[Strategy] How to prepare Current Affairs from Newspapers in Less than one hour for UPSC IAS IPS CSAT Exam « Mrunal

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[Strategy] How to prepare Current Affairs from Newspapers in Less than one hour for UPSC IAS IPSCSAT Exam

This article is in response to many panic mails that I receive, help! It takes more than 4 hours just to read The Hindu.

Why is it important to read the newspaper?

Cant I just use Chronicle, Civil Service Times or Pratiyogita Darpan?

What are profile-based interview questions?

Location-based questions

Academic background based questions.

Hobby

Firefighting

Which newspapers should I read

Should I read more than one newspaper?

What are the important items in a newspaper?

Administration/ Polity

National News

International News

Economy

FrontPage

Columns / Editorials

What to prepare from Columns/ Editorials?

Sports / music / life-style/ Bollywood

How to read the newspaper in less than 1 hour?

The beginning

The front-page and second page

Third, fourth and fifth page

The 6 to 9 Page

Page 10-11 (Columns and Editorials)

Page 12-13 (International)

Page 14 (TV, Astrology, Cartoon strips)

Page 15-16 (Business and economy)

Page 17-20 (Bollywood, Lifestyle, Sports)

The Review

Whether you are preparing for UPSC, GPSC, KPSC, MPPSC, MPSC, UPPSC, IBPS, CAT or any other exam that involves interviewand heavy competition, you have to read newspapers.

Why is it important to read the newspaper?

Because in the government job exams, at all three stages (preliminary, Mains and interview) . They ask questions related to currentaffairs.To write a decent essay, you need facts and viewpoints. For this you need Fodder, and newspapers are best sources for thefodder material.

Cant I just use Chronicle, Civil Service Times or Pratiyogita Darpan?

Such magazines only serve as supplement and not as substitute of the newspapers.Why? Because the magazines have the page limit, they cannot give justice to every single topic, even if they wish to. (and becauseon every second page, theyve to put big advertisement of coaching classes, to cover the cost.)Same goes for the readymade blogs/ websites dealing with current-affairs, theyre only supplements but not the substitutes of anewspaper.Secondly, such magazines or websites for competitive exams do not help you in the profile-based interview questions or role-playing questions.

HOME STRATEGY JUNE 6TH, 2012 328 COMMENTS



What are profile-based interview questions?

In the UPSC IAS, IPS or CAT/IIM, Bank or any other job interviews, they ask you questions based on your profile.Your profile is made up of: Your Location + Academic Background + hobbies and Extra-curricular activities.

Location-based questions

Socio, political, administrative and economic problems of your city, district and state.And (Sometimes) the role-playing questions about how will you tackle them, if youre an inspector, tehsildaar, Collector, DSP,Secretary, etc.

Academic background based questions.

For example, if you are an MBBS or Pharmacist, the current affairs relate to TB/HIV/Malaria/Delhi Superbug related research,etc.If youre a B.A (English): Whats the latest trend in English literature? What was the controversy in the Jaipur literature festival?And so on.

Hobby

Tennis, Cricket, Chess, Computer: then you are supposed to know the current affairs related to that field.

Firefighting

Most of the people, whether UPSC, State PSC aspirants or MBA aspirants: they dont prepare for profile-based questions or

current affairs until the 11th hour. (i.e. When the interview or group-discussion (GD) is barely 20-30 days away).Then They start google searching for GK related to their profile.In such a short time, you cannot cover all satisfactorily. Therefore, daily reading of newspaper is essential.

Which newspapers should I read

Even if youre going to write your Mains exam in Hindi/ Gujarati/ Tamil / Telugu medium, still you should refer to Englishnewspapers because the local newspapers only serve the masala news of politics, cricket and Bollywood.

Should I read more than one newspaper?

It depends on your time and energy, otherwise one newspaper is enough.You might have seen some coaching Sirs advising that you must-read Hindu and Economic Times (ET). I think, this is anoverkill. You dont have to become a share market expert. If there is some really good columnist in ET (for example, exampleBibek Debroy), then following him is excellent, but you dont have to go through two or three Whole newspaper per day.

What are the important items in a newspaper?

First go through the old question papers of UPSC (at least last three years), that should give you a rough idea on what questions areasked directly or indirectly from newspaper. And then read the newspaper keeping that in mind.

Administration/ Polity

1. Press conference of government, where they announce various policies, administrative reforms etc. (Im talking about the pressconference of union and State government, not the press conference of Congress and BJP.)

