How to prepare Current Affairs for UPSC Prelims

If anyone aspires to clear UPSC Prelims , preparing current affairs becomes a critical necessity.At least 40-45 questions in prelims are invariably asked from this section and if one has prepared well ,one can answer around 40 questions correctly.This can very well mean the difference between success and failure in this stage.

Now the question arises as to what is the most efficient way to prepare current affairs.I will share my way of preparing current affairs which worked well for me and all four times i was able to answer most of the questions from this section correctly.

I had basically three sources for preparation of current affairs-

1. The Hindu - one should make very brief notes from daily reading of the newspaper.Anything one feels relevant and important from prelims point of view should be jotted down in a separate notebook.If you have not started doing it, you should start doing it right now.
For example - Names of CEOs/CMDs of PSUs or big corporations , new projects/programmes launched by GOI , international happenings (must see the location of places on atlas) etc.

2. Frontline Magazines - Go through frontline magazines from June 2008 onwards till Feb 2009 . You need not read all articles ,just see the areas covered and note down important points like where particular summits were held.,where civil war is going on etc etc.The aim should be to supplement your daily reading of newspaper and to cover any important area which you might have missed.I used to take two frontline magazines and devote 40-45 minutes to each and note down whatever i felt to be important from prelims points of view.One added advantage with Frontline is that with most of their articles,there is an accompanying map of the location which is very handy for prelims preparation as location based questions are frequently asked.

3.Spectrum current affairs which comes out in April should be read end to end to make sure that there is no loop hole.I used to write on the top of each page whatever i felt to be really important from that page and it also helped in quick revision.

I know many of the aspirants would still not be satisfied and would want to know about few more sources.India Year Book is very thick and in all these four years of appearing in prelims i did not go through the complete book.Many people do it ,so its your choice,but what i did was to refer New Vishal Publications summarised version of India Year Book which can be read from end to end and also revised quickly.Since the changes in India year book are very less ,so one can buy previous year's New Vishal India Year Book summarised version and read it now.Other than this
one should go through Manorama Year Book(latest) current affairs portion especially calendar of events ,both national and international and the section on India especially about the states.It will give maximum result within minimum time.
If one does at least this much ,current affairs should not be a problem .Please feel free to post your questions in comments .