This post is only for those giving GATE 2018 and for those who are willing to give it their all. This is a general preparation plan. More detailed plan I'll give later. I'm giving this mainly because I feel many aspirants are not preparing in the right way. So, I'll give some general directions here regarding Do's and Dont's. As always every advice must have a reason and only if you are convinced about the reason you should follow it. 

AIM: To score 90+ in GATE 2018

Why 90+? Hardly anyone so far in GATE CSE has achieved this while this is common among other branches. But the main reason for this is that some areas in CSE are not well known to many aspirants. And this is not due to any issue of ambiguity in questions as was evident in the GO keys for last 2 years which were 99-100% accurate. So, why not aspirants start aiming for 90+? Even aim 100. Any topic you are not getting quality material, we shall provide. Also realize that even AIR 1 makes silly mistakes and you have to account about 10 marks for this. i.e., if you know for 90, you get 80 in actual GATE. So, I do not want anyone to leave stuffs to luck in the end. Below 70 you are almost doomed unless you have reservation.

How to start preparing?

This depends on where you stand. Suppose you have given GATE 2017, I would suggest to first analyze what all happened in the exam - which all areas you confidently answered, which all areas you made mistakes, which all areas you could not answer etc. This should tell which all areas you should focus more. 

Now in general, you need to know all GATE topics and should have the numerical skills to apply them in a problem. So, aptitude is required in addition to it being asked for 15% marks. What I meant is learning aptitude must not be just practicing some speed/distance questions from some book, but also about learning to solve problems on own. Some people have this inherent skill and they have a big advantage in GATE. Others need to build it first by thinking a lot while solving such questions. 

Coming to other subjects Mathematics come first. And subjects like Mathematical Logic, Set Theory, Probability, and Graph Theory you MUST do at first. Because these are used in other subjects and hence ensures your strong base. These are also the subjects why other branch students easily beat CSE students as quite often CSE students ignore them. Other mathematics portions like Linear Algebra and Calculus do not have any dependence in GATE syllabus and these you can cover anytime.  (Of course you may bring in a system subject here like OS if you feel bored with Mathematics)

Then do the CSE subjects. Anyone would say Algorithms, DS and Programming cover a lot of GATE marks. This is true. But there is no use in concentrating on these subjects alone. Those who are good in programming C code usually do well in these areas. And those who studies just theory usually get less in these areas. So, my suggestion is to implement most of the algorithms you learn here especially if you have not done so in your B.tech.

Then comes two subjects DBMS and Computer Networks. For DBMS text book (of course only standard one like Korth/Navathe) knowledge and practice is enough if you know and have practiced SQL queries. Otherwise just start writing SQL queries. For Computer Networks a good text book and previous year GATE questions can guide one well. Usually these two subjects are done well by most toppers. 

Now come 2 subjects which most toppers loose marks on. TOC and CO. Actually these two subjects are the reason why GO was mainly started because most answers given on these else where were wrong. For these two subjects, the knowledge required by IITs are just basic only as other subjects -- but even this basic knowledge is taught wrong at other places including Universities. So, you must be really careful in seeing any material on these subjects outside standard resources. You can also refer the GO solutions here because as told earlier these 2 subjects are the main reason GO was started. 

Now, there are OS, Digital Logic and Compilers. For Digital Logic I'm not saying anything as everything I wanted to say are covered in this PDF. OS is usually a high scoring subject where toppers can score 100%. But sometimes questions can be tricky like CO. But if you solve -- not learn the given solution -- all the previous GATE questions you can score good. Compilers is usually not well covered even by toppers. This is also one subject where the standard book -- Dragon book - is not easy to follow for beginners. This book has a guide though and you can find the relevant links for Compilers here. 

Okay, so this is the brief coverage of all the subjects. For any subject resource you can see http://syllabus.gatecse.in. Only for Digital Logic we have a PDF book now but my highest priority is to do the books for other subjects which should be made in coming months. These will be made in a way to help you follow the standard books -- and not as a note book. Those who find trouble reading standard books can also see the best CSE GATE videos collected here. 

All the suggestions I gave are tough. And yes only YOU must work hard for it -- and not me or any one else. The result will be your GATE result. And this is the reason why GO is free -- so that no one comes here and expects others to work for them in return for money they pay. What we believe in and what the results show is that whoever works hard -- and of course works smart -- tops GATE. At first solving problems on own takes time -- even after completing my Masters some GATE problem used to take me even days to solve. But that is the effort you should give. Always remember the 30% rule of GO book - never see more than 30% of the given solutions. Else you are preparing wrong for GATE -- might work for ISRO or other exams where questions are repeated. 

So, are you ready to give it ALL? 

I assume you are in General Category and up to 1500 rank one can expect an interview call for MS Research. With new IITs this might go even lower. One more thing is for research admissions, at many places there might not be a GATE cutoff and based on resume - (CGPA in bachelors etc.) yu might be called as long as you have a valid GATE or other national level score. Even after this 1000s of students won't be getting a good college.

So, what constitute a good college? In my opinion it should increase the knowledge level and hence provide better career opportunities. IITs, select other institutes like TIFR, CMI, ISI, top IIITs are the nly ones in India which does this. Then there are insitutes which prvide good placements and top NITs are the ones to go for. Some professors at NITs do good research and for CSE NIT-Calicut is famous for this. If you get to any of the above colleges your career is safe.

Now comes some colleges which are good for B.Tech.and okay for M.Tech. due to placements. NSIT, DTU, CET Trivandrum, CEG Guindy, mid NITs etc. comes here. If you work "efficiently" - that is doing what is required for companies like Google, Amazon., Microsoft etc. you can get a good placement but there might not be much support from the college. The difference in these colleges and old IITs are that old IITs make you work really hard and hence you will be prepared for a better placement. Here, you have to do this on your own.

Now, below these colleges, at the level of low NITs, I personally do not recommend any one joining. Those people should have definitely written IIIT entrance, BITS entrance etc. Because after M.Tech. you might not even get a good job and you learn nothing. But you can devote time and prepare for GATE again and then get to PSU or other places depending on the work load.

Should I repeat? I have hardly said anyone to repeat. Usually those who successfully do repeat know this from their heirt and hence they do it successfully. If someone forces one to repeat he/she usually won't succeed. The only thing I can guarantee is that those who prepare in the proper way (I have told this in many posts- just browse through the blogs here) hardly fails to get a top rank. But for this, you should know the GATE syllabus well, and must have the commonsense to work for covering them all and not wait for someone to guide you. Whether you have coaching or not, you must guide yourself - can take help from seniors if needed. Then aim for scoring 80+ in the exam. This is possible and if you can do the needed, you can surely repeat.

Hi,

There are many people here preparing to be in Top 100 or even better. Of course if you are preparing for GATE you should not think below that. GATE is not a difficult exam to get to top 100. So, let me tell somethings I have seen over last 2 years.

