

    @ Apurva… I feel honoured… but, This was written by Aymen :P

    Reply


  8. Aymen Mohammed said on Thursday, November 25, 2010, 15:53

    Confused with the Muslim names, eh?
    Whatte a shame, I say!

    Reply


  9. Anjuli said on Thursday, November 25, 2010, 17:39

    this one is awesome …
    one of my frnd has taken Correspondence course frm 3 Coachings..

    Reply


  10. deven said on Thursday, November 25, 2010, 18:42

    well said…aymen!!!…well said..hahaha…gk isnt a monster after ol..

    Reply


  11. Zacarias said on Thursday, November 25, 2010, 19:36

    dude…..u guys all of u guys preparing fr tha clat.check clathacker its this blog thing…..if u want to see guys killing themselves with prep…that’ll fit the bill :p

    Reply


  12. Karthik Suresh said on Thursday, November 25, 2010, 20:27

    I have only one comment to make.

    You can be a law schooler without specifically preparing for GK.

    Reply

    Atulaa Reply:
    June 15th, 2011 at 6:56 PM

    This is a rare one. With your real name and all.

    Reply

    Aymen Mohammed Reply:
    June 16th, 2011 at 1:07 AM

    Hehe

    Reply


  13. Tania said on Thursday, November 25, 2010, 20:33

    i loved this post! Monster…ROFL!!! way to go aymen!!!

    Reply


  14. Veena said on Thursday, November 25, 2010, 21:08

    Kindly let me know what supplements are?

    Reply


  15. Manasi Gandhi said on Thursday, November 25, 2010, 21:10

    Ok, this is for everyone who is scared of GK. Till 6 weeks ago, I thought the capital of Bihar was Bhopal. (Yes, Nishant, I admit it in public). But today, I’m a first year student at NALSAR. I’m not saying don’t do GK, but don’t make it your life. You will survive. Trust me on that.

    Reply


  16. ABHAY said on Thursday, November 25, 2010, 21:50

    :)

    Reply


  17. Aymen Mohammed said on Thursday, November 25, 2010, 22:48

    Karthik and Manasi – you can try telling’em that they’ll survive, they will, for sure. But that is because your perception of GK as of now is “GK”. Imagine, Manasi, that one of the aspirants come and tell you that he has “heard” (their hearing abilities are profound, I tell you, one of them “heard” that the Subrahmanam Swamy was going to “try” A. Raja, had it not been for his minister status!) that chopping forests is necessary, nay, compulsory for the development of the country. GK is necessary.

    Personally, I believe that as a Law school student – you must know the bare minimum about something and everything. Law is, after all, all pervasive. I remember a friend in LST telling me that she has “heard” (and again!) that sex is forbidden in Islam! Wonder how “my people” are the second largest population in the world, and stereotypically have a minimum of 6 kids!

    Minimum awareness is necessary (includes knowing the capital of the state that provides your state with cheap labor and taxi drivers, inter alia).

    @Veena – If you are an LST student, you’ll know. If you visit the website regularly, you’d know. If you are new – please check the “Doses” and “Supplements” categories under “General Knowledge”.

    Reply


  18. Rishabh A. Gupta said on Friday, November 26, 2010, 2:12

    @apurva:- hey, How did you station ur d.p.?? indeed, damm inquisitive to know, ha ha ha !!!!! :D

    Reply


  19. Apurva said on Friday, November 26, 2010, 9:50

    @Rishabh – Good thing you pointed out, I just noticed it….I myself don’t know why am I the only one here who has a DP … :P Asad?

    And sorry for messing up with the names…. I felt the article had a little “Asad” feel to it…

    Reply


  20. sanchit gupta said on Friday, November 26, 2010, 11:13

    hey@apurva how did ur dp appears??

    Reply


  21. Asad said on Friday, November 26, 2010, 20:51

    Apurva’s pic appears coz he’s registered on Gravatar.com and is also signed in on that site while posting the comments on CG.

