How to Study and Revise Current Affairs for UPSC CSE PRELIMS

Introduction

Current Affairs occupy a significant portion of the UPSC CSE question paper. In Preliminary examination, it tests your clarity and understanding on certain burning topics, while in Mains, it tends to check your in-depth analytical ability along with a solution-centric opinion.

To prepare Current Affairs in a near-perfect way requires discipline and eagerness. It is solely because Current Affairs is a very dynamic subject matter. Another very important aspect of preparation is REVISION. Unless you religiously follow a “REVISE-STUDY-REVISE-MOCK” cycle in your preparation, it may well become a futile endeavor at the end of the day.

Significance of Current Affairs

Year	Current Affairs No of Questions	Marks	Cut off marks	PercentageWith respect to Cut off marks
2015	14	28	107.34	26%
2016	27	54	116	46%
2017	34	68	105.34	64%
2018	13	26	98	26.5%
2019	22	44	98	45%

Table : Weightage of Current Affairs in different Years.

The above table should be well enough to make you understand the need to regularly study Current Affairs.

One can see, that 64% of the cut off marks may come from the Current Affairs alone. So What I would like to suggest is that, no matter what happens, never go into the UPSC preparation without having a sound knowledge of the Burning Issues.

How to study Current Affairs

You may have gone through plenty of materials, blogs over this single matter. However, I am trying to give you a simple technique, so that you can do it efficiently on everyday basis.

How to Revise

As I have said earlier, REVISION itself may mean only one thing, but it needs to be implemented using a certain way. One such effective way to practice the cycle of “REVISE-STUDY-REVISE-MOCK” every week/day (depending upon your strategy).

The above mentioned 4 steps will not only boost your confidence but also make sure that you get a good result for the hard work you put for the whole year.

Sources to follow

The Hindu/Indian Express or any other reliable Newspaper.
PIB/YOJANA/KURUKSHETRA Notes.

All the Government websites.
WHO/UN/WTO and other world bodies’ websites. https://www.who.int/ https://www.un.org/en/
Economical and Political Weekly : https://www.epw.in/

Conclusion

With this years’ preliminary examination is just round the corner, it may not be the best for your preparation to follow these steps right now (If you are not doing these already). So do not worry and keep up with your preparation for the time being.