1. Most people with good/correct concepts get to Top 100 - like Pragy got 37 rank even by not studying Networks.
2. Some good people do miss out on Top 100 - 1-2 people even drop to 1000 rank.
3. Some people even without proper concepts get to Top 100 - its just a matter of 2-3 questions that can take you to Top 100 from 1000.

So, where do you want to go? Knowingly or unknowingly many of you are in part 3. Some good people are in part 2. And every one wants to be in part 1. So, how to get there? Let me list some common points:

1. Build confidence by solving previous GATE questions. Analyze what they meant by each word of the question. Think what they can modify in it and make a new question.
2. Step 1 above is not easy - can be done only by one who knows concepts well.
3. GATE syllabus is stripped down from 2015 and is very small compared to NET. But still, it has a lot of subjects. But only basic questions are asked for at least 80% - but basic does not mean remembering sentences or formula is going to give marks. It requires proper application of concepts and numericals.
4. For Engineering entrance there is a saying those who can calculate fast is at advantage. This is not true for GATE CSE. Calculcation power is not important. Though virtual there is a calculator and most numericals donot need it also.
5. Each subject has a set of stock portions from which questions are asked. This covers 60-70% of the questions.
6. Now, what one needs to do is to analyze oneself and improve. Many people say that they make a lot of mistakes. But this is common. And even AIR 1 would have made mistakes. So, one needs to prepare for this extra 10-20 marks and not say if I hadnot made those mistakes I would have got to top 100.
7. I do not know why many people avoid aptitude. For first timers I can imagine lack of time. But those preparing again should give more importance to it. 15 marks is quite a lot. I see less than half takers for Aptitude exam compared to anyother in GO tests.
8. Make concepts more clearer. This also reduces your chance of making mistakes. One knowing the correct concepts can easily avoid many wrong choices by looking only.
9. Never be happy with other not knowing as much as you. Most people being ignorant does not make you a genius or guarantees a top 100 rank. You are fighting with yourself only- not among others. Because GATE includes many people who are silent here. So, even if no one objects to your answer or even if everyone is wrong, you must continuously evaluate yourself and improve.
10. TOC, especially decidability- only few people gets it but those who gets it really find it easy. You can see decidability answers in GO and else where and most of them are different. If you believe me I can say GO answers are correct and elsewhere they are wrong. This is because I have spent such a long time answering them and it is after many verifications. Such wrong answers given for this portion elsewhere was one of the major motivation for starting GO.
11. I have always told not to over do tests. But one must do tests as well. Without doing any test you have no idea where you stand. Also, knowing concept is onething. Applying it in a problem is another thing. So, you must do tests- if not anything else just do previous year papers as test.
12. Whenevr you find a topic you don't know be happy that you reduced your chance of getting something wrong in GATE. Identifying what you dont know is more important than knowing what you know. One prime example of this is Akash Kanase- he has answered many questions quite nicely here around this time last year. He became monthly topper also. But he was not happy and realized he was weak in Aptitude and then worked on it. Before GATE he was quite confident and was quite certain of scoring 75+. And he did like that even after making some mistakes. I would say that was the most ideal preparation I have seen for GATE.
13. Anyhow both 1 and 3 types of people are fine, I really do not want to see any one in 2. But if somehow one ends in 2, he/she should not worry too much. Because
    1. If your concepts are good you can easily clear MS interviews in IISc./IITs or even direct Ph.D. And those with good concepts enjoy doing research - whether you like research now is not important because most of you do not know what is research. And good people can finish MS in 1.5-2 years and only average is 2.5 years.
    2. Even upto 1500 rank one can get to IITM MS/Ph.D. But this does not mean one with rank say 400 can get it. Research interviews are different from an objective exam.
        

 

I am Nitish Gupta and I secured AIR-13 with a score of 950/1000 in GATE CS 2020. I was in the final year of my Graduation at CCET, Chandigarh when I wrote this and therefore it was my first attempt (Update: I joined IISc, CSA for MTech Batch 2020-2022). I’d like to share the key points related to my preparation so that it can help future aspirants.

I joined a classroom course at a GATE Coaching GATEGURUS here in Chandigarh and most of the theory was covered by the classroom coaching. But doesn’t matter if you join a well-known coaching, online coaching or study using standard books, once you collect the theory from these sources, it all comes down to your strategy that decides how well you’re going to perform. I’ll write my experience in the form of answers to questions I’ve been asked.

 

What sources did you follow for the theory of this particular subject?

I’ve written it all down in this table, but again, it doesn’t matter which source you follow, it all depends on you.

 

 

When did you start your GATE preparation? How long did it take to finish your syllabus?

I joined my coaching on 5th of JAN 2019, and I finished my whole syllabus along with one iteration of GATE previous year questions by November end. The reason it took me so long because I was involved in a lot of extra-curricular in college and also the college curriculum had to be managed because I wanted to maintain a good GPA too (seems worthless now). I used to go to 6-hour classes on Saturday-Sundays and review my class notes during college lectures. On Saturday Sunday, after class, I used to solve questions on the topics that have been just finished. I didn’t take out anytime for GATE from the weekdays until the end of September. October onwards, I devoted as much time as possible so that I can finish my syllabus by Nov.

 

Where did you solve the questions from?

In the beginning, I used to solve question from GO pdf or GeeksforGeeks but later I felt the need to have it in a hard copy. I bought a GATE previous year book and used to solve questions of the topics just finished. The need for a hard copy, I’ll tell in the next answer. Other than that, I sometimes solved assignment sheets of IITs and previous year questions of other CS competitive exams. If I felt need to solve even more questions, I attempted topic-wise tests of test series.

 

What was your strategy of attempting GATE previous year questions?

I never touched the last 4 papers’ questions because I wanted to use them as a mock test in the end. For the other questions, the first time I solved them right after finishing the topic and always marked the good or tricky questions with 1, 2 or 3 stars based on how important I thought the question was to revise. The idea was to not attempt the questions with no stars while doing the questions again because they were just too easy to revise. And also, I wrote the key points or new concepts that I learnt from it on the top/bottom of that page with a pencil. Also, I wrote down any concept or terms that were new to me and appeared in the questions so I can study them separately. The 2nd time I attempted all the questions divided into topics in November. Each day, I would revise a set of topics and solve the starred pyq of those topics. The 3rd time in December, I did all the starred pyq subject wise each day.

It’s important to understand that PYQ are the most genuine way to test your understanding of concepts. Hence, learn how to approach and what am I doing wrong, rather than the solutions.

 

What test series did you buy? What was your strategy for attempting the test series?

I only bought MadeEasy test series but I have read a lot of suggestions to attempt at least 2 different test series so that you don’t get fixated at a particular pattern of questions and I agree with that now. 

