General Studies, Current Affairs and Aptitude
This domain is the scoring floor of the paper. It mixes static general knowledge, a current-affairs window, and numerical and logical reasoning. Accuracy on easy items matters more than attempting hard ones.
Static core
The Maharashtra polity and machinery, state schemes and institutions, state geography, national civics and constitutional bodies, basic science, and the social reform tradition of Phule, Shahu, Karve and Ambedkar. Expect questions that link a reformer to an institution or a scheme to a department.
The current-affairs window
Roughly the preceding twelve months: state budget announcements, newly launched or renamed schemes, appointments, awards, sports results, major judgments and legislation. Read only official or established sources, because scheme names are frequently revised and a remembered old name becomes a wrong option.
Aptitude toolkit
Percentages, ratio and proportion, averages, profit and loss, simple and compound interest, time and work, speed and distance, basic mensuration, and data interpretation from tables. Reasoning covers number and letter series, coding-decoding, blood relations, syllogism, seating arrangement and direction sense.
Worked example
A block has 1,200 scheme beneficiaries, of whom 45 per cent are women. Next year the number of women beneficiaries rises by 20 per cent while the total stays constant. How many women beneficiaries are there? Reasoning: women now equal 0.45 x 1200 = 540. A 20 per cent rise gives 540 x 1.20 = 648. The distractor 540 + 240 confuses percentage points with percentage increase. Convert the percentage to a fraction first, then multiply once.
Traps that cost marks
Quoting current affairs from unverified forwards; confusing similarly named schemes such as central and state pensions; treating a percentage increase as an addition of the same number; ignoring units in speed and mensuration problems; over-attempting reasoning puzzles and losing time on certain marks.