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 don’t write at all. The Art-of-segregation is all we need to master. Hence, there are few things I’d 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 it’ll be for you to segregate important topics.
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. Don’t worry!
3)- All-in-all what you need is grasp over topics/highlights of General studies portion.
4)- Continuous 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 don’t give up.
Now, back to business. With these(above) things clear, I’d like to explain the art-of-segregation...
FOR NEWSPAPER-READING
1)- “Art-of-segregation” is the term I’ve coined for “process of effective news choosing and notes-making”.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 don’t pay any attention to the “SPORTS, ENTERTAINMENT, HARDCORE-POLITICS, TRIVIAL CITY NEWS” sections
3)- If anything important is covered from these(above) sources, then i’m 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, don’t waste your time on scavenging through these portions in newspaper. It’ll only waste your time.
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(driver’s) 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. 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.
FOR PIB
1)- Not every piece of news you read in PIB is important.
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 PMO’s, VP’s and President’s statements or Speech releases. But trust me, they’re 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, don’t 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 don’t 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.
5)- Cover the schemes mentioned in their press-releases. These schemes are very important either for Prelims or Mains.
Phew!
Above, i’ve tried to explain every possible way of tackling day-to-day news highlights. But, still if i’ve 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-4 ) I’ll be happy to help.
~BRATMAN
PS: My next post will on “how to tackle Editorials and note-making”. I’ll try my best to provide you all with meaningful resources and be as pragmatic as possible .
Hope this helps!!!