Published by Government, Research and Workshops, study material prepared by renowned professors from JNU, DU, HU and other Central Universities etc. Class VI to XII provides sound footing and integrative foundation for Civil service exam whether you sincerely studied it in School time or not just start it now and it will not take much time to understand the concepts and basics at this level. UPSC consider NCERT books as a standard that is followed because, NCERT books are available both in Hindi Medium as well as in English Medium across the country in Rural and Urban areas, accessible to all selections of society. Most of the toppers and successful candidates follow NCERT books for their Preliminary as well s Mains exam preparation and they recommend for it.

From previous years question papers analysis, it has been observed that questions are consistently asked directly or indirectly from NCERT books. In NCERT books we fins concise and compact coverage of any topics So, the topics covered in NCERT and also mentioned in your UPSC Civil Service Syllabus. You must cover this from NCERT books. For the rest of syllabus you should move anywhere else to get recommended quality Study Materials and Good Books. Most of the coaching institutes in Civil Service also follow NCERT books for teaching and while preparing study notes and questions sets for mock test series.
Note: Only NCERT books are not sufficient to cover whole syllabus but whatsoever part it cover just study it from NCERTs.

Since the language of NCERT books are for the schools students considering their age and intellectual level. So it will be very easy for you at this juncture and this type of language preferred in the Mains exam answer scripts. "If you have to command over UPSC exams you have to command over NCERT books. These books are the weakest point of UPSC, it must be your strength point".

Studying NCERT books for Civil Services examination is different from studying it as a textbook for your school/class readings. So, when you study these books for UPSC point of view then you should read between the lines that, you should understand not only the literal meaning but also underlying purpose and objectives of the authors what actually are trying to deliver you. Underline and highlight the important lines, keywords, key points and key facts and even you can use conventional sign or mark "IMP" that is important for your examination.

You have to study NCERT books in such a way that you should be able to answer all questions irrespective of their difficulty level if it is asked from NCERT by UPSC in its Preliminary and Mains examination respectively. If you do reverse engineering the previous years preliminary exam you will find the questions are being asked not only from main text but also from appendices, lists, tablets, specially mentioned boxes, diagrams, maps, etc. anything which you ignore become important for you and may be asked in the exam.

Always move from simple to difficult, lower to higher level and being a graduate it will be very easy to study VI^th to XII^th standard books. You should read NCERT books not as a reader but try to read as a teacher so that you can match the frequency of question setters, put the questions what, why, how, when, and where before the topic, subtopic, paragraph you study. Interrogative method is one of the best method of study should apply while studying.

For example: 2^nd World War-What, Why, How, When and Where. You can not make your subject matters scientific but you can make your methods of study more scientific.