How to attempt GATE 2020 test series?

By Ankit Goyal

With GATE exams a few months away, aspirants already preparing for the exam should also start attempting test series. There are upto three types of tests in each of the series, namely part test, subject test and mock test.

Aspirants planning to appear for GATE 2020 to be held on February 1, 2 8 & 9 must have started with the preparation for the exam. However, along with studying for the exam, it is also important to attempt test series to assess your actual understanding level of the subject and speed to solve the paper.

For those, attempting test series should know that there are three parts to a test series. First is the part test that covers a certain part of the syllabus of each subject. Second is the subject test that covers the complete syllabus and third is the mock test that covers all 25 subjects in GATE syllabus and the test is conducted on GATE pattern for three hours.

It is observed that many students spend a lot of time waiting for the right time to start the test series focusing more on completing the entire syllabus. However, that should not be the case. This takes us to the first question:

When should I start the test series for GATE 2020?

You can start giving part tests or unit tests while covering the syllabus of a subject. Let's assume, a subject has been divided into three modules and one part test is available for each module, then after completing every module, you can take those part tests.

After completing the entire syllabus, you can attempt the subject test. The main objective of the subject test and part test should be to practice as many type of problems as possible. Also, students' focus should be on having high accuracy in these tests rather than focusing on the number of questions attempted. If you are able to attempt 70-80 percent test with over 90 percent accuracy then your preparation is on the right track. However, you must try to achieve 100 percent accuracy.

The objective of subject tests is not to teach you time management or give you exposure to GATE exam pattern but it is to showcase what kind of questions can be framed from a subject. So, you must never worry about the results of subject tests and attempt it just for practice. It is only then you can know about your mistakes and improve them. Always keep a small notebook handy with you to note down your common mistakes that you came across while attempting the subject tests.

When should I start attempting mock tests for GATE?

When you are ready with 70-80 per cent of the course you can fix up a schedule for attempting mock tests. The schedule should ideally start from December and it should be two-three days per mock test in December and then one mock test each alternate day in January and in this manner you should target attempting 20 mock tests. The gap that you are getting between successive mock tests should be aimed at revising the weak portion that you have come to know about from the analysis of mock test.

The most important part about attempting mock tests is that you just do not vaguely attempt them but analyse your performance to know about your weak and strong areas and work on them.

You should always keep track of your performance in mock tests and your focus should be on consistently improving your percentile and performance and if you are able to do that then you can make the best use of the test series.

All the best for GATE!

About the Author:

Ankit Goyal

Ankit Goyal is co-founder of Kreatryx which is an online and offline exam preparation portal. He completed his BTech in Electrical Engineering  from IIT Indore in 2013. He is gold medalist of his batch. He cracked GATE with an AIR-8 with final year of college in 2013 but joined Qualcomm. He again cracked GATE in 2014 with an AIR 1.

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