GATE-18 : In 2018 my father told me to appear for GATE exam as it is helpful in many Govt. jobs so I appeared. I got 14 marks(didn’t qualify).
GATE-19 preparation: In June 2018 I completed my UG(CSE) from 3-tier university. I was placed in a SBC(service based company) and most probably they would give joining letter in Nov so I thought of preparing for GATE as I had lot of free time. I started preparing from youtube videos but within a month I got joining letter from my company and I joined. With job I completed 3-4 subjects and appeared for GATE-19. I got 29.33 marks(didn’t qualify).
GATE-20 preparation : This time I was serious about GATE. Continued my preparation from April with youtube videos(Biggest blunder which I did but realized very late). I didn’t study from books or NPTEL lectures because it was too boring for me. In November I took 3 months leave so that I could focus only on GATE. I went back to my home for preparation. When I started revision then I realized that it is tough for me to recall the concepts as I didn’t do any revision once I completed the subjects. Somehow I managed it and appeared for GATE-20. I was able to solve aptitude and most of the 1 marks question. But the real terror started with 2 marks questions and I panicked. When paper ended I knew I screwed it but I learned few important lessons:
- Follow standard books or NPTEL lectures not some random youtube videos.
- Revision is must and you must practice a lot.
- If you are doing self study then try to have a group of friends who are seriously preparing for GATE because it is very easy to get distracted and get demotivated.
I got 46 marks(rank : 2732) in GATE-20.
GATE-21 preparation: I went back to my company and resigned after 2 months. This time I didn’t want to take any risk so I thought of joining ME coaching so that I will not get distracted from my goal and I can push myself. But due to COVID there was no offline coaching. Since I already resigned from my job and there was no offline coaching I had only one option that is self-study. This time I tried to clear my doubts by referring standard books and practiced a lot. But my biggest enemy was distraction and it used to take 2-3 days to get back to my study routine. My planning was to complete the syllabus by Oct but it went till mid Dec. By 10 Jan(2021) I completed my subject wise tests. Then I started giving Full length tests(ME,ACE,RBR). But in none of them I could get the feel of GATE exam. So I solved all the GATE PYQs from 2011-2020 as Test series from GO. I noted all the mistakes and tough questions separately and whenever I revised a subject I used to go through it. This helped me to avoid silly mistakes and my marks improved. I was ready with technical subjects but didn’t practice aptitude as time was less(and procrastination).On my exam day I had only one goal “solve all the solvable questions without any silly mistakes” .
Mine was set 1.
180 min left: exam starts, started with aptitude section (couldn’t solve two 2 marks question)
160 min left: starts technical section
20 min left: 1st round of technical section was done, now tried to solve unsolved questions in technical section(preferred 2 marks questions first)
5 min left: went to aptitude to solve those two questions
2 min left: couldn’t solve it and now I realized I should have practiced aptitude also.
1 min left: went to technical section and did guesswork in unsolved NAT and MSQ.
I got 65.33 marks(Normalized marks:63.76), Rank:179 Gate Score: 807
