3 Easy Steps to IIMC

Sumit Jha is a 2010-11 English Journalism passout. A mechanical engineer by education, Sumit worked for Infosys before chosing journalism as a career. He has been recruited by Reuters in an on campus recruitment.

The first step, to me, is the most important one. Personally, I think journalism is a little more than just a profession. One has to love news and the process of news making. Getting into journalism just because one thinks it’s glamorous or because everyone around you is appearing for various entrance tests is the most fatal mistake anyone can make. Once you have convinced yourself that journalism is the profession that you can excel in, begins the next step.

The second step deals with the actual preparation for the entrance exams. As far as IIMC is concerned, it’s not as rigorous as other prestigious exams like UPSC or Medical or Engineering. One can prepare while working part time or even full time. All you have to do is to keep in touch with the recent news. Since the question paper deals with important events all around the world that have taken place during the last 12 or so month, its advisable that you go through news making events of the past one year. For those who have started their preparations late, a yearly digest that contains important events could serve well.

It’s also important that you know the basics of any issue. In-depth knowledge helps and internet could be a big help in that regard. It’s also imperative that you are well versed with both the sides of any issue. Reading opinion, features and editorials would give you a vantage point and would also help you crystallize your own thinking. So, make newspapers and news portals your best friends till the exams.

The third step deals with putting on paper what you know. Start making list of issues that have made news recently and that’s not very difficult. In fact you would realize that questions would be asked on more or less those same topics which you had considered important. For example, Anna Hazare’s fast, 2G spectrum scam, Bihar assembly election, the upsurge in Middle East, Osama Bin Laden and his killing and the just concluded assembly elections are almost sure to feature on the question paper in one way or the other.

The writing part, however, demands extreme discipline. The questions usually have word limit that ranges from 150 to 200 words. It’s very important to condense all the facts and opinion in that limit. A candidate must start writing at least a couple of pieces everyday on important topics adhering to the word limit. Sometimes more information leads to confusion in writing as one doesn’t know what to write and what to leave out. So, just before you start writing, make sure that you have all the important points in your head.

You can’t include everything you know so cut out the flab by removing points that are not that relevant. Writing practice should inculcate this sense of what is more important and what could be left out. While writing, never go overboard and make sure your points are backed by strong logic and fact so that they do not just hang in the vacuum.

Nine months at IIMC is a lifetime in itself. Hope you get to be a part of IIMC. Be relaxed and confident about your own abilities and preparations.


All the Best
Sumit Jha