2. Various bills, minutes of Cabinet meetings.3. The big full-page advertisements given by ruling party, about their achievements. (This usually comes before the election and on

the birth anniversary of Nehru Gandhi Family). It is important because, they list out the various developmental schemes andprovisions in it. Most important part is who runs the scheme? for example NREGA thing for under the jurisdiction of ruraldevelopment Ministry (and not under Labour Ministry)

4. Election related items: what will the initiatives taken by the election commission? Any problems or controversies.5. You have to prepare these for both Union as well as your own state Government. (Your state-Government schemes and

Administrative reforms for the profile Based Questions)

What is not important?

1. Press conferences of political parties and civil society.2. No need to do Ph.D on every scam. All you have to do is brief highlight of what was the scam, how was it committed, what is the

presence status in investigation or court and how to prevent it in future. You dont have to go in minute details like on 23rd

October 2007, Mr XYZ the accountant of store-dept in Commonwealth games misreported a 50 rupees ball for Rs.5000. Learnto skip the garbage sentences while you are reading a news item.

3. Same goes for elections: The XYZ by-elections were conducted on 23th October 2004 in which Mrs. XYZ wife of ABC belongwith JYZ Political party defeated

National News

Maoists kidnap a collector = name of the collector is not important. But now experts and politicians say we need a



comprehensive hostage-crisis guideline after this incidence= important.Railway accidents, how many killed =not important. Reason for the rail accident and suggestions to prevent future accidents =important.SP says BSP took 50 crores or vice versa = not important.How many killed in floods, landslides or tsunamis on which date= not important. But the reason behind those geographicalphenomenons = important.ISRO sends an artificial satellite = important. How much does it weigh? = not important.When and How many men did leopards kill in Maharashtra = not important. Why is leopard killing men in Maharashtra=important. What is Government doing to stop the leopard? = important.

International News

1. Bilateral visits of prime ministers and presidents. What treaties or trade pacts did they sign?2. What is going on in UN, IMF, World Bank?3. Elections in the big nations : USA, Russia, China, France, UK.4. Political or military coup (usually in South America and Africa.)5. Any major event: the democratic uprising in Middle East, Israel palestine, US vs China / Russia missile defence, NATO-

Afghanistan and so on.6. Meetings of organisations such as ASEAN, G20 etc , and particularly what India did in such conferences and meetings.7. Climate change, environment related news.8. Science and Tech related items for example CERN, Chinas space program, missle tests by N.Korea, Irans nuke program and

so on.

What is not important?

1. Lady Gaga or Justine Timberlakes world tours.2. How many people are killed in a car bomb blast in Pakistan or Afghanistan?3. XYZ researchers found out that eating tomato daily helps preventing tooth ache = not important.4. Anything small-time, that does not affect future of the World. For example sex-scandles of Italian PM or marital wooes of

Sarkozy.

More on How to prepare India and World topic for General Studies (Mains) Paper II, is explained in a separate article. Click Me toread it.

Economy

1. Press conference or press note by Government, SEBI, RBI, Planning Commission etc.2. ASSOCHAM, NASSCOM etc. (they usually complaint or suggest about Government policies that affect the business houses.)3. Columns and Editorials related to Economy.4. IIP, GDP, WPI, CPI etc. Not the numbers but the reasons behind that number and the future because of that number.5. International: ASEAN, World Bank, EU etc.6. Those preparing for Bank exams, should also note down the names of Chaimen of various companies and banks.

What is not important in Economy

1. Daily Ups and downs of sharemarket.2. Numbers. Because Economy is not about number but the meaning, history and future related to that number.

a. For example, if IIP was 0.13 on Jan-2012. That itself is not important. Whether it was 0.13 or 0.128? that is not important.b. Important Questions are : is this IIP good or bad? And why is it good or bad? Whatll be its impact on future of Indian

economy and Government / RBI policies?

FrontPage

1. There is a narrow column on the left hand side of the front page, most of the time, the yearbook related information, governmentschemes etc. appear here.

2. The main news item on the frontpage: it is usually not-very-important. Reason most of the time it is the political news. Forexample, Bihar Mahadalit Land Racket. If you are a candidate from Bihar, you should read it, for the others, it is not worth it.

Columns / Editorials

Question: What is a column / Editorial?

These are big paragraphs like articles in the centre pages of a newspaper.Generally each article has photo of the author and usually the author gives a 20 years old photo when he/she was in college. Ifyou ever happen to see them in actual TV Debate, it turns out theyre quite older than what they look in the newspapers.Editorial is written by the editor himself. For example Shekhar Gupta for IndianExpress on Saturday. While Columns are writtenby experts (including self-proclaimed experts) on a particular topic of politics, economy, international events.

What to prepare from Columns/ Editorials?



Usually columns are made up of 7-8 paragraphs. But not every sentence and line is important; there are just 3-4 gemstones in it,which you can use in your mains / essay / interview answers. So just note them down.

Some people use highlighters to mark important lines and then file those newspaper cuttings. So do whichever method suitsyou (noting down or filing the cuttings).

