Getting ready for GATE 2014

Despite the brand dilution of IITs over the past few years the IITJEE paper for 12th pass students is still tougher than GATE. It is more about structured and consistent preparation. You will not get anything which is not relevant in the syllabus. The positive aspect is that there are no sectional cut-offs in the GATE exam and you have to strategise your preparation in the context of what to attempt and what not to attempt.

Once you have made the decision to take up GATE exam and read all the important information related to it, you are ready to go ahead with the preparation. However, there are few suggestions and tips that students should adhere, to crack GATE exam.

Preparing for GATE 2014:

• Buy or get a copy of previous year question papers if possible with solutions. Having a hard copy is very important. One should refer to it again and again during their whole preparation.
• Refer to the syllabus and analyze the number of questions asked in each subject. As all subjects don’t have equal marks, few subjects are preferred over others. It means that few subjects may have more questions asked in the exam than others.
• Make a priority list of subjects based on marks or preference given to it in previous exams. Distribution of marks in a subject will help you prioritize and allocate preparation time to different subjects. If this is not done, we usually end up doing random preparation and finally we have tough time dealing with important subjects.
• For example, in GATE, CS and IT paper, around 15-20% is from Mathematics, and then Programming and Data Structures, Theory of computation, OS and digital logic.
• Allocate realistic time for each subject and read it all, as there is a lot to cover and because there may be few marks questions from anywhere in a subject.
• Read a particular chapter of subject thoroughly and make short notes of important points. This will help you in last moment revision of what you have read.
• Once a chapter is over, go back to GATE Question papers and solve the problems from that chapter. These days there are lots of question banks available in the market for GATE ; do buy one and practice. Also, try to get Test Series from other friends. Solve all of them. This will help you assess yourself on the level of understanding you have of the chapter read by you. Use a single note book for question answer solution because you can easily refer to it while revising.
• Finish detailed reading of chapters at least one and half months before. Keep one month for revision and clearing any doubts you might have. Have a look at questions you have solved during preparation for GATE and remember how you solved them.
• Keep last 15 days for fast practice and revision. Solve as many papers and question banks as you can get and that too from any source.
• Keep documents related to GATE like, acknowledgment of application, hall tickets, application number and other details, at a safe place. This is to avoid last minute tension over these things.