GATE 2018 Topper Interview: Prince Dhanda AIR 46 Mechanical Engineering

Prince Dhanda AIR 46 GATE (ME) 2018

Meet Prince Dhanda, who secured a rank under Top 50 in GATE 2018, the results for which were announced by IIT Guwahati on March 16. Dhanda’s AIR is 46, his score 917/1000 and his normalized marks 88.4.

Prince believes that attaining a worthy rank in GATE while competing with over a lakh aspirants is the culmination of luck accompanied with hard work and devotion. A son of a farmer looks up to a quote which states “Always believe in yourself and your hard work and practice will lead you towards your destiny”.

An alumina of YMCA University – Faridabad, Prince Dhanda shares his story of success with Shiksha. Read the detailed interview below.   

It feels great as I was expecting a rank in top 100. I was not at all expecting to be among the top 50. I feel that GATE is a kind of exam where luck surely works. Talking about the exam patter, 35% of the question are of numerical type in which even a silly calculation mistake can make you go wrong.

Well, I have completed my graduation from YMCA University, Faridabad in mechanical specification with 78% marks.  

No, it is my 2nd attempt for GATE. I appeared last year but could only managed to bag 1900 rank with 70 marks. This year in order to make it better, I focused on practice question as I was not able to completely solve the paper last year. So I would say that practice plays an important role when planning to appear for an entrance exam.

Yes, I prepared for the exam under the guidance of Madeeasy with the help of their Classroom Course. But after basics the thing which matters more is the TEST series and that's the reason why I joined ACE and MADEEASY test series. I chose to solve only full length test series.

Coaching classes actually help to make the effort precise. One thing I would like to get into your notice that a lot of aspirants tend to judge their preparation on the basis of the CBTs given my coaching centres. I want to suggest that aspirants should not judge on hat basis as it is meant for practice only.

If u know the Basics then there is no need for coaching classes. You can easily practice by test series and PYPs.

My journey began for GATE from July 2016 onwards. While appearing for GATE 2017, the only point I lacked was speed. And that was the reason I planned to join Made Easy and also started taking the test series of ACE academy. In 2017-18 I planned to put in all my effort on ESE preparation by joining Made Easy again. Unfortunately, I could not clear ESE but it helped me in my GATE'18 exam. This time while writing the exam, I made sure to finish it before time and checked it twice before submitting.

It doesn't matter that how many hours are being devoted in order to prepare for competitive exams. It only depends on how much knowledge is being grasped from those many hours of study. And this might vary for every individual. I used to practice test series for around 5-8 hours along with the coaching classes and 12-15 were devoted for self-study.

Well, I might not be able to tell about all but, I try and complete the 1 marks technical question first and then general aptitude questions followed by 2 marks technical questions.  I try to devote most of the time to 2 marks question.

Don't attempt solving the 2 marks questions first as they are time-consuming and also the core of the paper.

I think this strategy worked for me and I managed to solve 34/35 2 marks question correctly and lost 5-6 marks because of a few silly mistakes. Now, I think it is very clear that why I stressed on practicing the test series.

Try and focus on the concepts that are asked in past 5 year question papers with all possible variations. Practice the PYPs well, as this can save time while writing the exam.

Question on topics like Taylor's equation are repeated every year. Try to solve 2 marks questions in the fraction of a minute.

A lot of other concepts are also marked important like the

• Critical Radius Of Heat Transfer
• Exponential Smoothing Method
• Economic Order Quantity
• First Law Of Thermodynamics
• Clapeyron Equation
• Rank Of Matrix
• Effectiveness Of Heat Exchanger
• Newton’s Law Of Viscosity
• Laminar Flow Through Pipe
• Non Conv Maching

Previous year papers and test series play a crucial role. If anyone has less time for practice they can go by just practicing the mocks and previous year papers. But, always keep in mind that revision is necessary, at least 2-3 times of revision for scoring a good rank. Almost 60-65% paper can be solved with the help of practicing the previous year papers.  

UG exams are the conventional type for which one should know the procedure but GATE is mostly based on formula. So, if you are clear with the formula and mathematical concepts, it becomes easier to score in the exam

I would like to work with some PSU, like the rest. I believe that they offer good package and this will further assist in building a good career. PSU Recruitment through GATE is one strong reason for me to appear for GATE. This has been thought for now. Let the rest be for laters.

I have already applied for NTPC, IOCL, HPCL, BPCL, BARC etc. Now, I am waiting for the application dates of a few other PSUs to apply for.

“Always believe in yourself.” Your hard work and practice will lead you towards your destiny.

My father is a farmer and my mother is a homemaker. My hobbies include watching Youtube Funny videos, listening music, practicing yoga.

Read more:

• 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