Current Affairs Note Making

@Neyawn @Yo_Yo_Choti_Singh @goldberry @TheNotorious @Naadan_Parinda  Any insights to share?
Also, can we get it pinned? I think this is a pertinent question among aspirants. Maybe that way we can have more opinions coming in.

I don't belong to the team that supports making notes from all articles on a daily basis from current affairs. 

My note making strategy was different. I divided my notebook into 6 - prelims/mains paper wise. While reading the newspaper, if I liked some observation/ fact/example/ incident which I can quote in my answer in GS or Optional paper, I would not that down. 

Similarly two months into the prep you would realise, that all monthly compilations do a pretty decent job at covering all the news. So my prelims section of the notebook contained that fact which I knew the Forum/vision compilation is likely to miss. 

Hope this helps.

I also got overwhelmed by the current affairs last year, when parliament was in session (many acts were passed then) and there were many events happening in IR and Economy.

That's why I joined Dipin sir's current affairs classes. He covers every topic in a very comprehensive manner, with answer writing practice. It saved much of my time. You can go for it blindly.

Follow@upsc2020 then. You cannot make notes of everything. If someone is doing that thing for you, then you shouldn't do the same thing again. 

I had a similar approach of making such notes in Evernote. If you're comfortable with digital format, then you should make notes in Evernote, otherwise make the notes in notebook.

Make notes, but smartly. You don't have to write everything from all articles. For example, there will be a zillion articles on opening up coal to private sector. Read, absorb, move ahead. Vision/Forum will cover +/- for you.

Jot down what's not going to be in magazines, if it's important.

Completely agree with " I dont belong to the team that makes daily newspaper notes". Many people waste 2-3 years reading newspaper.

Read the editorials. Just read the editorials of Hindu. Dont read "news". Dont dump garbage in your notebook. Refer to factly for that prelims news. It is more than enough.

I used to make notes out of newspaper but let me tell you, making notes is easy but revising them is difficult because of their bulkiness and also there is a lack of proper format.

As I got to hear from many that it is not mandatory to make self-notes out of newspaper, even I have started to rely on  the monthly magazines. The benefit here is that , lets suppose you are a person who reads just one newspaper say The Hindu like I do. Now, the Hindu doesn’t cover all the news information, some bits are missing every month. Now, the monthly magazines are prepared by professionals who are into content preparation since a long time, so they cover mostly all the resources which in actual should be like most of the newspapers, government sources, even international reports. So they do become quite useful.

Now coming to the notes making part, what I do is that  I use highlighter or pencil to mark important things on the magazine itself. I am in a habit of reading physical newspaper, so I read one daily. Whenever I find some very good editorial/s or some useful article/s, I download the e-version of the newspaper from some telegram group and then I save  screenshots of editorial/article on phone or PC. Also, if there is some important scheme announced  in some session, I maintain a note kinda thing of several PRS/PIB links on phone too. Same thing is done for some useful explanations done by platforms like Insights, Dhrishti etc.

Last thing, if there in any beginner who is facing difficulty in comprehending/analysing The Hindu newspaper, you can follow Rau Ias DNS on their YouTube channel. It will kinda help in decoding and breaking down some editorials. One who has missed a day’s newspaper can also refer to it.

All the best!

https://www.insightsonindia.com/2017/07/05/make-notes-note-making-strategy-akas-gupta-rank-128-cse-2016/

Wrote this post a long time back. may be it is of some use to you.

@TAR It's the best method of note making. I had also made such notes daily. But I had slightly different method. I have a tagging system in my Evernote.

Can you throw some more light on notes in physical form, like how did you organise the notes in them, was it only for Mains etc.

@TAR Thank you for writing this. I have gone through it before. Had been very helpful. 

Bss yahi satya h. TAR sir se hi sikha tha hmne bhi kaafi. 

Thoda offline baaki online. Iske baad sidhe CA magazines se notes bna lo. Don't make too much bulky notes. 20-50 words notes for any topic. 

Jyada load mat lo. Jab mains likhoge to bhut maal milega rattne ko. Self notes m sirf observation/examples/linkages/different perspective will only be beneficial. Data and points etc CA magazines jese vision ias etc m achhe se cover ho jata h. Try to understand more and do more revisions of small notes to ingrain those in ur mind. Best wishes.

You have been in the forum for so long, and WE dont have your interview !!!

X-(

Yes, the handwritten notes were for mains only. They were made from SECURE which is an initiative for mains only.

I had made 3 registers for GS-2,3,4..didnt make any notes for paper-1.

And had divided paper-2 & 3 registers into parts..like broadly for ex-polity, IR, Security issues etc..

For paper-4, i made notes only of lexicon..

The only theory i followed, was that notes should be of such volume that you can revise multiple times before going to the exam, otherwise they are useless.

So i restricted myself to just one source and hoped that it is enough.

Haan sir, hain to hum bahut time se, both silently and actively. Forum has been very dear to me..

I am from that forum generation when comments used to happen in thousands including all kinds of speculation and bakar..from the era of etat and indiabhai to yoyo and drking.

And i know i am the very few who havent interacted with you personally. Baithenge sir kabhi yoyo, drking aur iwra ke saath..we all are very good friends thanks to forum only.

Aur sir interview ka kya hai, bahut logon ke ho gye hain ab to...as a person was saying on the other thread, ki itni strategies hain market mein ki confuse ho ja rahe hain ki follow kise karein..:D