Simi Karan 

You can start with the NCERTs and then move on to these sources as well!

GS 1 -

History :

1. Ancient and Medieval History — TN NCERT Class 11

2. Art and Culture — TN NCERT Class 11, Kanishak Kataria Sir Notes (Telegram)

3. Modern History — Spectrum, Old NCERT by Bipin Chandra (Could not finish, added notes to
Spectrum)

4. Post-Independence and World History — Vision IAS notes

Geography:

1. Physical, Climate, Urbanization — Class 11 and 12 NCERTs, GC Leong (selective, added notes to
NCERTs), Sharad Sir Notes (selective, added notes to NCERTs)

2. Resource Distribution, Industrial Location — Sharad Sir Notes, Mrunal Sir webpages (available
on website), Kanishak Kataria Sir Notes (Telegram)

3. Mapwork, extra sources — PMFIAS.com, Youtube searches (tried to remember mnemonics for
countries around Seas etc)

Society:

1. All topics — Smriti Shah Ma’am Vision IAS Class notes, Newspapers, PSIR Optional helped in
understanding many concepts (like Globalization, Secularism, Communalism etc)

2. Women — MK Yadav Sir QEP notes

GS 2 -

My optional was PSIR, hence a lot of topics were covered there, I marked the points relevant for GS 2

Polity:

1. All topics — Lakshmikant, M Puri Sir notes, MK Yadav Sir QEP + INA notes

2. Representation of People’s Act, Separation of Powers, Constitutional, Statutory, Regulatory

bodies — Google Search (Compiled points from top 3 websites)

3. Welfare Schemes, Poverty and Hunger issues, Social sector and Social services, Government
policies and interventions for development of various sectors — MK Yadav Sir QEP + INA
Notes, Newspapers, Google Search

Governance:
 1. Transparency and Accountability, E-Governance, Citizen Charter, NGO, SHGs, Pressure Groups
— MK Yadav Sir QEP + INA notes, Newspapers, Google Search (Compiled points from top 3
websites), ARC Reports

2. Role of Civil Services — M Puri Sir notes, MK Yadav Sir INA notes, ARC Reports

International Relations:

No separate preparation compared to PSIR Optional

GS 3 –

1. Economy — Sriram IAS notes, MK Yadav Sir QEP + INA Notes

2. Agriculture — MK Yadav Sir QEP + INA Notes

3. Disaster Management — MK Yadav Sir QEP Notes, NDMA Guidelines

4. Internal Security — MK Yadav Sir QEP Notes, Vajiram Yellow Book (selective)

5. Environment, Science and Tech — Shankar IAS, MK Yadav Sir INA notes, Current Affairs, CP
Kaushik Sir classes

6. Government Schemes — MK Yadav Sir notes

GS 4 –

1. Theory — Lukmaan IAS Class notes, 2nd ARC Report — Ethics in Governance, DecodeCIVILS
book— Mudit Jain Sir (Focused on examples, answers), Thebetterindia.com (Facebook feed),
Civil Services Day awards — examples of bureaucrats (Have a look at Shreyans Kumat Sir’s
sample notes on Telegram)

2. Case Studies — Lukmaan IAS Case Study Class notes, case studies from GS

3. Extra (for understanding and examples, you can read these before diving into preparation or in
the early stages if you have more than 1 year) —  Difficulty of Being Good — Gurucharan Das,
Michael Sandel — Harvard Lectures on Justice, Poor But Spirited in Karimnagar, Field notes of a
civil servant — Sumita Dawra, Not Just a Civil Servant, Ethical Dilemmas of a Civil Servant — Anil
Swarup

Essay —

(Sources I referred apart from GS content)

1. Introductions, Conclusions, Examples, Headings, Quotes — Anudeep Durishetty Sir Notes

2. Extra (for examples, you can read this before diving into preparation or in the early stages if you
have more than 1 year) —  Jataka Tales, Panchatantra, Kathasaritasagara, Sudha Murty books,
Devdutt Pattnaik books, quote pages on top of Facebook feed

Current Affairs –

1. The Hindu (After Prelims also read Indian Express selectively — Editorials, Explained pages)
 2. Vision IAS Monthly magazines (Before Prelims)

3. MK Yadav Sir INA notes

4. Tried InsightsonIndia daily summary before Prelims but could not cope with volume of
information (You can go through it but don’t make notes)

Other Sources –

1. Toppers’ answer copies — Saumya Sharma Ma’am, Anudeep Durishetty Sir, Shreyans Kumat Sir,
Kanishk Kataria Sir

2. Frequent use of Internet to improve understanding, expand knowledge and for smaller topics
with scattered notes (Pro Tip — Type UPSC at the end of the topic and Google/YouTube search
to find the relevant content)

Some final suggestions

You are a UPSC aspirant, don’t turn into a book collector! Don’t create a mini-library of sorts!

How to avoid that? First finalize a booklist and then step out for buying them or just buy the book one
day before you are going to start reading it :P (Also for heaven’s sake, don’t take suggestions from the
book seller!)

Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility says that the value added by every new book/source will go on
declining, at one point turning negative. Please don’t run after perfection, focus on completion.

While preparing, be smart! Don’t read the sources end-to-end. Keep your syllabus and PYQ in front and
read very selectively.

Revise, revise, revise! No number of times are enough, the more you revise, the better you get with your
knowledge, understanding and interlinking of content. Also, don’t go into a passive reading mode, be
MENTALLY ACTIVE while revising –

1. Consciously try interlinking topics, end the silos in your brain!

2. Think about how you will use the content in actual exam

3. Be creative! Use a whiteboard, explain to your friends or write mocks— do whatever helps in
greater retention (I like pacing the room, speaking out loud :P)

4. Try out creative flow charts, classification of points into headings (like into Economic, Social,
Political), new maps or diagrams you had not thought earlier

5. With every revision, try reducing the time by underlining and highlighting the most important
keywords (In actual exam, you write 5 papers in 3 days, so compress your notes/sources as
much as possible!)