How to Prepare current affairs for UPSC Civil service Exam?
We all know that UPSC Civil services exam is held with 3 stages; and the contents of each stage varies from one another (Objective in Prelims, Written in Mains, Direct interaction in Interview). What doesn't vary throughout the exam is the presence of current affairs. In fact, I call it the Golden Thread connecting all the 3 stages. But 'n' number of aspirants often find it hard to prepare and end up in collecting huge stack of magazines, only to be left unread. In this post, we will encounter upon the strategy that I followed to prepare current affairs (from UPSC CSE Exam perspective) along with trusted sources that worked for me. You can also watch a 7-minute video explaining the same.
Importance of Current affairs in UPSC CSE
It is generally told that 3/4th of the Civils preparation is done through Current affairs. As already said, Current affairs is a part of all the three stages of the UPSC CSE. To wear the hat of an administrator, it is reasonable to expect that a candidate be aware of the current issues - be it regional, national or international.
Every year, a handful of questions find place in UPSC Prelims whose roots can be traced back to the Current affairs. Even the quations from the so-called static subjects as history and geography has traces of current affairs elements mildly hidden in them. Some top institutes say that there were years where current affairs was a significant part of the Prelims paper, that at times reached upto 50%. Thus a sincere aspirant can never afford to overlook the importance of Current affairs while preparing for Civil service Exams.
Trusted sources for Current affairs preparation
The above mentioned mindmap is a summation of the resources that helped me in clearing the Prelims and Mains of 2020. My sources varied depending on the stage of the exam that I was preparing for. As Prelims is objective, I followed InsightsonIndia and also utilised Test series from various institues via reverse engineering. Whereas for mains, I didn't have much time and hence relied on VisionIAS Mains365 booklets coupled with various test series. At both these stages, I didn't read newspaper and that didn't blur any of my opportunities.
My sources are summed up in a Google doc for your reference.
Newspaper for UPSC Current affairs preparation
I acknowledge the fact that I was not a regular Newspaper reader and I frowned upon the habit only after my mains results. For some reason, I always relied upon curated blogs and I was able to complete the current affairs preparation that was exam-oriented. It also helped me during my revisions and I never felt that I was left out in terms of syllabus coverage.
On the other hand, due to irregular newspaper reading, you might lose out on the skill of communication and opinion generation. But this is not a cause of worry as you will have plenty of time to develop it after Mains. In short, you will not lose anything by reading newspapers but relying it as a single source for UPSC Current affairs preparation is highly risky.
Explanatory video:
To know how I prepared current affairs for UPSC exam, watch a simplified video (7 minutes).
Other Related guidance
I would consider myself fortunate if I am able to push your UPSC journey a notch towards the goal. Feel free to leave me a word in the comments section below.
Regards,
Priyanga R Annadurai.
Priyanga R Annadurai.
The Disclaimer!
This article is 100% based on Personal experiences and experiments with UPSC Civil services exams at all 3 stages. Please test them and apply only if it suits you! There is no single foolproof path to clear UPSC examination. Each UPSC aspirant have their own strengths and weaknesses, and only after careful analysis of the same, we could arrive at any conclusions. I let this burden on you and its your responsibility to identify whether the strategies mentioned here suits you. 👈👉
Keywords:
Preparing current affairs for UPSC, Covering current affairs for civil services, Best current affairs magazine for UPSC Exam, Completing UPSC Current affairs in less than 1 hour, Preparing Current affairs of the day for UPSC exam, Sources for UPSC Current affairs, UPSC Prelims current affairs, UPSC Mains current affairs, How many questions UPSC current affairs?, Is there any negative marking in UPSC Prelims?, How many marks are required to clear IAS prelims?, How to increase my marks substantially in UPSC prelims?, Current affairs strategy for UPSC civil service exam, UPSC civil service current affairs, Blogs for UPSC current affairs,. daily nes for UPSC, UPSC newspaper reading.
