General Awareness and Current Affairs
The four pillars
Indian polity - the framing and features of the Constitution, Fundamental Rights and Duties, Directive Principles, the three organs of government, key Articles, constitutional bodies (Election Commission, UPSC, CAG, Finance Commission), and major amendments. Geography - physiographic divisions, rivers and drainage, climate, soils, minerals, and Indian agriculture. History - the national movement (1857, Congress sessions, Gandhian movements, revolutionaries), and modern Indian polity's antecedents. Economy and science - the Reserve Bank and monetary policy, budget terminology, inflation measures, basic physics/chemistry/biology from the school syllabus, plus space and defence missions.
Where candidates slip
- Office-holders change. Any question naming a Chief Minister, Governor, Chief Justice or national coach is only correct as of the exam date; verify these close to the paper.
- Look-alike Articles. Article 32 (writs) versus 226 (High Court writs); 356 (President's Rule) versus 352 (Emergency).
- Superlatives. 'First', 'oldest' and 'largest' answers are frequently mis-remembered; anchor each to a year.
- State versus Centre schemes - note which tier funds and runs a scheme.
Worked example
Which Article empowers the Supreme Court to issue writs for the enforcement of Fundamental Rights?
Reason it out: Part III rights need a guarantor, and Dr Ambedkar called that guarantor the 'heart of the Constitution'. The writ jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is Article 32; the High Court's parallel power is Article 226, which is wider but not a Fundamental Right itself.
Rule of thumb
Build a two-line timeline card per topic - event, year, one identifying detail. Revise current affairs of the last six to twelve months from one monthly digest rather than scattered sources.