But Not every column is worth your time and energy. For example in Indianexpress, there is one guy writes about Nepalspolitical turomil every week. But in Nepal, the Prime ministers are changed every week and this guy happens to give ball by ballcommentery of everything. Its not worth the Cost-benefit ratio. So skip him.Similarly there is one Yogindar Alagh in Indianexpress, who pretends to write on rural Development but just I did this and thatwhen I was a minister=Not important.Maintain the balance: some column writers have a habit of being totally cynical and anti-Government. For example Tavleen Singhof Indianexpress, while I do admire her for having the guts to openly write against Sonia, Mohan and Rahul, but in your answers,You must not admire or criticize a particular individual (minister / politician) in the mains / interview. And dont prepare a line thatis too leftist or too rightists.And if you criticise the Government, then you should also offer the reform suggestions.

Sports / music / life-style/ Bollywood

Lifestyle = painting, pottery, music, fashion events etc. most of which cannot be afforded by middle class people.The last 3-4 pages of English newspaper are devoted to this. if your hobby is tennis or chess, then you must follow the relatedsport-news.For others, I say just skip it. Anything historic about Sports will get published in the competitive magazines and or the free blogs/current-affairs related websites anyways. So daily following these sports-pages = not worth the time and energy.Bollywood and cricket related news = not important in any case. Unless something related to administration or polity for exampleshould BCCI be brought under RTI? And the copyright act vs Bollywood.

How to read the newspaper in less than 1 hour?

Needs certain tools.

1. A study-desk or Table2. A Red colored 0.7mm ballpoint pen and or a red sketch pen.

3. Loose papers, folders, notebooks 4. And last but not the least a newspaper.

The beginning

Keep the red pen handy.Im taking Gujarat Edition of Indian express as reference; just follow the same procedure for your City /States edition ofIndianexpress/ Hindu.

The front-page and second page

Circle down on important lines from the news (which news, that is already explained above).

Third, fourth and fifth page

Is usually Gujarat / Ahmedabad news for example

20 people died in car accident in rajkotxyz girl eloped with a neighbourA cop was found taking bribesStone-pelting and rioting in XYZ part of Ahmedabad after a cricket match.Keshubhai Patel said XYZ against Narendra Modi.Sanjay Joshis men have put posters against Modi in Ahmedabad.

^none of above, is important.

Then what is important?

Navjivan Trust of Abad says no to Gujarati version of Lets kill Gandhi written by Tushar Gandhi.Gujarat Maritime Board and pollution board gives clearance to ship-breaking of Exxon Valdez, but NGO lobby says it containsdangerous chemicals. (Names are not important, but the important part is the big environmental issue vs. livelihood of ship-breakers in AlangGujarat State Government launches Girl Child education and School enrollment drive.Ahmedabad Municipal corp will give Rs.250/- to all Government school students who live more than 3 kms from the school,apart from the mid-day meal, Bicycle distribution and Vidhyalaxmi scheme.



We are done with 5 pages

The 6 to 9 Page

These are devoted to national newsOnly concentrate on important exam oriented news. Underline the important lines using your red pen.

Page 10-11 (Columns and Editorials)

Highlight the gemstones and move on.

Page 12-13 (International)

Highlight the important news lines and move on.

Page 14 (TV, Astrology, Cartoon strips)

Highlight the important news lines for example the timing of Balika Vadhu. Haha just kidding, skip this page.

Page 15-16 (Business and economy)

Most important. Scan through every item, including small box news. Highlight the gemstones, if there are any important diagrams,cut and file them.

Page 17-20 (Bollywood, Lifestyle, Sports)

Skip it.

We are done highlighting the important newslines. Now it is time for review.

The Review

Go through those red lines and either write them in the relevant notebook / cut and file it.Your can either keep five separate full-scape notebooks. OR you can write these in loose papers and then file it in five separatefolders.The advantage of loose papers = you can add more pages between, when the follow up news comes. For example in case ofQFIs. Same is not possible in a notebook.

Folder /Notebook

Sorting

Administration All the polity, administration, Development related items should be either written or pasted here.

Economics Same exercise

Your profileOne file or notebook, make three sub-parts in it. First part- write or paste the state/city related news. Second part-about your academic backgroundThird part- news related to hobbies.

S&T All the science-tech, environment, climate change related stuff.

International Same exercise

^you dont have to write the entire sentences highlighted in red-pen but just the keywords or phrases thatd help you recall the entireissue.In the beginning, thisd be time-consuming mental torturing exercise.But with time, youll develop the expertize of weeding out the unimportant news and note down the gemstones.

