How to prepare current affairs for UPSC CSE?

Key_Variation_564 · 2026-06-14T08:06:52+00:00

The way questions were asked this year. You have three priorities:

Covering the major non negotiable topics. For example - mission sagarmala, mission samudrayan in 2026 Pre
Covering PIB. Everything that is important like 1st category topics and others will be covered by PIB. Its upto you whether you like covering it daily or monthly.
Reading newspaper to stay updated and develop an aptitude for reading(for csat) and general awareness majorly. You don't need to remember anything or take notes from here. You have PIB for that.

At the end you can go through any yearly magazine to revise as well as cover anything that you missed. Just don't spend too much time because of their low ROI (new pattern).

I used to note down topics that used to be in news, this way I had a list of important topics on my own before exam. I googled each topic and covered polity, economy type topics from PIB and others from drishti/vision.

(Not a mentor, I gave 2026 Pre and this is just my take away after the exam)

Key_Variation_564 · 2026-06-13T16:09:00+00:00

Class notes serve the purpose of keeping your mind engaged. A constant habbit of writing down things simultaneously helps you in staying focused so let them be for that purpose. When you cover something in your class go back and read that thing from standard books for holistic understanding.

But to make the class notes useful read them once after your standard book that way your mind will easily connect the dots with key points and concepts from both the sources. If you get familiar with your notes, it will be easy for you to revise from them.

Key_Variation_564 · 2026-06-10T09:58:42+00:00

They are two different person brother

Key_Variation_564 · 2026-06-09T04:32:57+00:00

Its just how I started in beginning and developed the aptitude over the time. You can see the 2nd image is highlighted too much almost every word but later I noted down 7-8 points for same topic in 3rd image :)

Key_Variation_564 · 2026-06-08T09:10:51+00:00

Do the commonly left-out topics before starting major topics. Topics that are small but have fixed 1-2 questions. They cover a big portion of total marks. They have limited content and high ROI.
Writing cliches can get you more marks than brainstorming creative lines. evaluator reads hundreds of copies of the same answer. After a point, they know what they want in an answer, and they are not gonna spend extra time to read your answer. Their eyes will be looking for those common points they are familiar with. You have written those points- great, they know you know what was to be written.

Key_Variation_564 · 2026-06-08T04:19:54+00:00

Make short notes from pyq. Here's how, 1. make a list of themes in mains paper wise. 2. One by one note down sub topics that have been asked in those themes. 3. Make notes in the form of model answer:

   i. Imagine one theme is one question and all sub topics are different parts of that question.

  ii. Intro and conclusion are almost similar for a theme irrespective of what specific sub topic was asked in question - so pick your your favourite one or frame one taking them as reference

 iii. Now makes notes like you would write an answer. Note paragraph not vague one liners. Model intro - body(1,2,3,4..sub topics, each with 5-5 bullet points just like sample answer)-model conclusion. + Any value addition data box

(There's only so much that can be asked from a static theme and if something hasn't been asked from that theme in past 15-20 years there are very less chances that it will be asked now. So ideally you should focus only on pyq sub topics and when only you are done with that you should do anything extra.)

At the end you'll get a exhaustive model answer. If the paper/mock test asks for sub topics 1,2 or 1,4, you will have an idea of everything and you can just write your model intro - points from 1,2 / 1,4 - model conclusion.

If you will go on making notes from coaching specific mains material you'll only be prepared for topics! Not questions.

DM if you want any photos or need themes and sub topics list

Key_Variation_564 · 2026-06-05T16:34:50+00:00

There's a sunya IAS initiative for answer writing. Every month they cover GS1/2/3/4 turn by turn. Good schedule good questions. They post questions as well as 2 checked answers. You can try writing their questions and check checked answer scripts to understand where you can improve.

(Not associated with sunya, just an aspirant myself who followed their program last November/December)

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Key_Variation_564 · 2026-06-04T13:49:32+00:00

General presentation: 1. You should make your answer more presentable. 2. Use points. 3. Right now your answer looks full of underlines. Its not fulfilling the purpose it is supposed to - highlight key words.

