UPSC Engineering Services Examination (ESE) or Indian Engineering Services (IES) is conducted for the recruitment of engineers who work under the government of India and are designated as Class 1 officers.

They are responsible for the administration of enterprises such as the Indian Railways, Power, Telecommunications, Central Water engineering, Defence service of Engineers, Central Engineering Service, etc. A total of 495 vacancies are open for ESE ME 2021 recruitment.

The ESE selection process comprises 3 rounds:Preliminary Exam, Mains Exam and lastly, Interview

The Preliminary Exam will be made up oftwo papers:

1. Paper 1 [common paper for all candidates]:General Studies& Engineering Aptitude
2. Paper 2 [subject-based]: Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Electronics or Telecommunications

The General Studies paper will be 2 hours long, whereas the field-specific paper will be 3 hours long. Both of these will be conducted on the same day.

Through the course of this article, we will share with you ESE ME preparation tips and strategies to help you prepare in the best way.

ESE ME 2021 Exam Pattern

• The ESE ME prelims exam will only comprise multiple-choice questions (MCQs).
• Negative marking will take place and 0.25 marks will be deducted for every incorrect answer.
• 2 papers will be conducted, General Aptitude for 2 hours and Mechanical Engineering paper will be of 3 hours.

ESE ME 2021 Syllabus

To initiate your IES preparation, you need to familiarise yourself well with the syllabus. Both the general aptitude and engineering aptitude papers will have questions that an engineering graduate can answer. The weightage of each topic will range between 5-15% of the total marks of the entire paper.Here is the ESE ME 2021 exam syllabus for Paper 1:

• Current issues and developments of national and international importance relating to social, economic, and industrial development
• Engineering Aptitude consists of Logical reasoning along with Analytical ability
• Engineering Mathematics and Numerical Analysis
• Design-General Theories & Principles, Drawing and Importance of Safety
• Theories, Models and practices ofQuality andStandards in the process of production, construction, maintenance, and services.
• Energy and Environment basics: Conservation, Climate Change, environmental pollution & degradation, Environmental impact assessment
• Basics of Project Management 8. Basics of Material Science and Engineering
• Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) based tools, methods and their applications in Engineering including but not limited to networking, e-governance and technology-based education.
• Engineering Ethics and values

To understand about Construction Equipment industry, Read here

ESE Mechanical Preparation tipsPaper 1:General Aptitude (GK and Mental Ability)

• Solve past year papers of UPSC IES exam to get a hang of this section duringESE ME preparation.
• General Awareness: Refer to NCERT textbooks from grades 9-12. Also, solve the past ten year’s UPSC Civil services question papers. 
• English: Solving CDS and NDA English section question papers will give you enough practise for this section.
• Read the newspaper regularly as it will help with both GK and English comprehension.
• Practice a lot.

Paper 2: Tips for ESE Mechanical Preparation

• Syllabus:Thermodynamics and Heat transfer, IC Engines,Fluid Mechanics, Refrigeration and Air conditioning, Turbo Machinery, Power Plant Engineering, Engineering Mechanics, Engineering Materials, Mechanisms and Machines, Design of Machine Element, Manufacturing, Industrial and Maintenance Engineering, Mechatronics and Robotics, Renewable Sources of Energy
• Go through the previous year question papers carefully, note the type of questions and their difficulty range.
• There are some common questions that get repeated over the years. Look for such questions, make a note of them and practice them well.
• Start with the topics which you find difficult, then go to the easier ones. After one cycle is completed, come back to the difficult topics. This will help maintain a balance and save you some anxiety too.
• Do an in-depth study of each topic so that you’re confident about any question that comes your way from that part.
• There are various formulae and tricks available to shorten the calculation and to provide accurate answers. Make a list of such formulas at the beginning itself and keep referring to them while studying. This will make you accustomed to using it and easier to memorize them.
• Give extra importance to topics such as engineering mechanics and material, power plant, energy, thermodynamics, robotics, etc.
• Take plenty of mock tests and solve past year papers of a minimum of 5 years during ESE mechanical preparation.

ESE Mechanical Preparation: Books

Here is a list of books compiled to make your IES preparation easier. They are expert-recommended books that students have been referring to for years. Here is a list that will help in your ESE ME preparation.

1. Yunus A Cengel, Michael A Bolesauthored book “Thermodynamics: An Engineering Approach”
2. Engineering Thermodynamics by PK Nag
3. Fundamentals of Compressible Flow by S. M. Yahya
4. P R Khajuria, S P Dubey authored book “Gas Turbines and Propulsive Systems”
5. Internal Combustion Engines by Ganesan
6. C P Arora’s book Refrigeration and Air Conditioning
7. Heat Transfer (In SI Units) JP Hollman
8. Vaughn C. Nelson’s book Introduction to Renewable Energy
9. RS Khurmi and GK Gupta’s book Theory of Machines book
10. Godfrey Onwubolu’s book Mechatronics: Principles and Applications
11. Mechanical Vibrations by G K Grover

Best of luck!

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