    Reply


  22. lakshmi dwivedi said on Friday, November 26, 2010, 21:54

    hey i`m going to give clat in 2012..so if i take care of current affairs from next year like jan 2011..will it be fine…ki abhi se?

    Reply


  23. Asad said on Friday, November 26, 2010, 22:30

    @ Lakshmi… start from now itself… you’ll enjoy it once you get the flow… there will be times where you’ll not survive without a newspaper… :P Do the Editorial sections for sure along with the normal news.

    Reply


  24. Anjuli said on Friday, November 26, 2010, 22:31

    @lakshmi ….dear u never noe wid 2012 ‘s pattern …..
    Every yr …the committe comes up wid sumthing new…!!!

    Reply


  25. Aymen said on Saturday, November 27, 2010, 0:02

    Lakshmi – I started in my 11th as well. But there was nothing heavy-loaded that I did.
    I read the newspaper religiously (sometimes spending an hour and a half), you should too. Do a few books that don’t bore you – for example, Norman Lewis.
    Besides that I’d also suggest you work hard for a subject that you are otherwise clueless about – for example, Math or whatever.
    Follow the website’s GK, and it’ll do you a lot of good.

    Reply


  26. Padmini said on Sunday, November 28, 2010, 12:33

    Seriously well written. You’re right, editorials do get addictive after sometime…you know you’ve cebome insufferable when you actually start disagreeing with N Ram!

    Reply


  27. sabika said on Monday, November 29, 2010, 17:45

    seriously nice post. i am also in 11th. plus a PCM combination victim. :-D … i am trying to start reading newspapers religiously ( till now, i read the comic section religiously :-P ….won’t help)

    Reply


  28. riS.aXe.Han said on Thursday, December 2, 2010, 1:39

    Take interest. Don’t ”study”, instead “learn”.
    AGREE,,,fantastic stuff..

    Reply


  29. aDARSH said on Thursday, December 2, 2010, 11:27

    Dint like the post……….only liked “learn instead of studying”…..nice words na..

    Reply


  30. abhay said on Friday, December 3, 2010, 15:30

    i guess the above lines—–Hlo aymn, Im doin epw, hindu, toi, outluk, fntline, lst spplements, sriram spplments, ims modules, cg mdules, pd, csr, csc, n few oder buks,lyk pearsons, universal, lexis nexis shd it b enuf….. were SAID BY ME TO AYMEN??

    Reply

    Aymen Mohammed Reply:
    December 3rd, 2010 at 6:50 PM

    Abhay, no, they weren’t.

    Reply


  31. abhay said on Monday, December 6, 2010, 15:06

    ok :P

    Reply


  32. Atulaa said on Friday, December 10, 2010, 16:35

    To be fair, its only natural to be apprehensive about the GK section, especially seeing how the questions tend to be a little.. arbitrary at times (I’m basing this on the LST mocks). Its hard not to stock up on GK guides and such.

    But ahaha, this is a gem. Very well-written indeed. In The Hindu (and Wikipedia) I trust!

    Reply

    tanmanenator Reply:
    February 14th, 2012 at 1:04 PM

    Still trust Wiki?
    The forbidden source?

    Reply


  33. keshav said on Monday, December 13, 2010, 4:34

    keep posting such suggestions very often…….it completely reduced my tension and i m feeling very fresh now….i think i can study(not study,i can learn) for hours now…….thanx…

    Reply


  34. » Current GK: Why are you worried? & GK Compendium – 13 » CLAT Gyan | CLAT Legal Aptitude | CLAT Logical Reasoning | CLAT General Knowledge said on Tuesday, December 28, 2010, 18:34

    [...] of my older articles already deal with the details of GK prep: click here & here (both deal with what to do and how to do [...]


  35. Deepthi said on Tuesday, March 29, 2011, 9:48

    Okay great article! :) I just googled up “GK! Help!!” and viola look what turns up! :)
    But as Atulaa pointed out LST mocks do ask a lot of arbitrary questions! It’s hard to weed out what’s important and what’s not. I mean you know where the CRPF personnel were killed but nooooo! (Dantewada) They ask you which village was it from! *grumbles* (For the record 3 km from Chintalnar village)

    Well here’s me hoping that somebody comes out with another catchy song like We Didn’t Start The Fire covering current affairs.

