Indians have a few national obsessions - Cricket is our national pastime , Engineering our national degree and MBA is our national passport to greatness. Jokes aside every Indian millennial at one point of time or other in their career has thought of doing an MBA. And as every MBA aspirant will tell you, its grueling to say the least.
Indians being Indians, we prepare for everything thoroughly. What does one prepare for while aspiring to join an MBA ? While the entrance examinations focus on English , Maths and Logical reasoning, the interview part is trickier. The average aspirant is supposed to be conversant not only about himself, his dreams , his industry but also about what is going on in the world as a whole.
Managers are supposed to guide industries and guidance takes into account not only internal factors such as what your company is good at, but also external factors such as economic and environmental policies, social and political trends, technology advances and changes in legal requirement. So knowledge of these factors play a huge factor not only in MBA interviews, but also in examinations such as IIFT/SNAP and FMS.
The next question that arises is that how do you prepare for current affairs and increase your general knowledge overall. Being a Quizzer myself , I can tell you that quizzing these days is not the sleepy pastime it used to be earlier. There was a time when buying a Manorama Yearbook and mugging it was enough , along with random musings of the news paper for important topics. Those were the days of Information trickle. But these days pursuit of current affairs is a "Toflerian" nightmare with the surge in "Information Overload". So that still leaves us with the question, how does one prepare for General Knowledge.
Recently I was given access to the GK course of Handa Ka funda and I must say that I quite liked the methodology that Handa has applied to this course. The course has 14 sections each with its own sub-sections bite-sized into 30 minutes worth of reading. So it is easily amenable to a reading schedule of an hour a day (about two topics / day).
The sections are clearly arranged and well compiled. I could see that it had a compilation of most important world events from 2015 to 2017. Most of the important policies that had come around during the same time frame also found mention along with their potential implications. Good thing is that the sections were well rounded and did not just focus on business events such as GST and Economic Survey but also sports events, books, obituaries of important people and various awards. A good reading of topics like these is very helpful in preparing for GDs (By the way there is a separate section with GD specific topics as well)
Then there are individual sections on past questions from various exams such as SNAP ,XAT, IIFT and FMS.
Although I must say that I expected a bit more from the brand section , especially the brand quotient part. Being a trivia aficionado I opened the course with a lot of anticipation, expecting historical tidbits about various brands but was a bit disappointed to see that it consisted only of a list of brands under specific companies.
Overall I found the course to be pretty well researched and good value for money. (Although I got the course for free so my ROI was like that famous line from Vicky Donor - "Investment kuchh nahi , Munafa hi munafa"). Handa has definitely thought through various angles and covered most aspects related to general knowledge. Little touches such as video courses instead of pdfs for some sections also make it easier for the general aspirant to go through the course instead of poring over a drab PDF full of data.
Final Verdict - There are various material available in the market for brushing up on GK, but if you want something comprehensive yet easily readable I would recommend this course
Disclaimer : The author has known Ravi Handa of Handa Ka Funda for a decade now , mainly due to Handa's their common pursuit of Quizzing.
Indians being Indians, we prepare for everything thoroughly. What does one prepare for while aspiring to join an MBA ? While the entrance examinations focus on English , Maths and Logical reasoning, the interview part is trickier. The average aspirant is supposed to be conversant not only about himself, his dreams , his industry but also about what is going on in the world as a whole.
Managers are supposed to guide industries and guidance takes into account not only internal factors such as what your company is good at, but also external factors such as economic and environmental policies, social and political trends, technology advances and changes in legal requirement. So knowledge of these factors play a huge factor not only in MBA interviews, but also in examinations such as IIFT/SNAP and FMS.
The next question that arises is that how do you prepare for current affairs and increase your general knowledge overall. Being a Quizzer myself , I can tell you that quizzing these days is not the sleepy pastime it used to be earlier. There was a time when buying a Manorama Yearbook and mugging it was enough , along with random musings of the news paper for important topics. Those were the days of Information trickle. But these days pursuit of current affairs is a "Toflerian" nightmare with the surge in "Information Overload". So that still leaves us with the question, how does one prepare for General Knowledge.
Recently I was given access to the GK course of Handa Ka funda and I must say that I quite liked the methodology that Handa has applied to this course. The course has 14 sections each with its own sub-sections bite-sized into 30 minutes worth of reading. So it is easily amenable to a reading schedule of an hour a day (about two topics / day).
The sections are clearly arranged and well compiled. I could see that it had a compilation of most important world events from 2015 to 2017. Most of the important policies that had come around during the same time frame also found mention along with their potential implications. Good thing is that the sections were well rounded and did not just focus on business events such as GST and Economic Survey but also sports events, books, obituaries of important people and various awards. A good reading of topics like these is very helpful in preparing for GDs (By the way there is a separate section with GD specific topics as well)
Then there are individual sections on past questions from various exams such as SNAP ,XAT, IIFT and FMS.
Although I must say that I expected a bit more from the brand section , especially the brand quotient part. Being a trivia aficionado I opened the course with a lot of anticipation, expecting historical tidbits about various brands but was a bit disappointed to see that it consisted only of a list of brands under specific companies.
Overall I found the course to be pretty well researched and good value for money. (Although I got the course for free so my ROI was like that famous line from Vicky Donor - "Investment kuchh nahi , Munafa hi munafa"). Handa has definitely thought through various angles and covered most aspects related to general knowledge. Little touches such as video courses instead of pdfs for some sections also make it easier for the general aspirant to go through the course instead of poring over a drab PDF full of data.
Final Verdict - There are various material available in the market for brushing up on GK, but if you want something comprehensive yet easily readable I would recommend this course
Disclaimer : The author has known Ravi Handa of Handa Ka Funda for a decade now , mainly due to Handa's their common pursuit of Quizzing.
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