Here’s a quote from AIR 1 2017 Anudeep Durishetty on this:
“Standard books are important because they are written from the ground up and they form the foundation of your knowledge. Once you read standard books, reading coaching notes not only becomes much easier, but you can also see where in that big picture a small topic fits in.
The problem with reading just the coaching notes is that they fail to give you such a big picture perspective. What you will be left with are fragmented concepts and broken knowledge which doesn’t stick for long in your memory. For long term memory, we need a topic’s context which is why you should always start with standard books.
For example, when I started Anthropology, I first read Ember & Ember to get an overview of the subject. Afterward, when I referred to BrainTree coaching material, I could clearly see how a particular topic such as Primate Adaptation fit into the larger concept of Human Evolution. This is why standard books are indispensable.
While reading coaching notes, remember these:
• Coaching notes are helpful and easy to revise before the exam. But they can only supplement but never substitute standard books.
• Always map your notes onto the chapters and topics in the syllabus. Most coaching institutes do not cover the syllabus entirely. Even if they do, they usually rush through some chapters. So when you see a topic not covered well in your notes, read on your own from other sources and make notes.
• Coaching notes and material come in handy to cover a specific topic. For example, for a topic like Govt schemes, instead of you labouring to compile them from ministries’ websites, it’s better that you buy a compilation booklet of any institute. Smart work saves you a lot of time.
• You have to remember that UPSC is not at all like a graduation exam. In college, it’s fairly easy to read just the notes and score really well. But in UPSC, the questions are of higher standard and of deeper analytical depth. None of the questions usually come directly from your coaching notes. It’s your clarity of concepts— especially in optional— that will help you write good answers.”