UPSC Prelims 2024 Sources

Hi All,

On 28-05-2023, UPSC delivered perhaps one of the most unconventional Prelims paper ever. As expected, it became a matter of concern for Aspirants and I had promised that I will come up with updated booklist that is relevant in view of current exam pattern.

I contacted many CSE-22 Toppers and they were kind enough to share their booklists. Summary of 12 of them is as under (CLICK HERE FOR EXCEL FILE OF BELOW IMAGES):

Above booklist gives you idea that CSE-22 Toppers followed commonly suggested reference material only.

However, as CSE-22 exam pattern was different than CSE-23, I asked members of my CSE-23 MAINS GROUP, i.e. those who cleared CSE-23 Prelims to share their booklists for benefit of CSE-24 Aspirants.

For this, I floated a Google Form and included all the books and sources mentioned by CSE-22 Toppers (refer pics above) as checkboxes. Plus, option of ‘other’ was also provided and participants could select multiple options. This ensured that responses gathered are as comprehensive as possible.

Following is the Excel File of 152 responses i.e. Booklist followed by 152 Candidates who cleared CSE-23 Prelims:

Sources for Prelims 2024 Download

The above file provides you raw data as filled by selected candidates. Here too you may note that mostly everyone is following the “Commonly Known Reference Sources” as were also mentioned by me and CSE-22 Toppers.

Also Read CSAT STRATEGY by those who cleared Prelims-2023:

CSAT-24: How to Prepare?

Following is the Most Referred Booklist based on Analysis of the Responses in above excel file, (Order: Most referred source mentioned first).

P.S. It is up to you what resource(s) you make your primary source(s) and what you choose as secondary source(s). (My advice is to refer max 2-3 sources per subject):

Modern History: Spectrum, NCERT 12th, NCERT 11th, Bipin Chandra & Ghatna Chakra.

Art & Culture: Nitin Singhania Book, NCERT 11th, TN Board Book & Nitin Singhania Notes.

Ancient-Medieval: TN board Book, NCERT 11th RS Sharma, NCERT 11th Satish Chandra, Lucent, Vajiram Yellow Book (Ancient + Medieval), Poonam Dalal & Ghatna Chakra.

UPSC has been increasingly emphasizing the importance of philosophical Essay topics. To help you excel in this crucial aspect of the essay paper, we bring to you this book, “Decode Civils: Philosophical Essay Writing”.

It encompasses essays on 46 philosophical topics that were asked between 2013-22 & offers 138 essay structures, i.e. 3 different approaches for each topic.

It incorporates 28 different approaches in writing these structures & essays.

Polity: Laxmikanth, NCERT & Bare Act.

Economy: Budget (Only Summary), Economic Survey (Only Summary), Mrunal Notes, Mrunal Lectures, Vivek Singh, Vajiram Notes, Ramesh Singh & Sriram IAS Book.

Environment: Vision IAS Current Affairs, Shankar IAS Book, PMF IAS, Biology NCERT, Google, Shivin Chaudhary Course on EdSarrthi & Sunya Current Affairs.

Geography: 11th & 12th NCERTs, Atlas, GC Leong, PMF IAS, 11th NCERT (Not 12th), Rajtanil Solanki Lecture Videos & Sudarshan Gujjar Lecture Videos.

Science & Technology: Vision IAS Current Affairs, Biology NCERT, Shivin Chaudhary Course on EdSarrthi, Sunya Current Affairs & Lucent.

Current Affairs: Newspaper + Coaching Magazine (60.5%), Only Coaching Magazine (30.3%) & Only Newspaper (9.2%)

Which Magazine: Vision PT365, Vision Monthly, Sunya & Insight IAS

I hope this will help you immensely in selecting the sources for 2024 Prelims. These are the sources that are referred by those who have cleared CSE-2023.

My Take: I do not see any out of box unconventional sources here but only the most common sources referred by toppers in last 4-5 years (or even earlier!). Hence, the key is not t/changing your sources but revising them multiple times and keeping your nerves when you see such a paper again.

One who keeps nerves shall go through!!!

Join here for free guidance from Mudit Jain, IRS CSE-17 (IPS CSE-14 & 15), Author of Decode Civils – Philosophical Essay Writing, Decode GS2, Decode Ethics 4.0 & Decode History Books

Ethics book referred by CSE 22 Toppers: AIR –76, 91, 176, 189, 249, 288, 297, 299, 326, 356, 476, 541, 611, 616, 700, 737, 739, 746 & others

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

Sample PDFs of Books: Decode Civils – Philosophical Essay Writing, Decode Ethics 4th Edition, Decode GS2 & Decode History

Slideshow of References from Decode Ethics 4th Edition of 9 out of 13 Section-A Questions of 2023 CSE Ethics Paper: