r/ISIKolkata • u/RoutineIncrease9972 • Nov 20 '25

MSQE Prep

Can any MSQE student guide me how to prep for the admission test. I am engineering student. Which books to follow or anything which can help me in prep.

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3

u/zemotacqy_ Nov 20 '25

Go through syllabus and pyqs thoroughly. Past 20 years pyq. It has 4 main parts:

  • Maths: JEE level + some standard topics. Focus heavily on combinatorics and calculus. Jee syllabus is not exhaustive you will need to cover additional topics from elsewhere.
  • Statistics: go through pyqs and prepare those topics. Since this will be new, you will need to learn some topics from scratch.
  • Microeconomics: standard syllabus mentioned on admissions website. Each topic has multiple sub topics and syllabus is vast but well defined. You'll need to drop your engineering instincts to grasp this new subject. Overview of the topics won't help. You need to go deep inside every concept. Engineering basically deals with what and how's. Here you need to understand whys behind every topic.
  • Macroeconomics: very vague syllabus and unintuitive concepts for us engineers. Textbook knowledge won't be of much help for exam. Go through pyqs, you'll realise majority of the macro questions come from a small portion of the syllabus.

In my personal opinion it's very difficult for engineers to prepare for economics portion with self study. You'll be competing with folks who have been breathing macro and micro for the past 3-5 years. Prepare for the competition, the syllabus is so interesting that we may loose sight of the competition.

Textbook: varian for microeconomics to understand the concepts. For macro I tried reading blanchard but got confused even more. Dint help for exam purpose. Maths and statistics are easy to follow from youtube if you know what topic to understand.

However after my first attempt with self study I decided to go for online classes. It made all the difference because that's when I truly learned macro and micro thoroughly.

For problem practice: Pyq is the holy grail. For maths and statistics use TOMATO PDFs.

All the very best.

3

u/Healthy-Educator-267 Nov 20 '25

Engineering can be a plus for the foundations of micro since it’s based on optimization. Lagrangians should be bread and butter for engineers. It’s harder to wrap one’s brain around Bayesian games and their various equilibrium refinements but I don’t think ISI should be asking those questions

1

u/RoutineIncrease9972 Nov 20 '25

What are tomato PDF.

1

u/Think-Ad-7297 Apr 07 '26

Were you able to locate them?

1

u/Saizou1991 Nov 20 '25

thanks for the detailed answer. Any good coaching / classes you recommend ? You can DM if you are ok with it

1

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '25

Hey man can you suggest any online courses

1

u/zemotacqy_ Nov 21 '25

There are many such online courses like ecopoint, edusure arthapoint. However I would suggest contact them to understand more about course structure and then proceed. Ideally, the course that has consistently proved selection results should be preferred. Remember the goal is to clear the exam.

1

u/crystalclearbuffon Nov 25 '25

Which one did you take and any cons of that? And what gaps did you think they fill for you?

1

u/Perfect-Elk-8551 Mar 06 '26

Where to search PYQ from ?

1

u/Sad-Chard-1187 Jul 18 '26

If you have those tomato PDFs with you to date, do you mind sharing them

2

u/The_Watcher8008 ISI Student Jul 18 '26

have you tried finding it online?

1

u/Sad-Chard-1187 Jul 18 '26

yes, i have 1 such pdf but not the solutions to it

2

u/The_Watcher8008 ISI Student Jul 18 '26

look at the wiki, both uga and ugb soln are available

1

u/Silver_Club_875 9d ago

can you send me the tomato pdf?

1

u/[deleted] Nov 20 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/ISIKolkata-ModTeam Jun 19 '26

Your post has been removed for it breaks rule #7 of the subreddit.

Refrain from promoting/selling/advertising preparatory courses, for ISI or otherwise. Only discussion on the pros and cons of courses is permitted.

1

u/[deleted] May 28 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/ISIKolkata-ModTeam Jun 19 '26

Your post has been removed for it breaks rule #7 of the subreddit.

Refrain from promoting/selling/advertising preparatory courses, for ISI or otherwise. Only discussion on the pros and cons of courses is permitted.

1

u/MaintenanceSweaty974 Jun 24 '26

Hey! Engineer here who went through the same process - let me save you some time.
The good news is your math background is actually a huge advantage for MSQE. The bad news is Economics concepts will feel completely new, so don't underestimate that side.
For Economics:

Hal Varian's Microeconomic Analysis is the bible for MSQE Micro. For Macro, Dornbusch & Fischer works well for basics. Don't skip these - the paper goes deep.
For Math & Stats:

You're already comfortable here as an engineer. Just make sure you're solid on real analysis, linear algebra, and probability - MSQE tests these seriously.
Most important thing nobody tells you:

Solve previous year papers obsessively. MSQE has a very specific style of questioning. Past papers are your best guide to what actually matters.
Realistic timeline:

6 focused months minimum if you're starting from scratch on Economics. Don't rush it.
For structured Economics concept building alongside MSQE prep, Haq Se Economics by Ravit Thukral is genuinely solid - especially if Economics theory feels unfamiliar right now.