I only attempted topicwise test till December. From January I started attempting 1 full length test daily at the same time as my GATE exam time slot and a full-subject or multi-subject test (1.5-hour test) at 10:00 p.m. Before the full-length test, I revised the concepts I  had mistaken in the last tests. After the test, I took a short break and then analysed the test which helped a lot in improving because knowing a concept and effectively applying it to solve problems are 2 different things and you need to learn the latter the hard way, i.e. by making mistakes.

What was your strategy to attempt a full-length test? How did you perform in the full-length tests?

I used to attempt the questions in 2 iterations. I used to finish the Aptitude section in the first 20-30 minutes. Then the 1-mark questions in the next 50 minutes and then the 2 markers in the next 50-60 minutes. In this time, any question that I could not figure out how to solve (not actually solve) in a minute, I left it for the 2nd iteration. I usually saved 15-20 minutes in the end for revision (helps a lot)

This was a question I used to search a lot in January so that I can know where I stand actually. So, I tabulated by results in the following sheet.

*the ranks are noted down immediately after attempting the tests so it may vary from the final ranks of those tests.

​

 

How was GateOverflow helpful in your preparation?

This was the one source I could always count on for all the PYQ solutions and doubts resolutions. No other source has content as trustworthy as GateOverflow. Every other source has some mistakes in the solution that’s why I always search GO for any doubt in a concept or question and could always trust is because I learnt it from GO. That’s a very essential part when you are in the last few months.

How was your GATE exam experience?

My centre was in a really remote area 35kms away from my hostel and for some reasons I reached 4 minutes before the exam started. I feel the level of GATE is easier than the test series but the state of mind you are in inside the exam hall brings it to the difficulty level of the test series. After the exam, I had no idea how did I do. 

I attempted 61/65 question (because I didn’t leave any NAT questions).

Got 54 of them right and scored 80/100 marks.

 

 

What are some key points that every GATE aspirant must know?

*You should have someone to talk to: Can be your parents, your friend, siblings or even your lover. It’s important to share things so that you can endure the pressure in the last few months of preparation. Keeping it all to yourself becomes really difficult sometimes especially when the results are not as you expect.

*Every effort counts, every mistake counts: You may not realize it at that point but every extra page you read before sleeping on that exhausting day, every extra question you attempted, all of it eventually pays off.

*GATE doesn’t require you sacrificing everything else in your life: You just need to be consistent. No need to give up your hobbies, friends or fun for a year for GATE.

*I personally used to read 2 poems often during preparation: ’IF’ by Rudyard Kipling and ‘Go All the Way’ by Charles Bukowski.

*Don’t compromise with your sleep and health

 

That’s it from me. If you have any questions related to preparation that I didn’t answer, do let me know in the comments or mail me at [email protected]. 

Just a point that before starting gate preparation one must know that tough and easy topics from the syllabus.

According to me most difficult to grab is COA(Comp. Organization and Arch.) and second is CN(Comp. Networks).

Most Easy and Scoring are Programming  and Data Structures and TOC(Theory of computation).

 

My Personal Advise would be:- Even if you go to coaching ,  and have not studied COA in ur college or not done in depth,plz try to do COA beforehand(lots of free stuff can be found on youtube,or diff  gate websites and coaching) , so that when you are tought in coaching your main focus is on understanding it more in depth and not just sitting there and all understanding nothing.When I did COA for the first time, though the lectures seemed as if i could do all the quetions easily , but when i starte to do PYQs, i literally gave up all hope, it was taking around 25-30 min each question to solve , in which i used to do 10 questions normally. So, I just did COA completely again and this time i got more in depth and finally ended up understanding it. COA is difficult to grab but once you grab it, it becomes most interesting subject.

 

Talking about CN, actually it is bit less difficult than COA, but super wide subject, with very very bug course. Just keep in mind , in coaching you will be taught all important parts , all which in 99.99% asked in gate, but that 0.01% in CN is actually again a very big part. IF u want to leave it u can as very rarely such questions are asked ,  but no one knows how rarely so better be prepared. Just find CN syllabus and match what you have studied and what is left. do those all.

 

Lastly , bit difficult is probability in Math, specially Random Variables. Try to not just mug the formula but understand how to apply those, as question may be confusing sometimes, which random variable to be used and which not.

Rest subject can be done easily, just keep good revision of all.(If u need how to revise I have already posted revision strategy post :)

 

one can start with easy subject , but not just go randomly but in connectivity, ie,

Programming, DS    goes well with Algorithms.   

TOC goes well with CD(Compiler Design).

Digital Logics(DL) goes well COA, and COA complements OS(Operating System)

DBMS and Discrete Maths

Aptitude goes with Discrete maths and probability from(Engg Maths)

Rest of Engg maths and CN usually goes unconnected .

                                 All The Best !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GATE 2019 Marks: 63.33 Rank -582

Selected in IIT Kanpur, see here for Interview experience: https://gateoverflow.in/blog/8079/iit-kanpur-ms-interview-experience

I started GATE preparation probably around starting of 3rd  year, I read a lot of blogs on GO, (see here) and they were really helpful for me, I just wanna go in a little detail about how I did everything - You see, I made a lot(trust me, a lot) of mistakes, so the only reason I'm writing this is to make sure you know the reality of things and then decide on your own what you have to do- Don't repeat these mistakes to get experience, read others experience and learn.
Started preparation with these –
Youtube videos of R, GeekforGeeks prep Notes, [Only good thing was I preferred Cormen for some parts in Algorithms, later switched to Narsimha(Also kind of mistake, realized after GATE)]

At that time my schedule was:

wakeup→Read one topic from Cormen.
Travel 30 KM to college via bus(Reading notes/ watching Downloaded videos )
Look for ways to bunk the class and read notes (I remember going to the topmost floor of our college with Astitva sitting near servers making loud noise and heat during summer)
Travel back home (Reading or watching the same videos to clear my understanding of what I read today)
Manage family shop (Here I also did my work from Remote Internship(As a Javascript developer) work).
Around 11-12: Back in my room - Watched NPTEL lectures plus some work from the internship

Got Gateforum material from library started solving questions (Went full berserk – solved them in 2-3 months )  – It also had material for reading- completed that too. We also found class notes of Ace/RBR/ME: completed them too. – see DON’T DO THIS [I read same things from different notes and in this much time I could’ve read from books which would’ve been much much better]

Now, this went for the whole 3rd   year, yeah whole 1 year kinda just went like that.

You see, I did work hard, studied a lot(At least that's what I thought at that time), but I was only average at that time, Then I quit the internship, told dad to free me from shop work and kind of locked myself in my room on off days, Because of some work I still had to travel around 10 KM daily via public transport after reaching home from college around 6 PM, I used to revise from NPTEL pdfs in Auto rickshaws, but it was no problem, I was working hard for my target and at that time using whatever method possible was a necessity.

