UPSC civil service exam is considered to be the toughest exam in the country. The aspirants dream to serve their country by joining the prestigious posts offered by the commission, but only a handful of them are actually able to make it. There are numerous coaching centres and tons of study materials available for helping students in their preparation.
These days, many online platforms are providing paid or free tutorials, making it really convenient for aspirants to learn from their homes. But what exactly does a student need to choose the right track for taking this strenuous journey? Start going through a huge pile of thick books with hundreds of pages? NO!
The right choice would be to start with NCERT books from class 6th to 12th of relevant subjects. Let us see why these books are so important in the course of one’s preparation.
The right content
As they say, there is no limit to the amount of knowledge one needs to religiously soak up during the preparation of this reputable exam, but having a good read through the NCERTs is going to help in pacing up one’s preparation.
These books are like the bible for civil services as they have just what you need. The syllabus is covered in such an efficient way that a person from non-humanity background would also find them interesting and resourceful.
The use of illustrations and the colourful texts makes the reading journey very interactive and fun. These books don’t let you feel lost in the ocean of syllabus as they help you in planning the strategy right.
For getting the most benefit from them, one must revise these books at least 2-3 times before the exam and make quick revision notes out of them.
Use of explicit language
Reading through a book with complicated terminologies and hard language makes it difficult to ingest the information the author intends to provide. Sometimes aspirants get so demotivated when they get stuck in between while reading such books that the horror of this exam keeps haunting them and they are not able to perform well in the examination.
The language used for writing NCERT books is almost of the 8th-grade level. These books are far more simplified than many publications available in the market and are quick and easy read.
A person with a very basic understanding of Hindi or English can comprehend the contents with an ease and benefit from them. Even a novice can grow up to be a connoisseur by reading these books.
Questions are asked from them
Yes, you heard it right. Every year, a set of questions are directly asked from these books. In the previous papers, UPSC has taken questions from the practice section given at the end of each chapter. All the tables, important notes, and diagrams given in the book should be thoroughly gone through, as UPSC sometimes pick questions from there too.
Many conceptual questions are too asked directly from these books. Hence, the more you get your basics cleared, the more will you be able to tackle questions like a fearless warrior on a battlefield.
Also, reading them gives you a subtle idea about the kind of language you need to use while writing essays in your mains exam as this is the kind of language a candidate is expected to use. For this, writing informative notes from the reading could prove to be beneficial.
Written by top researchers
What makes these books more special is that they are authentic and well-founded. The people who write these remarkable books are none other than scientists, historians, and experts who specialize in their respective subjects and have provided research-based content in a neutral and unbiased way.
Even some popular books for UPSC preparation are also written by these NCERT authors, which may be referred after completion of reading the NCERTs. They have penned and arranged the curriculum in such a way that the content acts as a stepping stone to acing the subject.
These are the special traits that make these books so helpful and beneficial for the students to follow the correct path for preparation. Please note that these books are better to read topic wise than chapter wise, based on one’s analysis of the previous year’s papers.
Analysing previous year’s papers will help the aspirant get an idea of how questions are asked in the exam and what would be the topics that need his/her foremost attention. There is absolutely no harm in referring other materials for preparation, but the foundation of knowledge should be dug using NCERT books.
Like a student from 6th standard learns with exhilaration from these books evolving with mastery, a well-grown candidate, with the hopes of reaching the zenith of success, also gets thrilled by the amazing way of explaining these books have provided.