We already have said a lot on the importance of reading the newspaper.
In today’s article, we will discuss how to read the business and financial newspapers , who should read these newspapers, and how they are beneficial for competitive exams.

A common practice is observed among competitive exam aspirants; they read daily newspaper, but sideline the business and financial newspapers. Have you ever though how these newspapers add value to your exam preparation? How they help score well? and last but not the least, how you should read these newspapers?

You’ll get all the answers in this post. In almost every exam the questions related to finance and banking industry of the country are asked. So, you cannot simply ignore it. I would say they are a must read for exams like Civil services, banking and management.  

Who should read Financial Newspapers?

Financial fluctuations impact society and are one of the most asked topics in competitive exams . In many exams, the questions related to country’s economy and finance are asked.  Here we have compiled a list of exams in which you will definitely get some questions related to business and finance news.

• CAT Exam: Reading Business and Financial newspaper will help the CAT exam aspirants to crack the Group Discussion. GD is an inseparable part of admission to IIMs and various MBA institutes. And with some advanced information on Financial and business sector that might be a topic of GD, it becomes easy to get a seat in a Business School. 
• UPSC Exam: If you have chosen Economics as an optional subject in UPSC Exam then it becomes essential to read Business or Financial newspapers. However, otherwise also it is important.
• SSC Exam: In SSC Tier II exam the questions related to Finance and Economics are asked in Paper 4 of General Studies. This tells you how important it is for you to read these newspapers.
• SBI and IBPS PO, and Bank Clerk Exams: If you are appearing for banking exams, economic and financial news is of great importance. In SBI PO and Clerk exam, and IBPS exams good number of questions are asked related to banking and financial sector of the country. Knowledge of the latest financial news also gives the right impression of a candidate in GD and interview round for banking jobs.

Why Read Financial Newspapers?

Wondering why a separate financial newspaper when you reading newspaper daily? Know the why’s:

• In many competitive exams like CAT, UPSC and Banking, many questions are asked from economic and financial sector. Having in-depth knowledge of India’s finance and business sector is expected from the candidates in the written exam and in interview.
• Reading finance and business news will help you tackle the group discussion topics related to that.
• It makes you aware of the common banking and financial industry terms like Repo Rate and Reverse Repo Rate.

Do you know that reading finance newspaper is the first advice that you will get from your professors when you enter MBA.  

If you feel that you can get all the business and financial news from your daily newspaper, then let me clear you that your daily newspaper has only 1-2% of news related to business and finance world.

It is not suggested to read The Economic Times or Business Standard daily, but you can read these once in two days but do read it to get the clear vision of the business industry and financial policies of the country.

How to Read Financial Newspaper

There are hundreds of things happening daily in the business and financial sector across globe. The number of pages in these newspapers is enough to show that. Here it is important to know how you should read these newspapers to make the most of the time invested.

Here we are describing the right way to read Economic Times (ET):

• The thumb rule to read the financial or business newspaper for the competitive exam preparation is to read it daily or twice in a week.
• For the Business students, certain sections like the Editorials, Finance & Economics are must to read.
• The first Page of Newspaper has the top stories and several headlines that are continued in the subsequent pages. You can get an idea about the important news from the first page of the newspaper itself. 
• You should look at the articles feature an ‘in-set box’ and read those that are relevant to your exam. Most of the articles are non relevant.

What to Read

Here is the list of main newspapers of Financial and Business sector that offer the right news to the competitive exam aspirants.

• The Economic Times: It is the best newspaper to get all the news related to the economic sector. While reading ET, completely ignore the political news. CAT Aspirants should focus on Market News and for other competitive exams, ET Editorial is important. Nonpolitical articles on the ET view will help the UPSC exam aspirants.     
• Financial Express:  Here we are referring the e-page of Financial Express. To get the right news CAT exam aspirants should read Market, Economy, Industry and Money Page. For UPSC and Bank Exam aspirants both Economy and Money are the ideal reads.
• The Hindu business line: Opinion and Economy pages of this newspaper have the most sorted and valuable information for CAT, UPSC, and Bank exam aspirants.
• Business Standard:  The sub-tab of “Economy” and “Finance” under the “Home” tab is the perfect choice for all the competitive exam aspirants. Bank aspirants and CAT exam aspirants can get additional news from “financial X-ray” under the “Companies” tab.

For a better understanding of banking and financial sector of India, we will advise you to any of the above mentioned newspaper. Here we have done the segregation of news based on the e-paper of the aforementioned newspapers.

Winding it up  

Edmund Burke says, “To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.”  So reading a newspaper just for the sake of reading will not take you anywhere. Newspaper reading should help you frame your opinions on an issue. Make the most of newspapers by making news notes. 

You can stick to your daily newspaper reading practice and add a financial or business newspaper every alternate day.

Happy reading! Don’t forget to drop your comments in the comment box below.