Current Affairs Preparation
Current Affairs is a very important chunk of Civil Service Exam Preparation. Major themes around the questions asked both in Prelims and Mains are derived from the current affairs. The contemporary events that happen around us, whether international or national, relating to the political system, law, environment, technology and economy are very crucial to understand. Current affairs is also very interesting to read and it makes you more aware of the environment you will work in.
In order to pinpoint what to focus on during current affairs preparation, you must closely analyse the type, format and category of questions asked in the paper. Take out half an hour everyday to go through previous years questions. This will give you an idea on what lines UPSC will put questions before you. Especially in Prelims, this pattern is highly dynamic and hence a thorough analysis of past 7 years papers must be done. Mark out the topics and areas that are asked more than once and note them separately.
With regard to Mains, past 5 year papers must be scrutinised well. There are certain areas like Newly passed laws, Legal debates on Constitutional bodies, Issues related to Human Rights and migration etc which are repetitive themes. It is better if every GS paper is seen separately for this. In the book Answer Writing Manual, I have taken out specific themes in each GS paper to be focused on.
No matter what Coaching institutes tell you to refer or try to ‘predict’ the pattern of paper, your preparation will be fool proof only when you yourself are trailing through the previous papers.
The BASE source of Current Affairs Preparation has to be a standard News Paper. In English, either The Hindu or Indian Express can be read. In this, the Editorial section is very important as issues are discussed in detail. You would observe that for one single issue, people from different walks of life will give different types of opinions. You must read all of them to see the various dimensions of the issue. But your viewpoint should be balanced and reasoned.
The ADD ONS for current Affairs can be Monthly Magazines of any one institute which you feel you can follow in a better manner. Do not run behind multiple compilations. Reading a compilation will ensure that you do not miss out on any relevant news or fact for prelims and will help in revision at the end of the month.
Apart from this, you can read the government publication – YOJANA – which is based on one theme. Several articles are included in it which give the perspective of the government and can be used in an answer.
Online UPSC preparation websites also bring out an Online daily quiz, that will again help you revise the current affairs of the day.
An authentic source for covering current affairs in a short and interactive way is to watch RSTV Debates specially which analyse a particular issue. For media sources, one can listen to Spotlight Analysis on News on AIR which gives you a lot of fodder to be used in the exam.
With regard to Notes, I used to make one pager copy notes of the Important Editorials. This helped me to learn the given information and made revision easier. You may compile these online for your reference. The way to make notes has been explained in detail in my book.
Answer Writing On Current Affairs
One way to revise, consume and understand the issue is to write it down in the form of an answer. Many online platforms will frame a question on the issue in the news. What I used to do is read the article, research about it a little and then frame my response as an answer for the given question. Don’t start doing it from DAY-1, but can be done after going through GS once. This helped me learn a lot through current affairs. This is because any current affair topic is linked to a STATIC topic somewhere. Hence, when you backtrack and try to learn, you are able to cover the issue holistically.
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