CURRENT AFFAIRS sources and approach for UPSC CSE
1. Indian Express (I didn't make detailed notes)
2. VISION Monthly Magazine (last 1.5 years)
3. Raus DNS videos (selectively for polity and economy issues I face difficulty in understanding)
4. Compilation of reports (Shankar IAS magazine)
How to read current affairs for UPSC
● I have seen people spend hours reading multiple newspapers and then reading detailed explanations and watching explanation videos.
● This is a perfect example of information overflowing. And I am very sorry to say but too many coaching centres/websites in the market are responsible for creating this craze for current affairs.
● The amount of time you are putting into current affairs is not going to help you. You must have realised this after seeing this year's prelims paper. UPSC is either asking very prominent current affairs or some very obscure facts that nobody is aware of. Better keep your sources limited and revise them repeatedly.
● UPSC syllabus (both pre and mains) is your ultimate guide to select which news is relevant for your preparation. If you are clueless initially, go through the news items highlighted in daily newspaper analysis of any coaching website ( eg. Insights or Raus).
● I believe you can limit the time that you spend online. I can tell you what I did. I was blessed in one way that I only get 4 to 4.5 hours on weekdays for my preparation.
● Read any single newspaper (I used Indian Express).
● It takes around 1 hour. Initially it may take 1.5 hours but with practice, the time required to read it will reduce. With time issues become repeated sometimes.
● I don't make notes for prelims from newspapers as I don't have time. I read vision monthly and revised it 2 times before prelims. If I don't understand some polity or economy topic then only i used to watch Raus IAS daily news analysis.
● For mains, read thoroughly to understand an issue. Take notes of only expressions/phrases/extra points that you can use directly in your answers. Don't copy facts/figures that are easily available in mains 365.
Vision IAS monthly or PT 365? Which one to use?
● Follow either of any.
● If you are regular, monthly magazines are always better to read at the end of each month. It will also help revising content of each month.
● Picking up PT 365 2/3 months before prelims would be more painful as you have to revise them well at least 2-3 times. (In both the cases I am considering one is reading any one newspaper sincerely for last 1 year)
● For prelims, I used monthly magazines as I had been reading them regularly since the last 1 to 1.5 years. Eg. For the 2020 prelims, I read monthly from June 2019 to August 2020. ( I have revised highlighted portions from these 15 magazines at least 3 times before prelims 2020). For 2022, I studied PT 365 as I only have 2 months of time after coming back from FC (yes, it was extremely painful this time to read and revise PT 365 booklets 3 to 4 times in 2 months 😊).
Revising from monthly magazines before exam day-
● Pick 3/4 booklets at a time. Read and revise the same sections from all of the magazines in a day. For example, Setting a target of revising polity and IR sections from three monthly magazines in a day is a better way of remembering contents than reading each section of a monthly. This problem will not arise for PT 365.
● For mains 2020, I directly used mains 365 and not any monthly magazines. (Minute revisions of mains 365 is not required. Use them for value addition to your answers e.g. Committee names and recommendation/stats/ reports/ diagrams eg EIA steps ). Revise only value added materials before mains.
Limiting the time you spend online-
Reducing the number of online sources you use is the only way to make your preparation streamlined. Choose one or at max two sources( if you are preparing full time) for each subject and revise repeatedly.
Availability of too many resources lured us to look into all of them half heartedly. Please convince yourself that 1 newspaper and anyone monthly magazine is enough if you revised properly.
Any basic standard source will cover most of the things that you will need to clear the exam..
please remember that in UPSC, the prelims cut off is just 46%.
I got only 54.5% (1105/2025) but that was enough to secure 1st rank.
Reading anything that you can't revise later is as good as not reading it in the first place.
~ UPSC CSE Topper.