GATE 2023 Preparation tips for aspirants appearing in Civil Engineering

By: Rohit Sachdeva

No doubt that textbooks are a good pool of knowledge and contain a lot of information and numerical; but, you have to be careful to not waste a lot of time studying unnecessary topics that are not covered in GATE exam.

Preparation tips for aspirants appearing for GATE Civil Engineering exam

This is the time of the year when a lot of students are dedicatedly preparing for Graduate Aptitude Test Engineering (GATE) examination. As we all know, GATE exam is life-changing in terms of career prospects for students all over the country (and now abroad, too). The number of students giving GATE in Civil Engineering (CE) every year has increased rapidly over the years because the GATE score not only gets you admission to Masters’ courses but also can secure you a job in public-sector undertakings (PSUs). Many students wish to pursue Masters in Technology (MTech) from Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) or National Institutes of Technology (NITs) in various streams such as Structures, Geotechnical, Water Resources, Construction Project Management and Transportation while others try to get job in PSUs like IOCL, HPCL, RITES, EIL, NHAI, DMRC, etc.  All this makes GATE one of the most important exams of the year.

Hence, this time is important in properly identifying the preparation strategy for getting good results.  This blog is dedicated to guiding the best practices, particularly in the last three months of crucial preparation, which I feel from my experience, can make a lot of difference.

Textbooks & reference material for Civil Engineering (CE)

First, if you have joined any coaching for preparation of GATE, your main aim should be to complete class notes thoroughly.  I also recommend you to study reference material provided (theory, practice modules, etc.) and practice numerical from them. This helps in scoring well in GATE exam and textbooks are not much required. 

Even if you are preparing by self-study, it is suggested that you get class-notes of a good coaching institute arranged, and study from them.  Since notes have filtered information, they give targeted direction and focus to GATE preparation.

No doubt that textbooks are a good pool of knowledge and contain a lot of information and numerical; but, you have to be careful to not waste a lot of time studying unnecessary topics that are not covered in GATE exam. However, if you have some doubts, and you solely want to rely on textbooks, the following are considered very well, which you can follow thoroughly.

*Apart from providing the best conceptual knowledge, these books are also suggested to practice numerical. You should definitely try and solve a variety of problems from them.

You should also practice questions from previous years’ GATE papers or GATE question banks available which contain past 10-15 year GATE questions. This will help you understand the variety of questions that can be asked from different subjects.

Important subjects to cover

Almost all topics in GATE syllabus are covered in the exam and should be prepared to get the best scores. The following subjects carry a lot of weightage and should be given priority during preparation/revision:

1. Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering (13-15 marks)
2. Environmental Engineering (13-15 marks)
3. Strength of Materials and Structural Analysis (7-10 marks)
4. Traffic Engineering (including Highways) and Pavement Materials (5-7 marks)
5. Hydrology and Open Channel Flow (5-7 marks)

As you can see, the above 5 major subjects carry around 50-60 percent of the technical portion in GATE CE syllabus. Subjects covered under Sr. no. 4 & 5 take a lesser effort in preparation and are very easy to score.

Important topics to study for GATE

Within all subjects, there are some topics from which questions are asked more frequently, and hence should be prepared in more detail. Towards the end days of preparation, focus should be to revise formulas and short notes.

1. Geotechnical: Soil classification, permeability, seepage analysis, consolidation, earth pressure theories and bearing capacity of soils
2. Environment: Alkalinity, hardness, sedimentation, BOD, sludge treatment, solid waste management, plume rise models and noise pollution
3. Structures: SFD and BMD of beams & frames, Mohr circle, theories of failure, slope & deflection of beams, indeterminacy & stability of frames, fixed end moments, distribution factors, flexibility and stiffness matrix, trusses
4. Traffic Engineering: Highway engineering, SSD and OSD, vertical curves, bitumen tests, traffic engineering
5. Hydrology: Hydrographs, well hydraulics, infiltration
6. OCF: Critical flow, alternate depths, specific energy, channel transitions, hydraulic jump, surge
7. Fluid Mechanics: Pressure measurement devices (such as manometer), continuity equation, velocity potential function, acceleration, the force on pipe bends, branching of pipes and specific quantities of turbine and pump
8. Irrigation: Duty-delta relation, irrigation efficiencies, gravity dam, shield’s formula for non-scouring depth
9. RCC & PSC: Characteristic strength and load, creep coefficient, IS 456 provisions on shear, bond, torsion, column, serviceability requirements, loss in pre-stress
10. Surveying: Shrinkage of a map, tape corrections, reciprocal leveling, errors in measurements
11. Steel: Eccentric bolted & welded connections, the effective length of the column, plastic hinge formation and shape factor, collapse load
12. CPM: Different type of charts, PERT & CPM, crashing of network
13. Building Materials: Bricks and their classes, timber defects, cement manufacturing

Evaluate test series

Ok trust me, this is the most important thing for GATE and should be taken very seriously!  Every aspirant should join a test series to evaluate their preparation and to get accustomed to the examination environment & pattern.

Test series usually contains 2 type of tests: subject-wise tests & full tests.

Many students are in a hurry to give full mock tests & they don’t pay attention to the subject test, that’s very wrong!  Subject mocks will build your in-depth conceptual knowledge and familiarize you with the various possible type of questions that you can expect in GATE exam.  Since the scope of GATE syllabus is large, you can expect questions from very small topics also; subject tests will cover those & help you update your formula book. The best time to attempt subject-mocks is during the final stages of your revision.

Full-mocks will test you through time, patience, knowledge & pressure. Give mocks seriously without any cheating. Sit for three hours straight with full concentration like you are really attempting GATE exam. It will test you through all subjects in random order. A usual test series contains around 10-15 full mock tests which can be attempted over a span of 30 days.

An even more important aspect is analysing mocks. After 3 hours of paper, sit for 2 more hours & note down each and every topic where you went wrong/didn't solve – then revise thoroughly & note it down. Also, analyze answers which you did right, maybe you will find some alternate shortcut/trick.

Don’t be in a rush to give more mocks – be serious about analysing it properly and learn. Quality is more important than quantity.

With each attempt, your concepts will strengthen and confidence will grow; never become disheartened by comparing ranks. Of course, the competitive spirit is important, but it is more important to improve yourself with each test and your target should be to increase your knowledge pool of different variety of questions.  There are a lot of new topics that you will cover only through mocks no matter how much you study before it, so note them down for future quick revision.

Note:  I hope students don’t get into this situation, but in case you are not left with enough time to attempt all full mock tests, I will advise to start and submit your exam, and then at least go through all the questions once.  See solutions to problems that seem new/unfamiliar to you.  This last-minute strategy may come handy sometimes. However, make sure you don’t make this an intentional habit of skipping mock-tests.

About the Author:

Rohit Sachdeva is pursuing Ph.D in Civil Engineering from Indian Institute of Science (IISc). He completed his BTech in Civil Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering in 2012 and later worked as a structural engineer for two years with Samsung Engineering. He also worked as a Scientist in Bureau of Indian Standards for three years. He appeared for GATE 2017 and score an AIR 93 with a score of 872/1000.