In the UPSC examination, the Current Affairs section tests candidates on their knowledge of social, financial, and political developments. Keeping up-to-date with the latest developments on a daily basis is the best way to prepare.
Preparing for the General Awareness section can be made easier with daily, weekly, and monthly Current Affairs for UPSC exam requires a great deal of dedication and proper revision.
Current Affairs Syllabus for the UPSC exam
Current Affairs for UPSC is mainly divided into:
- National affairs: This covers news about polity and governance, national security, the judiciary, Indian art, culture and heritage, social issues, the index plan, and policy defence.
- International affairs: This covers Indian foreign policy, international relations, India’s bilateral relations, international organisations, reports, surveys, and indexes on bilateral, regional, and global groupings, United Nations, WTO, WHO, international trade, treaties and agreements, and more.
- Political affairs: This covers the most recent updates about Indian and international politics, including news on top politicians, elections, polls and other political developments.
- Economics: This covers the economy, infrastructure finance, banking awareness, agriculture and allied sectors, labour and employment, organisations survey, index, budget, plan, policy, and education.
- Sports: This covers news about sports, games, competitions, trophies, and other developments related to sports.
- Science and technology: This includes news about new technology, biotechnology, health, and diseases.
A step-by-step guide on how to read the newspaper
- Prepare an outline of the total schedule and find out the requirements for the UPSC CSE—both Prelims and Mains. Review the previous year’s question papers.
- Find out what articles are important and what papers or subjects they relate to on the syllabus.
- Consider reading editorials and summarising the issue in your own words. Develop a repository (theme-wise) of such summaries to develop a holistic view of the issues.
- Look at both sides of the coin. Many articles are biased or focus on certain aspects of an issue. By reading the newspaper every day, you will eventually come across a variety of articles about the issue. Never forget that nothing is absolute and that there are always alternate viewpoints.
- Develop your own insight. Your daily newspaper reading should serve this purpose. Once you have studied for a few months, you will be able to critically examine news articles and come up with your ideas and suggestions.
Importance of studying Current Affairs
Studying Current Affairs has a few advantages.
- This helps you gain a deeper understanding of national and international issues, events, and people
- Helps you stay well-informed about developments in India and around the world.
- Its broadens your perspectives and gives you new insights.
- This can help you study for competitive exams such as UPSC/IAS, Banking Exams, SSC Exams, and Current Affairs to improve your score.
Also Read: 6 Tips To Cover CA Foundation Syllabus And How To Check The Syllabus
Tips to prepare for Current Affairs in the UPSC exams
CSAT and General Studies are the two UPSC tests. You can prepare for UPSC Prelims and Mains by practising Current Affairs questions with BYJU’S Exam Prep. UPSC IAS Prelims contain 22-18 questions on Current Affairs. If you prepare for this section completely, you will receive a perfect score. Below are some expert tips to prepare for Current Affairs for the UPSC exam:
- Keep your notes brief and to the point, and organise them according to topic and date for faster revision.
- Keep an eye on current issues by writing every day instead of memorising information.
- GK updates from previous years and this year are easy to remember since the subject is so wide.
- In order to prepare for current affairs questions, it is very important to choose the right platform. Exams administered by the UPSC emphasise answering questions accurately about current events.
- Rather than focusing on just the news, it is important to understand the issue. It will be easier to grasp and remember it
Current Affairs refers to any events or issues that are currently in the news, both national and international. Among the topics covered in Current Affairs are National affairs, international affairs, political affairs, economics news, sports news, and science and technology.