What is AMIE?

 

  • AMIE stands for “Associate Member of Institution of Engineers”. AMIE is a self-study, distance learning course.
  • Upon successful completion, the candidate is awarded the certificate of AMIE. AMIE course is recognised as equivalent to a BTech degree in India by Government and Private sector for the purposes of employment, higher studies or for competitive exams. AMIE course is also recognised by most foreign Universities and Institutes for the purpose of admission into Higher Studies. After AMIE, the engineer can use the designation of Chartered Engineer or CEng, which is a unique and useful qualification.
  • The course comprises of subjects in Section A as well as in Section B along with Project and Lab work. The exam is conducted in 70+ centers in India and abroad.
  • It is the only recognized engineering degree that can be studied primarily in a non-formal mode. The course does not demand regular classroom attendance and anybody who meets the eligibility and has successfully passed the course can become a Graduate Engineer. Since engineering is an Applied Science, Lab work and Practical Training is mandatory for award of this qualification. This course is specially suitable for employed person who wish to advance their qualifications and career avenues through further study
  • Institution of Engineers (India), Kolkata, established in 1920. is a statutory body duly recognised by Government of India, mandated to offer and conduct Non-formal Engineering Education (popularly known as AMIE Exam) in India It. It is the largest multidisciplinary body of engineers in the country. It has over 7 lac members and is present in 27 state centres and 76 local centres in India.

AMIE Courses

 

  • .AMIE exams are offered in the following 10 engineering disciplines currently:
    • Chemical Engineering
    • Civil Engineering
    • Computer Science & Engineering
    • Electrical Engineering
    • Electronics & Communication Engineering
    • Mechanical Engineering
    • Materials & Metallurgical Engineering
    • Mining Engineering
    • Production Engineering
    • Textiles Engineering
  • FYI, there are 5 other engineering disciplines in scope but for which exams are not offered currently.

Eligibility

 

Following edibility may be considered, on a broad basis. In addition, a large variety of courses and qualifications are deemed eligible for Technician and Senior Technician membership of the Institution. Please refer to Detailed Eligibility here.

  • Non-Diploma
    • After 10+2: Those who have completed 10+2 in PCME with at least 45% aggregate in PCM and also in PCME, and where English subject is passed without grace marks, from any recognised senior secondary board of education in India.
    • These members are recognised as Technical Members of the Institution.
    • A number of qualifications are accepted for exemption from Section A. Please see Detailed Eligibility for particulars.
  • Diploma
    • Diploma includes Polytechnic Diploma or Diploma from IETE, IME, ICE, IGNOU, CIPET, NTTF etc, and including those with lateral entry from ITI (or equivalent) after class 10.
    • Diploma from RVD, KSOU, IASE is not recognised for membership.
    • These members are recognised as Senior Technician members of the Institution of Engineers.
  • Others
    • BTech graduates who wish to do AMIE in another discipline can directly get registered as Associate members and appear for Section B. They must pass all requirements of Section B including project and lab work.
    • Candidates with ‘MSc+ME/MTech’ can register as Corporate members and directly register for Section B examination in the same branch.
    • Some qualifications are recognised for exemption from Section A. Please refer to Detailed Eligibility above.
  • The required medium of instruction for all above is English.

Course

AMIE course structure consists of following:

  1. Section A Courses
    1. All Non-Diploma students have to pass 10 subjects
    2. All Diploma students have to pass 4 subjects
  2. Section B Courses
    1. Section B is offered in 10 disciplines.
    2. Each discipline has 6 compulsory subjects and 3 optional subjects. Usually there are 3 subject groups, with 5-6 subjects in each group. The student has to choose one of the 3 groups and pass 3 subjects from that group.  In total they have to pass 9 subjects
  3. Project Work and Lab experiments
    1. Project work is allocated after clearing 5 subjects of Section B
    2. 10 lab experiments are to be done at the allotted college and under the guidance and supervision of a project guide allocated by IEI.

The student must complete Section A between 2 (minimum) to 6 (maximum) years of registration. The duration is same for Section B, including Project and Lab work.

If for some reason the student is unable to complete the Sections within the required stipulation, they may re-register for any section. A re-registration is treated as fresh registration and therefore all past credits and exemptions will be lost for that section.

AMIE syllabus is similar in coverage to BTech syllabus. However each Subject in AMIE comprises of 2 parts namely Part A and Part B. Each part is equivalent in scope and complexity to a BTech subject. So, in effect each AMIE subject is almost equal to 2 BTech papers.

AMIE exams are held twice each year, typically in June and December.

Each Course exam is of 100 marks. The paper comprises of 3 Parts. Typical distribution is 40 MM for Part A, 40 marks for Part B and 20 marks for Part C. Part C is compulsory and typically objective type questions or short answer questions, while Part A and Part B are numericals or long answer questions.

