Purchase 4-5 sets of international affairs guidebooks. Study previous years’ questions thoroughly to understand what types of questions appear most frequently. Some questions lose relevance over time—discard those. While reading 4-5 newspapers online daily, pay attention to which topics are most relevant to current contexts. Save these separately in Word files. Prepare your own suggestions based on guidebook recommendations and various newspaper articles. Create 4-5 sets of suggestions, adding or removing questions at different times. Then study the questions systematically from guides, reference books, and newspapers. It’s best to search for topics on Google. If necessary, type topic names in Bengali for your searches. Google has answers to virtually all international affairs questions. Reading answers from Wikipedia, Banglapedia, and various organizations’ official websites will save time and improve your marks. You can read necessary articles from daily and weekly international pages in newspapers, The Hindu, The Economist, Times of India, and other international publications. Keep a diary with 15-20 names of writers who cover international issues. Write briefly beside each name about what type of subjects they cover—this will be useful when citing sources. Browse the internet for analytical commentary and criticism on various topics. Use these appropriately when answering questions to make your presentation more attractive. Your answer sheet will stand out to examiners if you include various maps, data, charts, tables, reviews, personal analysis, and contemporary relevance. Questions won’t be very predictable, so improving reading habits is essential for success in this section. There’s no need to memorize anything. Read repeatedly, underlining important points. In the exam hall, write in your own words. Try to include at least one quotation, data point, table, chart, or reference on every page. You can use blue ink for these sections. Beautiful handwriting is good, but not essential—as long as it’s legible. You must write very quickly in written exams, so practice writing one page every 3-5 minutes.
Now I’ll discuss according to the syllabus.
Short Conceptual Notes: List what annotations might appear by examining previous years’ questions, reference books, guidebooks, and newspapers. Then Google these topics and read about them online. Along with newspaper clippings, newspaper articles saved in Word files, guidebooks, and reference books. Adding your own analysis at the end of answers in this section will increase your marks.
Analytical Questions: Write as many points as possible in paragraph form. In this section, it’s better to answer questions worth 4+6+5=15 marks rather than one 15-mark question. The first and last paragraphs of your answer should be most attractive. Use blue ink for plenty of quotations. Explain issues from various columnists’ perspectives and draw your own conclusions toward the end of your answer. Include any comments or personal opinions you may have.
Problem-Solving Questions: There will be content about various international development issues, security concerns, trade, treaties, climate change, foreign aid, and other recent important issues, or a particular problem will be presented. Analyze it and write in point form what solutions might exist considering various aspects, including international analysts’ opinions and your own views. There’s no substitute for regular newspaper reading to excel in this section.
This article was published in Prothom Alo.
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