Ive seen Maestros who write the summary note of entire The Hindu newspaper on just one side of an A4 sized paper, withoutmissing even a single important item. They dont read every line of a newspaper, their eyes are trained to scan through the linesand hand automatically highlights the keywords. Its an art and can be mastered only by practice Daily writing habit alsoimproves your handwriting speed, which is again important for the Mains exam.Like a professional athlete This must be your daily regime as long as youre a contender. Just because prelims are over or justbecause mains are over, doesnt mean you stop this. Youve to do this on daily basis.IF youre unable to get Hindu in your city, you can read it using feedly browser addon: Click me to learn the trick

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328 comments to [Strategy] How to prepare Current Affairs from Newspapers in Less than one hour for

UPSC IAS IPS CSAT Exam

Older Comments 1 4 5 6

MamtaReply to this comment

I want apply for IAS exam in 2013 plz giv me idea how i should prepare for 2gt selecetd soon.

wasimReply to this comment

First of all go for threadbare analysis. Choose carefully your subjects first as the IAS is the game of optionals. Right choice ofoptionals adversely affects. Prepare your own notes and I am going to recommend the following good books for general studies1. MODERN HISTORY BY VIJAY AHIR OR BIPIN CHANDRA2. INDIAN POLITY BY LAXMIKANTH3. INDIAN ECONOMY BY RAMESH SINGH/ NCERTS4. SCIENCE TECH- CURRENT AFFAIRS COMPETITIVE ISSUE PERIODICALLY PRINTED5. GEOGRAPHY NCERTS ARE THE BESTKeep me informed what optionals you are going to choose I will help you ok

JNANAKReply to this comment

pls telme which optionals are usefull for mains.i can mould myself..

ashishReply to this comment

Thanks a lot sir for providing guidence and useful information abt upsc. SIR u have clear my doubtsthanks once again

Jaipal SinghReply to this comment

I really love ur sense of Hummer sir.

BipinReply to this comment

bhai hummer nahi hota, hammer hota hai.

Dayanand Borse.Reply to this comment

I m B.A graduate student & I want to prepair for UPSC examination. So can you tell me from where should I start. Which books should Iprefer. I herd about NCERT book! Dose it so much important?

vaibhav shuklaReply to this comment



yes ncert is one of the most important part of preparation

mayank galavReply to this comment

can anyone plz tell me from where i can download the material related to computer. i havent found it in appendix plzzz

GarimaReply to this comment

http://mrunal.org/2013/02/study-plan-sbi-po-general-awareness-ga-computer-marketing-economy-topicwise-preparation-strategy-free-studymaterial.html

mayank galavReply to this comment

plaz tell me from where i download other related material pls.

Rahul MandlekarReply to this comment

Hello sir,. First of all, thanks a lot of you from the depth of my heart.sir with all due respect i just wanted to know that, Im preparing for bank exams and specially for sbi po, in my city THE HINDU & INDIANEXPRESS are not available therefore Im reading them online according to ur guidance, so i wanted to ask u that can i opt out some feedsthat u have listed in this article, Im referring PD also, so to be more specific for sbi po and bank exams..?

. thank a lot sir

PoojaReply to this comment

Should I follow the news of my birth place/native or the place where Iam currently staying since a decade? Iam really puzzled over this.. AsIam better aware of the place where Iam living now than my native..Please reply

AnirudhReply to this comment

Yes, of-course it is highly recommended that you should know everything from where you belong.

rutwik dixitReply to this comment

dude. i will seriously thank you if i become IAS someday. Hence, will thank you in 3-4 years for sure .

RAJ DAMODAR JADHAVReply to this comment

Sir,Thanks a lot for Uploading of Optional History Paper

sharanReply to this comment

Sir,

Plz provide BDL management trainee FINANCE papers and Reference book to crack the exam thanx in advance..

NEELADRIReply to this comment

What will be the best time for reading newspapers. I know it varies from person to person but what is your suggestion sir ???

GOPAL TOMAR



Reply to this comment

in my opinion it should be wenevr u r free and doing unproductive work like watching t.v etcbut not at morning or at night bcoz that tym was best for studying ur core subjects

ashish chavanReply to this comment

i lagged behind in reading newspaper(October and November months)..but now m doing it regularlywhat should i do about missed period-should i read it from news retrieve or WHAT?m preparing for current attempt

if possible plz reply me on my mail

DantatreyaReply to this comment

Hello sirI dont feel comfortable (hesitation) to discuss the matter pertaining to studies with other IAS aspirants, so many times I feel that I wont be getupdated if go like this, plz suggest me sir is it necessary ?

NeetaReply to this comment

Printed notes from coaching materialwhich would be the best for mains and prelims preparation in the new format(paper1,2,3,4) andHistory optional?

Older Comments 1 4 5 6

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[Strategy] How to prepare Current Affairs from Newspapers in Less than one hour for UPSC IAS IPS CSAT Exam « Mrunal