    Reply

    Abhinav Reply:
    March 29th, 2011 at 2:58 PM

    Lets hope they don’t ask us of Kanu Sanyal’s birth place in the next mock.

    Reply


  36. Aditi said on Wednesday, April 20, 2011, 3:06

    HAHAHA! you guys are funny!

    Reply


  37. Anmary said on Friday, April 22, 2011, 22:02

    i tot universal was btr dan lexis…bt i do ‘ve to agree tat dre r a lotta mistakes in universal’s answr key…

    Reply


  38. Nilambari Solanki said on Sunday, April 24, 2011, 18:44

    I just have to comment on this !!!
    This is one of the BEST thing’s i have ever read , and trust me i have read thousands and thousands of books , I am still rolling on my chair laughing my arse off !!!
    BRILLIANT POST !!
    Makes me see CLAT in a completely different angle !! :) Thanks a lot ! :)

    Reply


  39. De Sandipan said on Monday, April 25, 2011, 17:06

    Well his birthplace is of considerable importance given that the entire ultra leftist movement in India, first starting from Bengal, had its origins therein and gets its name from there. Naxalbari is the place. District of Jalpaiguri. West Bengal.
    Remember curiousity – why are the Naxals called so?
    Well that’s the reason.
    Oh and I am not leftist.

    Reply


  40. Sarthak said on Monday, May 16, 2011, 17:13

    They say that curiosity killed the cat. They lie. Stay curious.

    The hottest one-liner I’ve heard in a long time :D
    *bows*

    Reply


  41. shruti pandey said on Saturday, August 27, 2011, 13:06

    well written!!

    Reply


  42. Sam said on Saturday, August 27, 2011, 13:19

    What exactly is wrong with reading TOI, instead of Hindu? It seems to cover more news, too.

    Reply


  43. Gopika said on Saturday, August 27, 2011, 14:21

    Hey, Really nice!…Its definitely a good thing to start gk prep early but u do tend to forget it by the time clat actually looms near. So try to get compendiums frm ur coaching institute( mine provided excellent ones) as well as cg ones bcos finally those are the only ones you are going to be looking at!

    Reply


  44. rashmi shukla said on Sunday, August 28, 2011, 0:14

    LOL loved this post! and it’s not at all offensive it’s straight forward and blunt :P  
    and i was so happy after reading most of the steps that i myself do :D  
    keep posting things like this
    P.S. do post something like this on maths :-s 
    need some motivation desperately 

    Reply


  45. shreya said on Sunday, September 4, 2011, 18:40

    but gk is difficult…I have been reading newspapers but magazine reading is not regular…my school drives me crazy with at least three tests a week…don’t know how to cope up!

    Reply


  46. ankita said on Friday, September 9, 2011, 19:28

    really good article.
    just the sort of thing you need to wake up.

    Reply


  47. paridhii said on Saturday, September 24, 2011, 0:48

    lol…I’m glad i read this post, because it seems like I have been doing everything you just explained not to. Long way to go I see :P

    Reply


  48. ekakshra said on Monday, September 26, 2011, 19:00

    thanks a ton. great post. can i please know what supplements are being referred to. And how is news n events as a monthly magazine? and might sound absurd but im sorry isnt lexisnexis a company? or do they have books for legal reasoning? Thanks.

    Reply


  49. priyanka said on Sunday, November 6, 2011, 20:22

    hey listen up!! i am doing engineering…and its hell!! i wanna do law..i had written clat..bt i dint get the coll i preferd…so am gonna write again nxt yr…and i sooo wanna get into nlsiu..till january no way i can prepare for clat becoz of the sem exam n stuff…will 2 months be enuf??

