We played quizzes during school days. It required remembering a wide variety of information and many students were great at it. There were inter-school championships. And teachers used to encourage students to take part in those events as preparation for quizzes helped regular curricular study habits as well.
But what about UPSC current affairs quizzes? Do they help aspirants better prepare for competitive exams?
In this article, we shall discuss how you can integrate quizzes in your UPSC preparation for current affairs. Stay with us.
What are the challenges of UPSC current affairs preparation?
Current affairs often take the center-stage in discussions regarding clearing UPSC Prelims and Mains. They are two entirely different examinations. But at both the stages, the UPSC gives high weights to current events.
Usually, events happening across the fields of politics, economics, policy-making, social arena, and science and technologies are important for UPSC. But civil services aspirants face various difficulties while studying current affairs.
- Vast syllabus – UPSC current affairs syllabus is vast and highly dynamic. Something or other is happening every day. Keeping track of everything happening across different fields and following only the relevant pieces daily is a humongous task.
- Multi-faceted implications – Most UPSC current affairs are complex. Take the example of RBI slashing repo rates. It can have different implications for policy making, borrowers, lenders and stock markets. For UPSC, you need to understand the right impact of such an event, instead of only remembering the percentage point cut in the repo rate.
- Identifying reliable sources – Reading newspapers, magazines and watching TV news is good for current affairs preparation. But you need to be careful about the sources. In this age of misinformation, incorrect information can not only waste your valuable preparation time but also affect your chance of clearing Prelims and Mains.
- Difficult to recall – UPSC aspirants study newspapers, magazines and follow TV news every day. Over time, the volume of information gets unfathomably large. Revising and recalling such a large volume of current affairs related news can be very difficult.
How Does UPSC Current Affairs Quiz Help?
Many reputable online UPSC coaching institutes offer daily quizzes or tests on relevant current affairs. They track reliable news sources, find out relevant pieces, design quizzes based on the news and deliver in a gamified format.
Taking quizzes regularly on UPSC current affairs can help you:
- Get informed about relevant daily current affairs in an engaging and entertaining way.
- Recollect and revise information from your long-term memory.
- Create a mental map of current affairs topics for better recall.
- Improve learning motivation through common gamification strategies. This works best, especially when studying in a group.
Where To Find UPSC Current Affairs Quiz?
You can find many gamified current affairs related quizzes on the internet. There are multiple quizzing apps. However, the quality and reliability of a quiz can vary significantly. So, we advise to check only reputable UPSC online coaching institutes.
Usually, online coaching institutes offer daily mini tests and quizzes for Prelims. These tests cover the relevant portions of current affairs.
Top current affairs magazines for UPSC also publish current affairs related quizzes in their periodicals. Most of these magazines are now available in online formats. You can attempt these quizzes with fellow UPSC aspirants.
You can also work with friends and family and ask them to create quizzes based on a specific set of current affairs news.
How to use the UPSC current affairs quiz?
- Follow a pattern – It means attempt quizzes in set intervals, like daily, weekly and monthly. It will help revise and recall critical pieces of information.
- Maintain the sources of quizzes – Choose an institute or some other sources that you trust and stick to them over the duration of your preparation.
- Track and share your performance – If possible, attempt a quiz as a friendly competition among fellow UPSC aspirants. It increases the level of motivation to perform. Sharing performance publicly strengthens your commitment.
Conclusion
Reading newspapers, current affairs magazines for UPSC and following news updates on TV are essential for scoring high marks in current affairs papers. Attempting daily, weekly and monthly UPSC current affairs quizzes will complement and strengthen your preparation. For Daily News Analysis, Daily Prelims Mini Tests, check https://www.iasgyan.in/course_list.