1.
Gate
2. All about Gate
3. How to prepare?
4. What
your IISc/IIT seniors say
What is GATE all about?
GATE is organized by IITs and IISc, which have pioneered
advanced education at master’s level in India.
The sole purpose of GATE is not only to conduct a
test for admission but, which is also the major goal,
to identify the suitable engineers/researchers in
various areas and make them to choose their area of
choice in which they can pursue their master degree.
As you must be knowing by now, GATE is only organized
by IITs and IISc which always try to innovate and
introduce new systems to test the basic knowledge
of candidates in various fields. As a part of that
innovation, the previous year GATE papers were fully
objective type. This year also the same pattern is
being used, and mathematics added! Although this made
the job relatively easier for the evaluators, the
candidates now have a bound choice to cover all the
topics. As you know, the setting of questions papers
at IITs and IISc in itself is very interesting. The
designated faculty in each of the areas who provide
the syllabus of a particular stream have the burden
to set the questions which is finally combined to
a full length paper. Being set by the highly qualified
faculty, the questions papers are not like a very
traditional one. They always try to test the very
basic of candidates in respective areas by bringing
the element of innovation in these papers. It is not
surprising that sometimes the questions are mere applications
of basic concepts in their area of research. The implication
of this, it seems is that cracking GATE with a very
high percentile is merely having the basics cleared.
No! Absolutely not! As innovations are always a part
of the question paper, one needs to be able to apply
the basics in a new application, too. That is why
similar to JEE, GATE is altogether different from
other competitive exams. Here in GATE, one needs to
prepare thoroughly by understanding the basics. It’s
not at all the mugging up the end results (formulae)
and directly applying them; instead, you need to know
the principle in the derivation of those end results
because in most of the cases the questions are based
on the basic principle involved in the derivation,
or the case where they may ask the behavior of the
system under some other conditions or simple application
of that result.
To secure a very high percentile you should always
remember the fact that you are adjudged relatively
not absolutely. Hence, your rank obviously depends
on how you performed relative to your competitors.
Many times, it happens that the candidates are sure
of getting many questions correct. But one should
always know that although the questions have only
one correct answer, other probable choices are deliberately
put there to confuse the candidates. In that sense,
preparing the choices other than the correct one is
also a part of the bringing the element of innovation,
which really makes the life hell for a test taker
to arrive at the very correct choice.
The question that poses itself to the GATE aspirants
now is, how does he prepare, what methods he should
adopt that would ensure his admission in the esteemed
IITs or the IISc.
