How to Prepare Current Affairs for UPSC? Which Monthly Magazine is Best for UPSC?

While preparing for current affairs for UPSC exams, the fundamental problem is the abundant sources of reading materials we have today. Candidates often purchase extra unnecessary current affairs material more than required, hoping that more material will score them better.

But running after too many resources will result in counter-productivity, as you will not even have enough time to re-glance so much of reading resources once you keep them on yourself-desk! Hence it becomes essential that you focus on quality rather than quantity.

Here are some helpful recommendations on how to prepare current affairs for UPSC? Which monthly magazine is best for UPSC? Which are the most critical current affairs books for UPSC? And many other related suggestions that could help you gain excellence in UPSC exams.

How to Prepare for UPSC Current Affairs 2022?

Reducing Your Sources

As mentioned earlier, there are tremendous online and offline sources relevant to UPSC current affairs in 2022, which can take you off-track! Doing proper research will help you decide your sources, and sticking with it consistently will give you exemplary results. Some of the sources and magazines which experts recommend for UPSC exams are:

The Hindu

Insights

Civils Daily

Forum

Vision

IAS Baba

Kurukshetra

These resources can help you grab a good dose of daily current affairs for UPSC. These current affairs magazines, journals, and internet sources could help you with your UPSC exams’ most correct and critical current affairs.

Setting Time Limits

There are various other subjects to focus on when preparing for UPSC and current affairs. Current affairs are essential, but you should not pull your whole soul only in this one subject. You must be able to prepare a proper schedule so that you invest limited time in current affairs.

You should consider reading daily current affairs within two hours. It should include newspaper reading, reading daily news summaries from the internet, revising last week’s current affairs, and maybe a quick revision to any monthly compilation of current affairs for elevating your knowledge about current affairs. More than investing two hours may waste your time and might disorient your schedule.

Focusing on the Real Issues

Simply reading the news won’t benefit you! You, as UPSC aspirants, must understand the real issues deeply. News focuses on the occurrence of the happening, but issues address the concept of the happening.

To consider any current affair issue, you must find the reasons why this news is featured? You must obtain real data, facts, and reports of current affairs issues daily to gain updates about the current status of the issue and understand both positive and negative sides accurately. This will also help you form your own opinions, suggestions, and ideas to tackle those issues.

Making Notes

While preparing notes for UPSC, you must make sure that your way of organising notes is efficient so that you don’t waste all the time in just making notes. The best way to do this is to make your notes on digital mediums like PC, laptop, or mobile phones, as this will make your work easy and hassle-free. When you follow the first three steps of preparation, you will eventually know which news and current affairs issues are essential.

Accordingly, you can curate your notes by highlighting the specific news and saving it online. This will also help you curate a summary of monthly current affairs, and because you have constructed it, you will tend to remember it for a longer time. Although you must read and revise notes consistently so that you remember current affairs and execute them correctly in your exams.

Also Read : International Relations and Affair of India for UPSC: Notes and h3 Strategy to Ace IAS Exam

Which Monthly Magazine is Best for UPSC?

Magazines play a prominent role in giving you a gist of the monthly news, be it national or international. Here are some exceptionally recommended current affair magazines for UPSC preparation:

Yojana

Yojana is a very popular recommendation that gives you a detailed overview of national current affairs and educates you on all the necessary political events.

Kurukshetra

The Union Ministry of India publishes this magazine. Hence, it marks the utmost authenticity and legitimate information for you to depend upon. To get a thorough knowledge of Governmental ongoings, this magazine is highly preferred by UPSC students.

Down To Earth

Down to Earth is a highly informative magazine that is majorly based on environmental and geographical topics. This book covers a well-structured analysis of environmental and ecological studies for UPSC aspirants.

Economic and Political Weekly

This is one such magazine that gives the student a holistic knowledge of almost all UPSC aspects. The magazine covers essential topics under economics, politics, sociology, environmental studies, and so on.

Monthly Preview

This is a magazine drafted by PRS Legislative Research. It educates you on all government-related schemes and agendas in an unbiased method. You can get to know details of various bills and reforms of the parliament in depth through the Monthly Preview.

Also Read : How to Study for UPSC: Prepare for IAS Exam with These Tips and Strategies

Current Affairs for UPSC Prelims 2022

For 400 marks, UPSC prelims 2022 consists of two objective types of papers, General Studies I and General Studies II. Both the papers will be held on the same day through the offline pen-paper method but will be separated into two sessions. Each paper consists of 200 marks and has the component of negative Marking as well.

Current affairs play an essential part in UPSC exams. You must start preparing, considering today to be your Day one to regularly stay updated and alert about the relevant incidents. It is highly recommended to take those daily current affairs quizzes for UPSC to test your knowledge and preparation. Current affairs consist of a high amount of weightage in UPSC prelims 2022, so it becomes highly essential.

By keeping in mind all these preparation suggestions, you can get one step closer to cracking your ultimate dream, “The UPSC”. Although even after reading and revising your study materials, at some point, there are chances that you might not be able to recollect current affairs in the examination hall because current affairs are volatile to keep in your heads.

Consistent efforts and choosing appropriate sources will lead you to gain more marks by keeping in mind the information that counts. Though current affairs keep on piling up every day and it requires constant efforts to retain them. So just keep revising your skill!

Current Affairs for UPSC Prelims 2022

Every year, the importance of Current Affairs in this important Civil Services Examination grows. You can observe from the UPSC CSE Prelims Question Paper that the set of questions is current affairs-related. It is now impossible to pass the IAS Prelims test without paying attention to current affairs.

People used to be able to pass this exam by reading merely one popular magazine. Don’t take the chance of neglecting this part. Approximately 40-50 questions in the IAS Prelims Exam are directly or indirectly connected to current events. As a result, you should properly prepare this part. It is excruciating when applicants fail to pass the IAS prelims test by barely 2-3 marks.

Every year, roughly 40 to 50 questions from Current Affairs are included in the IAS Preliminary Exam. It is possible that it will be enhanced in the upcoming IAS Prelims. As a result, this section should not be treated lightly. If you are compromising on Current Affairs, you will not be able to pass the IAS Prelims test.

Test Series for UPSC Prelims 2022

Candidates have a typical inclination to focus solely on reading and reading, and they skip practice examinations. They believe that once they have completed the entire syllabus, they would be able to practise tests, but this is not the case.

Offline Mock Tests, similar to the genuine UPSC Prelims, are essential for success in the final exam. While it exposes a candidate to test-like situations prior to the exam, it also makes a candidate aware of his or her capacity to absorb the material that he or she is reading.

Most of the time, we continue to read books on a regular basis. And it is possible that we may overlook certain rational conclusions and facts as a result of this procedure. These only come to mind when we take exams.

There are several advantages to taking tests during your preparation, particularly for exams such as the Civil Services.

Conclusion

Always remember there is no substitute for hard work and constant improvement. Having a Personal Mentor to prepare for UPSC is the best way to ensure constant improvement. UPSC Pathshala’s personal mentors are experts of UPSC with years of experience. They solve doubts, keep track of progress, and help to improve in weak areas. Keep reading our blogs for more UPSC-related informational content.