Let me tell you this : If you study the right way - You won't have to study the same things many times as me, yes short notes from sites like geeks / gate-vidyalay are good for going through syllabus - In less than an hour you would finish a whole topic - but doing this is not only a bad way of studying for the first time, but It'll also create a negative impact on you- You will think you know things but you actually won’t plus you won't know what things you don't know[Yeah, I used to say to Astitva, Man I’ve studied the whole syllabus but don’t know why not getting these questions], Another thing which will happen is - you will face difficulties in reading books It'll be something like this: I've been reading for 2 hours and I haven't completed even one topic.

Take your time to understand things- you have to do this just once, you see I spent whole 1 year reading short notes and what did it gave me? - Nothing, When I saw answers by Arjun sir, Bikram sir [and many others here], discussions on Gate questions - It made me think I actually don't know anything, Not just solutions but the discussion in comments did “overflow”, things like “endianness”,”split-cache” seemed like out of world. Now I realized I need to study “Everything” properly- So I started using resources from GO classroom and NPTEL pdf, since I didn’t have much time to read all topics from Books so I read important parts from PDF version of standard books.

Test series:

1)MadeEasy : Total ,waste of my crucial 1 month time – They don’t reply when you post a doubt and their solutions are like such that they are given by those who are “studying” in ME, Don’t explain anything, they’re like for this question we use this formula, don’t ask us why we use it.[I didn’t even complete around 10 tests ]

2)Ace: Long repetitive tests -quality same as ME (I didn’t buy it, Astitva took it and I saw some of the tests)

3)R B R: Questions don’t follow serial order, Aptitude in between technical, repetitive questions, mostly very easy questions which make you feel good[Though some questions were better and explanation was little better than ME/ACE], left more than half of all tests   

4)Success Gateway: This free(Now paid) test series is really the “BEST” – both questions and explanations were great, Let me tell you – many similar questions were asked in GATE including pumping length, Inode, C program questions

5)Virtual gate: Also pretty great, Solutions were not always provided but you can find the solutions with some googling because they mostly take questions from GATE or MIT/Stanford Courses.

6)GATEBOOK free tests: Good quality -similar to Success Gateway

Most important are GATE papers, I did this mistake of taking so many tests from ME and ACE, Thank god I realized my mistake and left remaining tests, In last two months I only took GATE and Success Gateway tests. It was during test series and solving gate questions that I was clearing my misconceptions through GO answers and MIT/Standford notes.

Pro Tip: Use Notes from geeks/Gate-Vidyalaya to revise things not in the first time learning, first read from books and later when you need quick revision then only use these. BOOKS>NPTEL=MIT>other notes

D-DAY[You can see these mistakes and how much I attempted here]

Aptitude was so easy – I thought I’m gonna kill it (AIR-1 is in the bag), [because of my - “We’ll see what happens” kinda nature, I attempted English part and got negative marks(don’t do this)]

Technical part: Did a large number of questions wrong because of getting excited, Actually in test series you had maximum one trick per question, but in actual GATE every word is a game-changer, lost  4 marks only because of ignoring one word – “Independently”, Lost 2 marks on Inode question – I did everything right, Also Challenged on this question and got them to change answer key but I didn’t get any marks on it because I wrote 3.82 instead of 3.8 and it became out of range 3.7-3.8 [Pro Tip: Always answer in specified precision]

Conclusion: Read books → Use Gatecse resources→ see discussions and take part in them
(Most importantly don’t try to find short tricks else you might get long rank)

From my experience, I can surely tell this: You will not be able to clear any interview by reading short notes and fixed pattern based substandard material.

🚂 My Gate CSE 2023 Journey (March 2022- Feb2023)

Gate score:690 (GATE CSE), Marks:62.67
Date: 04 July 2023
B.tech: Major in Mechanical and Minor in CSE

 

2017: Second semester of my college, along with my major in mechanical engineering, I took up minor in CSE as my roommate in my college was from CSE, and I learned a lots of things from him, which generated a huge interest for CSE, in me.

2019: I made a plan to join ISRO after btech, instead. Me and my friend from civil engg. started our preparations for GATE(ME) & ISRO. We prepared notes, studied from NPTEL and YouTube channels.

2020: Corona came and all my notes were left in hostel, as we were said, college is off for 7 days, I didn't carry my notes home, my college was more than 1000 kms away from home, and it never opened until we graduated.

2021: Without any preparations went for GATE ME 2021, only solved apti questions, and could not qualify. I joined the company I got from college placements. I didn't like the work there.

2022: My friend, gave me the idea, about try GATE in CSE, and after some research, the lost CS engineer in me, revived back to life.

 

Early 2022: I made a plan and started to study along with work, I studied from Gate Smashers, Jenny's Lectures and Neso Academy. I talked with my HR, but our company only allowed to do mtech from BITS Pilani, and in mechanical, and preparing with job was not working out at all. Getting exhausted at the end of the day, and then, preparing for a national level exam, with full dedication was not being feasible, so I resigned from my job.

Now some people will say they can manage, I get it, It's definitely possible with job, but I was a bit unsure about the outcome, if I do it that way, for myself.

 

March 2022: I joined Made Easy, Delhi center and started proper preparations. My timetable there used to be

• 8-2 Class; 2-6 Eat&Sleep; 7-12 make short notes, solve workbook and refer textbook if needed
•  [ GO classes are equally good, also, according to some of my friends, GO classes are indeed better, but I did not take, so I do not want to rank them, both are good, your input matters more ]

 

I had a plan to study there only upto October, as I know the last few months in preparations need to be in a higher pace. My TOC was incomplete there, and I managed it myself.

Actually, for a good rank, there is more role of the aspirant than the coaching institute. Coaching gives the direction and the aspirant is the magnitude.

 

I had used a handful of CS Engineer's ideas in my preparations.

I had 3 level hierarchy of notes.

• HDD Level: Class notes & Textbooks & NPTEL & MIT OCW & others

• MM Level: Short notes (I had total of 6 short-notes notebooks with 12 subject's short notes)

• CM Level: I made a single sheet for every subject, having all important stuffs of the entire subject, and I used to stick it in the wall, I called it wall cache

** This wall cache was very helpful, to get a better big picture and interconnect all subjects (specially COA,OS & DBMS, have lots of ideas same) **

[ My Wall cache pdf (for reference): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NnMfAddS4D92vld9mnXCIb37exM1Ne99/view?usp=sharing ]

** I also made a stack of important stuffs, which needed constant revision, in a 22 page pdf, which I called the stack sheet, start reading it from page 1, and put it at the end, and continue, untill page 1 reappears, this is a cycle, repeat this process, it is better if you print it out and study, it would be easy to mark and highlight on it.

