Current Affairs - Strategy by Neha Banerjee ( AIR 20, UPSC CSE 2019)

 The word " Current Affairs ( CA) " always brings a dose of uncertainty and incompleteness in any aspirants journey. Common questions which come to our minds are :-

1) Should I read the newspaper? If yes how to read, which one to read ?

2) Should I make notes from newspaper ? If yes, how ?

3) Should I follow the online websites and daily news analysis videos for current affairs ? If yes, how and which ones ?

4) Can i skip everything and only rely on the monthly current affair PDFs ? 

5) When do I start reading CA..present ones  or since the ones 1 or 2 years  back  ? 

6) How much of CA is actually asked in the exam ? How to use them in answers ? 

Hope you can get answers to these questions through my strategy but before that, it is important we understand the correct approach behind CA. CA is not a separate subject which can be learnt just by watching some videos or reading some books before the exam. It is a continous and organic endeavour. It is intricately linked to our static parts..example , when you see a news concerning Rajya Sabha elections , you must revise/ take a look at this topic from Laxmikanth book. There will be many issues in the newspaper whose deepest essence can be understood only with time and familiarity with the topics. So, tackling CA is a very gradual exercise and it builds layer by layer and undoubtedly is the most important and overarching  component of UPSC CSE and even in the life of a civil servant ! Here is the description of my strategy 

Phase 1 ( Icebreaking) 

Around February March 2018 when I was still not sure of civil service as a career option, I used to visit my college library and grab The Hindu newspaper. I gradually started reading it. Understood it partially though but enjoyed knowing things around me. I remember after reading an article on net neutrality  I could speak so confidently about it with my friends 😛. It was like I was so much in the dark ..but now gradually the world was unravelling its secrets to me. Trump's plan in Palestine, Nirav Modi scam, electoral bonds , Right to Food campaign and what not ! At this stage , I spent around 3 to 4 hours with the newspaper and sometimes had to do adequate wiki search or refer to youtube videos for explanation (since everything is so new at this stage) .Sometimes I made short notes in my copy to understand issues better but never revised them later. I had not gone through the syllabus completely yet at this stage. This was more like an informal and  icebreaking episode in my preparation. ( PS :-  I will never forget those  nights at Kharagpur library when people around me were all upto merrymaking about farewell and those final semester blues 🙂 , and me ? ..well I was like that invisible seed which was being planted then but has shown some shoots now ) 

Phase 2 ( Getting on the track) 

Around May 2018 , when I came back to Kolkata, I had around 2.5 months before joining my job at Noida. By this time I had decided to pursue civil services and had also gone through the syllabus ( taken print out, tried to understand it comprehensively). I had also gone through many toppers talks via youtube, websites and their sources, booklist etc. After this I gradually chalked out my own strategy and sources for current affairs. 

I made 4 folders in Word ( on my desktop but synced via google drive to mobile also ). I made subsections based on syllabus. Since I was at home, I devoted almost the whole day for studying ( not in terms of hours , but effort wise) . I found the night time ( after dinner for 2 to 3 hours before sleep) the most suitable time for current affairs (reason being CA is actually endless and one can go on for hours for it...so I avoided it naturally due to sleep). 

I used to read The Hindu and took the guidance of IasBaba , Insights daily current affairs ( posted publicly in their respective  websites) to understand what to read and what not to read from the newspaper. Whatever topic i went through I used to link them into respective GS folders. Sometimes there used to be articles which were not easily understandable ..like RBI 's bimonthly monetary policy...but I documented it for future use. I also started reading Yojana at this phase and found it very colourful and lucid. Whatever I summarized from the Yojana articles, I appended them in those folders only. 

This was a more or less daily exercise with weekly revision on Sundays . But there were always aberrations. Like i remember when the news came that Trump had left the JCPOA I had to spend almost 2 days in understanding nuclear politics, India's 123 agreement , no first use , nsg etc. So yes , disruptions to your time table do occur and it is advisable that you lay emphasis on the content and enjoy the process rather than working like a mechanical clock. 

Phase 3 ( Work Life Balance) 

17th July 2018 was my joining date and I shall never forget the day of my orientation at office. During lunchtime , my batchmates were socializing with each other and all full of smiles and warmth all around. But me ? ..a weirdo rushing here and there through the office reception corridors to find whether there is a suitable place to read The Hindu during lunch 😛..incidentally I found a paperstand which became one of my favourite spots in office till the end. 

So now I tried hard to continue my CA strategy as mentioned in Phase 2. That time allotment on a daily basis was not feasible anymore due to tiredness after returning home, time for static subjects etc. But I refused to give up. Whatever was possible to do in lunchtime I did but somedays ( esp Wednesday onwards) I used to miss it altogether. Nevertheless I utilised the weekends for newspapers and copy pasting from iasbaba and insights website. 

I also revised these doc files from time to time. I tried to align the revision with static subjects. Example..when i completed Mrunal sir's lectures on Economy Pillat 6 ( Human Development) , i revised the CurrentsAffairs docs related to Gs 1 society , government schemes , my Yojana summaries etc). I think this experience of mine proves that directly doing CA from only Pdf may not be a solution. Regular newspaper brings you that familiarity with topics and helps you to interconnect GS syllabus as per your own analysis. 

Phase 4 ( Prelims is Coming) 

I followed the process mentioned above till Jan Feb 2020. Then gradually I took up the vision ias monthly current affair pdfs and revised. Prelims specific strategy ( which includes current affairs as well ) has been chalked out in the previous post ( https://nebanerjee.blogspot.com/2020/08/prelims-60-to-100-day-strategy.html) 

Phase 5 ( Mains focus) 

After Prelims , I thought of revising my Doc files , but could not get time for it. Instead I kept up reading the newspaper and made offline notes from it completely from Mains perspective. I noted down nice quotes , observed how arguments are coherently expressed in the editorials. I stopped following daily current affairs from websites due to lack of time. But Rajya Sabha Tv youtube channel turned out to be a big contributor in this phase. I used listen to Big Picture, India's World, In Depth, Policy Watch ( last 6 months playlist at 1.5 x ) during my lunch, dinner, office commute.  The most important part at this phase is to view current affairs as a part of your answer writing strategy. I did block wise answer writing after prelims ( will give detailed strategy in another post) and incorporated CA as a part of it . Example :- just a week before the actual Mains exam I had read about a Jan Soochna portal of Rajasthan government in The Hindu and I actually wrote about it in the real GS2 exam.  

Phase 6 ( End of the storm) 

After Mains I went very casual about the preparation and became a bit preoccupied with other things like job changing etc. Nor did I anticipate that I would get the interview call as I was a bit apprehensive about my performance in optional. Nevertheless I kept reading the newspaper but I changed it to The Indian Express. I found it really good , balanced and there is an Explained page which is very helpful. So it does not matter which newspaper you follow. If you are finding The Hindu is not accessible in your location or it is too costly to you, then no worries at all. In this phase , I made offline notes in my copy and revised it from time to time . I stopped referring to the daily current affairs and the monthly magazines . By this phase , it is more important to have your own analysis and insights. I tried to read other magazines like epw, frontline but found that the cost benefit ratio for those is too poor and thus left it.