Before you make a decision to repeat or not I would like to make two things clear:

(1) If you are getting a 3 digit or 4 digit rank this year does NOT imply next year you will definitely get a 2 digit or single digit. You need to earn it. 
Let’s assume 500 aspirants(much less than actual number) are repeating with this year’s rank within 5000, all of them cannot get within TOP 200. And final year students are also there to give tough competition apart from repeaters. You need to give your best.

(2) Set Target: GATEOVERFLOW is increasing the competition with every year because it’s free, provides quality resource and is  accessible to every one.
Here’s the proof

Gate Year Marks to get into TOP 100(approx) Topper’s Marks
2010 60 -
2015 66.59 85.85
2016 70 85.95
2017 70.16 86.26
2018 67 83.33
2019 75.33 88.67

Source : https://gatecse.in
You can see the increasing marks year wise.
Note: The topper’s marks is 80+  every year irrespective of the toughness of paper.
We can safely say that next year one should target atleast $70$ to be assured to be in top $100$. But 70 marks might not guarantee a rank in top $100$, infact this year it does not fetch a rank in top 200 also. So better aim for $75$. Moreover others will also see the data and put extra efforts in their preparation.
You can be argue that in 2018 the paper was comparatively tougher and top 100 went down to 67, so target should be around 70 and not 75,  the competition is increasing every year and having a small margin of safety is better than crying after results.


Now once you are clear with your goal there will be various questions that comes to your mind:

  • Give with a job !(Make proper assumptions that how many hours you could give in weekdays and weekend, what if there is project pressure in December/ January and you are asked to work on weekends)
  • Partial repeat (continue with job for few months and resign mid way)
  • Full time repeat.
  • $2-3$ months leave before exam: (Many companies do allow you to take a maximum break of 3 months with loss of pay, figure it out that it is allowed in your company or not and will that be enough.)

I will advise do to prepare your schedule in advance.

  • Weak Concepts : Strengthening the weak concepts, take out the syllabus from Gate site and note down your weak areas/ conceptually wrong and figure out the time required for completing them.
  • GO book: All previous year questions should be solved.
  • Subject wise testPrevious year papers as subject wise test will ensure that you have properly covered the topic well even the tough questions before 2010. 
  • Previous Year test ($2010-2019$): Evaluate how’s your preparation, your basic attempt strategy, time management should be fixed, you can always modify it later.  
  • Difficult Problems of GO book: You must have faced difficulty in solving few problems or liked few problems which you would like to re-do once more, a month or two before Gate exam. So it’s important to mark them.
  • Test Series or anything else you would like to add (In my case I added TIFR and two CBT)
  • Aptitude : Most ignored but essential part, if you are confident that you can  do well and don’t need much practice, then my suggestion would be that every day from December 1st  take 15 minutes daily and solve one aptitude paper from previous year. There are 8 sessions every year and you will get previous year paper from official gate website. It will ensure you have all basic formulas covered and you are able to solve them fast.
  • Previous Year test ($2010-2019$) with 2 hour 30 minutes as stipulated time : (Even if you have given them for $n^{th}$  times given it for $(n+1)^{th}$ time.) This should be done at last, when you are complete with your preparation. So if you are doing job then you can give it only on weekend and will need 7 weeks for 15 test and for those repeating full time will need 2 weeks. It is recommended that you give them @ time of day you have your exam(9:30-12:30 or 2:30-5:30).

Revision: Continuous revision of strong subjects is also required to ensure none of your topics becomes unfamiliar with same.

Now when you have figured out what needs to be done assign months to them, and you could assign a schedule for it. And decide whether you can do it with a job or you need full time repeat or partial repeat.

In my case I figured out that 5 months will be enough for me. (1st September to 31st January )
My last working day was on 31st August 2018.
While working I used to study on weekends which made sure that I am in touch with the subjects. 
Make proper schedule what needs to be done, if you don’t have a strict schedule you will keep delaying your studies. The competition will be getting tougher each year, so give your best.
 

To top GATE you have to beat quality people and not just those around you.
So you can help others, but first, help yourself.

posted in Preparation Experience Mar 16, 2019
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5 Comments

5 Comments

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very well written bro :)
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Thanks mate 😃
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thank you
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sir , I have an doubt . Is sleeping schedule affect out preparation. I mean late night study and then sleeping till late in morning affect our mind performance?
reshown Jun 9, 2022 by
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2

1.  Go through past papers and identify topics from which maximum questions are asked...

Study these topics extremely thoroughly...

2.  Mathematics is asked for worth 15 marks in GATE and questions are moderately difficult but the syllabus is huge...

Prepare this from the very beginning....

3.  General Aptitude in GATE is very easy and asked for worth 15 marks....

Try to score complete 15 here to elevate your rank....

 4.  Prepare a time table where in you should dedicate 3 days in a week for core subjects, 3 days in a week for Mathematics and 1 day in a week for General Aptitude....

 5.  Revise often.... This is the most important step.....

@Shubham+Sharma+2 , @TusharKumar , @prasapi , @samarpita , @Mahvith

@ankur12587

1https://gateoverflow.in/blog/10507/we-are-the-decisions-we-make

2.  https://gateoverflow.in/299897/Common-careless-mistakes 

# Free mock test .....

3.  https://gateoverflow.in/exam/71/verbal-ability-previous-gate-all-streams

and

https://gateoverflow.in/exam/72/numerical-ability-previous-gate-all-streams

and

https://gateoverflow.in/exam/36/gate-overflow-general-aptitude-test-1

4.  https://gateoverflow.in/blog/13646/most-taken-exams-in-tests-by-mentors