Best Books for RAS Preparation | Prelims & Mains

Do you want to know which book to read for RAS exam preparation? Do you want to become a RAS officer but don’t know where to start form? If yes, then you are at the right place. We have come up with “Best Books for RAS Preparation”. This article will answer all your questions and guide you in the right direction.

Rajasthan Administrative Services is a high-level competitive exam of Rajasthan state conducted every year by the body Rajasthan Public Service Commission for selecting administrative officers and filling the vacancies in the state governing body. 

We know very well that when it comes to selecting, one needs to be very cautious in his preparation. A teacher can’t do everything for you, he can show you the path, and you have to go on with it.

To get selection in such an exam, you need to join the best RAS coaching and have some of the best books on your shelves. Reading a book has always been the best option when it comes to any competitive exam. Keep your study material tight, and don’t go here and there, and at the end of the day, you are left with a lot of books to decide upon.

In this article, we will discuss some of the books for RAS pre, books for RAS mains, and if you are from Hindi medium, there is no need to worry as we will discuss books for RAS exam preparation in Hindi well.

Introduction

RAS being a tough exam, you need to know the basic details of it in order to start your preparation.

The RAS exam is conducted by RPSC in three stages, namely, the prelims, the mains, and the interview round.

Now, let’s move on with our discussion of pre and mains along with the books for each exam.

Books for RAS Pre

Before directly moving on with the books, let’s know the basic paper pattern of the pre-exam.

The pre-exam is an objective type paper consisting of a single paper of 150 questions in all. The total marks are 200 and a student needs to just qualify for the exam and the marks are not added to the final merit list.

We will now see the important books for RAS pre.

• You should start with NCERT and RBSC books. There are various books that are available in both Hindi and English. RBSE books include Rajasthan Adhyayan Book which is available in both Hindi and English.

Read More: RAS Preparation Tips

It is also important to read class 11^th and 12^th History and Geography books.

• This is a special point for those students who don’t have much time before the prelims exam and want to prepare for the RAS exam.

They can read Contemporary Rajasthan by Dr. L.R. Bhalla, and Rajasthan Aaj Tak by Dr. Dinesh & Pushpa Sharma.

We will now discuss subject-wise books.

History

History being a vast topic, so a student needs to cover the complete history of Rajasthan and India as well.

For Rajasthan’s History

1. The Ancient history of Rajasthan.
2. Important dynasties of Rajasthan.
3. The Modern History of Rajasthan (1707 – 1947).
4. Literature art culture and heritage of Rajasthan.
5. Historic battles of Rajasthan.

History of India

We will discuss the complete history books here.

1. Ancient history – NCERT book by R. S. Sharma.
2. Medieval history – NCERT book by Satish Chandra.
3. Modern history – NCERT book by Bipin Chandra.
4. There is a book named Spectrum – a brief history of Modern India available on Amazon.

For Art and Culture refer to the following books.

Indian art and culture by Nitin Singhania is a book for RAS exam preparation in Hindi, and English.

Geography

We will discuss the national and state geography books differently.

For the Rajasthan Geography

1. There is a book on Geography of Rajasthan – by Dr. L. R. Bhalla.
2. For the Maps of Rajasthan (Rajasthan Manchitravali) by Mumal. This is equally useful for both Hindi and English medium students.

Indian geography

There are NCERT books of class 11^th and 12^th and under which we will see different important books of 11^th and 12^th.

The following books are from class 11^th NCERT books.

1. Fundamentals of physical geography.
2. Indian physical environment.

The following books are from class 12^th NCERT books.

1. Fundamentals of human geography.
2. India people and economy.

Furthermore, there are a few books that are also available other than the NCERT ones.

1. Indian and World Geography by Majid Hussain.
2. A book on Environment by Shankar IAS book.

Polity

There is a book for polity which is very famous among the aspirants. The book is Laxmikant, we know it very well. You don’t need to move away as this is mostly available in the book stores.

Economy

Here comes the economy of both India’s and most importantly the state economy. This is also considered the most scoring topic for the RAS exam. 

Economy of Rajasthan

There is a book that deals with the Rajasthan economy from Laxmi Narayan’s Economy of Rajasthan.

Economy of India

1. There are two NCERT books, namely, Micro and Macro Economics. 
2. For Economy, there is a book by Ramesh Singh.
3. You can see the economic survey to get more information on this topic.

Science and Technology

Science and tech are the two topics that are asked in the prelims exam, and this is not a tricky topic, so you can easily score good marks.

Moreover, there is a book named Gist of NCERT available on Amazon that covers this topic.

Read More: Top 10 RAS Coaching in Rajasthan

Reasoning and Quantitative Aptitude

We will discuss the books for reasoning and aptitude one after other.

Reasoning

Reasoning by R. S. Agarwal is a book that is considered as the best and it also covers all the topics in a single book with a lot of questions to practice that will help for better learning of each topic.

