Students’ Speak: Tips to obtain high percentile in one-month preparation

By: Tanish Gupta

Looking to score high by preparing in the last one-month? Tanish Gupta explains the highest-scoring topics to choose and a few other tricks to help you with the goal.

The level of difficulty of Graduate Aptitude Test for Engineering (GATE) question paper has been reduced in the past four years. So if you've studied sincerely in the past three years from your standard textbooks and your basics are clear, you'll crack GATE for sure.

Now let’s talk about how you could prepare well in one month’s time:

• You cannot skip Mathematics. Make sure you prepare well for it because it will indirectly assist you in the Aptitude section.
• GATE papers consists of 15 marks for Aptitude. These 15 marks will determine your rank. So, prepare well and you can easily fetch 10-13 marks in this section.
• Don't study any new subjects during the last one month. Concentrate on the subjects which you are already good in, including Mathematics as it is the most scoring subject. Check on your weak points and try to improve them by regularly practising.
• Solve the last 10 years’ question papers diligently. Appearing for GATE without browsing the last 10 years’ question papers may not be a good idea. The questions are not going to be repeated, but the concepts for sure will be cleared. Try regular mock tests subject-wise and revise last-minute notes.
• Do practice test series at least 10 good quality tests. The purpose is to constantly improve your rank and develop a technique that works for you.

Highest Scoring topics (ECE)

The key subjects of ECE in GATE are:

• Maths
• Aptitude
• Network Theory
• Analog Circuits
• Communication System
• Signal and System
• Verilog
• CMOS circuit design on eda tools
• FPGA for validation of code
• Digital Design
• Mosfet

Tips and trick to follow in the last month

• In the last month, you should do attempt mock tests to trace your progress and note the time taken for each attempt.
• You can always make keynotes for the end to refer.
• Never lose faith in you, keep yourself motivated and have a positive attitude.
• Don’t study anything new. Just revise your short notes a minimum of two times and specialise in key concepts and main formulae of every subject that you simply have studied so far.
• Turn off the technology. No phone, no laptop as they are the major distractions.
• Work on your mistakes and try to avoid them.
• On the whole, you should be mentally and physically fit, avoid all physiological pressure and tensions before the exam.

Self-evaluation

Self-evaluation will improve some time management skills and allow you to know where you are. You will be aware of your silly mistakes and the methods to overcome them. Check on the marking schemes and negative marking if any. Solving subject-wise test series and previous year question papers can help you get a high score. It will also help you know the areas of improvement so we should concentrate on the most important topics and evaluate ourselves before appearing for the exam.

About the Author:

Tanish Gupta is a student at NIIT, University of Neemrana, Rajasthan. He is pursuing his B.Tech in Computer Science Engineering. He enjoys playing basketball and writes about his experiences.