General Knowledge and Current Affairs: Static Pegs and Rolling Files
What to study
General Knowledge in this exam splits into durable static facts and time-bound current affairs. For static, revise Indian polity (Constitution, fundamental rights, Articles, Schedules, amendments), basic geography (capitals, currencies, rivers, mountains), economy (banking, budgets, schemes), science (units, diseases, inventions), and international organisations. For current affairs, keep a rolling 6–12 month file focused on Punjab: state schemes, appointments, awards, sports, and infrastructure. Do not memorise isolated headlines; attach each to a static peg.
Traps
Questions exploit look-alikes: Article 352 (national emergency) vs 356 (President's rule) vs 360 (financial emergency); Ninth Schedule (land-reform laws) vs Tenth (anti-defection) vs Eleventh (panchayats); 'first in India' vs 'first in the world'. Dates and headquarters are common distractors. In current affairs, old facts are recycled with a new name, and 'appointed' is confused with 'elected'.
Rule of thumb
Use a three-pass method: eliminate factually wrong options, then eliminate options that answer a different question, then choose the most specific surviving option. If a current-affairs question names an office, recall the appointing authority and term.
Worked example
Question: Which Schedule of the Constitution contains anti-defection provisions? Options: Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth. Ninth deals with land-reform laws, Eleventh with panchayats, Twelfth with municipalities. The correct answer is the Tenth Schedule, added by the 52nd Amendment, 1985.