[ My stack sheet (For reference) CAUTION:: Some thing may be wrong, I did some revision on the hard copy of the sheet https://docs.google.com/document/d/1giHzgVHU9JZ8b7RVCH2Km_B8a3pPF-7K/edit ]

 

Mid-October to Mid-November I solved all PYQ's and made a collection of all good questions in a folder 

[ My good questions collection folder (for reference): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Dw7C7VnQchiTK5EcGuMQKoqx0L9Rk28G?usp=sharing ]

• IMPORTANT, PLEASE SOLVE PYQ’s ONLY FROM GATE-OVERFLOW, this is a community curated place, where you’ll hardly ever encounter any error in an answer, hard copy PYQ books, have lots of misprints and wrong answers in them. And some questions are ambiguous, if you encounter such question, chances are high that people got marks for free for those questions, do not waste your time on them. (MTA: Marks to all)
• Do mistake and understand what went wrong, you’ll find people here who did the same mistake like you and found out the weak point, do not directly watch the correct answer, find what went wrong.

Last 3 months, I used pipelining concept, i.e. everyday I need to do a specific amount of all 12 subjects.

I made a folder of 10 subjects, and my timetable was (60 questions per day)

• 30 questions during day (5 subs) [* then *] stack sheet [* then *] 30 during night [* then *] Maths & Apti 

After every two days, I gave a full length test, schedule on those days were,

• wall cache for full revision [* then *] the full length test [* then *]  Analysis [[ Analysis is very important, do analyze every question, wrong or right, this process may take up the entire day, but let it be. Correcting error is more important than ignoring and moving on ]] 

Some tips,

• If tests are hard give them, if they are too easy and you are getting very good marks & rank in it, it is of no use, you need to learn, test series are not to estimate your marks in real exam, it is for you to improve.
• Do not consume heavy food, the last 3 months, keep your health good.
• Make adjustments with your body to be active during your time slot of actual exam. like if your exam is from 9-12, your body should be trained to be most active during that time, and that training starts before 3 months atleast.
• Take very less sleep on the night of D-2 day, (sleep deprive) such that you get a good sleep on the D-1 day and you are atmost active on the D-day.

 

I also used some apps to have a countdown to real exam and also to monitor my time with phone (screen time).  It is highly advisable to keep phones away, specially get out of social media, use YouTube for motivation and studies only. 

 

• Last 3 months is the game changer. Make a good plan for it and you will nail it.

• Prepare for a hard test, such that if the test is easy or hard, you’re ready for both

• Make your own execution plan and strategy, a plan is very important to strategically win a war.
• IIT’s are always hard to get into, otherwise you would have IITians in every house and street, but we don’t right, so fight until you get there.

• All the best, give your best shot and make it to the top IIT’s and NIT’s

 

There is a website created by a member of this community, which displays a random PYQ question (it’s advisable to be in that site in your free time):

Link : https://khushit-shah.github.io/gater-frontend/ 

 

Some motivational Videos for you guys: 

• https://www.youtube.com/shorts/HcgVOnyRf34
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL6EBcJoTXQ&ab_channel=IITiansPoint
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxuFHQHj72I&ab_channel=IITiansPoint
• https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4jOC-YUy3VG9BDzanBGlniwmkMrnEG25
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iK8oahswQs&ab_channel=SpaceMilk
• https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1_sbBtgl8Fo

 

 

 

 

Hi, my self Harsh Shah. I got AIR 965 in GATE (CS) – 2021 with 53.01 marks. This was my second attempt in GATE. It is not that good rank but I am happy with this :) 

A little Bit Of My Background:- 

I was graduated in the year 2020 from Silver Oak College Of Engineering And Technology which comes under Gujarat Technological University, Gujarat. It was Tier – 4 colleges I got admission there because of my JEE performance. Yes I also gave JEE and my rank was in six-digit xD: So I left hope of a good college and pursue my B.Tech in computer science engineering. I always (here I mean whole engineering community xD:) tend to study one night before the exam. Though I was getting decent CPI(thanks to my friends and YouTube :) ). 

My Gate Journey:-

Okay, so it will be a little longer. Enjoy :).

I first heard about GATE from my roommate who was a senior and also preparing for GATE. At that time I was in the 3rd semester. Then after a few days of research and discussion with my friends, I decided to prepare for this exam. I knew that I will learn all CS subjects which are important and it is a national level exam, so I was very excited to learn all these subjects and enjoy the journey. And also I never prepared for any competitive exam so I was very excited.

Then I joined an institute which is located in Ahmedabad itself named “The Gate Academy”. there was only one batch that runs on the weekend only. So I used to attend class on weekends and on weekdays I have to attend college. I joined coaching at the end of my 4th semester. And I was very much focused, so hardly attend my college(Thanks to my friends and Faculty member who put proxy so I could prepare for the exam xD ). I also explained the importance of GATE to my parents and told them I will keep my CGPA above 8 but I could not attend college so if college does not allow me to sit for the exam then please help me xD: They were very supportive and allow me to prepare for GATE. All things were going well my concepts were also building well. I was good at focusing only on GATE as I have no college work to do (Again Thanks Those Good Friends :) ). I was doing good in the test series not that much good but comparatively good. But I left COA as I was not able to learn and understand that subject.

Now comes the exam day. I still remember that day very well 8th February 2020. I entered the exam room with a positive mindset although I did not prepare for COA (I thought that in 2019 only 4 marks came from COA so I will manage that in 2020). But when the paper started I was shocked, I had a habit of starting the exam from the first question itself And SURPRISE………. The first 5 to 6 questions were from COA. And that was enough for ruining my whole exam. After that, I could not solve even easy questions and end up getting 29.67 marks with AIR 12320. It was not like that coaching was not good, many of my friends got a decent score and got their dream college. It was because of my fault only.

On the very next day, I regretted it a lot because of one subject I ruined my two years of preparation. On that day I called my parents(I was staying in a hostel)and told them I ruined my GATE exam and literally, I could not stop my tears. They told it is okay it was just an exam. I told them that I want to take one year drop and prepare for GATE one more time. This time they were against me because they thought I am telling it to satisfy my ego. And they told me to find a job. At this time my friend helped me a lot. She knew I can surely do better than this because she Shawn me preparing for this exam and she knew my capacity. So she agreed with me to take one year drop and prepare one more time. So I explained to my parents that don't judge me on the basis of this score I can surely do better than this and I will prove it. My sisters also helped me by letting me take one year drop. At last, my parents convinced but they told me that they will allow only a one-time drop.

Okay, so from here journey started for GATE 2021. As I wanted to start fresh I joined the coaching institute one more time. But this time I joined at “ACE Academy Hyderabad”. But due to COVID, I could not go to Hyderabad, I stayed at my home only. I was very clear that I will do each and every subject again no matter I did that subject earlier or not. So I started preparing it. This time I am very much clear with my not-to-do list. I have an aim to get AIR under 500. what I used to do is suppose today one topic is covered from a particular subject like for example if today IP addressing is covered from CN then after the lecture, I revise class notes then solve questions from ace volume 1 then volume 2 then bits and bytes and at last pyq. At the time of pyq I almost solved tough questions so it will be easy for me to solve them. many times if I could not get ans for pyq I used to visit GO Website for the detailed solution it blew my mind. It has such an in-depth solution. This continuous for every subject.

