Current Affairs: Overview, Questions, Preparation

Table of Contents

Current affairs section is the largest section of competitive exam preparation. The candidates need to prepare for the current events of national and international importance daily. The candidate should make provision for current affairs preparation in their study plan. This section can make or break the dream of qualifying in the exam because the rest all the section of general awareness seems tough to the majority of the candidates. Through Current Affairs, the candidates can score better in competition and ensure their selection.

Current Affairs are the current events of national and international importance occurring every minute. Today’s current event becomes history tomorrow. Current Affairs is an important topic that needs to be prepared daily, weekly and monthly, based on the requirement for the exam. Thousands of events are occurring across the globe, having repercussions on our national interest. If the event is connected to the nation, it acquires meaning and becomes important for the exam.

Current Affairs topic connects the past with the present and future. Though Current Affairs only includes the current events, a deeper study requires the knowledge of the past of that issue and the future repercussions/solutions of the issue.

Why Current Affairs are important?

Current Affairs is important because it is asked in most of the exams. The candidates who are preparing for over one exam need to prepare Current Affairs daily. The Current Affairs questions form a major part of the question paper. Current Affairs also influence the other parts of General Awareness, General Studies and General Knowledge. The revision of various global facts is the event of international importance, but it settles as the fact in General Knowledge (GK). For example, before the global positioning system was employed to measure the height of the world’s highest mountain peak, Mt. Everest, the height of the mountain was denoted as 8,848 metres. But after the GPS measured the height, it was suggested that the proper height of Mt. Everest is 8,848.86 (approx. 8,849) metres.

General Awareness, as asked in various exams, includes Current Affairs because General Awareness is a broader term and it also includes General Knowledge as its part. The Current Affairs also helps in preparing the General Awareness for various competitive exams.

Current Affairs questions are asked in all the major exams conducted for recruitment and admission purposes. The list of exams which ask the Current Affairs is IAS Exam, UPSC CAPF Exam, SBI PO, SSC CGL, SSC CHSL, SSC JE, SSC MTS, IBPS PO, NDA, CDS, MAT, CLAT, XAT and others.

How to prepare Current Affairs?

The current Affairs syllabus is very vast. We can prepare the Current Affairs by dividing it into different subtopics. These sub-topics can be

National News
International News
Economic News
State News
Sports News
Summit and Conference News
Awards News
Person in News
Places in News
Miscellaneous news

There cannot be watertight compartmentalisation of every topic because most of the topics are interlinked and can be covered under two or more subtopics. Let us see these topics in detail.

National News

National News covered the recent Government decisions which include Acts passed by the Parliament, Acts pending in the Parliament, national policies, government programmes, government schemes, important cabinet decisions, government directives and the like.

International News

The International events cover the political events going on around the world. It includes the leadership elections taking place in various countries, Space missions, a political crisis in any country, any event having implications on International Politics and India’s Socio-Economic Strategic interest.

Economic News

The Geo-strategic interest is now filtered through the Geo-economic interest. Globalisation has changed the outlook of all the nations and every international decision and policy is oriented towards economic growth. Most of the Economic decisions of government have sociological implications. Economic news is important for the banking and management exams.

State News

Every state has powers to make decisions for the citizens living within its geographical boundaries. State governments conduct various exams to recruit the human resource for their state administrative machinery. In these exams, various state-related questions have been asked. Sometimes a state scheme sets an example for the entire country and it is asked in the exams conducted by Central Recruitment Agencies such as UPSC, SSC, CET and the likes.

Sports News

The exam conducting bodies always ask questions from the Sports category. It includes the national games, international events of a specific game, Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and World championships.

Environment News

The environment became the prime component of all the activities around the world. All the major economies are committed to reducing fossil fuel pollution and helping in reducing the Earth’s temperature by two degrees centigrade.

Weightage of Current Affairs

Weightage of Current Affairs differs from exam to exam. In most of the competitive exams, it is around 15 to 25 per cent.

FAQs on Current Affairs

Q: What are Current Affairs?

A; Current Affairs is the latest events occurring in the country and around the world.

Q: What is the syllabus of Current Affairs?

A: Current Affairs syllabus is vast. The candidates need to make logical divisions of Current Affairs in sub-topics and prepare based on relevancy.

Q: What are the Sources to prepare Current Affairs Topics?

A: The candidates should prepare notes to prepare Current Affairs. The sources to prepare Current Affairs include 1. Newspaper 2. Government websites 3. News websites-PIB, ANI, PTI.

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