Though the terms General Knowledge, General Studies & the General Awareness seem to be somewhat same, they are not. Conceptually, they are very much not alike. While General Studies (GS) means knowledge not only about ‘what’ but also ‘how’ and ‘when’. People who are looking for civil services and IAS exams are suppose to have knowledge in all the range of topics, General Knowledge (GK) means knowledge about wide range of subjects rather then extensive knowledge in particular subject. It about focusing on a single specialized learning about the incident that happened in the past. General Awareness (GA) means knowledge about the present happenings. Mostly, it includes things which are covered in news about national and international affairs, person or place.
Here is a broken down analysis of the subjects:-
General Studies
Meaning of General = broad, common, universal
Meaning of Studies = devote time and attention to gaining knowledge of (an academic subject covering variety of topics), especially by means of books
General + Studies = wide-ranging knowledge attained by complete devotion to books
Definition: A course of study that covers a wide range of topics, like comprehension, which may complement the study in specific subjects .
GK - General Knowledge .
Meaning of General = broad, common, universal
Meaning of knowledge = acts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education
General+ knowledge = widespread or common information acquired through experience or education
Definition: General knowledge is defined by experts as knowledge about a wide range of subjects rather than detailed knowledge of a particular subject. General knowledge mostly excludes highly specialized learning that can only be obtained with extensive training and information confined to a single medium. General knowledge also means knowledge of incidents happened in past.
GA - General Awareness .
Meaning of General = broad, common, universal
Meaning of Awareness = knowledge about a particular situation or development.
General+ Awareness = broad knowledge about a particular situation or development
Definition: General awareness means knowledge about the present happenings. General awareness only focuses on the routine happenings of the news around the world it has nothing to do with the old historic events. Current affairs is the common term which is used in place general awareness for many competitive exams .