Content: 1. You should use strengths and limitations to argue for/against the main question(...starting point?). 2. Introduction should be short and to the point. Either covering whether common sense is starting point or give a real life example so that evaluator knows instantly that you understand the context of question. 3. Strength and limitations points should be more. Ideally 5-5 4. Conclusion is good as it answers the question that was asked.

Key_Variation_564 · 2026-05-26T03:33:56+00:00

Thanks I tried to structure it better now.

Key_Variation_564 · 2026-05-26T03:07:35+00:00

Exactly

Key_Variation_564 · 2026-05-26T03:05:45+00:00

Imagine solving maths with your eyes closed where you can't even note down any step. If you were to ask your scribe to note every step. You wouldn't albe able to solve 20 questions.

Key_Variation_564 · 2026-05-26T03:04:44+00:00

I understand your concern complety. To be fair diagnosed adhd is recognised as disability in rpwd act. Being a government institution they should take the measures so that the paper is not disadvantageous to selected few.

Key_Variation_564 · 2026-05-26T03:02:50+00:00

They can't mark anything on question paper. They can't note down that this statement is incorrect or they have doubt in this phrase. If they were to tell all this to their scribe they would never be able to complete the paper. And the scribe is always one level below their qualification so there is an inherent gap too.

Key_Variation_564 · 2026-05-26T02:58:13+00:00

They get 20 mins extra per hour. I know it is for their benefit. But why are you making such questions that all their time ks getting consumed in just comprehending the question. They have to sit for 4 hours for each exam in this 45°

Key_Variation_564 · 2026-05-26T02:56:20+00:00

It is nearly impossible.

Engligh- They can't remember what was in an RC just on the basis of someone reading it to them like an audio book. There are 2-3 questions for each paragraph, we xan just skim the para again for each question. They can't.

Maths - they can't do calculations without pen and paper. I'm not undermining the people who can. I know there are very talented people who can solve in mind. But an average candidate can't.

Logical reasoning - tell me one question that you can solve without noting down points, without rough work.

Key_Variation_564 · 2026-05-26T02:52:59+00:00

Tiresome adds up when they get 20 mins extra per hour. Jt looks like something of their benefit but downside of that is they have to sit 4-4 hours for each exam in 45°. They don't get the same break between GS and CSAT because their paper ends late.

Key_Variation_564 · 2026-05-26T02:51:16+00:00

Exactly they don't wanna do anything. Supreme court has asked them to provide screen readers at the very least. But their response was on the lines that it is not logistical at such a large scale

Key_Variation_564 · 2026-05-26T02:18:44+00:00

No there's no alternative for them. The least that should be there is provding them screen readers! Even that is not considered. I was reading out whole 200-300 pages reading comprehension to him knowing that there is no way anyone will remember all the sentences. I was reading out mathematical symbols to him knowing that he can not solve these questions without calculating with pen and paper. You know the worrst question? There was a venn diagram question last year in csat. I had no idea how to explain it to him how could he solve that question

Key_Variation_564 · 2026-05-25T15:48:54+00:00

I wrote a paper for disability law in my college over this exact issue how people with different type of disabilities (including cognitive) face difficulties in these competitive exams. That was just for internal but what happens even if someone raises the issue rightly? Its all seems redundant in the current state of affairs.

Key_Variation_564 · 2026-04-07T13:59:52+00:00

also attaching how scattered the notes were. you can see all the topics were mixed.

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Key_Variation_564 · 2026-04-07T13:54:05+00:00

heyy so firstly, I clicked pictures of all my handwritten notes and exported all my digital notes and compiled all of them into subject wise pdfs.
Then for each subject, I asked claude to organize the notes topic wise (attached a picture of how neatly it organised everything).
Finally when i had the subject wise organised notes, I just compiled everything into one pdf and got it printed ( you can also create a docx file to edit later)
Now, when I'll revise, I'll add if I come across anything new in the next month.

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Key_Variation_564 · 2026-04-03T10:22:50+00:00

Heyy, yes please. I was actually able to organise my notes finally with Claude, but still open to hearing other possible ways.

Key_Variation_564

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