'Make textbook your Bible'

Shreya Ray / TNN / Feb 12, 2006, 23:39 IST

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When globalisation is economics and tsunami geography, the newspaper's got to be your textbook. In addition to your main textbooks of course.

NEW DELHI: When globalisation is economics and tsunami geography, the newspaper's got to be your textbook. In addition to your main textbooks of course. Between the two and a little bit of luck, you can be assured of acing that social science paper.
The textbook is your Bible, says Volaka Nag, who teaches history to Classes X and XII at Modern School, Barakhamba Road.
She says: "CBSE often picks an excerpt from the book and asks you to comment on it. Even when you get a twisted question you will be able to handle it because you are thorough with the course content."
So a straight question like 'Examine the role of Gandhi in the Indian freedom struggle' could be framed as: 'What is the significance of the period 1919-1947 in Indian history?' or even 'How did the Indian freedom struggle become a mass movement?'."So be careful while reading the questions," adds Nag.

Some of the important topics for Class XII are the period between 1857 to 1947 in Indian history and World War II through the Cold War up to present day.
"Issues like 'war in west Asia' are still ongoing and students need to read newspapers and news magazines and also practise maps," says Nag.
Tania Joshi, who is a teacher in Gyan Bharti School says: "Class X students should remember that they are the first batch under the new course so they shouldn't get a very tough paper. However, there are no previous papers you can refer to, so stick to the textbook."

In geography too, being thorough with the course content, allows you to handle those application-based questions, which as DPS RK Puram teacher Rupa Das says, have become rather frequent nowadays.
"Make sure your concepts are clear as only then will you be able to co-relate topics," she says. For instance, industries and agriculture are separate topics but you could get a combined question on agro-based industry.
Globalisation too is an important topic, so you could get questions like 'Globalisation and its impact on agriculture' or 'Globalisation and its impact on India's trade' for both Classes X and XII.
Mapwork is very scoring, so practise your maps thoroughly, says Geeta Chadha who teaches at Modern School, Barakhamba. "Also go through the statistical diagrams and related questions and go through all textbook questions," she says.
Political science and economics papers, have of late shown a preference for application-based questions say teachers. Most often, questions could test your knowledge of the textbook as well as current affairs.
"In economics, chapters like unemployment and poverty are important since they are so topical. Your newspaper will help you more than the guidebook," says Joshi. In political science, questions like Indo-Pak relations or Indo-US relations, will also involve a knowledge of current issues, adds Joshi.
Also, topics like communalism, casteism and peace initiatives are important for Class X, says Kamava Bopanna, who teaches political science at DPS, R K Puram. Important topics for Class XII are law, liberty, elections and political parties.
"Class XII student should start with the 8-mark questions as they are essay type and then go on to the four and two-markers," she says.

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