Students’ Speak: Check out tips to approach GATE 2020 Preparation

By: Nihal Anand

GATE 2020 is just a few days away. Nihal Anand shares some important tips for GATE 2020 aspirants to approach this highly competitive national level engineering entrance exam. Read the tips carefully before diving into GATE preparation.

1. What is the preparation strategy to ace GATE exam?
2. GATE is a national level engineering entrance exam. With the high competition level, students need to carefully chalk out their preparation strategy. Here are my tips for all GATE 2020 aspirants:

• Take note of all the topics from each subject that are included in the exam. Prepare each topic well.
• Every subject and every topic has different weightage. Analyze previous year GATE question papers properly for insights.
• Start preparing as early as possible. This will enable you to practice more.
• Pay attention to your strengths and weaknesses during the mock test
• Post mock test analysis should be done attentively
• Improve the areas in which you are lagging. Do not PANIC!
• Refer to standard books and clear your concepts by spending quality time
• Maintain a good and healthy lifestyle and avoid unnecessary stress
• Be ready with your admit card and all the necessary documents one day before the exam. Avoid last-minute hassles.

1. Why target GATE for your growth?
2. GATE exam is conducted once a year. It is meant for people seeking admission in Master’s degree programmes in top engineering institutes of India. Candidates seeking PSU jobs or trying to obtain a CSIR Junior Research Fellowship should also target GATE. The questions in the exam will include both multiple-choice questions and numerical type questions.

GATE 2020 will be conducted in all the major cities of India and in selected locations outside the country. It is organized by IITs for 25 papers (different engineering branches) and a candidate can apply only for one.

1. What are your options if the GATE percentile is low or below your expectations?
2. Okay, let’s go by statistics — 804463 people appeared in GATE 15 (all streams) last year and out of those 121060 (15.05%) only qualified. If you go streamwise performance in GATE — ECE (1, 72, and 714 in GATE 2015). You will be among top 26000 people if we apply same average qualifying percentage to ECE stream (exact figure in each stream not known). So, now you will have two situations:
3. Feel happy: One lakh people are still behind you. So relax and enroll in some local engineering institutes (Yes. The local institutes do admit people based on GATE scores) and pursue MTech degree. You can complete your engineering education and leave college without any fuss. With the trends in the current market, there is no surety for jobs though.
4. Feel bad: You can definitely bad as 26,000 people are still ahead of you. Take a break, prepare again for GATE and get into a good college.

The final decision rests in your hand — to attempt GATE again or not. It also depends on how you perceive the situation.  Think carefully about your future goals and make the decision.

About the Author:

Nihal Anand is pursuing BTech in CSE from JIS College of Engineering. His areas of interest in Java and Web Development. Nihal likes playing cricket and listening to music when not busy coding.