GATE 2018 Topper Interview: Ankush Koshta AIR 19 Agricultural Engineering
Ankush Koshta secured an All India Rank (AIR) 19 in GATE 2018’s Agricultural Engineering branch with a score of 721. A Hindi medium school student, Ankush has been a good student. He scored 90.83% in Class 10th board exam and 84.8% in Class 12th board exam. In MPPAT exam, he was amongst the Top 20 securing AIR 16. This rank helped him get through BTech in Agriculture Engineering at College of Agricultural Engineering (CAE), Jawaharlal Lal Nehru Krishi Vishwavidyalaya (JNKVV).
GATE 2018 was his first attempt at the exam. Talking about the experience of the exam, he shared, “ I cracked the exam in the very first attempt. I did not take any coaching classes. It was all through self-study. There is no coaching institute in my state which offers classes for AG branch of GATE. I did not have an option”.
Ankush started preparing for GATE a year ago and would study for two hours every day. “I was preparing for exam from the last one year. I used to study for atleast 2 hours a day”. Sharing tips for GATE 2019 aspirants, he added, “ Candidates appearing for the exam next year should note that it is very important for them to solve previous year question papers for GATE (AG branch) and make notes along with it. To get a good rank, you need to study the Maths and as well as the GA part very well. It is extremely important to create both theory and numerical notes, as well as revise them periodically. In the numerical portion, you need to focus on fill in the blanks questions because these questions demand accuracy”.
Ankush also shared names of some important books that GATE 2019 aspirants should consider for their preparations. They are:
- Amandeep Godara (Question Bank - Agriculture engineering)
- Mohammad Irfan Ansari and Singh and Sahay for Food section
- Sanjay Kumar’s GATE digest and Numerical approach
- For Soil and Water section - Civil branch standard books
- Mohanty Das book
- Three author and Four author for Farm Machinery and Power Section
- Youtube channel - Crack Gate Online and Agricultural Engineering online
Ankush dreams of becoming an Agricultural Reasearch Scientist (ARS). The entrance exam for this can be taken after pursuing MTech. This was the reason he started preparing for GATE exam.
Besides studies, Ankush is fond of playing Chess and Cricket. He likes hanging out with his friends and watch TV shows. His father is an Administrative Officer (AO) in Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and mother is a housewife.
GATE 2019 exam dates have been announced and the exam is all set to be conducted online on February 2, 3, 9 and 10, 2019. IIT Madras is the conducting body of the exam next year.
GATE 2019 application forms will be available online from September 1 and the last date to apply for the exam is September 21, 2018. Candidates who miss applying during these dates can apply till October 1, 2018 on payment of a late fee of Rs 500 (USD 20 for candidates from centres abroad). Check GATE 2019 important dates!
Read more:
- GATE 2018 Topper Interview: Afraz Siddiqui AIR 36 Electrical Engineering
- GATE 2018 Topper Interview: Sashidhar Kasimsetty AIR 13 Instrumentation Engineering
- GATE 2018 Topper Interview: Mudit Vajpayee AIR 2 Petroleum Engineering
- GATE 2018 Topper Interview Surya Sabbavarapu AIR 32 Metallurgy
- GATE 2018 Topper Interview Vijay Mahore AIR 10 Agricultural Engineering
- GATE 2018 Topper Interview Prashant Varshney AIR 1 Chemical Engineering
- GATE 2018 Topper Interview Achint Chaudhary AIR 22 Computer Science and Engineering
- GATE 2018 Topper Interview Divyanshu Jha AIR 3 Production And Industrial
- GATE 2018 Topper Interview: Anshul Shrivastava AIR 6 Agricultural Engineering
- GATE 2018 Topper Interview: Naman Jaswani AIR 1 Instrumentation Engineering
- GATE 2018 Topper Interview: Prince Dhanda AIR 46 Mechanical Engineering
- GATE 2018 Topper Interview: Hrishikesh Kharde AIR 15 Electrical Engineering
- GATE 2018 Topper Interview: Shivam Singh AIR 14 Civil Engineering
- GATE 2018 Topper Interview: Sudheer Dhukia AIR 24 Electrical Engineering
- GATE 2018: Ankit Goyal secures AIR 1 in EE for the second time
- Opportunities after GATE
- GATE 2018 cut-off for top engineering streams
- PSU Recruitment Procedure Through GATE
News & Updates
Photos & Videos
+18
- B Tech (Bachelor of Technology)
- BSc
- Social Responsibility
- M.E./M.Tech
- M.A. (Master of Arts)
- MSc (Master of Science)
- MBA (Masters of Business Administration)
- Executive MBA
- Ph.D.
