The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering, popularly known as GATE, and Engineering Services Examination, popularly known as ESE, are the two most important and popular exams for engineering graduates who are aspiring to work in the government sector or those who want to pursue higher studies. Both GATE and ESE are among the most challenging exams in India. Aspirants who want to pursue a career in their technical sectors have a hard time deciding between these two examinations. Opportunities and avenues through these two exams are different. In addition, preparation strategies and approaches for these exams are a little different. In this blog, we try to pin down all the differences in the paper pattern and various other aspects between the GATE exam pattern and the ESE pattern. This blog on GATE vs. ESE aims to help aspirants make an informed decision about whether they should prepare for GATE/ESE or for both. Eligibility and Syllabus: GATE exam is held for various engineering as well as non-engineering disciplines whereas ESE is conducted for only four core engineering branches namely Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering. It is one of the major differentiating points discussed in terms of GATE vs ESE. All the allied branches to these four core branches, like Production and Industrial Engineering, can apply for posts available for Mechanical Engineers and Instrumentation Engineers, and Computer Science graduates can apply for posts in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering. ESE and GATE do not demand candidates to have a bachelor’s degree in the same discipline in which they have applied for the examination. Subjects asked in GATE and ESE for some branches are the same, whereas the ESE syllabus and pattern for some branches are wider in scope. Apart from the technical subjects of the respective branches, Paper-1 of ESE contains 10 subjects to check the general knowledge that an engineering graduate must possess, whereas GATE checks aptitude, reasoning, English, and engineering mathematics other than subjects of the respective technical discipline. Distribution of marks: ESE has 3 stages, stage 1 is the preliminary exam, stage 2 is the mains exam, and stage 3 is the personality test. Preliminary exam has 2 papers, paper 1 and paper 2. Paper-1 of ESE prelims tests the candidate’s General Knowledge and has a weightage of 200 marks, whereas paper 2 which is the technical section in stage-1 is of 300 marks. The two conventional papers in the second stage, that check the technical knowledge of a candidate, are both 300 marks each. The interview, which is the last stage, has a weightage of 200 marks. ESE total marks round up to 1300 marks. GATE, on the other hand, is a 100-mark paper in total. Aptitude and Engineering Mathematics both have a combined weightage of almost 30 marks, where the number of questions asked from Engineering Mathematics varies from 8 to 10 each year. The rest of the paper is to test the technical aptitude of a candidate. Another key point one must note while discussing GATE vs ESE is the type of questions asked and the weightage of each section in the respective exams.
