One of the toughest exams to crack in India is UPSC Civil Services Exam. The preliminary exams are the first and qualifying stage where UPSC cut-off segregates ten to twelve thousand aspirants from a whopping ten lakhs approximately. Hence, the question set each year is of different degrees of difficulty and dynamic. If you want to qualify for this exam, aspirants are expected to have a good grasp of all branches of social studies. The focus is given to the current happening in the country and beyond boundaries over the past year. The last 30 days before the UPSC Prelims exam is when it becomes crucial to revise the whole year’s news cycle in-depth but quickly. Here, we provide you 7 tips on how to revise current affairs for UPSC.

No New Sources Please

There is very little chance that you are going to get the current affairs from the last two months before the prelims. In case if they come in the exams, then most probably it was related to the old news. Still, if the latest news appears, you can afford to lose these minuscule scores. You can certainly concentrate on the old news instead of focusing on the latest ones. 

Memorize your old notes. If you are unable to make notes, this is highly unrecompensed. In this scenario, utilize the monthly compilation provided by the various institute or coaching. Mostly, this compilation is free of cost on their website. However, sometimes you may get this by paying an inexpensive amount.

Arrange Notes as Per Topics from the UPSC Syllabus

One thing which any UPSC aspirants need to understand that UPSC rarely asks is simple plain facts. The preliminary questions question made in such a way that the aspirant will answer them by applying their static knowledge concerning current facts and figures. Hence, it is really crucial to understand that UPSC aspirants prepare them together. Build this skill in the month heading towards the prelims exams.

Try to assemble your notes according to the topic and connect relational events. Generally, monthly collections already range this way. Four to six weeks before the exam, some institute and online UPSC preparation forums also advise a single collection of current events over the past year, which is arranged according to the topic for your good. Make optimum utilization of your benefits.

Keep a Daily and a Weekly Revision Target

The most important point on how to revise current affairs for UPSC is do not be a rabbit and try to complete everything all at once. Try to be a tortoise and consistent with your approach. You can divide the whole current affairs of the previous year into daily modules. On weekends, revise the once more the week module. For example, if you are preparing the polity, government schemes, and economy portion of the month as a single module. Hence, these are generally related topics, and in a day to study them all.

You should be done with about two to three months of current affairs by the end of the week. After following the above step, revise at the end of the week to go through each topic and check if you remember all details—the study once more those topics which seem hazy to you. Create a timetable for this at the beginning of the month and strictly stick to it.

Practice a Lot Of MCQs

We all know the preliminary exams are MCQ-based. Hence, it is becoming more crucial to practice constantly. In MCQ, most aspirants have a great chance that they are sure of 40 % of the answer to the 100 questions. Due to this reason, you need to practice so that you can qualify with a high accuracy rate; you need to be able to answer at least another 25.

For answering those questions that you have doubts about, you can solve them by eliminating the options through intelligent guesswork. This trick aspirants have used throughout the years victoriously. Practice is mandatory for acquiring this skill. Thus solving MCQs is an essential part of your preparation process.

YouTube is a Great Revision Tool

YouTube can be a great way to study or prepare for current affairs. You can get revision quizzes or small videos on crucial topics of the year on many academic channels. You can simply revise a large chunk of content with these 20-40 minutes of videos.

You must be aware that these videos are created by people with considerable experience with the UPSC Syllabus and the UPSC IAS Exam pattern simultaneously. They have a detailed knowledge of the UPSC IAS exam that a first-time aspirant may require. It is always a better idea to go through a few of these videos to gain more understanding of the topic. It means you know from the experts what is truly important for the year.

Make Mind Maps as a Part of Your Revision

In research, it has been proved that visual cues are more helpful in retaining memory. The reason is that you can recall easily. Hence, if you want to stimulate this memory, you need to make infographics or grab ones already available online. Use this to revise your last 12 months of current affairs for the UPSC Civil Services Exam.

You can achieve this by an excellent tool that is mind maps. Take the help of several free digital software tools available online to create mind maps from simple word documents. Also, you have the option of preparing by yourself. You can use the mind maps for current and static parts of the UPSC syllabus available on online preparation forums also.

Prelims are qualifying - Concentrate on the Cut-Off.

Overall, you need to focus on the cut-off. There is no need to top it. Always remember there are no 100% marks in UPSC. In the end, you only need to qualify for the exam. Study smart and be diligent about it. Do a quick cost-benefit analysis before indulging in a time-consuming topic, And select your ideal cut-off at least ten marks above the average of the last three years’ cut-off marks. Then make an effort towards achieving it.

Hope this blog on how to revise current affairs for UPSC will help you. Share this with your aspiring UPSC batch mates.