Should I make my own UPSC IES notes or use ready-made notes?

Both can work. Your own notes help memory because you write them, while ready-made notes save time on subjects you have not covered. Many candidates use ready-made notes as a base and add their own formulas and error log.

Can the same notes be used for UPSC IES prelims and mains?

Yes, for the discipline syllabus, since it is the same for both stages. For mains, add step-by-step derivations, diagrams and model numerical answers, because the papers are conventional.

How should I make notes for UPSC IES General Studies?

Keep short notes on each of the 10 topics in the notification, and a separate monthly page for current issues on infrastructure, energy, environment and technology. Each topic carries 5 to 15 percent of Paper I, so do not skip any.

Engineering

UPSC IES Study Notes: Subject-wise Notes for Prelims and Mains

Concise UPSC IES study notes for General Studies and your engineering stream, made for quick and regular revision.

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Good UPSC IES study notes turn a two-stage engineering syllabus into something you can revise in days rather than weeks. The Engineering Services Examination (ESE) tests the same discipline syllabus twice: as objective questions in prelims Paper II and as conventional answers in the two mains papers. Notes made once, and kept short, serve both stages.

This page explains what to put in your notes for each paper, how to organise them, and how to revise them before the ESE 2027 preliminary exam on 31 January 2027.

What to include in UPSC IES notes

Paper	What your notes should hold
Prelims Paper I: General Studies and Engineering Aptitude	Short notes on all 10 topics: current issues, reasoning methods, engineering mathematics results, design and safety principles, standards and quality, energy and environment, project management terms, material science, ICT, and engineering ethics
Discipline Paper I and Paper II (prelims and mains)	Formula sheets, key definitions, standard results, assumptions behind each formula, units, and code or standard values your stream uses often
Mains conventional practice	Step-by-step derivations, labelled diagrams and a few model numerical solutions per topic
Personality test	Notes on your final-year project, internships, preferred services and current developments in your field

How to organise your notes

Formula sheets by subject: One or two pages per subject with every formula, its conditions and units. Revise these weekly.
Concept summaries: Short bullet notes for theory-heavy topics such as materials, measurements or environmental engineering.
Error log: Every mistake from tests, with the correct method and the reason you went wrong. This is often the most useful page in the final weeks.
Monthly current issues notes: Infrastructure, energy, environment and technology developments relevant to Paper I, kept to a page or two a month.
Derivation book: Standard derivations for mains, written out once in full so you can revise the steps quickly.

Revision schedule

Daily: 20 to 30 minutes on formula sheets or the error log.
Weekly: Revise every subject finished so far, and update notes with anything new from tests.
Monthly: A full pass over all notes, followed by a full-length mock to check what has stuck.
Final 3 weeks before prelims: Notes and error log only, alongside full-length mocks. Avoid new sources.

Sources to build your notes from

Start from the official ESE syllabus for your stream, available in the notification on the UPSC website, and use it as the checklist for your notes. Add standard engineering textbooks for each subject and UPSC previous year papers to see which topics are asked often. For current issues, rely on official government sources rather than forwarded summaries.