Then comes Test Series. This time my performance was good in Test Series. On average I got 20 out of 25 on the topic-wise test, 40 out of 50 on the subject-wise test, and 65 – 75 on the full-length test. Test series will play an important role as they manage your time and also tests your knowledge. But never map test series marks to your original exam marks.

The Exam Day:-

I was pretty cool on the day of the exam. I had a morning slot so I reached the center early and was listening to songs. By that time I gave many full-length tests so I prepared my mind to write one more full-length test :). Paper was easy as compared to the afternoon slot but it was surely trickier and lengthy than GATE 2020. I did some silly mistakes(due to that I got 53 marks otherwise I could get around 60 marks). But no regret as I was able to solve hard questions.

The conclusion: –

1. Never compare your marks with your friends 
2. Never compare Test Series marks with Actual Exam.
3. Do not ignore aptitude and maths if possible do it as early as possible.
4. Do not leave any subject.
5. Revision is your girlfriend you have to take care of her. Otherwise, she will ruin your life.
6. Prepare every day. Do not focus on a number of hours.
7. Be prepare for everything. What I mean is don't assume that your paper will be easy or tough.
8. Remember “All late nights and early mornings will pay off”.

Still at the end. I am satisfied with my score. GATE taught me how to manage time, how to handle pressure, and whether you are from tier 1 college or tier 4 college it will not matter. My suggestion is at least one time in your life to prepare for a competitive exam it will teach many things.

I know I have not a good rank to guide anyone but still feel free to ask anything. I will try my best to answer it.

Thanks for reading.

GATE is one exam where your result is not entirely proportional to the "no. of hours you put in". Some of you might be in final years and giving GATE with hardly any preparation. But based on previous year stats I can say that a good percentage of top 200 will be people like you especially if you are from a "non spoon-fed" college. Anyway for this blog post I'm only considering those who have prepared well and now wondering "what to do".

I have been quite vocal against test series. This is mainly due to the really bad or at least useless questions in many of them. But if you have less experience in solving technical questions you should definitely give at least 5 full length tests -- even same previous year papers are fine if you have not seen a good number of those solutions. The main points to note here are

1. Solving all questions you know in 3 hours
2. Determining how to optimize time -- if some questions are really time consuming you should skip it if this can save you time for other easier ones.
3. Avoiding careless mistakes -- in actual GATE you might lose some marks like this but your aim must be to restrict it to less than 5.
4. After an exam think how you could have got 10 marks extra -- which all topics lost you marks, how to avoid careless mistakes etc.

Now, other than the tests I would recommend you to spend more time thinking and less time on standard resources (strict no to non-standard ones :P). For each subject, each topic and each sub-topic think what all are the important points -- not down if required. Think what type of questions can come from those. You can use GATE syllabus for help here and I assume you have gone through most previous year papers. You should spend less time on books now -- because you cannot carry books to exam hall.

Once you do the above for most/all the topics you will surely get confidence to do well in GATE. So far I have been telling to score 90+, 80+, 70+ etc. but in actual GATE your only focus must be to get every question "you know" as correct. Do not count the marks and get tensed. Instead if you find an unknown questions be happy that you saved time and this can be used for other questions. Remember that in GATE there will be many new questions and some of them will be rather easy if you read them properly.

Luck is a good guy - but it cannot save you a lot. Just with luck one cannot get a better batting average than Sachin Tendulkar. Similarly, just with luck one cannot beat a well prepared person in GATE. So far in the last 4 years I have hardly seen any good guy/girl miss out on a top rank. Some of them who got a high 3 figure rank due to bad luck/tension then went on to do well in Interviews and got to good IITs. So, there is nothing to get tensed for you. If you have prepared well and in the right way, you will definitely do well in GATE. Just focusing on these small points can make sure that you do not miss out on vital marks. Good luck!!!

Hi everyone !!

Congratulations to all, who are shortlisted for BARC CS Interview. Interviews are starting from 1st December, and book your slots for interview as soon as possible. Now, in this short period I would like to share few things which you can pick and revise for interview process. 

1. Read previous interview experiences.  My Interview Experience https://gateoverflow.in/blog/9985/barc-cs-interview-experience-2019 . 
2. Revise GATE syllabus thoroughly once, you can use your GATE notes. Now focus will  be on assertion-reason rather solving numerical questions. Why threading when multiprocessing is already there ? How will you design a firewall to stop a set of IP addresses ? What is the need of pipelining ? What other kinds of Databases are available ? Can you list some compiler optimizations and why they are used ? Use mutex to make H2O in synchronization ? which algorithm will you prefer when people are submitting forms on BARC website and we need to sort them based on name ? How priority queues are implemented ? What is CPU clock speed and what factors affect CPU clock speed ? Write a program to find whether two rectangles are overlapping or not ?
3. Pick 4-5 favorite subjects and do extra revision. I used GeeksforGeeks articles during my preparations. They are effective also they are written in a very practical and comparative aspect. Example : https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/mutex-vs-semaphore/
4. Try to retain basic pseudo codes in mind, like bakery algorithm, Peterson solution, congestion control alogrithm, Longest common subsequence etc. 
5. Try to touch those topics also which you have ignored partially or completely during GATE, because they ask question on them also.Like, what is CISC architecture, Symmetric and asymmetric multiprocessing, What are inodes and how free space are managed, etc.

 

Feel free to reach me for doubts during preparation !!!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhilash-bhardwaj-6000b7b4/ or

 https://www.quora.com/profile/Abhilash-Bhardwaj-3

All the best !!

Abhilash Bhardwaj

Scientific Officer(C)/ 2019-Batch BARC

Hi, I am Ankita Dey. I did BTech in ECE from a Tier 3 college and prepared with a full-time job. I secured a rank of 312 in 2020 CS GATE. I am currently pursuing MTech in Computer Science from IIT Kanpur.

NOTE: Since it is pretty detailed, you can skip to any area without reading the others.

Backstory:

I had no plans of doing MTech while in BTech. After getting placed in a Service based company, I thought I would improve my coding skills, learn new technologies, and switch to a Product based company. Within a few months, I realised it is much more difficult than it sounds. Not only was I absolutely terrible in Competitive Programming (though I loved to code), but also the lack of knowledge in CS core subjects was hampering my chances. So I decided to study CS core subjects to get to the same level as my CS grad colleagues. I really enjoyed studying CS subjects (to be honest, much more than ECE subjects). So I thought of preparing for CS GATE.

Preparation Story:

Time Management: Prepared sincerely on Weekends (I studied every weekend as much as I did during Btech semester exams. But, I could never complete the target. So I studied on Weekdays while commuting to office and sometimes after coming back home.

Note-taking: I watched a video as many times as required to understand it at first. Then again watched it to take detailed notes (I took notes in a way such that I would never have to watch the video again). Writing notes really helped strengthen the concept I just learned.

