The answer is simple.
Whether you do graduation, post-graduation or PhD, your school gives you the fundamental education. It is only upon this foundation, you build your higher studies. And, NCERT texts till Class 12 provides this fundamental education in the most simple and cost-effective manner.
UPSC aspirants can now buy NCERT books online as online shopping players have started adding NCERT books to their shelves.
Update: Now you can buy 40 NCERT books needed for UPSC exam preparation online as a set.
Buy NCERT Texts Online from Flipkart
If you are looking for hard copies of NCERT texts you can buy it from any good academic bookstore nearby. Also, you can buy NCERT books online from Flipkart, and get it delivered to the doorstep.
NCERT books are very cheap when compared to many IAS books available in the market, but all of them are treasure houses of knowledge.
Download NCERT Books as PDF for Free
If you are unable to find the required NCERT book in hard-copy format, you can go for the soft-copy version. All NCERT Books are available for free download from NCERT’s official website. Take the best out of it!
You may download and make separate folders in your laptop as NCERT Books for Prelims and NCERT Books for Mains. Also remember that for Hindi medium students, there are Hindi versions available for all NCERT texts.
Download NIOS Books as PDF for Free
Another category of useful texts is NIOS texts. NIOS corresponds to National Institute of Open Schooling. NIOS texts are very useful for subjects like Indian Culture. You can download NIOS texts for free.
Download IGNOU Books as PDF for Free
While NCERT and NIOS are school-level texts, IGNOU represents a higher version – graduation levels texts. Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) texts represent the next level of open-school, beyond NIOS. IGNOU books are especially useful for Mains papers like GS4 (Ethics), GS2 (International Relations) etc. You can download IGNOU texts for free from egyankosh website.
How important are NCERT texts for UPSC Civil Services Exam?
As mentioned before, NCERT texts are very helpful to get a strong foundation. NCERT and NIOS texts are famous for their simple, interesting and interactive style of content presentation. Though almost all NCERT and NIOS textbooks are useful for UPSC Civil Services Preparation, you can still prioritize them.
Also note that though most of the NCERT books are useful for IAS exam, NCERT Books are not the end of the world. There are many areas outside the purview of NCERT texts (Eg: Ethics, Internal Security, Technology etc.) and for those areas you definitely need other IAS textbooks or newspapers.
For subjects like Geography, there are no substitutes for NCERT books. Read NCERT books for geography from class 6-12, and you will start loving the subject! But for subjects like Polity and Economics, though NCERT texts are good, you might need extra texts to make your concepts clear (Eg: Laxmikanth for Indian Polity).
Go beyond the usual NCERT texts and read subjects like Sociology and Political Science; it will surely aid a lot in IAS Mains Exam Preparation.
PS: For certain subjects like History, it should help if you can collect Old Syllabus NCERT texts too. But this task won’t be easy as these texts are not available for sale anywhere now. Mentioning the details below so that if you find these books somewhere you can grab them at once:
- Ancient India (class XI) authored by RS Sharma.
- Medieval India (class IX) authored by Satish Chandra.
- Modern India (class X) authored by Bipin Chandra.
Download Yojana Magazine for Free
- Yojana Magazine Download.
Download Kurukshetra Magazine for Free
- Kurukshetra Magazine.
ClearIAS.com Online Study Materials for Free
SIR what is the difference b/w chairman and ex-officio chairman?
Ex-officio corresponds to holding a position or membership due to the power or influence of one’s office, and not by election or appointment to that particular post. For example, there is no election for chairman of Rajyasabha, but only for the vice-president of India. Vice-Predident of India becomes the ex-officio chairman of Rajya sabha.
Sir..i have almost just gone through my optional paper and whole CSAT aptitude paper [but needs their thorough revisions at all]…and thus conquered a little bit my starting dilemma ..sir,now i am wishing to switch on my GS studies for prelims cum mains..before that,i have a doubt sir…plz clear it to make a time schedule on GS with ncerts and other relevant source books…
Sir,how long it will take to complete ALL prescribed NCERTs for GS preparation..?? [even though it may varies to person to person] ..thankfully…
Sr,waiting ur valuable reply…much thanks..
Dear Sajjad,
As you have said, time to be an expert in any subject varies from person to person. Good to hear that you are now comfortable with optional and CSAT. That’s surely a good strategy. Try to finish the NCERTs (not all) related to topics mentioned in Prelims and Mains syllabus. Also refer ClearIAS.com online study materials at : https://www.clearias.com/ias-study-materials/ and selected books from the list https://www.clearias.com/ias-books/.
Much thanks sir…..
thank u soooooo much sir….
hello sir, iam preparing for ias so i want to know how to buy or get through online the ignou and nios books please reply
unable to download yojana magazines..:( pls help..
I need to buy IGNOU history material sir..!! Pls tell me the exact name of these books..!! Thank u..!!
Sir me upsc ki tayyari ke liye old ncert padhu ya new ncert.sir mujhe old ncert available nahi ho pa rahi hai.
dear friends
i want old english reader books which i used to study in class vi – viii if anybody have pl,. provide it to me. i will very thankful to u.
Hello sir,
I need ncert 11&12 standr old history text books(ancient, medieval, morden india)
Sir
Old ncert 11&12 std history books required so plz help me
Sir mujhe starting se I.p.s ki tayari krni h sir m konsi book lu plz tell me books name
Hi,
It is to inform all UPSC aspirants that now you can download free Yojana and Kurushetra magazine from August 2014 to November 2015 from the below given link-
https://www.vinsonias.com/books.aspx?cat=5
Hello sir,
sir mujhe cgpsc ki starting Se taiyari krna hai esme liye mujhe khon sa books best hoga?
Sir i m completed Bsc in Open University shall i apply For Examination
Sir I m Completed Bsc in Open University
shall i apply for Examinatiom
Yes u may
Vikram D.
Yes you can apply
In an important clarification, the NCERT confirms to ParentCircle that the latest exercise relates to review of textbooks. Read excerpts from an exclusive conversation with the spokesperson of NCERT.
https://www.parentcircle.com/article/ncert-updates-books-top-takeaways-for-parents/
Sir,
It’s better to buy old ncert Books or New NCERT books for upsc studies