ESE 2023 Prelims General Studies Toppers Preparation Strategy ll Books Recommended

Toppers Strategy to Prepare General Studies

ESE Paper 1 

Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is INDIA’s premier central recruiting agency under different services. Recruitment to “All INDIA Service” is done by either Examinations or Promotion. Engineering Service Examination (ESE) conducted by UPSC through which selected candidates to become Grade ‘A’ Gazetted Officer in Government of INDIA department. And ESE is conducted in only four branches. But here I’ll not be talking about the ESE and its features, instead, my focus is to share the Toppers Strategy to get good marks in ESE (Preliminary): General Studies (Paper 1) or Non-Technical Subjects.

This is a misconception that engineers can’t score good marks in Pre. Paper 1. But yes, since ESE (Preliminary) put General Studies and Engineering Aptitude Paper 1 from 2017, it is true that very less number of candidates have their name in final merit list after the interview, with score 150 + marks in this paper 1. Otherwise, if any candidate scores 150 + marks, his/her name was not on the final merit list. Although it is not a rule that you need 150 above to be on the merit list. But scoring good marks is everyone’s dream.

Here good marks don’t mean 200/200. Although good marks mean which you get enough rank at the end. As per the past record of ESE-selected candidates, 100 (or above) out of 200 is good marks. And achieving 100 + is not as hard as it looks from the engineer's point. You just need to work smartly and you have to manage your study between Technical & Non-Technical.

ESE Prelims Self-Study Preparation Strategy

Syllabus of ESE Prelims 2023 General Studies and Engineering Aptitude Paper 1

 

You can see the Official Syllabus of the ESE (Prelims) General Studies & Engineering Aptitude (Paper 1). They say ‘there are 10 topics each of one line and their knowledge without any special study but don’t consider them as a topic they are subjects. And each subject is lengthy as well as boring. And you need to learn them, especially with the ingredient of smart work.

From these 10 subjects, you can eliminate “Engineering Aptitude covering Logical Reasoning and Analytical Ability & Engineering Mathematics and Numerical Analysis” and there is another blessing for us from UPSC i.e. NO ENGLISH. Now the remaining 8 are again ‘lengthy as well as boring’. But as I always say, you just need to do smart work to get the success.

The question that arises in every aspirant’s mind during preparation is “How to prepare ESE (Prelims) General Studies (Paper 1)?”, “Which subjects have more weightage?” I will give the answer to such questions and maybe you can find the answers to some other questions also. Before that, you must understand the NOTE POINT that is written on the bottom of the syllabus. Let me write it for you in simple language.

NOTE: General Studies and Engineering Aptitude paper will include Knowledge of these 10 topics as expected from engineering graduates, without any special study. Questions from all the ten topics mentioned above shall be set. Marks for each Topic may range from 5% to 15% of the total marks in the paper.

Toppers Preparation Strategy for ESE Prelims 2023 GS

Let’s first arrange these 8 subjects in two groups by level of “Importance & Hardness”. And I will use their abbreviates (Short-forms) also & these short-forms will be used in further discussion. We will also discuss their study sources, which are available nowadays, paid or free of cost.

Major Subjects are more scoring than Minor subjects. I’ll suggest to prepare major subjects first and if time permits than go for minor subjects. Electrical and Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering students finds ICT easy & scoring so they can exchange ICT with one of the major subject.

You can also read 5th Point in Free Mobile Apps for ESE (GS) to know about the free GS app.

Let’s discuss the Toppers Strategy for each 10 GS subject one by one.

Mathematics & Aptitude: Out of all 10 subjects Mathematics and Aptitude are the easiest topics to score for all aspirants, you must prepare them first. Mathematics and Aptitude together contain 30-35 marks out of 200. Aptitude can be prepared from the Coaching institute Book and Math can be prepared by PYQ of GATE & ESE only.

Environment: Environment is the second most high weightage subject and also lengthy one. Marks vary each year but you can expect 10-20 marks. The environment contains Ecosystems, Biodiversity, Global Warming, EIA, etc. You can learn it from professional teacher’s notes or any coaching printed notes. I’ll suggest you go for “Coaching Printed Notes” as it helps you to learn it from basics. And to do it quickly you can opt Saurabh Pandey Sir Notes from his website aarohanedu.com

Material Science: Coaching Printed Notes are a good choice for Civil, Electrical & Electronic students. As this subject is inclined toward the Mechanical side so others will find it hard. Mechanical students can study it from their core subject Material Science. And others buy “Coaching Printed Notes”. This one is also scoring as questions are easy and the syllabus is also not huge compared to other subjects.

Projects management: This subject have simple content. You just need to think like a Manager while studying it. Projects life, Process, Scheduling, Tender & contract, etc. This subject is again slightly inclined toward Mechanical as it's few topics are similar to INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING but others also find it easy and can complete within a few days. You can learn it from “Coaching Printed Notes”.

Standard & Quality: This one has small relation with ‘Project Management' I mean, again it has slightly inclined toward mechanical. If anyone understands Project Management’ then he/she finds standard & Quality easy. Same as the above go for “Coaching Printed Notes”.

15 Toppers Tips for UPSC ESE

Drawing: Don’t think drawing is an easy one because of its Huge Syllabus and Variation of marks in exams. The content of it has 3 parts Design, Drawing & safety. Out of these 3, safety is more important because the number of questions from it is high than design and drawing. And safety is easy & small as well. I’ll suggest going for “Handwritten Note” from any reputed coaching and PYQs are enough for it.

ICT: It is related to Current Affairs. Questions from ICT depend upon the current technologies of INDIA. E-governance, Online education, communication, etc. which is easy for Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering, others can opt it or leave it depending upon their interest and availability of time. The source is “Coaching Printed Notes”.

Current Affairs: The candidate thinks current affairs can be studied from Newspaper, but here we discussing smart strategy not hard & lengthy work. You can go for aarohanedu.com Saurabh Pandey Sir Notes, which saves time and effort. The other source is any Coaching Magazine. The magazine contains all info related to the exam in short form. Or if you want to follow the Newspaper then read it till November, because after Nov. 2 months (Dec. & Jan.) is required for UPSC to print and send papers.

Ethics: Ethics is the only subject in which no one can predict the answer until they have an answer key with them in the exam hall. But it doesn’t mean you can’t learn it. There is one book called “Engineering Ethics: Includes Human values by Govindarajan & Senthilkumar”

Free Study Sources

Conclusion

I wish you got some idea about the subjects and their source of study. Still, there are a number of sources that are left. But you don’t need to read all sources just follow one and revise it 3-4 times. After knowing subjects and reading them from the source aspirants need to practice the PYQ or any problem set, again practice strategy is important.

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