Confusion on the number of books required to be studied

Warrior_within

Hello everyone,
My confusion is regarding the number of books to be studied for the exam.
Mostly what I have found out is successful aspirants suggesting us to stick to one book and read it 'n' number of times, rather studying 'N' number of books 1 time.

Another set of aspirants says- only one book is not enough for this exam and you have to refer multiple books( as this is upsc)

Now the confusion lies in what to follow.
Should I go ahead with 1 book and answer whatever I can with the knowledge gained from that book
Or
Go ahead with multiple sources, so that I don't miss anything.

Request the seniors to please clear this doubt of mine.

Obaid Ansari

what they mean is not single book but single SOURCE for single topic.

Warrior_within

@Obaid Ansari then how can we distinguish between different books? As almost all of them have similar content.
Eg: laxmikanth vs dd basu
Khullar vs spectrum



These books have topics which are same.
Then how to go about the topic wise approach.

vijaydinanathchauhan

laximikanth and dd bau both and spectrum alone is better than overhyped khullar

princessso

I think the utility of 'books' has definitely gone down. So is the invincibility of books like laxmikanth and spectrum (modern history ). It has all become dynamic. Although basics has to be built through ncerts.

Warrior_within

Thanks a lot for your time and valuable inputs.
For upsc a single book alone cannot help to sail through this exam and multiple books have the same content.
Then how to deal with the syllabus?

Even for questions on static portion, we have to use multiple books. Then how to decide about which book to follow.

as an aspirant i might end up with savindra singh for geo rather than gc leong. As savindra has more content >> greater knowledge can be acquired through it.( beginners mindset?

How to go about it.

Warrior_within

Savindra singh was just an example.
And my query extends for all the subjects.
as we can make our base strong atleast for static part.
for dynamic part, its all up to upsc.

Please help to resolve this dilemma

Man_Of_Steel542

Modern history-spectrum
Polity-laxmikant plus newspaper
Economy- Ncert 11,12 plus eco survey plus newspaper
Science-6 to10th ncert
Geo-6 to 12th ncert plus gc leong
Ancient ,medieval history- 11th Ncert

Newspaper- Hindu for current,mrunal

MCQ-PRACTISE MAX from diff test series....


Repeat all these....No one can stop you frm clearing prelims if u can read reread them again and again....

Ivan_TheTerrible

History ke liye Spectrum, NCERT books and AL Basham ( agar iccha ho to) ;

Geography ke liye NCERT books, Savinder Singh, GC Leong padhna hi hai ;

Environment Ecology ke liye jo bhi book aapke paas ho and random search on Internet..

Polity ke liye laxmikant and NCERT books ( both old and new ;

Economy ke liye Ramesh Singh wali book, Economic Survey,

Ye jo bhi books upar mention kari hai maine, more or less, in books ko to padhna hi hai bhai.....

Mera khud ka vyaktigat anubhav ye raha hai ki Ek book ko multiple times revise karne se kahin guna Better ye hai ki ---- kai saari books and resources ko refer kiya jaaye ( I know many people, many people will not agree with me but that's not an issue) kyonki aajkal jis tarah ke questions pooche jaa rahe hain, chahe wo Prelims ho yaa Mains ho, Syllabus mein kahin se kuch bhi pooche jaa rahe hain.... Means ab koi selective study ki Gunjaaish NAHI rahi UPSC CSE mein..... Yahaan ab aapko ek ek cheez, Choti ho yaa Badi ho, usko acche se cover karna hi hai....

Aur aisi paristhtityon mein, Ek book ko N number of times padhna koi bahut adhik faayde ka saudaa NAHI hoga....

Kai saare resources ( not necessarily books but they can be magazines, newspapers PDF files) refer karne se Revision ka thoda dikkat wala issue hoga.... Ye ekdum nischit hai.... To is samasyaa se nidaan paane ke liye behtar upaaya ye hai ki aap abhi se hi apni padhai bahut acche se shuru kar dijiye...... Taaki exam aate aate tak sab kuch aapka poori tarah se Revise ho chuka hoga..

Post Script: Views expressed are my personal.... I know "N "number of people will not agree with me....

Dhanyawaad..

TonyStark

apart from few ncerts....i have covered only one book till now i.e. laxmikanth polity which i did 4-5 times revision.....remaining books with me are bipan chandra's multiple books, spectrum geography, ramesh singh ,shashi tharoor and so on...out of which none of them are fully covered till now..... Everything of GS part is in the internet.......Join a test series or atleast buy xerox copies to practise...and keep practising thats all.....

princessso

I am not an expert. But if this can help you even in a little way . This is basically for the preliminary exam.
For geography only ncerts + you tube videos.
For modern history i read 3 books - nbt freedom struggle, spectrum, sumit sarkar. As i like modern history. And also the ncerts.But i think sumit sarkar helped me the most. I should have stuck to a single source. There were few direct questions from sumit sarkar in the preliminary exam.
For polity - laxmikanth(revised umpteen times,cost - benefit ratio was too high for me).
One must go through the bare constitution .

For environment- The hindu . Ecology( nios).
Science and tech- only ncerts.

And the most important thing newspapers. I loved reading newspapers. Also maintained notes out of it . But stopped maintaining notes after august. Paid heavily in mains.

P.s. -This is what i did . It may not suit you.