General Knowledge and Analytical Problem Solving
What to master
Broad awareness of current events, geography, basic science, and civics, plus the analytical skills to break multi-step problems into parts, identify what is being asked, and reason from given data rather than memory.
Traps that appear
- Outdated facts: relying on stale information (old capitals, former leaders, superseded records). Verify whether a fact could have changed.
- Confusing similar terms: mixing up related but distinct concepts (e.g., weather vs. climate, GDP vs. GNP).
- Answering a different question: in multi-step problems, candidates solve an intermediate step and stop.
- Unstated assumptions: importing outside knowledge that the problem does not permit.
- Plausible distractors: choices that sound authoritative but contradict a known fact.
Rule of thumb
For problem-solving items, restate the goal in one sentence, list the given facts, and mark the single unknown. Eliminate answer choices that violate a firm fact before calculating. When a fact is uncertain, reason from what the question provides rather than guessing.
Worked example
A store sells pens at 3 for 10. How many can you buy for 50? Units: 50 ÷ 10 = 5 groups, each giving 3 pens, so 15 pens - not 50 ÷ 3, which answers a different question.