I need advice for preparing for GATE 2019

Question

I m a student of a Regional Engineering College. I prepared for 4 months for Gate 2018 along with my final year of btech and I have scored a rank of 1296 (general category). I have a prior experience of working at startups during my second and third year of college as a back end developer intern. So, on the safe side, I can manage to get a job paying 8-10 LPA/annum in a startup due to my web development skills. But I wish to do MTech from an old IIT, so I will appear for Gate 2019 as well. Shall I drop this year and prepare full time for Gate 2019 or shall I join a startup and simultaneously prepare for Gate? Will my work experience help me in placements during MTech? I need suggestions please. (I really want to try Gate again because I feel that this time I was not much prepared but still I managed to get a decent rank, so if I prepare again, I might end up with a better rank and a better college)

Comments

This is the call you have to take youself.No one can decide whether you should drop a year or not.If this is your first attempt,then you should definitely take a second attempt to get a good rank.If you managed rank 1296 with job,then i am sure you can manage 2019 preparation with job.But if you managed 1296 rank without job,then you should take a call depending on your preparation and financial conditions.Remeber moving to 1296 to top 100 requires more efforts compared to move from 5k+ to 1296.And your job experience will not help you in placements at IITS.It might help you in later stages of job after IIT but not during campus placements.Its the best time to start preparation so got for it.If in doubt try for 2 months with job and then decide where you preparation is going.All the best.:)

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The least I could advise is to go through the detailed conceptual analysis of previous Gate papers.