- B.A (Bachelor of Arts)
- Engineering
- IT Software Courses
- Science Subject
- Medical Courses
- Humanities & Social Sciences
- Business & Management Study
- Architecture & Planning
- Banking, Finance & Insurance
- Data Science Course, Certification, Degree, Fees, Admission, Career, Syllabus
- Design
- B.Tech colleges in Chennai
- M.Tech colleges in Chennai
- B.Sc. colleges in Chennai
- Certificate colleges in Chennai
- M.Sc. colleges in Chennai
- M.A. colleges in Chennai
- Ph.D. colleges in Chennai
- MBA colleges in Chennai
- Executive MBA colleges in Chennai
- UG Diploma colleges in Chennai
- B.A. colleges in Chennai
- PG Diploma colleges in Chennai
- Engineering colleges in Chennai
- Business & Management Studies colleges in Chennai
- IT & Software colleges in Chennai
Contact Details
Address
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
Adyar, Chennai ( Tamil Nadu)
Other Popular IITs
Get details of Similar Colleges
Student Forum
Anything you would want to ask experts?Answered 4 weeks ago
If you belong to the General AI category, the highest (most competitive) last round cutoff was 155 for admission to the M.Sc. in Physics course. The lower the cutoff rank, the more competitive the course is for admission, and vice versa.
R
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a week ago
The Indian Institute of Madras is spread across 617 acres of land. IIT Madras has developed a low-cost chip device. This device is meant to detect the antibiotic resistance in just 3 hours. There are several technical fests arranged in this college, such as Shaastra, Saarang, etc. The Centre for In
J
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a week ago
Yes, IIT Madras is known as a tier 1 college. IIT Madras is known as an 'Institute of Eminence'. The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (Chennai IIT Madras or IITM) was established in 1959 as a public technical & research university. It is the third IIT to be set up by the Government of India & i
R
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a week ago
EE branch recorded the best placement during IIT Madras MS placements 2025. The median and average package received in EE branch was 24 LPA and 26.5 LPA. It was followed by CS branch wherein the average and median package received was 22.2 LPA and 21.9 LPA.
C
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a week ago
In terms of average package, AE branch students received the best average package of 31.4 LPA during PhD placements 2025. With respect to median package, CH and MA branch students received the highest median package of 25 LPA in 2025.
M
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a week ago
IIT Madras MSc DSAI placements are good. The average and median package recorded during MSc DSAI placements 2025 was 26.5 LPA and 17.6 LPA.
N
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a week ago
In past year, IIT Madras student got INR 4.3 crore job offer from Wall Street trading firm Jane Street. Placement statistics are flexible, hence changes from time to time. The below is the average package received by BTech students in 2025:
BTech Department | Average Package (2025) |
|---|---|
AE | INR 17.1 LPA |
CH | INR 18.8 LPA |
CE | INR 17.5 LPA |
CS | INR 53.2 LPA |
EE | INR 28.8 LPA |
ME | INR 16.9 LPA |
MM | INR 18.4 LPA |
OE | INR 16.5 LPA |
PH | INR 34.1 LPA |
I
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a week ago
IIT Madras standing at no. 1 position reflects the placements and infrastructural facilities available at the college. IIT Madras Data Science course is quite renowned. Under this course, students are taught ML Foundations, Computer Vision, LLMs, Big Data, Deep Learning, Reinforcement Learning, &
L
Contributor-Level 10