- General Studies and Engineering Aptitude
- Current issues of national and international importance; engineering aptitude covering logical reasoning and analytical ability; engineering mathematics and numerical analysis; general principles of design, drawing and importance of safety; standards and quality practices in production, construction, maintenance and services; basics of energy and environment covering conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, climate change and environmental impact assessment; basics of project management; basics of material science and engineering; information and communication technologies based tools and their applications; and ethics and values in the engineering profession.
- Civil Engineering
- Building materials, solid mechanics, structural analysis, design of steel structures, design of concrete and masonry structures, construction practice, planning and management; flow of fluids, hydraulic machines and hydropower, hydrology and water resources engineering, environmental engineering, geotechnical engineering and foundation engineering, surveying and geology, and transportation engineering.
- Mechanical Engineering
- Fluid mechanics, thermodynamics and heat transfer, IC engines, refrigeration and air conditioning, turbomachinery, power plant engineering, renewable sources of energy; engineering mechanics, engineering materials, mechanisms and machines, design of machine elements, manufacturing, industrial and maintenance engineering, and mechatronics and robotics.
- Electrical Engineering
- Engineering mathematics, electrical materials, electric circuits and fields, electrical and electronic measurements, computer fundamentals, basic electronics engineering; analog and digital electronics, systems and signal processing, control systems, electrical machines, power systems, power electronics and drives.
- Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering
- Basic electronics engineering, basic electrical engineering, materials science, electronic measurements and instrumentation, network theory, analog and digital circuits; analog and digital communication systems, control systems, computer organisation and architecture, electromagnetics, and advanced electronics and communication topics.
The general studies and engineering aptitude paper deserves more attention than candidates give it. It is two hundred marks of the five hundred available in prelims, and much of it — project management, standards and safety, ethics, environment, materials — is not covered by an engineering degree at all. It is a distinct subject requiring its own preparation.
The branch syllabi are written at degree level and span most of a four-year programme, which means reading them cover to cover produces despair rather than a plan. The usable approach is to convert the list into three groups against your own transcript: subjects you can still work problems in, subjects you understood once and would need to rebuild, and subjects you never really had. Almost all of your first three months belongs to the second group, because that is where the return per hour is highest — rebuilding is faster than learning, and those subjects are usually the high-weight ones.
The common paper is not a general knowledge paper
The general studies and engineering aptitude syllabus lists things engineering study genuinely does not cover — project management, engineering ethics, standards and quality practices, materials, energy and environment, and information technology basics — alongside conventional current affairs. Candidates who read the paper title and assume it is ordinary general studies prepare the wrong half of two hundred prelims marks that count towards the final total.
