Now that you are aware of the syllabus, the next thing on your mind is Sources and which books are to be bought. This Article will help you solve the dilemma and save your time and money.
The only advice we would give you is Don’t buy everything you see in the Market. Let us see subject by subject.
Indian Polity:
Lakshmikant and NCERTs
ARC-II Recommendations
You already know and would have also bought Indian Polity by M . Lakshmikant. It is a Gold Standard book. But before reading lakshmikant , you should read NCERTs from 6th to 12th standard for UPSC . NCERTs are like a warmup. Once you finish NCERTs you can easily understand Lakshmikant. If you make some value addition from ARC-II, then you can score very good marks.
Indian Economy:
NCERTs
Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh
Indian Economy by Vivek Singh
Budget
Economic Survey
Most of you are afraid of this subject. You would have seen standard books in market and thought that economy is tough. So you can first buy NCERTs and understand what is important for UPSC exam and then go to standard books like Vivek Singh and Ramesh Singh.
If you want to learn some decent basics and in an easier way, then you can opt for Vivek Singh’s book. If you want to go beyond basics and strengthen your conceptual clarity, then you can go for Ramesh Singh. Both are good books in their own way and are popular in market.
Indian History & Art and Culture:
NCERTs (most important source)
Ancient India by R.S. Sharma
Medieval India by Satish Chandra
Modern India by Bipin Chandra
India after Indepedence by Bipin Chandra
History of the world by Arjun Dev (old)
Art & Culture by Nitin Singhania
You don’t need to worry seeing the book list for History. Once you start reading them, you will enjoy the process and you can actually finish all the books in just one month, provided you keep your mobile phone away and tick in the schedule paper.
Many people worry whether to read old or new NCERTs. We would suggest you to read both. Its just a week extra on your schedule. But you will never need to worry if you had chosen wrong source.
If you feel it is heavy you can refer your class notes or compilation for world history as it has less weightage in the exam. Select that source which covers the topics recurring in the mains exam.
The best source for Art and Culture is NCERTs of class XI and XII. After this you can refer CCRT Website for Current Affairs. These sources would be sufficient. But if you want a one standard text book then you can refer Nitin Singhania. Book is a bit bulky. You need to identify selected topics from that and study.
Geography of World and India:
NCERTs (6th to 12th classes)
‘Certificate Physical and Human Geography’ by G.C. Leong
“Geography of India” by Majid Husain
Oxford Atlas for Map Pointing
There are many sources for Geography. NCERTs are fundamental and other standard sources are supplementary. No single source is perfect for Geography. Geography being a science, it requires analytical skills and application oriented creative answer writing. The best source is NCERTs. Read them, make notes and revise. Update it with the help of Current Affairs and your geography preparation is done.
Science & Technology
NCERTs and Current Affairs
For Science and Tech paper, you just need to have some basic idea on concepts. Even from NCERTs, you can read selective topics for conceptual clarity. But UPSC demands us to be aware on the recent advancements. So we need to update our current affairs through News Paper or from coaching materials which handpick high priority topics and compile. You can refer La Excellence Rapid Revision Programme for Science and Technology.
Environment and Ecology:
NCERTs
Current Affairs (SPARK and RRP)
Environment and Ecology is one dynamic and high weightage subject in your exam. Selected topics from NCERTs will help you build basics. Then you can refer standard current affairs materials which cover news related to environment for last 2 years. Map pointing is very important here.
International Relations, Disaster Management and Internal Security:
- Current Affairs from Rapid Revision Programme (La Excellence)
In general we don’t require standard textbooks for these subjects . Analysing the trends of UPSC and the weightage of the marks, we can rely on standard compilations like La Excellence Rapid Revision Material.
You can refer websites like ORF, sansad TV debates for thinktank’s and government’s perspective.
We made a detailed video on the complete booklist for UPSC. you can watch it here:
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