How & Which NCERTs to Read and Make Notes of?

How to read and make notes of books like Spectrum, Laxmikant, Shankar, NCERTs etc:

* Read book 1–2 times and resist marking anything. Marking and note making shall be done only during 2nd or 3rd reading. If you mark during the 1st read, you will end up marking almost everything.

* Try reducing the content to 1/4 or 1/5 size. i.e. 80-100 page notes if book size is 400 pages.

Join here for free guidance from Mudit Jain, IRS CSE-17 (IPS CSE-14 & 15), Author of Decode GS2, Decode Ethics 4.0 Part-A, Decode Ethics 4.0 Part-B, (Decode Ethics 4.0 Set) & Decode History Books

Ethics book referred by CSE 21 Toppers: AIR – 6, 43, 44, 50, 75, 84, 150, 188, 194, 235, 249, 252, 268, 281, 322, 344, 439, 467, 572, 577, 586, 612, 646, 679 & others

History book referred by CSE 21 Toppers: AIR – 44, 212, 572, 653 & others

Sample PDFs of Books: Decode Ethics 4th Edition Sample,  Decode GS2 Sample & Decode History Sample

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* Note down prelims specific facts with different colour pen to separate them from Mains specific info. This way, tou can have both prelims and mains notes at one place.

* Keep a target of reading and making notes of X no. of pages/day to keep this exercise short and productive. ‘X’ depends on your reading speed, grasping power, writing speed and sitting hours.

* Use bullets and number format for note making rather than paragraphs. This will come handy for Mains answers which are to be written in points or bullets rather than paragraphs.

Books to be read:

1. Ancient-Medieval: Lucent book & civil services chronicle 30 pages notes. Click here for document.
2. Art-Culture: Nitin Singhania notes and TN board book.
3. Modern India: Bipin Chandra 78 pages notes. Click here for document. Lucent 40 pages. Tables given in Spectrum.
4. Post Independence: Pol Science NCERT notes.
5. World History: Sparknotes website & Arjun Dev NCERT notes. Click here for document.
6. World Geography: NCERT 9-10-11-12, G C Leong & Optional notes uploaded. My Geography Notes.
7. India Geography: NCERT 9-10-11-12, Vajiram Yellow Book & Optional notes.
8. Map work: Prem Patel. Prelims: Map Based Questions 2013-2019.
9. Indian Society: IGNOU Material. Topic wise Doc and PDF files uploaded. Click here for document and Indian Society – GS1 Detailed Analysis
10. Environment: Shankar.
11. Economy: Sriram.
12. Polity: Laxmikant.
13. IR: Rajiv Sikri. International Relations Detailed Analysis.
14. Science: Current. GS-3 Science Preparation
15. Ethics: Any, but only 1 book. Decode Ethics Book.
16. Current: Hindu + Vision monthly + Insights compilations.

Notes of which books?

Make notes of books mentioned in point number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12 and 15.

Make keywords list for books mentioned in point number 10, 11, 13 and 15.

Random Notes Samples:

ATB