How to Save Money on School Textbooks (CBSE, ICSE and State Boards)

NCERT books are usually the easiest to buy used

NCERT textbooks used across CBSE schools change content very rarely — a Class 9 Science NCERT from a few years ago is almost always identical in content to this year's copy, aside from a cover redesign or reprint-year change. This makes them low-risk to buy used: you're very unlikely to end up with outdated content.

This is different for ICSE and some state boards, which sometimes prescribe books from private publishers (like Selina, Frank, or state board corporations) that do get revised more often when the board updates its own syllabus or marking scheme.

Where buying used saves the most

• Core NCERT subject textbooks (Maths, Science, Social Science, English) — low edition-change risk
• Previous years' guide books and workbooks, if your school doesn't require writing directly in them
• Reference and supplementary books used mainly for extra practice rather than classroom teaching
• Novels and literature texts prescribed for English/language subjects that repeat across years

Where you should be more careful

Workbooks meant to be written in directly are a poor used-book purchase unless the listing photos clearly show blank pages — check this carefully since a partially filled workbook is close to useless. Similarly, any book tied to a board's most recent syllabus change (a new reduced-syllabus year, or a subject the board restructured) is worth buying only if the edition year clearly matches the current one.

If your school issues a specific book list with editions and publishers named, use that list directly when searching rather than relying on last year's edition being close enough — some state boards change prescribed publishers, not just editions.

A realistic budgeting approach for a school year

Rather than buying every book new in June, separate your list into books you're confident are stable (NCERT core subjects) and buy those used first — these are usually cheaper and lower-risk. Buy the remainder new only if you can't find a matching used copy within a week or two of term starting, since new copies from bookstores don't run out immediately.

If you have last year's books sitting unused once your child moves up a class, list them for sale too — CBSE and NCERT books have a long shelf life across successive students in different schools, so a well-kept copy can be resold years after you bought it.