Which books are useful for UPSC Prelims Exam?

UPSC Books

The ideal approach to start your UPSC preparation, according to myself and other prior IAS test toppers, is to study through the NCERT books for UPSC and then move on to the normal UPSC book list (consisting of the standard books).

You should also be careful about the IAS books you chose for your preparation, as the UPSC prelims and mains are significantly distinct from one another, necessitating two separate sets of reading material for each.

The UPSC Prelims, as a wholly objective sort of paper, would require its own set of book lists, while the UPSC Mains, as a completely subjective paper, would require its own.

Best UPSC Books for IAS Prelims

There are two papers in the IAS prelims round, both of which are objective in character. That implies both feature multiple-choice questions with negative feedback for each incorrect response.

In the section above, I mentioned the NCERT books for UPSC that you'll need to study for the prelims. However, below I have given the list of the best IAS books for the Prelims round (apart from the NCERTs): 

Subject	UPSC Books
History	1. India’s Struggle for Independence – Bipan Chandra 2. Facets of Indian Culture – Spectrum
Geography	1. Certificate Physical Geography – G C Leong 2. World Atlas
Indian Polity	1. Indian Polity – M Laxmikanth
Economics	1. Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh 2. Economic Development and Policies in India: Jain & Ohri
International Relations	1. Current Affairs
CSAT	1. Tata McGraw Hill CSAT Manual 2. CSAT II – Arihant 3. Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning: R S Aggarwal

Click here to read about UPSC Optional Exam Analysis