Previous Year Questions: After completing a subject, I tried to solve its previous year's questions. Struggled a lot initially. October onwards, I sincerely started solving them for all subjects numerous times. Gradually, I got used to GATE pattern. Gate Overflow and Geeks for Geeks contribution in this area was immense.

Revision: I revised a subject after completing it. Checked previous day's notes the next day. That's it. I didn't revise as much as I should have as I was rushing to complete the syllabus. This is the biggest mistake I made.

Mocks: Mocks tremendously improved my marks as well as my confidence. I gave sectional mocks of the institute I took coaching from and gave full length mocks of other institutes. It's always better to give mocks of more than one institute so that one doesn't get too used to a specific pattern. Apart from getting my concepts strong, a thorough mock analysis was pretty much the key to improving my score.

Rough Timeline:

Nov 2018 – Jan 2019: Watched YouTube videos to know as much as I could about CS subjects. Stressed on Programming in C, DS, Algo, and Maths.

Feb 2019: Gave 2019 GATE. Got 6855 rank. To be honest, I was pretty happy just to qualify CS GATE!

Mar 2019: By the end of March, exhausted most of the YouTube videos I could find (and liked) on CS subjects.

Apr 2019: Bought online coaching. Stated with DS and C programming. Couldn't qualify PGEE.

May 2019: Prepared Toc and Discrete Maths.

Jun 2019: Prepared leftover part of DS, Algo, and TOC. Started DBMS.

July 2019: Completed DBMS. Started with OS.

Aug 2019: Completed OS. Prepared leftover parts of already prepared subjects.

Sep 2019: Started Digital Electronics (it was my strongest ECE subject) and Compiler Design (less syllabus, so took less time).

Oct 2019: Completed Compiler Design and Digital Electronics both. Started Computer Networks.

Nov 2019: Completed Computer Networks. Started Computer Organisation. Also started giving sectional and subject wise mocks at this time. Did thorough mock analysis.

Dec 2019: Continued giving sectional and subject wise mocks. Stressed on improving weaker areas. Couldn't complete Computer Organisation. So left out a huge part of it (don't recommend it if you have time).

Jan 2020: Didn't study anything new. Gave a mock of Made Easy and Ace every alternate day throughout Jan, except last week when I gave one mock every alternate day because I needed more time for revision. 

Feb 2020: Gave GATE 2020. I wasn't feeling stressed at all after giving so many mocks. In spite of that, I had to rush a bit towards the end due to lack of time, which led to silly mistakes. But I am happy where I am now. So no regrets!

June 2020: Gave PGEE without much revision. Got selected in the first round, thanks to GATE preparation.

Contact:

If you have any queries feel free to send me a message on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dey-ankita/

GATE is in two days. I would advise you to take enough rest and keep the mind healthy. If you are worried about forgetting stuffs -- nothing to worry; hardly any question in GATE will require that. While writing GATE never gets tensed. I'm not wishing anyone to get "easy" questions because that does not mean a good rank for you. The only thing you should worry is to

1. Do NOT make careless mistakes - you can see the difference "NOT" makes here :)
2. Read every question with same enthusiasm -- even if some are really tough keep your cool thinking that most others are going to find them even tougher
3. Do not count marks; doing it after exam will give you some additional marks
4. Do not try to do minimum 'X' questions -- if the exam is tough those who do not attempt tough questions end up getting better ranks; so attempt each question as per merit
5. Some questions might be lengthy but solution might be simple. Reading with full concentration might help you in decoding them. But if it is not possible; never waste too much time
6. Never try to pattern match the questions with those you have done in mock tests because most times there will be some change. So, read every word carefully; see all given options even if you are sure of the first one
7. For the 3 hours keep your dreams and tensions aside. Just take one question at a time and do. If you do not make any mistakes you surely won't have any regrets in the end.

All the best :)

 

Can anyone give the details of the exam of AAI Junior Exceutive(Information Technology)?

What is pattern of exam.? 

CS  Computer Science and Information Technology

---

Section1: Engineering Mathematics   
Discrete Mathematics: Propositional and first order logic. Sets, relations, functions, partial
orders and lattices. Groups. Graphs: connectivity, matching, coloring. Combinatorics:
counting, recurrence relations, generating functions.
Linear Algebra: Matrices, determinants, system of linear equations, eigenvalues  and
eigenvectors, LU decomposition.
Calculus: Limits, continuity and differentiability. Maxima and minima. Mean value
theorem. Integration.
Probability: Random variables. Uniform, normal, exponential, poisson and binomial
distributions. Mean, median, mode and standard deviation. Conditional probability and
Bayes theorem.

---

Section 2: Digital Logic
Boolean  algebra. Combinational and sequential circuits. Minimization. Number
representations and computer arithmetic (fixed and floating point).

---

Section 3: Computer Organization and Architecture
Machine instructions and addressing modes. ALU, data‐path and control unit. Instruction
pipelining. Memory hierarchy: cache, main memory and secondary storage; I/O
interface (interrupt and DMA mode).

---

Section 4: Programming and Data Structures
Programming in C. Recursion. Arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists, trees, binary search
trees, binary heaps, graphs.  

---

Section 5: Algorithms
Searching, sorting, hashing. Asymptotic worst case time and space complexity.
Algorithm design techniques: greedy, dynamic programming and divide‐and‐conquer.
Graph search, minimum spanning trees, shortest paths.

---

Section 6: Theory of Computation
Regular expressions and finite automata. Context-free grammars and push-down
automata. Regular and contex-free languages, pumping lemma. Turing machines and
undecidability.  

---

Section 7: Compiler Design
Lexical analysis, parsing, syntax-directed translation. Runtime environments. Intermediate
code generation.

---

Section 8: Operating System
Processes, threads, inter‐process communication, concurrency and synchronization.
Deadlock. CPU scheduling. Memory management and virtual memory. File systems.

---

Section 9: Databases
ER‐model. Relational model: relational algebra, tuple calculus, SQL. Integrity constraints,
normal forms. File organization, indexing (e.g., B and B+ trees). Transactions and
concurrency control.

---

Section 10: Computer Networks
Concept of layering. LAN technologies (Ethernet). Flow and error control techniques,
switching. IPv4/IPv6, routers and routing algorithms (distance vector, link state). TCP/UDP
and sockets, congestion control. Application layer protocols (DNS, SMTP, POP, FTP, HTTP).
Basics of Wi-Fi. Network security: authentication, basics of public key and private key
cryptography, digital signatures and certificates, firewalls.

First of all not even questions are out, so we never know our exact marks. Still if you have attempted less than 35 questions there is less chance of IITs in open merit. So what next?

1. Soon coaching institutes will start new batches to attract you
2. There are other exams like BITS/IIITs
3. State level colleges, repeat (hardly works) or not
4. MS abroad
5. Sit at home and repeat
6. Try some/already having job and repeat

Now, what you should do depends on you and what you want in your life. Some people even after studying at IITs dont do any job- for those kind of people option 3 is good- can select a higher option in matrimony profiles. Otherwise no one should select this.

