Booklist: Electrical Engineering for Civil Services Mains

by Supreet Singh Gulati, IAS

Till 2007 the syllabus of this optional differed vastly from IES. However, since 2008 syllabus is nearly as per IES syllabus. That's good if you want to prepare for both the exams. But please don't take 2 science optionals.

Circuits: A. Chakrabarti (Dhanpat Rai) Circuit Analysis and Synthesis covers the entire syllabus well.

Signals and Systems: I had Oppenheim and Willsky. The only thing missing was handling initial conditions in z-transform. Any Indian author book that has this can be used as a supplement.

Power Electronics: PS Bhimbra is enough. Stick to syllabus, prepare notes for this topic. They'll be quite handy.

Machines: Nagrath-Kothari or Ashfaq Hussain is enough. I had Ashfaq.

EMTheory: Follow any standard book. K D Prasad is considered The Bible for this topic of the exam.

Communication(Analog/Digital):Whatever the book followed in college, supplemented by Singh/Sapre (TMH) should be enough.

Measurements: Sawhney is the only book. Solve IES EE papers for this topics (a must). Questions are repeated.

Power System and Power System Protection: Ashfaq hussain and Wadhwa for Power Systems. Bardriram-Vishwakarma for PSP. Again IES papers are a must.

Controls: Kuo is good even though I haven't read it. I read Nagrath-Gopal.

Digital Electronics: Any book that covers the syllabus.

Analog Electronics: I followed Boylestad though I wasn't happy with it. Sedra-Smith goes too much into depth that isn't needed for this exam. I also had Millman-Grabel.

Don't try to go for full attempt. It may prove disastrous. Stick to what you know. I got 352 on a correct attempt of 415.

(source: www.piedhornbill.blogspot.com