Whenever one is applying for Civil Service Main Exam by UPSC, there are various optional subjects that one can choose from. One of them is Electrical Engineering. It’s a highly specialised subject and being technical in nature, is quite an scoring paper. There are two other engineering subjects which are offered, civil and mechanical engineering. In this article, we will focus on the books and syllabus of Electrical Engineering Optional Books for IAS. On an average, about 100 to 150 candidates select electrical engineering as their optional subject for their main exam.
Books for Electrical Engineering Optional UPSC Exam
Being a technical subject there are a lot to refer for Electrical Engineering optional upsc exam. Various books based on electrical engineering are available at the market. If you want to score high for this optional subject you must refer to the electrical engineering optional upsc books. You cannot expect to score high marks without referring to any of the electrical engineering upsc books available. Here are some of the best electrical engineering upsc books written by some prolific writers that you can study for the exams.
List of Best Electrical Engineering Optional Books for IAS
- Network Analysis – Valkenburg
- Basic Current Analysis – Murthy
- Electromagnetic Waves and Radiating System – Jordan & Balmain
- Modern Central Engineering – Katsuhiko Ogata
- Microprocessors and Microcomputers- R. S Gaonkar
- Topics in Communication Theory – David Middleton
- Electromagnetic Fields & Waves- Kd Prasad
- Energy Conversion: Ashfaq Hussain
- Circuit Theory: Analysis and Synthesis- A. Chakrabarti
- Signals and Systems-Alan V. Oppenheim, Alan V. Willsky, S. Hamid Nawab
- Physics of Semiconductor Devices – Simon Sze
- Analog Electronics: J.B. Gupta
- Digital Logic and Computer Design-M. Morris Mano
- Principles of Electronics – V .K. Mehta
- Control Systems Engineering – Nagrath Gopal
- Semiconductor – Nag Choudhary
- Integrated Circuits – D. Roy Choudhary
- Circuit Analysis – Gupta
- Electrical Technology – Thareja
- Automatic Control System – Benjamin C. Kuo
- Elements of Engineering Electromagnetics – Nannapaneni Rao
- Electromagnetic Waves and Field – R.N. Singh
Electrical Engineering syllabus for UPSC
In the UPSC exam pattern, there are two optional papers. Booth the papers constitute a total of 250 marks making the total optional marks to 500.
Let’s take a look at the syllabus for the electrical engineering in the UPSC exam.
Syllabus for Paper 1
1. Circuit Theory
The focus of this section lays on important chapters in this book like basic network theorems, graft theory and two-port networks. The questions in this section are mostly numerical. The most asked doubt candidates have is if Filters is a part of the syllabus and to answer the question, Filters has been removed from the syllabus.
2. Signals and Systems
The important chapters under this segment are Laplace transform, Z-transform, Fourier analysis, and also the basic signal representation. It’s crucial to know that in case of hard press of time, you can skip topics of DFT and FFT which haven’t been asked in the UPSC exams till date.
3. E.M. Theory
The major topics to cover under this section are Boundary conditions,reflection and refraction of plane waves. Transmission line: travelling and standing waves, impedance matching, Smith chart. In Bounded media, there is Maxwell’s equations and wave propagation.
4. Analog Electronics
It’s important for one to keep the focus more on OP AMP configurations, and OP amp circuits. The derivations should be practiced thoroughly. Make sure to not miss out on the single stage amplifiers from BJT in depth. In case of time limit, you can ignore multi stage but remember biasing is a very important part of this section too.
5. Digital Electronics
This segment includes a lot of topics but it’s important for one to know from where most of the questions are asked from. It’s usually from PLA and FPGA. Mostly a theory based question of 20 marks are asked in this section.
6. Energy Conversion
For this section, the focus should be placed on DC motors, practice problems on speed control, flux control and voltage control. Definitely give a read to the 3-phase transformers. Practice questions based on Torque versus current. Focus on 3-phase induction motors too.
7. Power Electronics and Electric Drives
Some of the topics under this segment are Semiconductor power devices: diode, transistor, thyristor,triac, GTO and MOSFET-static characteristics and principles of operation. The four most important chapters that one should put emphasis on are chopper, rectifier, inverter and drives.
8. Analog Communication
This segment is new in the Electrical Engineering field. It includes both theory as well as numerical questions The important topics in this section are Phase Log Loop (PLL) of FM demodulation. Questions from this section are asked repeatedly. Do practice the numerical questions properly.
Syllabus for Paper 2
1. Control Systems
For this section, the major focus should be on plots, root loci, block diagram analysis,etc. Majorly numericals are asked. So make sure to practice that.
2. Microprocessors and Microcomputers
This is usually considered as the tougher section especially the topic of programming. The programming questions are usually wary for the candidates. Prepare the theory well so that you can cover up for the trick questions. It includes majorly PC organisation, CPU, timing diagram.
3. Measurement and Instrumentation
In this section, mostly theories are asked as compared to numericals and thus it’s considered to be an easy topic to cover. The syllabus lays major emphasis on transducers, potentiometers, power factor measurement, power and energy measurement.
4. Power Systems
This section has both theory as well as numericals. The important topics are fault analysis, power system stability, equal – area criteria, critical clearing time, critical clearing angle, load flow analysis, Gauss – Seidel, Newton Raphson, basic transmission line, economic load dispatch, etc.
5. Power System Protection
The important topics under this section includes Principles of overcurrent, differential and distance protection. Concept of solid state relays. Circuit breakers. Computer aided protection: Introduction; line bus, generator,transformer protection; numeric relays and application of DSP to protection.
6. Digital Communication
The focus areas in this section are pulse code modulation, delta modulation, BPSK, phase shifting, error control, convolution theory, linear block coding and different types of codes. Usually one can expect simpler questions from this section.
Every subject comes with its own set of pros and cons and one has to assess his/her own weak and strong points and then choose which subject demands out of the candidates. So don’t fear it, but prepare well for it and your hardwork will definitely pay off.
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