GATE AND IES

Engineering students are very much familiar with the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) and Indian Engineering Services (IES).

The civil services that meet the various managerial functions of the government is called Indian Engineering services. The government of India recruits the civil servants through these competitive exams. Most of the Engineering graduates prefer IES. 

IES exam is conducted by union public service commission (UPSC) every year.

The exam is conducted in the following subject areas.

• Mechanical Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Electronics Engineering
• Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering

The maximum age limit for applying is 30 years. The syllabus of IES exam includes Objective type questions and Conventional type (as per specialization stream)

IES exam includes the entire engineering syllabus while GATE takes only a part of this syllabus and some other topics that are useful in higher studies.  IES exam contains Objective and Subjective type questions and total 4 papers whereas GATE exam contains only Objective type questions and only 1 paper.

The new pattern of the IES exam has come into effect from 2017.There are different stages where the students have to pass in the first stage to qualify for the second stage. This helps the students to work on their subjective papers and dedicate more time for it. Thus there will be a need for attending the coaching classes. The students will have to refer the newspapers as many of the topics are not taught during engineering.

1. Current issues of national and international importance relating to social, economic and industrial development
2. Engineering Aptitude
3. Engineering Mathematics and Numerical Analysis
4. Design, Drawing, Importance of Safety
5. Standard practices in production, construction, maintenance and services
6. Basics of Energy and Environment
7. Basics of Project Management
8. Basics of Material Science and Engineering
9. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Ethics and values in engineering profession.

The students appearing for the GATE examination will have a single paper of 3-hour duration that contains 65 questions carrying a maximum of 100 marks. The examination for all the papers will be online. The candidates must either select the answer (for MCQ type) or enter the answer for numerical answer type. Candidates will be provided with scribble pad for rough work and these have to be returned back after the examination. Students who have qualified the Gate are eligible for the position of Junior Research Fellow.

There are many more career options for students. Engineering students can attempt both IES and Gate. The gate exam will be in the month of February whereas IES will be later in the month of May. While preparing for Gate students cover almost 70% of the topics of IES exam. The questions in Gate can be from any topics whereas the questions are usually repeated in IES. Students are of the opinion that Gate is tougher that IES because the questions in Gate are more tricky whereas IES consists of straight forward questions.Thus students who have prepared well and dedicated a lot of time in attending coaching classes will find it easy to crack the exams.