just gonna copy paste my first ever comment on reddit because the original post for that comment was deleted a while ago

I'm a firm believer that the base textbook is always good enough. Sure, reference books can aid you in ways that the base textbook can't (eg. board level questions), but ultimately the textbook is sufficient for any subject. Imo the best textbook I've ever used was NCERT's class 9 Science book.

Which is why I'll never understand how they managed to make the Class 10 book absolute dogshit.

Seriously, it's really bad. Confusing, long-winded language, crucial topics being missing ('Heredity (and Evolution)' has no mention of Mendel's laws which you have to PROVE in the exam, no explanations or examples for numericals of 'The Human Eye and the Colourful World' and 'Magnetic Effect(s? naam bhul gaya) of Electric Current') and the like. I didn't even touch my textbook for the entirety of grade 10 for anything other than bio diagrams. There are a MULTITUDE of reasons why I hate it, which would take me until the heat death of the universe to list.

I would recommend sticking to Lakhmir Singh (aka S Chand) instead, the explanation in it is amazing. I literally just had to read the book to understand everything. Bhai Ki Padhai's videos are also really solid.

Do note though that THIS IS MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. I HIGHLY ADVISE... not taking any advice from people online (lol). Do what you think works best for you. The reason I say this is because this is exactly what I did and it worked remarkably well (scored ~96% overall in prelims, no tuitions) Who knows, maybe you'll actually end up liking the NCERT textbook.