General Knowledge and Current Affairs
The General Knowledge and Current Affairs domain samples a broad field: Sri Lankan and world geography, history, polity, science, economy, culture, sport and recent events. The paper cannot test everything, so it favours facts that are stable, widely reported or linked to a clear concept.
Core rules
- Separate stable from changing facts. The longest river or highest peak is stable; a minister, ranking or match result is not.
- Date-stamp current affairs. Learn an event with its year and source; a fact from last year may already be outdated.
- Link facts to maps and timelines. Place rivers, provinces and countries spatially; place constitutions and treaties chronologically.
- Use elimination. Reject options with impossible dates, wrong capitals or category errors.
- Know Sri Lankan basics: the Mahaweli is the longest river; Pidurutalagala is the highest peak; the President is the constitutional head of state and head of government.
Worked example
Which is Sri Lanka’s longest river? Mahaweli. The reasoning is comparative: Mahaweli is about 335 km and reaches the sea at Trincomalee Bay, while Kalu and Kelani are shorter. “Longest” is not the same as “widest” or “most famous for a barrage,” so those distractors fail on the exact criterion.
Traps
- Using an old current-affairs fact.
- Confusing similar names (persons, districts, organisations).
- Choosing an option because it is familiar, not because it matches the asked category.
- Absolute words such as always, never and only.
- Mixing up “first,” “largest,” “longest” and “oldest.”
Keep a dated one-page update for current affairs rather than memorising unverified lists.