Don't worry! Be happy. :)

Avantika Gupta studied English Journalism at IIMC’s Jammu Campus during academic year 2013-14. She topped the first semester among all IIMC campuses and currently working as a correspondent in English daily Millennium Post.

I know it is getting all crazy in your head right now, about how on earth can you just get into this institute and crack this damn exam! But first things first. Take a deep breath and relax! This is no mount Everest that you gotta climb.

See, it is very very important to just get to know what kinda paper you'd be attempting. And iimc.nic.in is where you'd wanna be right now. Get clicking. See the previous papers.

Easy? Weren't they?

For those who just thought, yaarr... yeh to saara current affairs hai! Kaise hoga?? Just do what you did in the beginning. (Relax!)

Divide the paper:

1. The long 150 words kind of questions.

2. The 10 people in news.

3. The English part.

About the third part, depend on all the English that you've studied in your lifetime. You need to focus on the other two.

In the first part, you need to write what you think. So what you need to practice is discussing about a topic, in roughly 150 words! Not difficult. Read magazines. That's what I did. Magazines help you form opinions. Key point to keep in mind is, don't write too much. Stay to the point. Give examples if you can. No, the examples needn't have big names, they can be general stuff you see aroud yourself. But related, of course! Be vigilant. Know what's happening around you.

Remember to stick to the word limit and be crisp. What kind of an article would you like to read? Well, that's exactly how someone would want your article to be! And ya, please be neat. No, I don't mean that go underlining stuff. Please don't. You'll be writing for a newspaper.

VERY IMPORTANT... You can't avoid the elections. No, you don't need to remember each politician along with his constituency. That'll be a waste of time. All you need is to analyse stuff. Maybe how the 'abki baar modi sarkar' thing got along with the youth. Or how social media worked this time. Even how there was so much below the belt stuff being spoken and also covered by the media. All you need is an 'opinion'.

Now the 10 people part. If you take a look at the names, you have ample number of options. And these people are those about whom we hear everyday! You don't need to dig into the newspapers all through the day. Just know who is the point of discussion or should I say, 'the talk of the town'. And yaar, you need to write only 2 lines! So chill.

All the very best! Clear the written part. And then we'd all be here to give all our gyaan for the interviews too! You can contact me for further queries: avantika0312@gmail.com