UPSC civil services examination is famous for its vast portion and toughness. Aspirants find it really difficult to cope up with all the study material and current affairs both at the same time.
Often they are clueless as to How to read a newspaper? And what to memorize from the current affairs?
As current affairs is an undefined part of the Syllabus, it becomes very vague for one to prepare. Nevertheless, with the right sources and tricks, you can easily cover your current affairs and the rest of the syllabus.
From where you should prepare for UPSC current affairs?
- You can prepare for UPSC from newspapers like The Hindu and Indian express.
- Online education portals that help the UPSC aspirants with daily current affairs.
- You can also purchase books that have Yearly compilation of important current affairs.
- Rajya Sabha Tv and PRS India are other good sources for current affairs preparation.
Tips on how to prepare for the UPSC CSE current affairs?
Past papers- It is quite obvious, that every UPSC aspirant has to refer to the previous questions asked by UPSC on current affairs. This will give you an idea as to what is UPSC actually focusing on a piece of news. Analyse the past papers draw a pattern in which the current affairs questions have been asked and study accordingly.
Issues and not news– Often aspirants waste their time in memorizing the exact figures. Well, this won’t help you. UPSC focuses on the issues and not the exact news. Now if you are confused about the difference between the two? Then let us tell you that news focuses only on the incident that has happened recently while the issues are covering the idea, the details of the organisation regarding whom the news is about and the implications of it.
Learn to make notes– Many online education portals have made this job easier for you. You can either download their notes to keep a track of the current affairs section or make notes of your own.
Notes will help you during revision time.
Read and revisit– Often aspirants are asked to cover current affairs of last 3-4years. However, it is not necessary as remembering them becomes a task. You can cover the current affairs of around 1-1.5years. A smart way to shrink down the content for preparation would be tracking the repetitive news.
For example- If IONS (Indian Ocean Naval symposium) has been in news for a quite long time, chances of UPSC asking a question on it is very high.
Simply note down the current affairs who have been in the news for quite a long and revise them constantly.
Now that you have known the sources of current affairs and how to prioritize from the ocean of news.
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Let us tell you, how to understand and easily memorize current affairs?
Study the reason – Whenever you are reading the headline of news, try to understand the reason behind it. You must know why this news is in buzz lately.
Background knowledge– Even though the newspaper does not specify the background detail. You can find those online. You must know the origin year of any organization, under which ministry it is and what its functions are.
Current data- Now after you have known the past data and news, you must know about any new progress on it. Like what did the government do about it so far?
Pros and Cons– While you are preparing the current affairs, you cannot limit the preparation to UPSC prelims. These current affairs can be even repeated in UPSC mains exam. The short span of UPSC mains does not give much time to the aspirant to revisit the old current affairs again. So while you are reading the newspaper you can also draw the pros and cons of the situation for better understanding.
Suggestions- If you analyse the past papers of UPSC mains, they ask the candidate to list down their suggestions on the current scenario. If you prepare for this in the very beginning it will be much easier for you while revising during the mains preparation.
Final getaway!
The probability of UPSC asking current affairs question is very high. There is no chance you can skip this during your preparation. One has to juggle it along with the other subjects.
As it is difficult to remember the details of current affairs. Make sure you read and revise the old current affairs constantly. Also, for better preparation of current affairs, enrol in the mock quizzes specially designed for it.
The robust and nerve-wracking time of UPSC current affairs preparation could be much easier with these tips.
Thank you.