Аннотация: A version of finite element method with piecewise-linear basic functions which generates a sequence of adaptively refined triangular grid is constructed for finding, in a polygonal domain, a generalized solution of the Dirichlet problem for the second-order elliptic differential equation with a symmetric operator. Two strategies of mesh refinement are considered which are based on the use of a posteriori estimation of the error, namely, the correction indicator, and a new procedure of reconstruction of the domain triangulation is proposed. For problems whose solution possess an exponential-type singularity the constructed adaptive method makes it possible decrease dozens of times the number of nodes as well as the time needed computations as com-pared to the finite element method which uses the strategy of uniform mesh refinement.