GATE Examination Experience

GATE ChemE Preparation Journey

Qualifying GATE exam opens opportunities for jobs in PSUs and admission for higher studies in IITs & IISc. But my goal was a PSU job and if not a good rank then a mediocre rank as I wanted to qualify for the exam for my own sake, that I am a good engineer who is qualified as well. I came after clearing JEE to this National College and I am exiting form here after qualifying for a National exam.

I am Aman Yadav, currently working as a Technical consultant at o9 Solutions in Bangalore. I graduated last year in 2022 from NIT Raipur.

When I entered college in 2018, everything seemed blurry and I was unsure what I should do next. As classes began, I started hating things, because to me the subjects and curriculum seemed quite different from what I had imagined the engineering curriculum to be. The first year passed this way.

Cut to in 2nd Year, I realized I need to study and give my best as I used to in school with whatever I had in my hand, no matter what so ever is the condition. So I started studying my Branch subject and scored good pointers >8 GPA. Started exploring the Chemical engineering field.

As lockdown struck, I started working as an SME at Chegg for chemical engineering, solved questions there, and earned money, and a stronger grip on the subject. That’s when Gate ChemE preparation began alongside my 2 research internships at IIT Kharagpur and IIT Bhilai. I was doing online classes, then working for an internship, solving questions on Chegg, and then studying core subjects for Gate…

But in between couldn’t focus on preparation as 2 vocational pieces of training also came in 6th semester and a good amount of time went there….

Couldn’t qualify for the exam on my first attempt in 3rd year.

4th year and the most important year is arriving in a month.

Next, we had placements in front of us. So I was focusing on that more. Studied and practiced aptitude questions, prepared ChemE subjects, HR & behavioral subjects for interviews.

Fortunately got placed at the very start of the placement session (in the first month). Then, made up my mind to give my best to gate preparation again.

With full heart, started studying again- took test series, started online classes, made notes, practiced, and out of 13 subjects roughly prepared 9-10 subjects thoroughly…

I didn’t touch 2 subjects (CRE & Maths ) and 1 subject only studied theory, and didn’t practice questions (Mass Transfer).

Also, lost track of when festival season came (Navratri, Diwali..) and semester exam time. Had to work on final-year projects as well.. all of these took a great time and lost 3 months during this time…

In January I gathered myself, revised whatever I had covered, practiced few a tests, and gave an exam in Feb.

The exam was way too hard, I felt I am done, I won’t even score in double digits…

Regrets came up- why I didn’t studied whole heartedly, why wasted those 3 months…

But to my surprise, the paper was actually the hardest in recent years and the cutoff was too low…

I qualified with an AIR of 2251 in ChemE. It really felt good. However, it wasn’t sufficient to get me into any PSU, I did give an interview for 1, but wasn’t selected. And I didn’t want to go for an M. tech. Otherwise, the door for Mtech from an IIT was open.

I joined the company I got from placement.

Overall, it was a great experience and I had made one target in my mind in 2nd year If I am studying Chemical engineering then I should qualify for the GATE exam at least, otherwise it’s useless to score good marks in the college Semester. And I am glad that I was able to do that.

However, the regret of those 3 months will always be there, 10-15 marks more and I would have been somewhere else.

Anyways I am happy. I hope you get motivation after reading about my journey. It has been a roller coaster ride like any other college student…

I would say, consistency is the key. Be consistent and motivated enough to study. It’s important to keep fighting and stay in the battle once you have set the target and have the willingness to win… And if you want to win, then you should fight like a warrior.

Give your best. If you can think of something –> you can achieve it also. Got it gives everything.