General Knowledge (National & International)
VIBGYOR for Rainbow — Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red—remember spectrum order; also helps recall visible light wavelengths from shortest (380nm) to longest (750nm) for science questions.
UN Organs: GASTEC — General Assembly, Administrative Tribunal, Secretariat, Trusteeship Council, Economic & Social Council, Court (ICJ)—six principal organs of United Nations quick recall.
Mahatma Gandhi's 3 Monkeys — See no evil (cover eyes), Hear no evil (cover ears), Speak no evil (cover mouth)—represents Gandhian principle of non-participation in evil deeds.
Indian Nobel Laureates: TRAK-RS — Tagore (Literature-1913), Raman (Physics-1930), Amartya Sen (Economics-1998), Kailash Satyarthi (Peace-2014), Ramakrishnan (Chemistry-2009), Subramaniam Chandrasekhar (Physics-1983).
Himachal Pradesh General Knowledge
HP Border States: PUJH — Punjab, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir (now UT), Haryana—four states touching HP boundaries (plus Tibet internationally).
HP Formation: 5 States Before Statehood — 1948 (Chief Commissioner's Province), 1950 (Part C State), 1956 (Union Territory), 1966 (after Punjab reorganization got current area), 1971 (became 18th state on January 25).
Major HP Rivers: BRSC — Beas, Ravi, Sutlej, Chenab—four major rivers flowing through Himachal Pradesh, all tributaries of Indus system.
HP Districts by Altitude Memory — Lahaul-Spiti (highest, coldest), Kinnaur, Shimla, Kullu, Mandi, Kangra (largest area & population), Hamirpur, Bilaspur, Solan, Sirmaur, Una, Chamba—12 districts total.
Hindi and English Language
FANBOYS Conjunctions — For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So—coordinating conjunctions connecting independent clauses in English grammar; memorize for error spotting.
Sandhi Types: SVVY — Swar Sandhi (vowel), Vyanjan Sandhi (consonant), Visarga Sandhi (visarga :), three main types in Hindi sandhi rules.
Active-Passive Voice Trick — Subject-Verb swap: "Ram eats rice" becomes "Rice is eaten by Ram"—object becomes subject, add 'by' before original subject, verb takes helping verb form.
Common Muhavare Pattern — "Aankhon mein dhool jhonkna" (deceive), "Haath dhona" (wash hands off)—body-part idioms often mean metaphorical actions, not literal.
Reasoning and Numerical Ability
Divisibility by 11 — Alternating digit sum: if (sum of odd-position digits) minus (sum of even-position digits) equals 0 or multiple of 11, number is divisible by 11. Example: 121→(1+1)−2=0.
Blood Relations Quick Code — Mother's/Father's side: maternal/paternal; siblings' children: niece/nephew; your children to siblings: niece/nephew; parents' siblings: aunt/uncle; diagonal generation skips add "grand" or "great".