If you do not have an issue going abroad option 4 is good. Option 2 is also good as these colleges are on par with IIT standard. Though IIITH exam usually have plenty of previous GATE questions copied.

Options 1, 5, and 6 (how to REPEAT) depends on you. Personally I have only told 2 people to repeat though indirectly. Both of them had ranks around 650 and next time they got high 2 digit ranks. But believe me they worked their hardest for this difference. And work hard does not mean they solved 1000s of questions more. Mainly they studied the concepts they did not know- so how can you do this?

1. If you lack basic problem solving skills and base knowledge in subjects - that is you are not even qualifying GATE- only class room coaching can save you. But remember that it will only take you to qualifying level. i.e., you should prepare yourself for self study. For example, you should learn about DFA, NFA etc. from class room coaching and understand decidability etc. by self study.
2. If you are good in some subjects (able to score 80% above in them), you are very well enough to score a top rank by self study. Get standard books and start reading concepts in depth like you know for your favorite subjects. GATE only needs basic knowledge but basic must not be corrupted by coaching.
3. Realize that to improve your rank and especially to jump to top 100, you need to make a jump in your knowledge level which is not easy. Only if you are ready to do this, go for repeat. Simply repeating whatever you did last time for more hours won't be enough.

Those scoring above 50 marks in GATE and interested to appear for IIT Research Interviews can fill this form if you feel any guidance is required. A select group of people shall be given guidance by some seniors.

https://goo.gl/forms/hC4P3rDkv109zrUv1

Remember the guy who gave up ?

Neither does anybody else !

 

If you are feeling worried then let me congratulate you because you are having brilliant experience and after GATE you will have a proud and satisfactory smile while remembering these days. You are worried because you prepared well.

Anyway, It is quite normal to feel tensed but it should not affect your studies. Almost everyone feel worried and become sad, now difference lies in how long it takes to get back to study- 1hr, 2hrs, 1 day or 2 days ?. The less time you take the less rank you get :).

• Let me tell you something that you already know, Suppose you close your all books and stop studying right away, will this make your rank better ? No right !

         -Be positive and manage your time.

 

• Some of you might have already taken decision for preparing next year, but in between of  GATE exam and GATE result, you will be having hell lot of time to decide anything, you can also do family planning meanwhile . Lets not waste this time for useless thoughts, It is time to revise and not a time to seek excuses for why u cant get it done.

         -Be smart enough to avoid pointless thoughts 

 

• Your most of the preparation is already over Now you can boost your marks with +5, +7 or even +10 by properly revising everything that you studied so far. You can do previous year GATE questions again, this is what i think best way to revise (that's the way I did). [Doing questions doesnt mean how fast you get answer, you should learn underlying concepts].

         - Revision is Important.

 

• When you attempt any mock test and could not get a question solved, but by seeing solution you get it. Do you see what happened in test ? You just did not apply concepts that you already knew.

         - The way you think about questions matters, Improve thinking approach with more practice

 

There might be few topics in that you are not not comfortable with, I suggest you to not pay much attention to those few topics, just learn basics so that u dont skip easy scoring questions.

Never be Overconfident or Underconfident while attempting paper but you should be confident enough, If you prepared honestly then no matter what paper comes you will definitely get good score, If you prepared honestly and if a question is tough for you then it is definitely tough for many others. Trust me If you know concepts well then you will get a nice rank.

Dont leave Engineering Maths, It is easy and scoring (I did 2 easy questions wrong in exam hence i know the value)

I went through this time, I know how it feels but it is all worth remembering now, and I still cherish my GATE memories.  (If it can make you feel good then I was feeling underconfident one week before exam and I posted on fb too  - see screenshot)

 

Trust yourself, Keep calm and revise.

#10_important_suggestions.(as per our experience).
Note- Ignore if u already have some better plan.

1. Make sure that before writing GATE exam, u already hold 
the experience of atleast 5-10 full length paper in the similar 
environment and also at the same timing slot 09.00 -12.00.
2. Daily revision of short notes is obligatory .
3. Same for previous year's paper.
4. Some theoretical concepts are there in the syllabus to mug 
up. So u must do it . 
5. Take care of ur foods during these days.
6. 6-7 hrs of sleep is very necessary for ur good health and 
good mind.
7. These days, u can avoid all social connections except 
gatecse family .
8. while attempting paper, Dont read questions in hurry.Stay 
calm, read questions carefully atleast for twice and if not 
understood then use ur pen/pencil to note down 
things(numerical value, conditions ,variable etc. ).
9. Spending much time on a single question is stupidity(I 
should not use this word but it is).Better mark those 
questions and try at last.
10. Think about the 3 hrs and U are in IIT.(deep line)

Good luck 
All the best, guys n girls 
*Ignore grammatical mistakes,I m working on it.

Are you preparing well? Except a very few most would not say "yes" to this. Some people are very confident with their concepts and most others are in tension. So what to do?

My advise - Take a day break. Do whatever that makes you happy. And after this think for sometime about what you are doing.

There are some people who got top rank in first attempt, in second attempt, in third attempt etc. So, suppose one gets a top rank in third attempt - why could not he/she have gotten that in second or first attempt? If you think lack of time - most times it is not. Usually it is due to bad preparation. And once you get to a bad preparation it usually takes a GATE result to change it. This is evident from many people here- I do not know what they did, but many people who were here last year and are now, have improved a lot. This shows in their thinking and answering. But the thing is that, this could have even happened last year. Or for many of you this can happen this year and not next.

Even now there is a lot of time for GATE. What you need to do is, do not worry about anything and just study properly. Even if you understand only one new concept each day, that is enough. Make each day worth - not by spending 10+ hours with book, but by spending at least 1 hr thinking about some problem/concept. Each one of you is different:

• Some have good numerical skill
• Some have great accuracy
• Some have good imagination
• Some have good memory capacity

So, you should make use of what you have in the best way for GATE. And try to minimize the effect of what you lack. Knowing concepts is of course the main thing, but how to do it is also important. At 20+ age you are not supposed to ask for spoon feeding and rather question whatever is being told to you - at least in mind. As I had told earlier no test series is going to tell you anything more than previous year questions (some like ACE test series will also loose you your verbal ability marks). So, do not worry about the sea of questions here. Just concentrate on GATE ones. Why not understand the GATE syllabus yourself rather than asking someone about it?

And do not forgot to take a break if needed and analyze your preparation. Might even recharge your brain. It is like an out of form batsman taking a break and coming back smashing the ball to all parts. Also, you should be mentally strong and not worry about anyone else. Your friend and enemy are only you - never care of anyone knowing more than you nor for anyone knowing less than you. Group study is good- in clearing concepts. But after this self improvement and revision must always be done individually.

I was never a preacher and yet this is my third blog. I just wanted to say these for a long time. Hope I have said everything now. All the best for GATE 2017 :)