Whether you are preparing for UPSC, GPSC, KPSC, MPPSC, MPSC, UPPSC, IBPS, CAT or any other exam that involves interview and heavy competition, you have to read newspapers. Why is it important to read the newspaper? Because in the government job exams, at all three stages (preliminary, Mains and interview) . They ask questions related to current affairs. To write a decent essay, you need facts and viewpoints. For this you need “Fodder”, and newspapers are best sources for the fodder material. Can’t I just use Chronicle, Civil Service Times or Pratiyogita Darpan? Such magazines only serve as “supplement” and not as “substitute” of the newspapers. Why? Because the magazines have the page limit, they cannot give justice to every single topic, even if they wish to. (and because on every second page, they’ve to put big advertisement of coaching classes, to cover the cost.) Same goes for the readymade blogs/ websites dealing with current-affairs, they’re only supplements but not the substitutes of a newspaper. Secondly, such magazines or websites for competitive exams do not help you in the profile-based interview questions or role-playing questions. What are profile-based interview questions? In the UPSC IAS, IPS or CAT/IIM, Bank or any other job interviews, they ask you questions based on your profile. Your profile is made up of: Your Location + Academic Background + hobbies and Extra-curricular activities. Location-based questions Socio, political, administrative and economic problems of your city, district and state. And (Sometimes) the role-playing questions about how will you tackle them, if you’re an inspector, tehsildaar, Collector, DSP, Secretary, etc. Academic background based questions. For example, if you are an MBBS or Pharmacist, the current affairs relate to TB/HIV/Malaria/Delhi Superbug related research, etc. If you’re a B.A (English): What’s the latest trend in English literature? What was the controversy in the Jaipur literature festival? And so on. Hobby Tennis, Cricket, Chess, Computer: then you are supposed to know the current affairs related to that field. Firefighting Most of the people, whether UPSC, State PSC aspirants or MBA aspirants: they don’t prepare for profile-based questions or current affairs until the 11thhour. (i.e. When the interview or group-discussion (GD) is barely 20-30 days away). Then They start google searching for GK related to their profile. In such a short time, you cannot cover all satisfactorily. Therefore, daily reading of newspaper is essential. Which newspapers should I read Even if you’re going to write your Mains exam in Hindi/ Gujarati/ Tamil / Telugu medium, still you should refer to English newspapers because the local newspapers only serve the “masala” news of politics, cricket and Bollywood. Should I read more than one newspaper? It depends on your time and energy, otherwise one newspaper is enough. You might have seen some coaching “Sirs” advising that you must-read Hindu and Economic Times (ET). I think, this is an overkill. You don’t have to become a share market expert. If there is some really good columnist in ET (for example, example Bibek Debroy), then following him is excellent, but you don’t have to go through two or three “Whole” newspaper per day. What are the important items in a newspaper? First go through the old question papers of UPSC (at least last three years), that should give you a rough idea on what questions are asked directly or indirectly from newspaper. And then read the newspaper keeping that in mind. Administration/ Polity Press conference of government, where they announce various policies, administrative reforms etc. (I’m talking about the press conference of union and State government, not the press conference of Congress and BJP.) Various bills, minutes of Cabinet meetings. The big full-page advertisements given by ruling party, about their achievements. (This usually comes before the election and on the birth anniversary of Nehru Gandhi Family). It is important because, they list out the various developmental schemes and provisions in it.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 13:14:15 +0000
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