Unless permitted otherwise, the medium of examinations is English.

Post Qualification Avenues

  • After successfully completing the AMIE course, you are eligible to apply and be accepted as a Corporate member of IEI.
  • You can apply to be designated as a Chartered Engineer A Chartered Engineer is uniquely empowered to perform certain evaluations and analysis. Many government departments require the services of a Chartered Engineer as a consultant and assessor.
  • You can appear for GATE examination towards ME/MTech qualification.
  • You can appear for Government Recruitment Exams like JE, GATE, IES, IAS
  • If in active employment, you will be recognised equivalent to a BTech for further promotions and career advancement.

2LearnAMIE

AMIE’s Challenge

AMIE student must understand that AMIE is a self-study course. Students must organise their time and effort in the best possible way to clear the papers in the shortest time possible. At the same time the student must realise that passing the AMIE exam is but another step in their career progression. If they seek to rise in their career as an Engineer they must acquire sufficient conceptual knowledge, understanding and problem solving skills so that when they indeed assume an office of responsibility adjacent to other BTech engineers they should not be found wanting in technical skills.

One of the reasons that AMIE is not looked up to is that the AMIE graduates manage to somehow pass the exams without adequately honing their technical skills and acquiring sufficient conceptual knowledge.

A key reason for this is that students have been accustomed to being taught by a teacher who explains the concepts one by one in structured layers, and then they go and refresh their understanding by self-study from reference books. They have used this method successfully during their schooling and Diploma days. Now when they suddenly transition to a Self-Study mode, they are not able to handle the change and fall behind on course coverage.

Another major reason is their inability to comprehend that each AMIE subject comprises of 2 parts and is roughly equivalent to two BTech subjects in terms of subject coverage, and where one subject curriculum is being presented in each Part of the curriculum. Further, that the depth of course content in many BTech level subjects is equivalent to 1.5 to 2 times the content density in Diploma. So, in terms of their previous experience they must prepare for 4 times effort per AMIE course. However, the students get an impression that in Section A they have to just clear 4 subject in say, 2 years, so 2 subject per year and therefore just 1 subject per semester. This makes them relax. It is well known that the level of questions in AMIE exams is similar to that in BTech exams, and sometimes tougher. So when the students face the resultant complexity and difficulty level of the exam, most of the student struggle.

The third reason is that the level of study material provided by IEI is sketchy and quite inadequate to successfully handle the examination. The student has to refer to several reference books, make own notes and since the syllabus is so sketchy, the student is never sure that they have studied all that there needs to be covered.

Even though many questions in the examination are similar to Past Year Questions, just trying to mug the solutions is not the best approach. In fact, this approach is quite counter-productive. Even a simple change (which is inevitable) or a twist will throw you off balance. Even if you indeed somehow clear the paper by a whisker, the knowledge will not take you far in your job. Also some subjects are interrelated and concepts learnt in one will be required in the other. It is better to somehow arrange to study in-depth and work to become a successful engineer in your career. Many a times the study material also does not guide you on the marking scheme and evaluation methods followed in AMIE

Another key reason is inadequate Time Allocation and poor Time Management. While the students relish the prospect of AMIE being equivalent to BTech, they fail to comprehend the high standards maintained by the Institute, and that they will be required to walk this steep path on their own, and along with job or family pressures. They fail to comprehend that unlike BTech students who are sometimes supported by dubious ‘grace-marking’ practices of Colleges and Private Universities, they will have to tread the straight and narrow path of rightful marking schemes by IEI.

Many AMIE students fall into the trap of taking the course challenge lightly for the first 2 years, and then panic in the last 4 years and eventually many give up. This need not be the case if they figure out the right avenues for the preparation, and a specific study schedule which will lay out the exam prep clearly before them.

Students must be prepared to commit 2 hours daily for their examination prep.

Consider the case of a Section B who plans to appear for 2 subjects.

The exam prep plan comprise of 2 phases namely, the Preparatory Phase and the Revisionary Phase.

Each Section B subject would require at least 60 hr serious study in the Preparatory phase. The student plans to allocate 2 hours on alternate weekday for each subject and use Sunday for catchup and consolidation. This translates to 10 weeks of Preparatory phase. The student must also allocate 1 week of 8 hours per day for Revisionary Phase. This means that the student must start his Preparatory phase at least 3 months before the exams.

The 4D Formula for Success

As a guide to overcome any challenge, we can look at the 4D formula of success for success.

2LearnAMIE Program

2LearnAMIE is programmed for student success in AMIE exams. It is a Video based Learning System, setup to AMIE subject curriculum.

