I followed different approaches for current affairs in my two attempts.

Current Affairs Strategy

I followed different approaches for current affairs in my two attempts.

Sources

First Attempt

1. The Hindu

2. Forum IAS Daily Quiz

3. Vision IAS Monthly Magazines

4. PT 365

Even though I cleared the General Studies cut-off that year, after introspection, I felt that I was spending too much time on current affairs.

Second Attempt

I read The Hindu until the Mains stage and switched to The Indian Express during the interview phase.

I referred to Rau’s Prelims Compass for Science and Technology only.

For Mains, I used Rau’s Mains Compass for both Science and Technology as well as Economy.

My strategy was to read the newspaper thoroughly. If I came across something interesting, curious, or a probable topic for Prelims, I would Google it and read about it from any UPSC-related websites.

In short, I didn’t make Prelims-specific notes from the newspaper.

For Mains:

While reading the newspaper—especially the editorials—if I noticed a topic being repeatedly discussed over a few days, I would jot it down in a notepad and make detailed notes on those topics over the weekend.

I relied on ILEARN IAS Academy’s (TVM) CANA magazine as a go-to source for mains note making

In short, I made Mains-specific current affairs notes (2–3 topics per week) on A4 sheets and added them to my static Mains notes.

This way, I never separated the revision of static and current affairs content during Mains preparation.

Additionally, I collected relevant examples from the newspaper to enrich my answers. I maintained those as digital, subject-wise notes.

(I’ll share these notes after Prelims.)