Best Biology Books for NEET preparation

This article has been contributed by Sahla Rafat. She was the Gold Medallist of her batch at BHU and is a faculty of Biology in a renowned institute.

Biology is actually the subject which lays down the foundation for selection. The remaining subjects viz. Physics and Chemistry eventually decide your rank.

Though it is important for any medical aspirant to have a keen interest for this subject, yet it is more important to know what, from where and how much to study to clear this highly competitive exam.

Standard Textbook: NCERT Biology of Class XI and XII

It goes without saying that NCERT should be read, revised, reread till you are finally done with your NEET exams. Read between the lines, underline whenever needed, make short notes in the margins or use sticky notes. Remember the examples, exceptions, diagrams, labelling of diagrams, facts, dates, summary etc.

Reference Books

Even though standard textbook provides us the content of syllabus, we need deeper understanding of concepts to eliminate answers of questions in exam. If we haven’t been thorough with the conceptual part or we have not familiarized ourselves with topics that are just mentioned in NCERT without proper explanation, we may end up marking wrong options. This is where reference books helps. Below are names of few books that could be referred whenever more understanding is needed of a particular topic. It is important that they are referred to after going through the NCERT and not vice versa.

1 . Trueman’s Elementary Biology Vol I & II, by K.N.Bhatia and M.P.Tyagi

2. Pradeep’s A Textbook of Biology Class XI and XII by P S Dhami, G Chopra, H.N. Srivastava

3. GRB Bathla’s Publication’s for Biology Class XI & XII, by Dr. R.K. Pillai, Dr. A.K.Chaudhry

Any of these books can be used for reference of specific topics. Please do not go for more than two reference books as it leads to unnecessary repetition of same topic and affects overall time management.

Books for practice

For evaluation of one’s preparation, practice books are a must. They help analyse the mistakes and shortcomings in preparation and gives us an idea of types and patterns of questions. Try to use them extensively. They can also be supplemented with any coaching’s test series and mocks.

1. NCERT Exemplar Biology class XI and XII

2. MTG’s Objective NCERT at your fingertips (Biology)

3. Objective NCERT Biology Gear UP Aim4aiims, by Dr. Ajay Mohan

4. MTG’s 31 years NEET–AIPMT Chapter wise solutions Biology

5. Objective Biology An Excel File for NEET & AIIMS Vol I & Vol II (2019-2020) by Dr. Ali

6. MTG’s Assertion and Reason for Competitive Exams

7. Errorless Biology NEET & AIIMS Vol I & Vol II , NTA 2019

Purchasing all the books is not required. Any two books or at max three books should be used for practice and these should be repeatedly solved every time a particular chapter is revised. Try to solve by reason and not by just seeing the answers given at the back. Whenever in doubt with an answer please refer to NCERTs.

The point is to understand the concepts so that you score well in this scoring subject. A library of books would still not be helpful if basic concepts are weak. Focus more on understanding than on mere rote learning.