Tips from GATE 2013 Topper – Aeronautical Engineering

Madiha Jawed | shiksha.com

Emerging as one of the GATE 2013 toppers was an unexpected achievement for Shiva Harsh. Currently, pursuing his ME in Aerospace Engineering from Indian Institute of Science (IISC), Shiva topped in Aeronautical engineering with an All India Rank 1 in GATE 2013.  

Talking about his strategy and success, Shiva expressed, “Working hard on the concepts with perseverance, learning from the mistakes, constant support from my professor and parents helped me crack GATE.”

To guide the GATE 2014 aspirants, Shiva shares some tips and tricks with shiksha.com.

According to me the minimum time frame required is six months, but it will vary from person to person as it depends on individual caliber. I prepared for nine months. GATE exam paper basically tests fundamental technical knowledge. So the main motto is to learn the basics and their different forms of application.

According to me either of the choice is good. If your concepts are clear with your basic B-Tech course then self-study is sufficient. If your concepts are not clear then depending on the time constraint one can choose to join the institute.

My study plan is to divide time: 75% for learning new concepts and 25% for revision in the first four months and getting myself acquainted with different types of problems. Later on dedicating 70-80% of time in revision and learning the new models from different tests which I missed.

I used to study two-three subjects in a day, allocating two hours per subject. I feel it would be better to mould our mind to continuously switching topics as it would be the same in the exam. I used to learn the concepts to solve problems in the reference books. Then note down all possible types of problems for my revision.

I used to read different books for concepts to improve my weak areas. NPTEL and MIT lectures helped me a lot to improve upon my weaknesses.

I gave much importance to revision and used to spend two hours in the initial months and up to eight hours in the later days of my preparation.

The standard books which are used commonly for the subject are sufficient; to practice more problems you can refer to different books by Indian authors.

Working hard on the concepts with perseverance, learning from the mistakes, and the constant support from my professor and parents helped me crack GATE this year.