ESIC Syllabus 2026: UDC, Steno and MTS Topic List

The ESIC syllabus is a four-subject objective syllabus for UDC and MTS, and a three-section one for Stenographer: General Intelligence and Reasoning, General Awareness, Quantitative Aptitude and English Language. Candidates for UDC and Stenographer also face practical skill tests. This guide turns those subject names into a topic-wise checklist so you know what to study first and what can wait.

ESIC names the tests in its notification but does not publish a topic-wise syllabus. The topic lists below are built from the notification and from questions asked in previous years. Use them as a working checklist, not as an official list. The latest full cycle we could verify was notified on 28 December 2021, and no newer UDC, Stenographer or MTS notice was found as of 29 October 2026.

Table of Contents

ESIC Syllabus at a Glance

The marks and timings come from the 2022 cycle. The stage-wise detail, including negative marking, is on the ESIC exam pattern page.

Key Points to Know Before You Start

• Phase I and Phase II share a syllabus: Both phases test the same four subjects. Phase II simply asks more questions in more depth and speed, so one round of preparation serves both.

• General Awareness leans towards economy and banking: Questions in earlier papers often touched on the Reserve Bank of India, budgets, taxes and government schemes, alongside regular static GK and current affairs.

• English carries the most weight for Stenographers: The English section has 100 of the 200 questions in the Stenographer paper, which makes it far more important there than in UDC or MTS.

• Skill tests are separate: The computer and stenography tests are not tested in the objective papers, so they need their own practice time.

• Websites disagree: Several pages mix the old and new patterns or list one syllabus for every post. Cross-check anything important with the official notice.

General Intelligence and Reasoning Syllabus

Reasoning is usually the most scoring section if you practise regularly, because the question types repeat. The questions are a mix of verbal and non-verbal items.

Puzzles and seating arrangements take the longest per question, so learn the standard setups and attempt them after you finish the quicker items. Keep non-verbal figures for last in the early practice weeks because they depend on visual habit, not on formulas.

General Awareness Syllabus

General Awareness is the section where candidates lose or gain marks quickly, since there is no calculation to fall back on. It has two parts: static knowledge and current affairs, and a finance-oriented block that earlier papers have favoured.

Static and current affairs

• History, geography and polity: Indian history in outline, physical and economic geography, the Constitution, Parliament and key institutions.

• Current events: National and international news, awards, books and authors, sports, summits and appointments from the last six to twelve months.

• Science and culture: Everyday science, important days, art and culture basics.

Economy, banking and government finance

• Banking: Functions and types of banks, the history of Indian banking, the role of the Reserve Bank of India and its monetary policy.

• Markets: Money market and capital market in India.

• Public finance: Union budget, revenue of the central government, taxes on income and expenditure, Finance Commissions, inflation, national income and economic planning.

• Schemes and policies: Major central government schemes, and, as this is a social security body, the basics of the Employees' State Insurance Scheme.

Make short monthly notes for current affairs, and revise the static portion once every two weeks. The ESI Scheme basics are not guaranteed to appear, but they are a sensible low-cost addition for an ESIC exam.

Quantitative Aptitude Syllabus

Quantitative Aptitude is arithmetic at the Class 10 level with a few algebra and geometry items. Speed matters more than depth.

Percentages and ratio support almost every other block, so they repay early attention. Learn squares up to 30, cubes up to 15 and common fraction-to-percentage conversions by heart, because they save seconds in every question.

English Language Syllabus

English tests grammar, vocabulary and reading in one short section for UDC and MTS, and in a long 100-question paper for Stenographer.

• Reading comprehension and cloze test: Passage-based questions, and a paragraph with blanks to fill from options.

• Error spotting and sentence improvement: Subject-verb agreement, tenses, prepositions, articles, active and passive voice.

• Vocabulary: Synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, idioms and phrases, one-word substitution and spelling.

• Sentence arrangement: Rearranging jumbled sentences and sentence parts into a logical order.

The English section is in English only, whereas the Reasoning, General Awareness and Quantitative sections were bilingual in the 2022 papers. For vocabulary, learn words in context from a daily editorial instead of memorising long lists.

Stenographer Syllabus Notes

The Stenographer online paper has three sections with an English-heavy split.

Each section has its own time limit, so you cannot carry spare minutes from English into General Awareness. Quantitative Aptitude is not a section in this paper.

Skill Test Syllabus

UDC Computer Skill Test

The Computer Skill Test is a 50-mark practical of 30 minutes. In the 2022 cycle it carried three tasks.

• PowerPoint (10 marks): Prepare two slides from given content.

• MS Word (20 marks): Type a passage and apply the requested formatting.

• MS Excel (20 marks): Build a table and use formulas such as sum, average and conditional functions.

Stenographer skill test

The stenography test starts with a 10-minute dictation at 80 words per minute, in English or Hindi as chosen in the application. You then transcribe it on a computer, with 50 minutes for English and 65 minutes for Hindi. Candidates with benchmark disabilities were given 70 and 90 minutes respectively. These details are from the 2022 cycle, so confirm them in the next notice.

Overlap Between Phase I and Phase II

Because Phase I is qualifying only, many candidates under-prepare for it. Remember that failing the Phase I cut-off ends the attempt, no matter how well you would score in Phase II.

Where to Spend Your Time

Since ESIC gives no official weightage, the table below is working guidance based on question types that appear repeatedly in practice papers. It is a judgement call, not an official ranking, so adjust it to your own strengths.

Cover the high-priority column fully before you start the lower ones. This keeps your first month productive even if the notification arrives earlier than expected.

Is There a Syllabus for the Interview?

No interview was part of the Group C selection in the 2022 cycle for UDC, Stenographer or MTS. Selection moved from the written phases to the skill test, where applicable, and then to document verification. If a future notice adds an interview or personality test, it will state the weightage and format.

How to Cover the ESIC Syllabus

A ten-week plan suits most candidates who study four to five hours a day. Adjust it to your starting level.

1. Weeks 1 to 3, build the base: Revise percentages, ratio, averages and basic grammar. Start verbal reasoning and read an editorial daily.

2. Weeks 3 to 6, widen coverage: Add time-based arithmetic, non-verbal reasoning and the economy and banking block of General Awareness. Begin monthly current-affairs notes.

3. Weeks 6 to 8, practise by topic: Take topic-wise tests and 20-minute sectional tests. You can use topic-wise ESIC practice tests on Testkart to find which areas drag your score down.

4. Weeks 8 to 10, simulate the exam: Attempt full Phase I and Phase II papers under timed conditions, and analyse each one the same day.

5. Skill practice throughout: UDC candidates should spend 20 to 30 minutes a few times a week on Word formatting and Excel formulas. Stenographers should practise dictation daily.

Keep an error log with the topic, why you went wrong and the fix, and revise it before every mock. Past-year questions are a good way to see which topics ESIC has favoured, and our ESIC study notes guide covers how to turn them into short revision notes.

Common Mistakes While Covering the Syllabus

• Treating a third-party syllabus as official: No topic list is official, so avoid spending weeks on topics that have never appeared.

• Leaving General Awareness for the end: It needs steady, spaced revision and cannot be crammed in the last week.

• Ignoring the skill tests: A strong written score does not help if you cannot clear the Computer Skill Test or the stenography test.

• Studying without testing: Reading a topic once is not coverage. Take a short test after each topic to confirm it.

Exam rules and patterns can change, so confirm the details in the official notice on https://esic.gov.in/recruitments when a new advertisement is published.