Elders and teachers always advise reading newspapers on a daily basis to stay updated with the current affairs. But when you are preparing for competitive exams such as that of UPSC and others, it becomes even crucial to go through the newspapers in a similar way how you are going through your syllabus books.
When you are preparing for the UPSC exam, you should make sure that you select newspapers that cover topics that are available in your syllabus such as current affairs, international news, government policies, and many others. Some of the newspapers that you can follow in such case are Times of India Newspaper, The Hindu, The Indian Express, Dainik Jagran, Business Standard, The Economic Times, Hindustan Times, Dainik Tribune, The Financial Express, and Malayala Manorama ePaper.
How to Read Newspaper for UPSC?
When you have got the right newspapers, you should also know how to go through these newspapers effectively for appearing in the UPSC exam. Here are some of the important ways that you can follow in order to prepare for UPSC in the best possible way.
Adjust Reading Newspaper in Study Time:
When preparing for UPSC, you need to understand that reading newspaper is a part of your syllabus only. Hence, when you have prepared a schedule for your studies, reading newspapers also should have a place in it. You should devote at least 2-3 hours a day for going through the newspaper. Ideally, it is a great idea to go through 2-3 newspapers. But if you have a time crunch, going through a single newspaper also can help. Just make sure that you select the right newspaper in which you can often get news articles on the topics that are there in your syllabi such as international news, Government policies, recent happenings around, and others.
Choose the Right Topics:
It is not possible to complete the whole newspaper just within 2-3 hours. So, you should try out to choose the right topics that are beneficial to you. Ideally, an average newspaper is of 22 pages or so. Among these 22 pages, almost 10 to 12 pages are covered in advertisements. Now again among the leftover 10 to 12 pages, half of the pages are covered in images. So, on an average, you have content on around 5 to 6 pages to cover up. Again, now in these 5 to 6 pages, you need to sort out the topics that are useful to you.
If you are preparing for UPSC or other competitive exams, you should filter out the news of entertainment, sports, and political news. You need to focus on Government policies, environmental happenings, current affairs, recent happenings in the country, international news, and so on.
Make Notes:
Sometimes just going through the news is not enough. If you are appearing for the competitive exams, you should have a habit of making notes from the newspapers in a similar way how you make notes out of your syllabus books. While you are making notes from the newspapers, there are some basic ways of doing it. Follow these amazing steps and you can surely prepare some amazing notes to go through later on.
- Write the summary or the jest of the news article in your own language so that understanding the whole matter can get much easier.
- Highlight the important keywords so that you can know the major points.
- Make sure to mention the date of the event and also the date of the newspaper in which the news has got published.
- If the news of a particular happening is coming up continuously for a few days, try to note down the points in continuation at a place together.
You will realize a few days before the exam that how much beneficial these notes are for you.
Revise the Notes:
Experts say that you should complete your syllabus at least 2 weeks before your exam date so that you can revise your whole syllabus. You also need to revise the notes on the newspapers that you have gathered. But there is a twist here. You never know that question from which day newspaper may come up in the exam. Hence, it is quite safer to prepare notes and read the newspaper even of the day just before your exam. So, how can you revise the notes? Here are some tips.
- You cannot mug up the news the way you can for the syllabus notes. Hence, the best way is to read the notes during noting it down.
- Next, you can make a habit of going through all the previous notes on a weekly basis so that you can remind all the news and happenings that have happened.
- It is quite obvious that just the day before the exam, it may not be easy to go through the whole notes that you have made. Thus, you should go through the keywords that you have highlighted while making the notes. This is also helpful in reminding you well of the news happenings.
Thus, the more you revise the better results you get.
The Habit Should Stay:
If you are an aspirant for UPSC, you should make sure that reading newspaper becomes your habit. Do not think that the newspapers are helpful only for cracking the exam. It may happen that in the interview after cracking the exam, you may not pass because you could not answer a question that the interviewer has asked from the newspaper of the same day or a day before. So, you should permanently get a habit of reading newspapers.
Going through the newspapers regularly not just makes you aware of the current affairs but is also highly fruitful for different competitive exams for which you are preparing. It is only that you need to go through the right newspapers and you should go through the newspapers in the right way to get effective results.
UPSC is known to be one of the toughest exams in the country. It does not just test your knowledge in different fields but also tests your presence of mind and whether you are updated with the happenings in the country or not. Thus, it is quite important to give a special place to the habit of reading newspapers regular while you are preparing for the exam.
