Aspirants preparing for the UPSC-CSE have always been advised to read at least 50 NCERT books from classes 6 to 12. IAS officers recommend reading NCERT books to create the required base to understand the standard books.

We have curated ultimate tips and techniques on note-making and strategy to read NCERT books.

IAS Shashank M Tripathi advises aspirants to cover the books in iterations. “Pick any NCERT book, say Indian History, and read it cover to cover, like a novel, just to get the feel of the subject and the thought process of the authors,” he writes on Quora.

“In the second reading, try to make crisp, one-liner notes for later revisions. If you are just too lazy for that, you can also use a highlighter to bookmark significant passages,” he adds.

“Once you have covered the whole book in your short notes, there is no need to read the whole text again for revision. All this should not take more than 1 week per book,” he says.

IAS Bhavesh Mishra reiterates that the most preferred way to read NCERT books is to highlight important lines and supplement that knowledge with other credible sources.

He advises aspirants to read all 50 odd NCERT textbooks only if they need to revise the concepts taught in school.

He also advises them to thoroughly read History books of Old NCERT Classes 9 and 10 (World History) and 11 and 12 (Ancient, Medieval and Modern).

He says the NCERT textbooks of Sociology (new or latest courses), and Geography and Political Science from Classes 11 and 12 require reading more than once.