Current affairs play an essential role in the civil services test, as numerous questions from this area are asked at every stage. It’s advisable to have a plan in place to prepare for the section on current events. But first, look over and examine the previous year’s question papers to get a sense of the types of questions commonly asked in the current affairs segment.
Tips to Read Current Affairs to Ace Your IAS Examination
Below are some tips for reading current affairs and excelling in your IAS exam:
1. Don’t Overlook Basics
An applicant should first gain a thorough understanding of the civil services test syllabus and make a list of courses such as Economics, Security, Society, Science and Technology, Environment, Politics, and International Relations. These disciplines should be further separated into subtopics. For example, economics includes subtopics such as food processing, infrastructure, investment models, inclusive growth, and so on. Similarly, international relations has topics about bilateral relationships with significant countries such as the BRICS, WTO, SAARC, etc.
2. Always Take Notes
When reading newspapers on various subtopics, we should take notes simultaneously and revise them frequently. In the preliminary exam, facts will be useful, but connecting news with multiple subheadings and analysing it will help you build your perspective for the Mains exam. The interview stage requires this overall approach.
3. Pay Attention to What’s Important
The newspaper contains much irrelevant information. The aspirant should avoid news about political parties and their conferences, stock market details, entertainment columns, sports news, and other regional news, among other things. However, if you are considering talking about sports or entertainment as a hobby in the interview, you must be aware of relevant current events.
4. Examine the Time Allocation
Only the necessary news articles must be thoroughly read. However, make sure you don’t spend more than an hour reading newspapers. Within two hours, you should have finished reading the daily news. Beginners may take a little longer at first. During the week, however, limit the time to a maximum of two hours per day. Make sure you revise your notes at least once during the weekend. Then, at the end of the month, go over your monthly readings for a quick review.
5. Go Through the Sources
BYJU’s Exam Prep has some of the most valuable resources for UPSC’s current affairs preparation. These resources can help you form an opinion and increase the horizons of knowledge, which will be highly beneficial throughout your IAS exam. We summarise the key aspects of these sources so you don’t have to devote an entire day to learning about them.
6. Keep Revising the Current Affairs
Revision is incredibly crucial for current events. While the static element of the curriculum is definite, current affairs are dynamic and change daily. As a result, if you haven’t constantly been revising, it will be exceedingly difficult for you to look up current events towards the end of the year for an entire year. Therefore, stay updated with current events regularly on BYJU’s Exam Prep so that you don’t lose sight of them. Please include them in your answers and make references to current affairs wherever feasible.
Conclusion
You should research current events, take notes, and study every day, but only revise everything on weekends. Only learning current events will not help you pass the IAS exam; you must strike a proper balance while studying for the exam.
To keep your answers concise, it’s helpful to practise making direct, to-the-point notes. This will speed up your writing and allow you to include more information in your exam answers. With more information being published in shorter bursts, you’ll need a strong vocabulary and other skills that you develop once you start reading the newspaper.