The Civil Services examination is characterised by its elaborate syllabus and the need to understand and memorise a large amount of data. In order to master General Studies as well as the optional subject, one needs to have a strong basic knowledge as well as updated information on the latest happenings. So, whenever one interacts with budding IAS aspirants, one often repeated question is about the relevant books to study.

Most of the articles related to Civil Services preparation and interviews of toppers include a list of books that one needs to follow. Many senior officers talk about the books they used while preparing and suggest the youngsters to refer them. Once, a bureaucrat insisted that all budding aspirants should buy a rather expensive book, which we had not heard till then. He emphasised that this book was a must for a candidate to get through. People are very anxious about making no mistakes about this. So, is there a prescribed set of books for the Civil Services examination?

Well, the Union Public Service Commission does not suggest a book list. In fact, there used to be an interesting sentence in the exam notification along with the syllabus, which states that “an educated person should be able to tackle these without any special training”. That means if one has a sound schooling as well as higher studies, one should be familiar with most of the General Studies syllabus.

Of course, the level of competition demands one should have proper practice if not formal coaching. People generally start with the NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) textbooks till Class XII to get their basics right. This is particularly useful for people who have done professional courses, as they would have lost touch with subjects such as history, geography, politics and economics, which constitute the major part of the General Studies syllabus. For those with a humanities background and those who remember their basics from school, this routine is not compulsory.

There are certain standard books one could refer to for the above-mentioned subjects. One book should be enough for each of these subjects as the idea is to get the basics right. One should read them thoroughly, digesting the information and revising it periodically as these are the core of the General Studies syllabus. I have seen people who keep on buying new books for basic areas, which is a sheer waste of time and money. Importance should be given to understanding the concepts. Coaching institutes provide study materials for the same both online and offline, but a quality textbook is more reliable when it comes to basics.

Since a major section of the General Studies syllabus involves current happenings, one needs to constantly stay updated on events of national and international importance. Newspapers as well as periodicals and magazines become important in this regard. Here also, one should stick to one or two newspapers and magazines. Making notes regularly from them will be helpful. It is always better to make notes on current affairs by oneself rather than getting them from an institute. A reliable newspaper and government publications such as Yojana and Kurukshetra should be good enough.

With plenty of information available on the internet, one could get both basic information related to General Studies and current affairs online. The websites of central government ministries and Press Information Bureau are highly reliable for any governance-related updates. The website called prsindia does excellent policy analysis. One could always check websites of international agencies like the United Nations for first-hand information. The search engines help one to get multiple articles on an issue easily.

People are biased against online resources as they suspect the authenticity of its content. Just like we have books of different quality, there are genuine and fake websites. So, one should be careful to stick to official sources online just like the way one chooses quality books.

At the end of the day, it is all about relevant information. So, one should get guidance from seniors about reliable sources and start with that. In the process, if one finds out a new source that is relevant and valid, it could be added to the preparation list. As mentioned in the Rigveda, let the knowledge come to us from everywhere.

The author is a former IPS officer and a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.

This article originally appeared on OnManorama.

Manorama Yearbook app is now available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store