Quantitative aptitude

There is a book by R. S. Agarwal for quantitative aptitude. This is also a good book and has helped a lot of students to prepare for Quantitative Aptitude.

We have covered the books for RAS pre. Now, it is time to discuss the books for RAS mains.

Books for RAS Mains

Most of the students consider the RAS mains exam as the toughest one as this is a written paper. Writing is important as people students complain about checking as they don’t get marks. But the reality is they have written the answer but not in a correct way. You can learn the tips of writing the correct answer writing from expert teachers or someone who has seen the exam from close.

You get help from coaching, the best one is The Thought Tree as they have well-qualified and expert teachers.

Mains consist of four papers and each paper is 200 marks. The total marks become 800 are the marks obtained are used to calculate the final merit list.

Let us see the paper-wise books for RAS mains.

Paper – 1 (General Science)

Unit-1: History

• History, art, literature of Rajasthan

There is a book by R. B. D for the history, art, culture of Rajasthan. Apart from this, there are several e-books available in the market for the same.

• For Indian history, you can refer to the following books.

1. Ancient: The first is Ancient history; for this, you can read the following book.

NCERT of ancient history by R. S. Sharma.

2. Medieval: The second is medieval history; for this, you can read the following book.

NCERT book of medieval history by Satish Chandra.

3. Modern: The third is modern history; for this, you can read the following book.

Spectrum – a brief history of modern India.

4. There are various books available for the post-independence period, you can study Ram Chandra’s India After Gandhi or India since Independence by Bipin Chandra.
5. For Art and Culture of India, you can read Nitin Singhania’s book.

• History of the modern world

There is a book ‘History of Modern World’ written by B V Rao. This book is considered the best book for world history.

Unit-2 Economics

• You can buy a macro-economics NCERT book that is considered a good option for the economy.
• Apart from this, you can read Ramesh Singh’s Indian Economy book.
• Further for Rajasthan’s Economy, Laxmi Narayan’s Rajasthan Economy is the best choice as we mentioned this previously for RAS pre.

Unit-3 Sociology, Management, Accounting, and Auditing

NCERT: From Class XI, you can read:
Introducing Sociology
Understanding Society
NCERT: From Class XII, you can read:
Indian Society  

Social Change & Development in India

Books for RAS Mains Paper – 2 (G. S)

Unit-1 Administrative Ethics

• There is an e-book available to solve this purpose, namely, SS Bissa – Ethics in Governance.
• Lexicon/Subba Rao is available for Administrative Ethics Integrity & Aptitude on an online platform such as Amazon.

Unit-II deals with Science and Technology

• You can begin reading from the Vision IAS e-book.
• There is an available online book for this purpose, that is, Environment – Shankar IAS book.

Unit III: Earth Science (Geography & Geology)

Refer to the following books for Indian and the world.

• NCERT books of classes 11^th and 12^th.
• Indian and World geography – Majid Hussain.

You can refer to the books mentioned below for the Rajasthan state’s geography.

• Dr. L. R. Bhalla – Geography of Rajasthan.
• Mumal – Maps of Rajasthan (Rajasthan Manchitravali). The book is equally good to go for both English and Hindi medium students.

Books for Mains Paper – 3 (G.S)

Unit-I Polity and current affairs

Indian polity:

Under Indian polity, the best book is none other than Laxmikant; no other can give competition to this book.

Current affairs:

There are various things under this section as you need to see, it consists of current affairs of state and country and some important information of the world.

Vision IAS

Insight IAS

Apart from these, you can read newspapers and follow some Youtube channels for daily updates.

Unit-II Concepts, Issues and Dynamics of Public Administration and Management

• New Horizons of Public Administration by Mohit Bhattacharya is the best book for this unit.

Unit-III Sports, Yoga

There are various websites and Youtube channels that provide complete information regarding sports and yoga. You can follow those channels and websites that give daily updates on sports as well.

Most people are sports lovers and know about the basics of different sports, so this topic is not important. If you have mentioned sports as your hobby in your documents or application form, you need to know the same from newspapers or any other mentioned source.

Books for Mains Paper – 4 (G. S) 

Paper number four is the easiest of all as it is language-based, and it consists of General Hindi and English. A student scores the most in this paper, and this helps him get a good overall score. So, prepare well for this paper.

General Hindi

1. For vyakran, you can study from RBSC books.
2. Apart from this, Lucent is the best book available offline for Samanya Hindi.

General English

1. There are E-books available for basic and advanced Grammer.
2. Some books like Compulsory English and Essential English Grammar are available on Amazon’s online platform.

Conclusion

This article discussed the RAS exam conducted by RPSC and various books for each subject, topic. Many of them are available in Hindi as well.

I would hope that the information shared would help you select the best books for yourself in your preparation for the RAS exam and become successful in your life.

All the best!