How to choose Important Highlights of News?
I know this is the first biggest impediment for most of the beginners while making Current-affairs notes. We either end up writing everything or donāt write at all. The Art-of-segregation is all we need to master. Hence, there are few things Iād like to mention before I begin explaining the Art-of-segregation...These are:
1)- In order to be able to understand the highlights important for CSE, the first important thing is to have a clear picture of the Syllabus. The more clear your understanding of the syllabus will be, the easier itāll be for you to segregate important topics.Ā
2)- This process of understanding is gradual. You should not expect yourself, to be on your A-game from the beginning. Things take time and gradually with hard work and proper direction, things start to fall into places. Donāt worry!
3)- All-in-all what you need is grasp over topics/highlights of General studies portion.Ā Ā
4)- ContinuousĀ repetition of this exercise without any delays or giving-up will definitely help you. No matter how lethargic or boring, Newspaper reading is essential. So just donāt give up.
Now, back to business. With these(above) things clear, IādĀ like to explain the art-of-segregation...
FOR NEWSPAPER-READING
1)- āArt-of-segregationā is the term Iāve coined for āprocess of effective news choosing and notes-makingā.Knowing what-not-to-read is far essential than knowing what to.
2)- For ex. When reading any Newspaper(live-mint, The Indian Express, the hindu etc.) just donāt pay any attention to the āSPORTS, ENTERTAINMENT, HARDCORE-POLITICS, TRIVIAL CITY NEWSā sections
3)- If anything important is covered from these(above) sources, then iām sure PIB will cover that effectively in a succinct manner. For ex- the recent 3rd BRICS Film festival was concluded in RSA(rep of South Africa) where film Newton bagged honourary prize. This news relevant from the entertainment section was there in PIB. Hence, donāt waste your time on scavenging through these portions in newspaper. Itāll only waste your time.Ā
4)- But, if anything innovative or important comes up from these sections then you can go through them. For ex- There was this news i read few days back, where an IAS officer, chauffeured the car for his driver on his(driverās) last day of service. This piece of news from the front might look like a trivial piece but such real-life examples can be quoted in GS-04 paper of ETHICS.Ā His gesture was commendable. But, occurence of such pieces of news from these sections is low, hence reading them from cover-to-cover is pointless.Ā Ā
FOR PIB
1)- Not every piece of news you read in PIB is important.Ā
2)- Some are trivial and very stats-oriented hence they need not be dealth with. Like IIP and Manufacturing Industries related sectors...
3)- People often tend to ignore PMOās, VPās and Presidentās statements or Speech releases. But trust me, theyāre laden with many fruitful informations. Their speeches extenisvely highlight important informations and government initiatives very well. Such information can act as fodder for Mains questions. So, donāt ignore their statements unless or until trivial.
4)- I know with the start of Parliament sessions, the press releases increase and sometimes, it gets hectic to cover them all but donāt worry, try to cover them one-by-one. Increase your reading speed, read quickly, if you find anything important then write it down, else, move on.Ā
5)- Cover the schemes mentioned in their press-releases. These schemes are very important either for Prelims or Mains.Ā
Phew!Ā
Above, iāve tried to explain every possible way of tackling day-to-day news highlights. But, still if iāve left anything important, then please let me know your doubts here(https://imbratman.tumblr.com/ask) or on my QUORA handle(https://www.quora.com/profile/Virat-Mittal-4Ā ) Iāll be happy to help.
~BRATMAN
PS: My next post will on āhow to tackle Editorials and note-makingā.Ā Iāll try my best to provide you all with meaningful resources and be as pragmatic as possible .
Hope this helps!!!







