FAMILIARISATION:
First of all, coming to IES (Indian Engineering Services) or sometimes it is called as ESE (Engineering services examinations), it is an UPSC examination to avail the human resources for the public. Engineer graduates/final years from four disciplines are tested through three stages and the final eligible students are selected. The four disciplines are Civil, Mechanical, Electrical and Electronics and telecommunication engineering. There is a change in the pattern of the test from 2017.English and General studies are removed.New subjects like Engineering drawing, Project management, Ethics etc. are included. There are three stages namely Prelims, Mains and Personality test.
A BRIEF INTRO OF SURABHI GAUTHAM:
She completed her B.tech in an ordinary engineering college and went on to work in BARC as a scientist through gate score. Later she prepared vigorously for IES-2013, with flying colors she became the first ranker. She then chose to work in Indian Railways of Signal Engineers and currently serving the nation.
Let us now have a look at the suggestions and interview of 2013 topper in the discipline: Electronics and telecommunication engineering.
EXPERIENCE AND PREPARATION STRATEGIES OF HER:
Dear friends,
IES is one of the topmost exams conducted by UPSC, and the competition is tough more than what we imagine is. We need to be well informed, well-prepared to face it. However, anything can be achieved if preparation matches its frequency.
She started to prepare seriously from sept 2013 and almost 9 months to get a perfect grip. She prepared all gate subjects before gate exam and practiced them very extensively so that after gate they just needed revision and practice. No theory part after that. Then she attended made easy conventional test series and did well.
For every single subject of IES, in depth concepts and derivations also are required which is unlike gate. Get started with class room notes then go for workbook question, then previous year questions then question from instrumentation and electrical branch then question from standard books referred during my semesters.
For standard books ,rely more on the books referred in semesters rather than going for any new ones .For unsolved questions and derivations that were not covered, read new books but only that part, because the moment we get a new book we madly start turning pages and reading it all ,that is totally waste of time. By gate, there is a need to gain a good grip over those all 8 subjects. Revision is very important for GS part and it really takes time to have a command over it.Each and every subject needs a special attention according to its weight age and preparation should be in unison.
Few books she referred are:
For microwave: Liao and Kulkarni
For optical and satellite she covered extra things from net.
- D.Prasad for antenna.
All Schaum’s series related to subject
For network sadiku
(Good no. of revisions means AT LEAST 3 TIMES).
TO SCORE GOOD IN CONVENTIONAL (SECOND STAGE-MAINS):
You need to put your answers precisely, to the point, presentable in format, no need to use different color pens really. Cleanliness is enough to have a good impression. And don’t just try answers if you can’t solve them fully, it makes a bad impression. Rather than practicing the previous question by writing them try to get the logical sequence of answer .be ready with all important points and never write anything extra. You can attempt theory questions with priority if they are with some diag. or schematics. But always try to go for numerical first.
INTERVIEW-FINAL STAGE
Her interview was all on her position, work etc. in BARC.Generally, they do ask on our hobbies, interests, skills etc, may ask about our previous work, our resident places (like their popularity etc.).
A WORD TO THE UPCOMING ASPIRANTS:
Coaching is optimum for those who think that they need to be given a path to achieve success. If you can afford and give time, better to join classes. Anyways they never cover entire syllabus but they help you to cover it on your own. The more we study the more it helps in the examination, especially in the conventional part. Proper planning, perseverance, and determination is needed to secure good rank and later on, we can select our positions and we shall be allotted according to the rankings.
We have seen her path and now it’s time for us to plan and work out accordingly. It may be tough to be regular but as she said if we think we can, we will.GS part is replaced with other topics and those who are preparing should take care in their preparation.