How to Prepare for Geography Section of GK?

Geography is one of the most important components of the static GK portion in quite a few entrance exams. It is most relevant in fields such as law and civil services but of moderate importance to management or media fields. Thus while the former block of students must go through it thoroughly, a cursory glance may work with the latter ones.

Students preparing for this topic must prepare on the following topics in detail:
• Capitals of Indian states and major foreign countries.
• Largest, biggest, smallest, lowest or highest lakes, rivers, deserts, mountain peaks or other such natural features.
• Specific geographical terms like peninsula, bay, strait, gulf or fjord and locations of some important ones.
• Agricultural patterns and seasonality on crop production.
• Human made structures like dams, canals, railways, stations, ports, airports etc.
• Rivers, their tributaries and their directions of flow.
• Largest, biggest or most densely populated states, cities or countries.
• Location of important tourist spots or monuments.
• Climatic zones such as torrid or frigid and artificial lines such as the Tropics and the equator or even the time zones.
• National parks and wildlife sanctuaries of India and their location.

Unlike the other major portions in static GK, geography is extremely difficult to study using theory as the primary medium. The best method is to engage oneself using maps. Only four maps need to be explored in detail- India political, India physical, World political and World physical. A natural interest in the subject may take longer to build but an exploration through these four maps sets the tone for rigorous preparation before checking out statistics on any of the standard GK books. In order to engage, the student can also look to solve questions in a quiz manner right at the beginning to get an idea of the kind of questions one needs to seek answers for on a map.