Across posts, I have written about current affairs preparation for competitive exams like UPSC. This is a dedicated post for same.

Current Affair Sources

• For both Prelims and Mains, I followed only The Hindu newspaper and Vision Monthly Magazine PDF (downloaded from their site).
• If you religiously read and make notes from these 2 sources, then no other source is required to be read. You can exclude Insights, PT 365, RSTV, PIB, YOJANA, KURUKSHETRA, Other Coaching Materials etc.
• Key is to read mentioned 2 sources, make notes and revise notes 5-6 times.
• These 2 sources will cover 99% of issues and cost benefit of reading other sources and not being able to revise same is very poor! So read less in volume but more in quality.
• Follow RSTV, The Hindu and Times of India for Interview Preparation.

Current Affairs Timeline

• Gone are those days when only 1 years’ current affairs would suffice. Now you need to thoroughly know at least 15 months current affairs for Prelims and 18 months for Mains. Going by recent trends, anything less than 15 months is suicidal.
• 3-4 months current is enough for Interview.

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Important Current Affairs FAQs

• Can you rely on video analysis by various coachings? The answer is a big big NOOOO. Untill and unless you read the mentioned current affair sources and make your own notes, you can’t be guaranteed success. You follow shortcut for the so called toughest exam of the country and you will fall short of final mark 9/10 times.
• Can you just read newspaper and vision magazine and not make notes? The answer again is a big big NOOOO. Course is so huge that you need to revise it 5-6 times to be able to score 450+ in GS. And, revision is possible only if you have notes. Can you revise from 15-18 different booklets in one day? I could revise entire 18 month current affair in half a day between two exams only because i made concise notes.

Notes for Answer Writing

1. I managed 463 in GS in 2017 CSE. Many aspirants make a mistake while trying to get more marks. They try to jump directly to answer writing and skip notes making.
2. I have mentioned before that I used to write 10 points and 15 points for 10 & 15 markers respectively.
3. From where these points will come? Of course from well made pointed notes that are revised about 5–6 times.

How to make notes?

1. Made current notes from The Hindu+ vision monthly.
2. Made notes on MS Word.
3. E-notes help in easy mutations-editing-additions-sorting.
4. As you revise your e-notes, edit them& make them as concise as possible.

Note Making Process

1. Divide content paper wise and topic wise. Example make separate doc for GS-2 IR, GS-2 Policies, GS-3 Science, GS-3 Security etc.
2. For newspaper, you can use hardcopy or online edition. In my last attempt, I read The Hindu online and directly copy-pasted important lines. It saved time.
3. Vision monthly magazine has a time lag of 15 days. So there is no option but to wait.
4. Use different colour for Prelims specific notes/news/facts so that you can identify them separately. No need to make separate notes. Separate notes for Prelims and Mains go against the idea of integration and linkages.
5. Meanwhile, revise your newspaper notes once. This will give you good idea of what news you have in notes.
6. From vision magazine pdf add to your newspaper notes only what’s missing.

Aspirants can download my notes available at this blog and apply above mentioned steps to make their own notes.

Sample Notes based on above mentioned process

• Polity Mains 2017 Notes.
• IR Mains 2017 Notes.
• Economy Mains 2017 Notes.
• TH 9th Feb Notes.
• Environment + Security 2017 Notes.
• Science Mains 2017 Notes.

Also Read, How to Read Newspaper?

ATB