Introduction:
The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is a prestigious annual examination for admission to postgraduate programs in engineering and technology. In 2023, the organizing institute for GATE was IIT Bombay, while in 2022, it was IIT Kharagpur. Eligibility criteria typically include a bachelor’s degree in engineering or science, although specific requirements may vary for different disciplines. The exam usually takes place in February and is spread over multiple days. GATE 2023 and 2022 attracted thousands of aspirants aiming to secure admission to top-tier institutions and pursue advanced studies in their respective fields.
Preparation :
I started my gate preparation right from my 2nd year of Btech computer science. At first, I knew nothing other than the name of the exam, so I googled too much and asked my college seniors about the preparation. One of my seniors secured AIR 33 in gate CSE in 2020, immensely motivating me. Then he suggested I start preparing along with my semester subjects as each semester from 3 semesters contains at least one subject common in the gate exams. So, I started picking one or two subjects each semester. With this approach, I managed my semester exam by solving PYQ of subjects and preparing subjects at the gate level, helping me pass the semester with good grades and clear the gate.
I took subjects per semester as follows
Semester 3:
- Computer architecture
- Theory of computation
Semester 4:
- Operating system
- Digital logic
Semester 5:
- Data structures
- Algorithm
- Compiler design
After the 5th semester, I appeared for GATE 2022, with half the preparation in the last months, December and January, and practised only the previous year’s questions, aptitude, and mathematics. Though with half preparation, I cleared the exam with a 4541 rank. And then again started to complete my syllabus
Semester 6:
- Computer Network
- DBMS
- Complete engineering mathematics and Discrete mathematics
Semester 7:
In this last semester, before the gate of 2023, I revised everything, gave tons of mock subject-wise tests, and corrected faults. From November itself, I started offering complete mock tests. I performed somewhat average in them; for example, I consistently scored between 40 and 70 in the Ace Academy mock, whereas in Made Easy, I never went beyond 50.
Exam day:
On the final exam day, I was feeling afraid as last year’s gate paper was tough, so expecting the paper to be easy when I started the paper, I removed all my thoughts and started focusing on questions; I always do MCQ questions in three go like in 1st go I solved that on which in directly tick questions without touching pen, in 2nd go solved to queries which I can solve in some time and the last I visited the questions of which I know a little concept. After finishing the questions paper, I was pretty happy as I could answer 59 of the 65 questions.
Results:
Before the Main result, I already knew my marks, which I checked through the rank predictor of gate overflow and made easy, and that came out to be 59, so I was already waiting for the rank. As a result, I got the same marks as rank predictors and a rank of 744, which was a little more than I expected but better than my last attempt, so I was happy.
Resources:
- I followed all standard books for gate subjects like Galvin for OS and Andrew S. Tanenbaum for CN.
- I followed lectures from Ravinder and Coa from Vishwadeep on YouTube.
- I used Made Easy and Geek for Geeks for PYQ questions.