GATE 2018 Topper Interview: Shivam Singh AIR 14 Civil Engineering

Shivam Singh - GATE 2018 - AIR 14 Civil Engineering

Shivam Singh from Aligarh was confident about securing an All India Rank (AIR) under 50 in GATE 2018. But getting an AIR 14 was something he had never thought of. In his second attempt at the exam, he ensured to get a better score and rank than his previous attempt in 2017. Shivam’s normalized score in GATE 2018 exam is 86.38 and his score is 945 out of 1000. GATE 2018 results were declared on March 16.

According to him, GATE opens the door to various opportunities. He shared, “I applied for GATE because it gives you a lot of opportunities. You can go for PSUs (Public Sector Undertakings) which is dream job for many engineers. You can also opt for higher education from IISC and IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) and some foreign universities which accept GATE scores.

Read: PSU Recruitment Procedure Through GATE

Thanks a lot. After the GATE exam, I calculated my marks and I somewhere knew that I was going to get 86.67 (after normalization, it became 86.38). Knowing the difficulty level of the exam, I was sure that my rank will be under 50. GATE results were declared one day before the actual date. I got to know about rank through a friend of mine. I was extremely happy. I was absolutely content with my scores, marks and ranks.

I am basically from Aligarh. I did my 10th and 12th from AMU schools. After that I got admitted to Zakir Husain College of Engineering and Technology (AMU) to pursue my BTech in Civil engineering. I graduated in June 2017. My CPI is 9.580.

No. This was my 2nd attempt.

In my final year,  with some self-study,  I appeared in GATE 2017. I got 488 rank in my first attempt. But I wanted to do better. So, instead of doing MTech  from IITs, I decided to take a drop after my BTech and started preparing again for the exam.

Yes, I was the classroom student of Made Easy. During my BTech, I observed that my basics about RCC and steel structures were not very good. So I decided to take coaching. 

Coaching helped me to see my level of knowledge in comparison with other students. It also kept me on the right track and did not let me divert from the syllabus. Teachers played a big role in clearing my doubts.

Coaching classes are important but not absolute necessary. Coaching helps you to develop your technical skills and teachers help you to clear doubts about your weak part.

But every year, there are so many toppers who have done it without coaching too. If you can motivate yourself time to time then you can do it without coaching also. 

I prepared a little during my final year of graduation for GATE 2017. For GATE 2018, I started from scratch in July 2017. With 6-7 months preparations, I qualified with 14 rank. 

I used to follow one subject at a time. Along with it, I used to revise one more subject. Revision is must for any competitive exam. I used to study 10-12 hours a day including coaching.

My preparation strategy was that after completing the theoretical part of any particular  subject, I used to check for some new concepts which I have not covered in my notes through books and study packages. Then I used to write some tough formulae of that subject in my formula copy. Then I used to solve the question booklet, then previous years question papers. I took tests as soon as I completed a part of the subject

As for timing is concerned, students can study at any time of day and night - whatever suit them. For example, I am nocturnal, thus I joined the afternoon batch and used to do self-study in night. If the day time suits you, then plan accordingly.

One should start from the very first question because to get a good rank you must attempt about 60 questions out of 65. When starting from first question, if you get stuck at any question, just leave it and solve it in the second go. Try to gather as much marks as you can in first two hours. Don’t take blind risk in objective type question. Put the value atleast upto the mentioned decimal place in numerical answer type questions. 

My strength is that I used to create tricks in remembering formulae. I kept most of the formulae at my tips. My strong subjects are strength of material, soil mechanics and structure analysis.

My weak point was that I lost my cool sometimes during the exam time like many other students. For that, I solved full test series by two coaching centres. I practiced a lot to learn the time management and to become handy with the GATE calculator provided by the online portal of GATE exam.

If someone wants to get under 100 rank then he/she must cover each and every topic of the syllabus. This time, IITG asked very untouched topics in morning session as well as evening session of Civil Engineering.

Still for GATE, Strength of materials, Soil mechanics, fluid mechanics and environmental engineering are extremely important technical subjects. You should cover whole topics in these subjects.

Specifically for GATE, you must study each and every topic of Mathematics twice or thrice. It can easily fetch you 12-13 marks out of 15.

Aptitude section is generally not a problem for Engineering graduates but if you are lack there, then practice it too as it also have a weightage of 15 marks. 

Mock tests are very important because when you solve the question in a given time limit only then you learn the concept otherwise you will forget it after a while. 

You must solve previous year question papers but question will never repeat, the question will come little harder the next time as compared to the previous time. By solving previous year papers, you can easily catch the topics and its next level of question. 

I revised some subjects three times and some subject four times. I solved previous question papers twice. I gave mock tests regularly. I practiced on GATE calculator so that during the exam, I don’t lose my calm. Mainly I tried to focus on to reproduce each and every part which I have learnt in last 6 months.

I followed my notes for most part of my preparation. But I also used to check for some left topics in books. Whenever I found unfamiliar question in mock test, I used to practice it and see the next level of that from books. For important subjects, I referred - 

• SOM- Punamia
• RCC - Punamia 
• Steel- Duggal (limit state) 
• Soil -  Gopal Ranjan
• Fluid Mechanics, Machines and OCF- Modi and Seth.
• Environment - SK Garg 1 and 2 vol

College exams and GATE are very different from each other. In college exams, you study a small syllabus for a 3 duration exam whereas for GATE, you study whole engineering for 3 hours. So chances of failure in GATE is high if you lack practice and diligence. You face huge competition in GATE (around 1 lac 30 thousand in GATE 2017 Civil Engineering). So for GATE you have to be well prepared. 

I have not yet decided yet the future course of action. But now I have many options in hand. I also have applied to PSUs as well.

I advise the future aspirants to be consistent in their preparation. Diligence is the key. Learn all 1000-1500 formulae on your tips with their symbol meanings. Practice a lot for GATE because I myself made silly mistakes in two questions. Even Rank 1 makes some mistakes. So just try to be careful during calculation. Put value correctly in NAT questions.

I am from Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. I have 2 sisters. One is younger the other one is elder to me.

During my BTech, I also used to teach Physics and offered coaching for medical entrance exams on a part time basis. In my leisure time, I listen to soft music and watch TV series. 

IIT Guwahati declared GATE 2018 results on April 16, a day before the scheduled date. The score cards of GATE 2018 will be available for download from March 20 to May 31. The exam was held on February 03 - 04 & February 10 - 11, 2018. Check GATE 2018 important dates here.

GATE 2018 final answer keys were released recently.  Along with results, GATE 2018 cut-offs too have been announced.

Read more:

• GATE 2018 Topper Interview: Sudheer Dhukia AIR 24 Electrical Engineering
• GATE 2018: Ankit Goyal secures AIR 1 in EE for the second time
• PSU Recruitment Procedure Through GATE
• Opportunities after GATE
• GATE 2018 cut-off for top engineering streams