https://nehabhosleblog.wordpress.

com/2020/08/18/covering-current-affairs/

Questions related to the current affairs have a very good weightage in both the
Prelims and the Mains of the UPSC CSE.

While beginning, the first step should be to read and understand the Syllabus. And
the second step should be to go through the Question Papers, of at least the past
five years, of both Prelims and Mains. These two activities will provide a rough
idea of what to focus on while covering the current affairs.

Here is how I covered the current affairs, from both the Prelims and the Mains
perspective:

I read ‘The Hindu’, but I did not make much notes from it. I just noted down some
facts or statistics if they looked relevant, or copied some extracts from the
Editorials if they seemed useful for Mains answer writing. I think the coaching
institutes do a far better job than any student when it comes to making current
affairs notes. Here is the link to my One Note Notebook where I made notes from
the newspaper – https://1drv.ms/u/s!AkLobh72vGnmgjst8bxUkjXDd76g

About two months before the Personality Test, I also started reading ‘The Indian
Express’ and ‘Mint’ apart from ‘The Hindu’.

From the Vision IAS website’s AIR News section, I listened to all the news
bulletins marked as ‘High Importance’, and made some notes from them. Again,
they are not much, but I noted down whatever sounded interesting. Here is the link
to my One Note Notebook where I made notes from the radio news –
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AkLobh72vGnmgRWE-RCNVsrPc15q
From the Rajya Sabha TV YouTube Channel, depending on the topic of discussion,
I watched The Big Picture, Policy Watch, India’s World, Security Scan and
sometimes also the Science Monitor. The videos were watched 2-3 days after the
date of uploading, and by that time, some diligent student would have already
written the important points from the discussion in the comments section, which I
then copy-pasted in my notes Apart from that, I also noted down whatever
sounded interesting. Here is the link to my One Note Notebook where I made notes
from the RSTV news –
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AkLobh72vGnmiRF0HcRw0PWd58rM

The notes I made from the above three sources were read twice before the Mains.

Every month, I read the Vision Monthly Magazine and this was the base material
for my current affairs preparation. I highlighted the important points in the PDFs
and revised them multiple times for Prelims. These Magazines were from 15
months prior to the month of the Prelims. And I also read the latest Vision PT 365
twice before Prelims.

I did not make any current affairs notes from the Prelims perspective.

For Mains, I made quick revision notes from the Vision Monthly Magazines and
the Vision Mains 365. I focussed on statistics, committee recommendations,
judgements and other such data which could add value to the Mains answers.
Because Mains 365 comes only after the Prelims, I made these notes from the
Mains 365 of the previous year. After Prelims, I highlighted the important points in
the latest Mains 365, and revised them multiple times. I also updated my quick
revision notes with any statistics that changed in the latest year. I did not revise the
Monthly Magazines for Mains.

A one-time exercise I had done was to go through the index pages of the Vision
Monthly Magazines and the Vision Mains 365 of the past few years. I noted down
the page numbers of topics that were still in news, and read only those pages
before Mains.

Every month, after reading the Vision Monthly Magazine, I read Insights Secure of
GS 1, GS 2 and GS 3 once. The Secure material only looks big, but it is actually
quite easy to complete if you know what to look for. I would skip any question that
was based on the static portion, anything that was covered by Vision, any question
that seemed too outlandish and any question whose reference article was not from
a neutral source. From what remained, I made notes from the Mains perspective
and only revised those notes.

For Prelims, I read the Rau’s Prelims Compass once. And for Mains, I read MK
Yadav Sir’s QEP PDFs once. These were done only after multiple revisions of the
Vision materials and my notes as mentioned above.

For Prelims, I also read ‘Reports and Indices’ and ‘International Organizations’ by
Shankar IAS, and ‘Places in News’ by GK Today.

For Mains, I also read ‘Supreme Court Landmark Judgements’, ‘Important

Committee Reports’ and ‘Policies’ by La Excellence (can be downloaded free of
cost from their Telegram Channel – https://t.me/CivilsPrepLaEx)

Plus, I read the Summary of the Economic Surveys by Vision (full summary for the
latest year, mainly for Prelims and the summary of only the Volume 1 for the past
three years, specifically for Mains). For Prelims, I read the Summary of the latest
Union Budget by GS Score. And for some areas, I referred to the Gist of the latest
India Year Book by GS Score.

For Mains, I read the GS Score Gists of all the 2nd ARC Reports (can be
downloaded from their website – https://iasscore.in/free-study-material-
downloads/gist-of-2nd-arc-report)
For Mains, I also read the Summary of the NITI Aayog – Action Agenda 2017-18
to 2019-20 by Drishti IAS (can be downloaded from their website –
https://www.drishtiias.com/summary-of-important-reports/3-year-action-agenda-
niti-aayog) and the Summary of the NITI Aayog – Strategy for New India @ 75 by
Next IAS.

I have already uploaded my Current Affairs Notes on:

My Telegram Channel – https://t.me/All_About_UPSC_CSE and

My Google Drive –
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dNQwXCJWWMvOD9NmZ6fs_yn9LF4-
33Hk?usp=sharing

If you cannot find the PDFs of any of the above-mentioned material on the official
websites of those institutes, you can almost certainly find them, free of cost, on the
Websites – https://freeupscmaterials.org/ or https://upscpdf.com/ or the Telegram
Channels – https://t.me/UpscMaterials or https://t.me/UPSC_PDF

The materials that I have read and revised are neither the most perfect nor the most
exhaustive sources to study current affairs for the UPSC CSE. Do please use your
own discretion, and if necessary, do please refer to some other sources as well.

Also, please figure out what type of notes-making strategy suits you and proceed
with the same. I was too lazy to make detailed notes and hence preferred
highlighting. And whatever little notes I made, were made online, on One Note.
And every year, new institutes and sources are going to crop up, but please do not
run after every new material. Sticking to limited sources and renowned brands is
the safest option in my opinion.

All the Best !