The Journey Is Smooth If You Are Passionate!!

Richa Banka is an alumna of Radio and Television Department, 2013-14 Batch. She had topped the IIMC Entrance Exam among the girls in the country and has received the Gunjan Gujral Scholarship for this. She had also cleared the English Journalism Entrance. A consistent performer in the class, Richa got several job offers through campus placements. She is currently working with PTI.

One of the premier institutes in the country, IIMC was a dream for me. I aspired to come over here by hook or by crook. But like all other students who have applied for IIMC, even I was tense and nervous before the exams. However, the task was made easy by one of my seniors who gave me some useful advice which I would like to pass on to you guys. These advices helped me in topping the IIMC entrance exam for Radio and Television department among the girls in the country and I was fortunate enough to crack the English Journalism entrance as well.

What should be done?

The first and foremost is read newspapers thoroughly. Even the smallest of the news in the newspaper should not be missed out. I would not suggest you to read newspapers all day long because I know it might turn out to be boring. Since we are living in a tech savvy world, the best thing that you can do is to like the pages of the various news channels and the online portals of the newspapers and magazines. So, you get the news alerts and updates as and when they happen and it’s not even boring. I would suggest you to be active on Twitter because that is one of the forums where news generally breaks nowadays.

But when I say that you read the online version of the news, do not miss out reading the stories in the newspapers and the editorials of newspapers like The Hindu, The Indian Express and the Economic Times for the detailed information. Blogs of eminent journalists and analysts may come handy. Be an all rounder and gather knowledge in all fields, be it business –economics, sports, entertainment or politics.

I would suggest you to read magazines like Tehelka, which is my personal favourite, Open and Caravan for a detailed view of every happening in the country. A few days before the exams, I had made a list of around 30 probable topics which might come in the exam and trust me all the questions were from the list that I had made. Get thinking critically and start analyzing every incident as it happens. The questions that you get are all opinion based so think analytically.

From the question paper

The English Journalism paper has a section where one has to answer 10 similar sounding words. But one should not worry much about it and just Google up similar sounding words and take a glance at the list as it’s a scoring area. That is what I had just the night before the exams. Get to know a bit about the technical terms for the Radio and Television Paper as a section in the question paper has 5 technical terms to be explained. Do watch the debates on television (the sensible ones) and get a sense of writing crisp and short.

What should not be done?

The answers should be too the point and should not have jargons. Don’t try to show that you know a lot. Just be simple. Take a stand. Don’t be in doldrums.

Develop your Opinion and stand by it

Last but not the least, make a note of the topics that you think are important including all the fields and chalk out a blueprint of the questions. All the questions are opinion based so try building up news sense and think about the latent meaning of the event. Be familiar with the celebrities and personalities who have been in news, both in India and abroad. For the foreign affairs, stick to The Hindu and also read the Washington Post and The New York Times. Be aware of the developments in relation to India. Do read about the stock market and how Indians have been faring in the global market. For Eg- Rajiv Suri( CEO, Nokia, Satya Nadella etc)

So, to end, take a deep breath, sleep tight the night before and take the exam.  I wish luck to each one f you dreaming to come at IIMC. Just stay calm and rock it!

Short Questions | Why in The News

Rajiv Suri | Satya Nadella | Giriraj Singh | Nitin Gadkari | Jawahar Sircar | Jaswant Singh | Boko Haram | Bappi Lahiri | Misa Bharti | Oscar Pistorious | Ramkripal Yadav | Chirag Paswan | Digvijay Singh | Karan Thapar | Sabir Ali | Azam Khan | Imran Masood | HS Brahma | Amit Shah | Jeetan Ram Manjhi

Broad Questions

1. Is it correct for the journalists to go and join politics? Is it becoming a trend? Are they going to help the society? Is Journalism a forum to enter politics?

2. Do you think that the PR or the publicity of Narendra Modi the sole reason for him getting famous? Is it because of this that there is a Modi Wave in the country?

3. Do you think that the government ruled Prasar Bharti (DD and AIR) needs changes in its policies? Should they be made autonomous entity? Explain in connection to the recent Modi- Interview Controversy.

4. Do you think that the interviews of the Political leaders in various news channels is sponsored or rigged? Give suitable examples to support your answer.


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