Students’ Speak: How to obtain high GATE percentile in case of unplanned preparation?

By: Vivek Kumar

In an examination like GATE, wherein a difference of 0.5 marks can move ranks in thousands, it is advisable to refrain from draining marks easily and instead focus on low hanging fruits first.  

Graduate Aptitude Test for Engineering (GATE) is an exam of consistent hard work, dedicated passion and zeal towards excellence. It is quite rare to crack the examination through last-minute preparation as GATE doesn’t test a candidate’s cramming knowledge through some hard-coded formulae or scary equations, rather checks their holistic understanding of subject fundamentals through application-oriented questions. Therefore, if a candidate has been thorough with the concepts during graduation/post-graduation (whatsoever applicable), they may be able to sail through the examination with decent marks through a three-stage process -- careful analysis of topics, optimal time allotment and clear understanding of ‘time-hackers’. 

The curriculum of GATE is quite vast and it can take months to cover the entire syllabus in order to be better prepared for the examination. In case a candidate has not been able to go through all the concepts and relevant questions, it is recommendable to revise the topics already covered in order to be absolutely confident about the questions from such sections.

During my preparation, I was unable to complete some sections of Igneous Petrology & Stratigraphy due to time constraint. Moreover, I found those topics quite informative and factual than theoretical and therefore planned to leave the questions in examination beforehand. Every course/stream has such sections that students find difficult to consume and solve, eventually costing those marks for wrong attempts. In an examination like GATE, wherein a difference of 0.5 marks can move ranks in thousands, it is advisable to refrain from draining marks easily and instead focus on low hanging fruits first. 

Once the examination starts, the importance of speed, accuracy and time come into play. A fair combination of these three can provide an edge to a candidate over others. The questions that seem quite easy and are out rightly solvable should be attempted immediately. The practice of time allotment to each question comes from mock papers and therefore, students should definitely practice a couple of mock papers before taking the final test. At times, students panic if they are unable to solve three questions in a row and lose concentration, thus, jeopardising their entire paper. In such a scenario, students should not get discouraged and try to find certain easy sums from the set to boost up their confidence.

As a student, I always started to solve questions in the end or middle portion of the paper in such circumstances. 

There are certain questions in the paper that comparatively take more time to solve than the others and therefore, consumes a lot of limited time. I refer these questions as ‘time-hackers’. It is advisable to park such questions for the last few minutes when a significant number of questions have been assumed to be correctly answered. This may prevent students from losing the advantage over others who strategically avoid such questions in the paucity of time. 

Lastly, GATE is an amazing examination to test student’s knowledge through the time-bound questioning process. Instead of getting scared or disappointed, students should take it up as a challenge and question their concepts for effective learning and understanding. 

About the Author:

Vivek is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur. He pursued Integrated MSc in Applied Geology and secured an All India Rank 36 in GATE 2017 in Geology and Geophysics section.