    Reply


  50. dilip said on Tuesday, December 6, 2011, 19:33

    good job Aymen.
    And Sandipan – waiting for your next post. :)

    Reply


  51. mockshda said on Wednesday, December 7, 2011, 19:06

    seriously? are people actaullly mugging that much up? is that even possible? :/

    Reply


  52. JAGRUTHI said on Tuesday, January 17, 2012, 19:16

    I liked your suggestions

    Reply


  53. Arushi said on Sunday, February 26, 2012, 13:54

    Hello Asad,
    how can I contact you??

    Reply

    Aymen Mohammed Reply:
    February 26th, 2012 at 7:22 PM

    asad@clatgyan.com

    Reply


  54. Kirtita said on Saturday, April 7, 2012, 17:08

    what is the name of the book by lexis nexis????? is there any book of that publication  for reasoning also???? 

    Reply


  55. Ashutosh said on Tuesday, April 17, 2012, 19:42

    Brilliantly put!

    Reply


  56. Raj said on Tuesday, May 1, 2012, 21:13

    Instead of cramming up GK if we just try to LEARN about what’s happening around us(Current Affairs) then it will be a lot easier….man and i realized it today :/

    Reply


  57. Shrutica said on Thursday, May 17, 2012, 8:00

    Lexis Nexis’s which book ..i am very scared of gk , that is the only prt i lag behind =( 

    Reply


  58. Sumana Bose said on Tuesday, July 10, 2012, 17:17

    Rakshabandhan event in Jalandhar and other territories are set for the true celebration. The colors are brighter, and the tempo is even more enchanting, for RakhiWorldWide.com gift collections are on the way for you. The link at http://www.rakhiworldwide.com/rakhigifts/send_rakhi_to_Jalandhar.asp provides the details.

    Reply


  59. Prakash said on Wednesday, July 11, 2012, 10:04

    I often wonder how candidates run around to prepare for ‘GK’. Students, GK is not any other subject where memorizing and cramming will help.Just read one standard newspaper and a magazine with interest.Try to link whatever is similar or connected. That’s all.At this rate of information flow I shudder to think what will happen in another ten to twenty years.Good luck to all of you.

    Reply


  60. jaya said on Wednesday, July 11, 2012, 16:55

    hello asad and aymen!!
    i red the post it was really good :)
    i am taking drop for clat so i need yor help, plz help me to know the ri8 way of studying specially for a PCM victim ;)

    Reply


  61. do said on Saturday, July 14, 2012, 1:31

    do the dew gk

    Reply


  62. Ashita Rastogi said on Monday, July 23, 2012, 20:48

    Hi Asad and Aymen,
    Thankyou for the post. Was really really helpful.
    Just, one thing I want to ask, are we required to mug up the static Gk aswell? I mean, like the history, science GEOGRAPHY part of it?

    Reply

    Ashita Rastogi Reply:
    July 23rd, 2012 at 9:01 PM

    And, what exactly are supplements?

    Reply


  63. shivam singh rajpoot said on Monday, July 23, 2012, 21:12

    Ironicaly rude.:-):-D

    Reply


  64. Siddhant said on Thursday, August 9, 2012, 22:39

    Hi…i am a victim of PCM…i read the newspapers regularly but cant cover the magazines…so are they important or skipping a magazine or two will do??? this is because our school holds tests every now and then and it becomes very difficult to cope up…and isnt lexis nexis a company??? which book should i purchase???

    Reply


  65. Siddharth Bhardwaj said on Monday, August 20, 2012, 21:35

    “..long and a BIG pains in strange places”
    You sir just earned the highest degree of my respect.

    Reply


  66. Harsh Anand said on Saturday, September 8, 2012, 22:24

    sir, i think thr was one article posted abt how to start prep for clat posted sometime in july at the same with tis post n i m vry sure i read it alongwith tis post but m not able to find it now i fear its been del or something n  if indeed thr was any such art on ur website which i m vry hopeful was can u pls retrieve it?thnk u

    Reply


  67. anushka said on Monday, November 26, 2012, 13:02

    should i read competetion in focus for current affairs ?

    Reply


  68. KAZINO said on Friday, May 17, 2013, 5:08

    For newest news you have to go to see world wide web and on web I found
    this site as a finest site for most recent updates.

    Reply


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