Are RD Sharma and Lakhmir Singh enough for practice?

For Maths, RD Sharma is definitely good for building a strong base, but please don't ignore the NCERT Exemplar. My daughter is in 9th and I have seen that many tricky questions in the final exams come directly from Exemplar, not just the main textbook. Also, make sure they finish the school’s prescribed modules before jumping into extra reference books.

Honestly, don't overwhelm them with too many books. RD Sharma is quite exhaustive; if your child solves every problem in that, they won't have time for anything else! My son has been using it for two years and it has been more than sufficient for his class tests.

Lakhmir Singh is very helpful for concepts, but for science, I suggest you try looking at some competitive exam workbooks as well. It helps the child practice application-based questions, which is the trend these days. Is your child planning for any Olympiads this year?

We stick strictly to NCERT and the teacher’s notes for our school. I found that adding too many reference books just confused my son more. If you feel they are grasping concepts easily, then only add one extra book for practice, otherwise the standard curriculum is usually quite heavy already.

I feel RD Sharma is great for practice, but keep a check on the time they take per problem. Sometimes children get stuck on one complex RD Sharma question for an hour. Make sure they balance it with the school's worksheets so they know what the teachers are expecting in the board papers.