By: Dr. Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Sr. Associate Editor, ICN Group
(In the last article, we knew about some good habits for students. Today we will see how to build your General Knowledge, General Awareness and General Aptitude)
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE, GENERAL AWARENESS AND GENERAL APTITUDE ARE DIFFERENT THINGS
NOIDA: These days, almost all the examinations test your General Knowledge, General Awareness and General Aptitude. Even adult people think that these three things are synonymous but they are mistaken. You should start differentiating between General Knowledge, General Awareness and General aptitude.
If you know where the headquarters of BARC is, this is General Knowledge; if you are always aware what is happening around the world, this is general awareness; but it is your analytical ability of looking at various issues from different angles, which is general aptitude. If you want to succeed in a big way, you have to essentially work upon all these three.
Remember, all these three areas need your attention for a sufficiently long time. None of these three skills can be developed in 1 year or so. Start early, say in Class 9 or so. If you start early, the inculcation of these three skills will be effortless. For GK, there are lots of choices but for General Awareness, you should start reading a national newspaper like ‘Times of India’, ‘Indian Express’, ‘The Hindu’; and a magazine of National repute like ‘India Today’ or ‘Frontline’ etc., and if possible, of international repute, like ‘Time’. These days, smart phones provide various applications, which keep on updating the news whole day.
Inculcate habit of reading editorials
I would suggest you all to develop the habit of reading the editorials of newspapers right from class 9. Initially, you will find it boring and difficult. Initially, there will be no regularity; there will be no clarity; the subjects will appear to be useless; but gradually, you will start loving reading the editorials. Remember, the news in the newspaper are written by the correspondents, while the editorials are written by the editorial board of the newspaper, who are specialist in analysing the events from different perspectives, as they are doing so since a fairly long period of time. The correspondents do not possess that much ability to analyse the situation, as they have not practised to do so. The news being published in today’s newspaper will be of no use after 3-4 years while the editorials will improve your analytical abilities forever, even if it relates to any current topic. If you are a student, start this habit and see the results in 1 year only. If you are a parent, encourage your child to read the editorials, telling him the above differences. Don’t compel him. Simply make him realise the benefits of reading the editorials.
In India, normally you take your first entrance examination after Class 12. I guarantee that if you start working on your General Knowledge, General Awareness and General Aptitude from Class 9, all these three will become part of your sub-conscious mind effortlessly within the next 4 years and your chances of success in higher level entrance examination will be greatly enhanced.
(In the next 3 articles, I will discuss about some useful skills to be inculcated by all, specially students and after that, we will turn to the hottest topic of this century – Time Management. I believe that you are enjoying the journey towards the future of your dreams with me. If yes, please stay tuned. Happy G.O.P.T.A.)
Dr. Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Creator & copyright holder of the concept G.O.P.T.A.© is an Author, Certified NLP Lifestyle Trainer, Strategic Interventionist, Corporate Trainer & Motivational Speaker ( http://bit.ly/Signature-Workshops-Sanjay-Kumar-Agarwal ) and recipient of Honorary Doctorate of Excellence (Management) by prestigious Young Scientist University, California, USA. He is Founder of ‘Read, Learn & Earn Movement’ and is popularly known among his fans & followers across the globe as ‘Time and Goal Guru’.
