APSC (Assam Public Service Commission) has come out with a notification to conduct the civil service preliminary exam for the year 2023. The Assam Civil Service and Allied Services Exam which is more specifically called as Combined Competitive Exam or CCE shall be conducted this year on 17th of March 2024 for recruitment to 235 number of post. The CCE 2022 exam result was recently declared and a total of 915 candidates have been selected. As with the candidates, every year there is a lot of confusion on which books to study to pass this coveted examination. In this article we shall attempt to understand the nature of the exam and accordingly suggest the various books to be studied and strategy to followed to crack this examination.
The confusion regarding what to study or what not to study for this exam lies in the fact that the syllabus of this exam (although specified in APSC’s website) is very vague. It often leaves the aspirants in doubt as to how to cover the entire syllabus or how to approach the Preliminary and Mains stage of the exam. The syllabus covers the entire realm of academics and also expects the aspirants to be “Jack of all Trades and Master of none“. To remove the ambiguity from the mind of the aspirants, we have prepared a strategy which would help in tackling this long exam in an efficient manner. What we have done is that we have gone through numerous interviews/ write-up of UPSC/ APSC toppers and accordingly prepared a gist of the findings which we think would help the aspirants in a much better way.
1st comes the syllabus. APSC CCE syllabus is not Mount Everest which only few have scaled. Many students fail in this exam because they adopt the strategy they followed to pass their college or university exams. APSC/ UPSC strategy is completely different. You should keep your eyes and ears open to all those things happenings in and around you, events which are affecting our daily lives or have the potential to affect us. Say for example the Assam Industrial Policy 2023. In this case you have to find out how the industrial policy shall alter the existing economy of Assam, which sectors are in focus, whether the Industrial Policy is based on the core strength of Assam, whether it is talking about reviving the sick units, various incentives, subsidies, benefits for start ups, licensing policy, what about infrastructure development, land leasing policy, industrial corridors, etc. This is possible only when you minutely study the details of Assam Industrial Policy 2023.
Secondly, there are 3 types of papers in APSC CCE. One where the syllabus is static and one where the syllabus is dynamic and the last consist of a mixture of both i.e static and dynamic. History is purely static and study of standard text books is sufficient. Geography also to a large extant is static and here also studying standard text books shall suffice. Polity and economy is a mixture of static and dynamic portions. Here besides standard textbooks, one shall also have to keep their current affairs knowledge up-to date. Questions from Science and Technology mostly comes from the recent developments. Current events of national and international significance is one such part of the prelims paper where majority of candidates fail to score. So our focus should always to keep ourselves upto-date on current affairs. Current affairs is the thread which determines whether one shall proceed towards the mains exam and eventually to the interview. It can make or mar your chances drastically.
We have prepared a list of essential books to be followed for APSC CCE Prelims exam. It is not an exhaustive list and indicative only.
1.Daily reading of newspaper is good (if you have time) or else there are many resources online which you can follow.
Online Resources – Click here
Offline Resources – The Hindu or The Indian Express newspaper, The Assam Tribune, Dainik JanamBhumi, CHRONICLE magazine
2. Geography
- NCERT Class XI – Fundamentals of Physical Geography
- NCERT Class XI – Physical Environment
- NCERT Class XII – Fundamentals of Human Geography
- NCERT Class XII – People and Economy
3. History and Art & Culture
- Ancient India: Class XI Old NCERT by RS Sharma to cover the entire syllabus of ancient Indian history.
- Medieval India: Class XI NCERT History of Medieval India by Satish Chandra to cover the entire syllabus of medieval Indian history.
- Modern India: A Brief History of Modern India by Rajiv Ahir. [Spectrum]
- Art & Culture: NCERT Class XI and An Introduction to Indian Art and Indian Art & Culture by Nitin Singhania.
4. Indian Polity
- Indian Polity and Governance by Laxmikanth [Single Book Enough with repeated Revisions]
5. Economic and Social Development
- Economy: NCERT Class XII – Introductory Microeconomics
- Economy: NCERT Class XII – Introductory Macroeconomics
- Indian Economy Key Concepts by K Sankarganesh
6. Ecology & Environment
7. General Science
In the next article we shall publish list of books to be studied for APSC/ UPSC Mains examination. Please visit our website regularly to keep yourself updated on latest jobs and exams.