GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) is an Exam, require continuous passion, higher concentration, determination and hard work to succeed. IIT Madras will hold the GATE 2019 exam on February 2-3 and February 9-10, 2019. It is time for the candidates, to start their planning and execution in a serious and intense manner to prepare GATE 2019 in 6 months.
GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering), a national level examination, is a qualifying exam for admissions to postgraduate courses like M. Tech/M.S/Direct PhD in IISc/IITs/NITs. GATE scores may also be used by several public sector undertakings recruitment (i.e. like BSNL, BHEL, GAIL, Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum etc.). Successful GATE candidates get chance not only admissions for postgraduation engineering courses but also scholarships during the programmes.
Aspirants who wish to apply for the GATE 2019 examination will have to register themselves by filling the application form, which will be available from September 1 to September 21, 2018.
Before jumping on the topic let me brief you what actually GATE is. The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is a prestigious examination that is organized as selection criteria for students who are interested in the admission for Master’s programs, direct Doctoral programs in with MHRD scholarship and also some other colleges without MHRD scholarship. Many Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) such as NTPC, ONGC, Airport Authority of India etc consider GATE scores as recruitment parameter. GATE solely checks the comprehensive quality of those belonging to science and technology. It is conducted jointly by the IISc and seven IITs. The organizing institute for GATE 2019 is IIT Madras. The score obtained is a relative criterion of marks. The marks obtained is used so as to get admission in various Post Graduate courses. Admission for Post Graduation course in IISc Bangalore and several IITs such as that of Bombay, Delhi, Roorkee, Madras, Guwahati, Kharagpur, Kanpur are done on the basis of the GATE scores.
The online application submission for GATE 2019 will start on 1 September 2018.The examination will be held on 2nd , 3rd , 9th and 10th of February 2019. Aspirant will have to selected any of the above mentioned day to appear in examination. Candidates who have to enroll themselves for GATE preparation should have a brief insight of the preparatory ways since ample amount of time is not left and a focused strategy needs to be figured out. Since the competition is increasing every year so apart from hard work aspirants much have a proper planning as well
1: Information about GATE 2019 and its pattern
GATE exam is an online examination and is conducted for three hours. For students with engineering background,the examination is divided into three sections: General Aptitude,Engineering Mathematics and Subject specified section. There are a total of 65 questions (Out of which 35 Questions are of 2 Marks and 30 Questions are of 1 Mark). The complete exam is of 100 Marks. The question paper consists of two types of Question:
• Multiple Choice Questions : 4 options are provided out of which only one is correct. There will be 2/3rd negative marking in 2 marks questions and 1/3rd negative marking in 1 Mark questions
• Numerical Answer Type Questions: It will have one unique integer type answer. there is no negative marking in Numerical Answer type Questions.
2: Syllabus
Have a proper idea of your syllabus before actually starting the preparation. Go through the previous years paper and jot down the important topics from where the majority of the questions are asked. This would serve very beneficial in the preparations as these topics will need more preparation. Mostly, General Aptitude and Engineering Mathematics section are considered very scoring.
3: Books & Study Materials for preparation
Apart from hard work and time management, your books and study material will play a vital role during preparation. If you have joined any institution, go through the study materials on a regular basis. Books advised in colleges are also great for preparation. Nowadays, video lectures are very much in vogue and are easily understandable, and so are PDF. These are really great for preparations. The important books for aptitude preparation are A Modern Approach to Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning by R.S.Aggarwal, How to Prepare for Quantitative Aptitude by Arun Sharma etc. For the preparation of Engineering Mathematics section books such as Higher Engineering Mathematics by B.S.Grewal, Advanced Engineering Mathematics by Erwin Kreyszig, GATE Engineering Mathematics for all stream by Arihant etc is preferred. Books for the preparation of Subject Specified section depends solely on the branch of the aspirant. The books advised in college is mainly preferred though there are several GATE specific books available in the market for this purpose.
Step 4: Smart Preparation
Preparation of any topic must be done is three steps
• Understand the concept
• Mock tests
• Revision
Analysis of the important topics and, pattern of questions from previous year question papers must be done. Importance must be given to the concepts since one must have the concepts cleared to be able to crack GATE examination. Going through mock tests will highlight the weak areas and will also tell the level of preparation that one has. It will basically act as a litmus test.
5: Timetable
The timetable must be made by every student. This will help an aspirant to divide the time properly for every concept and will give a clear-cut picture of the level of time and hard work that a person has to put in. Mostly aspirants put in all their time in the preparation of Subject Specified section. But, importance must also be given to the General Aptitude section and Engineering Importance section since the are considered to be scoring and compises of 30 marks for the students with Engineering background.
• 1 month preparation time must be given for engineering Mathematics and General aptitude with approximately 20 days for Engineering Mathematics and 10 days for General Aptitude.
• The preparation for Subject specified section must be given 4 months along with revision since the syllabus is very vast for this.
• The sixth month,i.e, the last month must solely be dedicated for more revisions and mock tests.
Do not forget to include time for yourself so as to have proper rest and to kill the monotony for an effective result.
6: Study plan
The first preference for the preparation of topic must be given to the topics which are scoring in nature. Choose the topics wisely and divide the topics in sub-topics for a clear understanding. This will let you to manage your time efficiently and keep your focus on the important ones. Highlight the topics which your are not thorough with. This will need extra revision in the end. Highlight your doubts and be sure to clear them out. Do not let them get piled up.
7: Notes
Notes must be made after completeion of any topic. This may include definitions, the important formulas,concepts etc. These notes will be very handy during the time of revision and also at the last moment. Try creating the notes in a systematic way for every different subjects for easy accessing whenever needed.
8: Mock Tests and Practice Tests
There are plenty of mock tests available in the market and even on the internet. You must have tests so as to evaluate your performance and preparation level. These tests must be taken after completion of any major topic.A combined mock tests of topics must be done on every fortnight. On the basis of the results,take further actions. Pen down the topics where less marks are being scored. These are the topics which will require more time.Again go through these topics and the concepts thoroughly to strengthen them up.Online video tutorials are a great way to understand such topics of which the concepts are not clear.
Other than the regular practice test taken during the time of preparation, practice intensively at least 2-3 tests every day in the month of January along with revision.
9: Revision
Other than mock tests, the last 5 weeks must also be dedicated to a thorough revision so as to brush up the topics and the concepts. Revise all the important formulae, concepts, definitions etc.This will help you to understand the weaker topics more efficiently but it will also help you to clearly remember even the small concepts which were studied long before. The notes and the highlighted areas during the time of preparation will play a very major role during revision.
10: Last minute strategy
Avoid picking up any new topic and stick to the old topics which you were earlier working on. Revise your topics and go through the notes and important questions which you have marked during your preparation. Try to stay calm and have a proper sleep of 6-7 hours before appearing in the exam.
All the Best, Aspirants!!!
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