A Quick Guide to Prepare Current Affairs for UPSC

When it comes to the UPSC examination, current affairs might be the most essential topic to cover. The challenge, however, with current affairs is its diversity and abundance; no matter how much you cover, you will never know it all. You can read every newspaper you have access to, but still, there will be a couple of questions you will not be able to answer. Therefore, instead of covering everything, you need to focus on knowing as much as you can. That being said, here is how you can prepare for Current Affairs for UPSC.

How to prepare Current Affairs for UPSC?Preparing for current affairs is not rocket science. All you need to do is simplify your process and streamline it. Sounds complicated? -- Follow these tips.

Have limited sources to studyWhen aspirants start preparing, they purchase all kinds of reading material with the hope of grasping more concepts and getting better marks. If you fill your room with various current affairs magazines out there such as CSR, Pratiyogita Darpan, Yojana, and Chronicle, you will never get time to open all of them due to the lack of time. Running after loads of material is counterproductive, so chase quality instead of quantity. Some of the best current affair sources are: • The Hindu • Insights/ IAS Baba/ Forum • All India Radio • InternetTime managementSome people spend three to four hours a day reading every section, subsection, and content. Although newspapers are one of the best Current Affairs for UPSC sources, do not over read them because you won't get time to read other sources. In general, spending two to three hours a day on current affairs is enough. Here is how you can break down your current affairs preparation for each day. • Newspaper: 30-40 mins, every day • Internet: 45 minutes, every day • Revision of last week's issues: weekends • Monthly compilation: month-end

When reading online or from newspapers, make sure that you take down important notes in a separate book. Coloring your newspapers and then referring back to the whole stack of papers won’t be good.

Prioritize the issues

There is a difference between an issue and a piece of news. Both might look the same but issues talk about ideas whereas news focus on incidents. Still, confused? Let's understand it with an example.

If the prime minister talks about $5 trillion economies by 2024, it is news. The prime minister said that he wanted to achieve a $5 trillion economy mark. You need to dig deep and understand the broader issue by thinking like Why $5 trillion? How will it be possible? What is holding back the country's economy?. Here is a simple framework to follow to increase the impact of the current affairs you learn. • Cause: Why is this information a piece of news? • Research: Data, facts, and reports behind the issue • Existing status: What steps are in the current undertaking? • Unbiased research: Pros and cons of the idea • Opinion: What, according to you, would be the best?

Make notes onlineWe live in the era of digitisation, and making hand-written notes is a time-consuming affair. Instead, make use of technology. If you are reading something on your mobile, simply take a screenshot of the news. If on the web, you can take a screenshot or copy-paste the desired information. If you are reading the news on a physical paper, take photos of relevant content and refer back to them later.

Revise and executeIf you follow the above steps properly, you will gather highly relevant current affairs. But, current affairs add up every day and keep on piling up. If you read them once and never refer back to them again, you won’t remember a single thing. It is essential to spare time for revision as well, more of which have been mentioned in the "time management" section. You can also retain the answers by executing them when you do your daily practice sessions. When you specify a couple of lines addressing the issue in an answer, its value will increase tremendously. Another crucial tip is to revise current affairs after completing the static part of a paper.

ConclusionThough you cover all Current Affairs for UPSC that have happened on the planet for the last six months, you won’t be able to recollect it in the exam hall. That's okay because perfect answers for all questions are a myth. Therefore, work smart and write the best answers.

Backing up your data helps you avoid a hefty loss in case of data theft or data loss. Here is a small guide that will help you Learn about Smart PC Backup's.