As the notification is out for the SBI PO recruitment 2017, you must be wondering on how and when to kick-start your preparation for the General Awareness for SBI PO 2017. Yes, it is the right time.
In this post, let us constrain our focus to the General Awareness section of the banking exams like SBI PO and IBPS PO. General Awareness is also an integral part of almost all the other banking exams like SBI Clerk and IBPS Clerk.
 How important is General Awareness for SBI PO 2017?                                             Â
  It is one of the most important sections to focus on at this point. Being a vast and diverse topic, it requires a lot of time to improve. Although there is no weightage given to General Awareness in the prelims, a significant amount of emphasis is laid on it in both the mains exam as well as the interview. It is one section where the return on investment for your time is very high, because of the simplistic nature of the questions.
What type of questions are asked in General Awareness for SBI PO 2017?
The questions posed in General Awareness section can be broadly divided into two important categories.
Static General Knowledge:
The answers of these type of questions do not change with time. Almost all the questions that are not related to the current affairs come under this category. These are some topics from which questions are frequently asked:
•   First in the world
•   Inventors and Inventions
•   Capitals and Currencies
•   Rivers, Cities and People
•   Animals, Birds and Wildlife sanctuaries
•   National Flags, Anthems and Independence days
•   Crops and seasons
•   International Borders and their names
•   Important Days in a Calendar
•   Indian and World History
•   Books and Authors
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Dynamic General Knowledge:
These questions will have their answers changing with time. For example, the Prime Minister of a country changes every 5-10 years. Similarly, Olympic and sports records keep changing time to time. Current issues and events will be the central theme of these questions. Going through newspapers and watching news will help you in keeping yourself updated. Some of the frequently asked topics include:
•   Olympics and Sports Records
•   Presidents and Prime Ministers of countries
•   International news
            1.      Calamities like earthquakes, typhoons
            2.   Notable deals signed between countries   Â
            3.   Cities holding summits
•   India’s position in different indices
•   Governmental schemes announced in the last few months
•   Union Budget
•   Latest census.
What are some of the best-followed practices in preparing for the General Awareness for SBI PO 2017?
#1 Reading Newspapers and Magazines:
•   This is one practice that can give you an assured improvement in general awareness. Regularly following newspapers will prepare you for 80% of the dynamic questions. If you are not an avid reader of the newspaper, it is the right time to inculcate this habit.
•   Purchase the latest edition of the Manorama year book and spend time reading it at least 1-2 hours a day. Use this book to get better at the static general knowledge questions.  Â
  #2 Timeframe to be covered:
From the past trends, it is evident that majority of the dynamic GK questions are on the events and issues that took place in the span of 6 months before the exam. Keeping a tab on the events happening in this time span prepares you for a significant amount of questions.
#3 Practicing past question papers of General Awareness for SBI PO 2017:
GK is very vast and diverse, which makes it difficult to cover everything. Having a strategy is a must when preparing for competitive exams. Solving past SBI PO mains question papers help in developing a strategy by exposing the various types of questions. Remember to note down all the important questions for revising later on.
#4 Recent Developments in Banking Industry:
SBI PO is a banking exam. You are expected to know the happenings in the banking industry. The reforms and policies that are implemented by RBI in the recent history is an important topic to focus. The probability of having a good number of questions on this subject is very high.
#5 Subscribe to an online study room:
A good online study room provides daily tests that include various types of questions. They are an excellent source for static GK. Keep answering the daily General Awareness tests conducted by Cracku and spend time noting down the mistakes.
Do check our blog on SBI PO Prelims.
Thnx