  1. At the outset you can confirm the syllabus coverage from the Course Coverage Plan for your Subject. Courses are setup and presented to cover the entire syllabus of the chosen subject. However you may observe that IEI has chosen to merge two BTech courses into one AMIE subject, Moreover the IEI curriculum has been outlined quite broadly and is not granular like many BTech syllabus, however with a view to prepare the students for GATE, JE and other opportunities, BTech syllabus can be taken as the predominant yardstick.
  2. You may Register into a demo course for your branch. The objective of this enrolment is just to see the interface, representative quality of teaching/explanation and layout of the courses.
  3. 2LearnAMIE can be accessed through a PC or through the 2Learn Android mobile app. PC based access is through a secure browser which you must download for access to courses. However, this is not required to access the demo course.
  4. If you are satisfied with the Course and wish to Enrol for the course, please select the course in the Subscription section and proceed as per instructions.

Course Layout

AMIE offers several disciplines of engineering, apart from the Section A common courses.

In section B, each Course is organised into Sections. A Section is a logical collection of related Topics. Each Topic is covered through a set of Learning Outcomes (LO). A Learning Outcome states what the student should be able to know, or do, upon successful completion of Learning Activities for that Topic.

Each LO is approached through a Learning Module, which is a Video Lesson including the associated Knowledge Check (KC) questions at the end of it. The student must view each LM carefully, make notes as advised; pause, rewind or speed-up the video as required to ensure they understand the concepts being taught. If student is not able to successfully answer the KCs, they are advised to re-view the lesson before proceeding forward.

After LMs for the Topic are completed, the Student should attempt the Outcome Review and Summary Quiz module. The ORSQ module comprises of higher order Past Year Questions (PYQ) for the completed Outcomes of the Topic. In addition, the Teacher will summarise the LOs, discuss the applications and related information.

Problem-Solving Module or PSM is an exam focussed module. For Theoretical topics, the teacher will list and detail the types of exam question that can be expected from the Topic and how to successfully respond to them. For Numerical topics, the teacher will list the types of PYQs, and proceed to solve one problem of each type. The student is expected to solve a similar problem of each type before proceeding to the next type. Each PSM will state several Outcomes which broadly mirror the LM Outcomes.

Through its sequence of Learning Modules, Outcome Review & Summary Quiz, and Problem-Solving Modules, an exhaustive treatment of each Topic is attempted.

A Section Review Test will help you revisit and revise the overall concepts in the section.

A Unit Review Test will similarly help you revise the concepts covered in the Unit.

You may pose your doubts in the Course Forum. Here you will also see previous conversation threads which could address your current problem. Being an active participant in the Course Forums could really help you.

Several such current and upcoming features are developed to help you develop concept-clarity, and proficiency in the Subject.

Study Plans

Usually Study Courses guide the student on What (and what not) to study (Syllabus and Content), but do not guide How to Study (method and schedule). However proper Scheduling is the crucial gap between success and failure specially in time-bound, self-study programs. With a view to bridge this need, 2LearnAMIE is offering two Study Plan options namely, a) Own Study Plan (OSP) or, b) Guided Study Plan (GSP).

Own Study Plan

  • Own Study Plan allows students to commence study from any Unit and any Section. Within each Section however, the order of coverage of Topics is fixed in accordance to principles of laddered learning. Similarly, the coverage of Learning Activities is also fixed within the Topic. This is understandable since a student will not be able to attempt the Quiz without going through the Learning Modules first, or not be able to do justice to Problem Solving Modules unless they have completed the underlying concepts in the LMs.
  • Once completed the topic may be accessed at will.
  • OSP is beneficial if the student has studied the Subject/Topics previously.

Guided Study Plan

  • Guided Study Plan may be opted by students looking for the optimal method to cover their syllabus and prepare for their exams.
  • Based on the number of Topics in a Course, GSP is designed to run for a defined number of days from the date of enrolment in the Course.
  • A set order of coverage is defined across the Course as per principles of spaced recall. For instance, if LMs, ORSQ and PSM are set for a Topic, LMs and knowledge check would be scheduled on Day1, ORSQ on Day 2 and PSM on Day 6.
    • Scheduling ORSQ after at least one night’s rest allows the learned concepts to consolidate in the sub-conscious mind of the student. Specially with the foreknowledge that they must retrieve the next day.
    • Scheduling PSM after at least 4 days allows the memory of the concept to decay sufficiently. Retrieval after such a period refreshes the memory and helps establish new neural pathways for better memory recall.
  • Apart from the above, Section Review Test, Unit Review Test will be scheduled to refresh the concepts.
  • Student’s memory and concept understanding will be challenged periodically with Flash Cards and short quiz posed intermittently on the covered topics.

Rapid Revision Program

  • Short duration RRP will be offered in select courses.
  • RRP are designed as Semester-exam focussed ‘Crash Course’. Typical RRP is for 12-15 hours only.
  • Typically RRPs will be released approximately 1 before exams.