Why UPSC is not Asking Current Affairs that Much?

Current affairs are important events that occur across the nation or internationally. Mastering current affairs have always been challenging for a UPSC aspirant. It becomes a bit tiresome to cover every important current affair. UPSC exam does not have a particular trend of asking current affairs. It becomes quite unpredictable to analyze the current affairs weightage in UPSC exam.

What Type of Current Affairs are Asked in UPSC?

There are a plethora of sources online that the aspirants can refer to study current affairs on polity, economy, constitution, etc., but rather than going through a lot of them first, one should list down the types of current affairs asked in UPSC. This would help to narrow down your research and will save a lot of time.

Why UPSC is Not Asking Current Affairs that much?

The UPSC exam, conducted on October 4, 2020, has seen a drastic shift in the question count and pattern, especially in current affairs. Students believe that the mapping of the paper was relatively more difficult than expected. The questions were more concept-based and different this time.

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How Many Questions were Asked this Year?

There were only 15 questions on current affairs asked in UPSC this year. It was strange to see that the current affairs asked in the UPSC exam this time held fewer weightage as compared to how it has been holding since previous years. According to the students, the questions were mapped more from the topics like the economy and environment and lesser on history, current affairs and polity.

Current affairs have the potential of surprising the candidates every year. The strategy of decreasing the weightage of current affairs might be to make the paper more scoring and to bust the preconceived notion of the people that current affairs are more important. Start making an organized plan of action to avoid any loopholes.

How Old Current Affairs are Asked in UPSC?

This is the most common question that arises in the mind of an aspirant. Current affairs is a very vast topic and one gets confused as to how old current affairs should be prioritized. According to the experts and IAS toppers, current affairs from the last 6 months should be prepared religiously, they are very important from the exam point of view.

Some Frequently Asked Topics in Current Affairs

Questions of Current Affairs from the Latest Events: These could be easily rehearsed by reading at least one standard newspaper daily, preferably like The Hindu, The Indian Express or another of your choice.
Current Affairs from the Press Information Bureau: Keep yourself updated with the latest government plans, strategies, and achievements.
Questions from: Yojana magazine and Kurukshetra magazine.
Polity: Anything related to the constitution of India, Indian politics, Parliament of India is more likely to come in the paper.
Economy: News related to the Indian economy, banking and finance, trading, unemployment and poverty, and many more topics related to the economy are essential.
Science and Technology: Latest scientific trends, Indian space program, biotechnology, the contribution of Indians to space and science technology.
Art and culture: Learning about Indian heritage monuments, cultural festivals, famous artwork, paintings, dance forms is also important.

Importance of Current Affairs in UPSC

Current affairs are the most uncertain part of the paper. They hold a significant portion of the syllabus. To make it evident that current affairs hold a lot of importance, let us get an overview of the number of questions asked from current affairs in the recent past.

2015: 30 questions(60 marks)

2016: 27 questions(54 marks)

2017: 31 questions(62 marks)

2018: 28 questions(58 marks)

2019: 27 questions(54 marks)

The analysis above is pretty enough to conclude how crucial current affairs are in UPSC. UPSC aspirants need to keep in mind that current affairs are vast and the most baffling topic to cover. It requires techniques and proper time management to ace this part of the paper.

However, this year there were only fifteen questions in the paper, this has alarmed the aspirants and diluted the importance of current affairs but that doesn’t mean one should lose their grip on them.

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How to Smartly Strategize Your Current Affairs Preparation?

Regularly Read a Newspaper: Newspaper acts as a primary source of knowledge especially for current affairs. It will also make a stronghold on the English language-related questions.
Jot Down Important Topics to Have a Thorough Overview: Making written notes of important topics always gives an edge to the preparation.
Give More Emphasis on Current Affairs from the Last Six Months: Current affairs from the past six months should be of utmost priority.
Solve Previous Year’s Question Paper Religiously: Going through previous year’s question paper would help to get an overview of the paper pattern and important questions. This would save a lot of time and hard work.

How Many Questions Come from Current Affairs in UPSC?

Current affairs can be quite scoring if prepared smartly. There are a handsome amount of current affairs asked in UPSC. Meticulously examining the last ten years paper gives an idea that at least 30+ questions every year are asked in the exam; although this trend has changed from the past five years, but, one should not take this topic lightly and prepare accordingly.

How Much Time should be Allotted to the Current Affairs?

There is a humongous amount of information available on the internet. But how to choose a perfect time-saving path and effectively learn current affairs? Well, current affairs might be a bit intimidating to some students but smart work and planning can make it easier.

Don’t Waste Time Reading the Whole Newspaper: Newspaper is a crucial part of the preparation, but that doesn’t mean one has to read it throughout the day, doing this would cut down your time on other important topics. Ideally, allocating 1-2 hours a day is enough.
Weekly or Monthly Compilation of Current Affairs: Making written notes and compiling the important current affairs weekly or monthly is a useful aid and a smart technique.
Focus on Issues than on the News: Emphasizing ongoing and important issues in the news will help you fetch more marks. UPSC aspirants should keep an eagle eye on the trending issues and make notes of them.
Daily Current Affairs Should be at Priority: Aspirants need to be familiar with the daily news, latest current affairs, and issues.

Conclusion

Current affairs have always been a very prominent component in the UPSC exam. The exam held in 2020 has made everyone a bit sceptical about the importance of current affairs.

Aspirants should know about what’s going on around them. Current affairs are included in the paper only to examine the awareness of a candidate. No matter the weightage, current affairs will always be a vast and essential topic.

Expert’s advice – Many aspirants and the successful IAS officers who have cleared the paper believe the fact that the paper can be unpredictable and daunting sometimes, but one should continue the preparation with the same planning, without fear and doubt.

One should be prepared enough to face the challenges and unpredictability of the paper. Making notes, having regular revision, and reading the newspaper can easily make you ace the current affairs part of the paper. Stay tuned with us to know more about current affairs.