How to Read Newspapers for UPSC Civil

Services Exam?
December 19, 20150 Comments
Being at the crux of the current affairs preparation, there can be no
substitute of an everyday reading of the daily newspaper. The question
that many aspirants have is, about which newspaper to read that
suffices for the preparation?

The fact is, no newspaper ever can be a one stop shop for this
examination. The preparation has to be smart enough to extract the
best out of a daily news.

The best newspaper right now is The Hindu and one can also go for
The Indian Express in case time permits.

Following are the points which an aspirant can utilise for ones own
preparation for the current affairs, which would not require any
magazines or outside notes.

These are some of the steps that you need to follow before starting
with the current affairs preparation:

1. Analyse the syllabus entirely

2. Make a dedicated register for current affairs or can even make a
word file
3. Go through some of the previous years questions asked in the civil
services preliminary as well as mains exam with respect to the
current affairs.
These 3 steps will in itself give you an understanding as to what the
exam demands of the aspirant. Hence here is a list of what not to read
the newspapers before going on to what to read.

What not to read:

4. The political statements regarding the political parties

5. The state news, city news
6. Read the front page very selectively
7. Articles related to philosophy/ relationships etc
8. Sports
9. The extra magazines that are attached
This would save a lot of time.

What to read:

10. Issues related to governance, the opinions of eminent personalities

on the way government should function
11. Pros and cons of the topics that are making headlines which relate
to the syllabus
12. Any recent disaster occurrence anywhere in the world
13. International news if it is affecting India in any way
14. News about Indias neighbours and how India is affected/ Indias say
15. Recent economic developments are done by the Government of
India, RBI , international organisations or Central banks of other
important countries. Do not read the economy news related to the
private enterprises
16. New developments in India in the field of Science and Technology,
say Space mission , Missile development or newly developed
vaccination etc.
17. News regarding the environment, says The Paris Summit, Indias
Goals etc.
One must ensure that they make notes regularly which doesnt only
cover what is given in the newspaper, but also covers the areas around
it, which one can get through a good research on the internet. This
activity can be done for the whole week or three days once.

Sometimes, there are news clips that do not really have substance in
themselves but are important from the point of view of the
examination.

For example, The news of our Vice President visiting Indonesia:

Although the news article does not say much beyond the visit details of
the Vice President, but as a Civil Service aspirant, you must aspire to
have an overall understanding of Indias relations with Indonesia.
Research the web and collate information from the relevant sources,
say MEA website or PDFs available from a research of various credible
institutes.

We at Byjus constantly strive to provide you with the updated current

affairs through our website. Also, the aspirant can contact their
mentors for any guidance.

We wish you all the best and hope this article will remove all the
doubts regarding the coverage of current affairs. We hope that you are
successful in making your own comprehensive document before the
exam and do not require any external source.