How to prepare for General Aptitude for GATE 2023 exam

The main challenge in aptitude is that there is no pre-defined course for aptitude so you can never be sure that your preparation is complete. Even if you cover the different chapters given in different books you can still expect an entirely different question in GATE. That is why it is very much necessary to understand the best way to prepare Aptitude.

What amuses me the most is that whenever there is a sale on a website or something like that people can compute prices verbally without even the requirement of a calculator but when the same problem is asked in an exam we have to think a lot about the formulas involved. The problem lies in our view of aptitude as just another subject because in technical subjects there are predefined methods and formulas but in Aptitude, there is no such thing. In order to learn Aptitude, you have to enjoy challenging your brain with puzzles and reasoning exercises. In GATE 2023, too, you can expect 11-12 marks in Numerical Aptitude and Reasoning so being strong in these two domains is a must in order to score high in GATE 2023.

How to prepare for General Aptitude for GATE 2023: Points to keep in mind

There are a few things that must be taken care of while preparing for GATE 2023 General Aptitude:

• Aptitude cannot be learnt in a matter of days or a month so it must be made a daily habit.
• Devote an hour each day to practice aptitude. Even if you do 10 questions daily it would be enough.
• Do not focus too much on learning methods involved in aptitude problems because every problem can be done by a different method.
• Try to visualise each problem because if you can do so then the problems can sometimes become obvious.
• Your calculations must be quick because many times aptitude problems will not require a calculator.
• Try to solve one problem multiple times before giving up and looking at solutions and try to attempt each time from a different perspective. If you are still not able to solve it then try it the next day but do not give up soon. This habit of fighting with a question will enhance your thinking ability and also make you learn better.
• Solve aptitude questions while taking a break from technical subjects so that your mind gets refreshed.
• English Movies and TV series do improve vocabulary but overdoing it can hamper your GATE preparation so you must have control over it.
• You can also cultivate a habit of reading articles or news while travelling and it improves your sentence completion and grammar. It will also help you to make use of the time that generally goes waste.

These things if kept in mind can help you a lot in Aptitude preparation and if you need a general idea of which topics are important in Numerical and Verbal Ability, here is a rough list.