Project GATE : How did I prepare

This post is an archive of my old blog, which I no longer maintain!

GATE 2019 results are out and I secured AIR 116 in Computer Science paper. I will share my preparation strategies that may help you planning your way to GATE.

First of All, Don’t take any of the strategies as any tips, just read them, analyse them and make your own strategies. Believe in your own methods because at the end of the day, it’s you, who knows yourself better than anyone else.

I will divide the information into two sections: Initial Months and Last Months

Initial Months :

• Understanding the competition: I got an on-campus job offer in my B.Tech. final year, so I dropped the plan to prepare for GATE 2018 and joined the company. ( Most of you end up doing this! ). I was in love with Mathematics, Art and Computer Science. While working in the company, I realized that I should go for M.Tech. to have deeper conceptual knowledge. Therefore I had a hard time deciding to leave the company for GATE preparation, but I did it. Thankfully, My parents supported my decision and they were happy in whatever I do. I cleared some points about the GATE examination in Computer Science paper:
  • In GATE 2018, My rank was 6000+ with 33 marks ( out of 100 ). That’s pretty good rank for a very low score.
  • Most of Computer Science graduates gets a job in their B.Tech. final, they are exhausted of studies and they don’t consider doing M.Tech.
  • IITians, The most tough competitors of yours don’t need GATE for M.Tech. Admissions.
  • There are very less PSUs listing for CS, very few candidates consider GATE CS for PSUs.
  • Conclusively, the main competition is among 4000 to 6000 aspirants who are preparing in full-time mode ( And that too preparing in coaching centers, Especially in MADEEASY and ACE academy).
• Choosing between self study and Classroom Courses: Like everyone else, I was also struggling in deciding the mode of my preparation ( Thinking about the economical weight on parents ). I insisted on self preparation for a while, took Online Test Series from MADEEASY but finally I was made to join the classroom program at MADEEASY Jaipur Center. This really helped because of the following reasons:
  • It’s not about MADEEASY, it’s about the faculties who are having 10 to 15 years of experience in the respective field. All of them was quite impressive at their teaching methodologies.
  • Consistent motivation by the teachers and The feeling of competition due to “PEERFECT”, which I wouldn’t have faced if I was on self preparation mode.
  • I didn’t have to worry about my timings, We had to attend classes on all 7 days of a week, there was no weekends and no holidays. On weekends we had to take 10 hour classes, which was very tiring in initial days but we get accustomed to it.
• Playing Games: I had installed Brain Training android app, and I used to play three rounds of three selected games ( Quick Search Skill, Left vs Right brain and Multitasking). This helped me a lot in building following skills:
  • Stress removal: whenever I am loosing, I remind myself that nothing is wrong, just take a deep breath and focus.
  • Multitasking
  • Quick decision: left vs right brain is just about how quickly you can make decisions.
  • Satisfaction and leaving the question quickly: sometimes we start enjoying to solve a problem and we forget about the time ( many of us have that instinct ). So I kept saying to me, ” whatever the results be, play only three rounds”. and yes that helped
  • Quick calculation: I am pretty bad at calculation and using embedded calculator for small calculation during GATE is really a bad idea. Multitasking game was all about small small calculation.
• Being a Kid: Whatever you do, do like a kid. because:
  • Kids are more focused. They don’t care about anything else while doing a thing.
  • Kids are always competitive but they don’t hate other players
  • Kids never give up. They keep on doing things even after getting injured.
• Vocabulary Improvement: for Improving vocabulary, I was using Knudge me app. , And in my opinion it’s a must have application for everyone in the world. You will know the reason behind this once you install the app. And other point is, you shouldn’t worry about remembering so many words. Just try to get exposed to new words, don’t try to remember them, you will eventually end up with many useful words in your mind. 🙂
• My Study Routine: I didn’t put too much burden on me. I was having a very relaxed routine. I didn’t solved too many questions. The main tasks involved in my routine was ( It’s not on daily basis ):
  • Attending MADEEASY classroom session.
  • Playing brain games.
  • Solving GATE questions of ongoing subject. My main focus was solving GATE questions only rather than quantity of questions.
  • Making short notes: I prepared short notes for every subject. The main problem while making short notes is many end up wasting too much time making short notes ( even I was like that only ). I tried to prepare a 9 to 16 pages digest of all subjects. ( A sample is shown below). If you prepare good short notes, they will serve you for a lifetime to keep your basics strong.
  • Online Test: I tried to give the basic level tests to know where I stand after completion of each subject.
  • Solving standard book questions: I solved Peter Linz for Theory of Computation and Kenneth H. Rosen for Discrete Mathematics. Solving Rosen was really awesome time for me, It helped me gaining confidence in this subject as well other subjects of computer science. You should be strong at discrete mathematics if you wish to crack GATE.

Sample Short Notes:

Last Months:

Why I am considering final months as a different section is due to the fact that the last two months plays a very crucial role in your results. If you are able to utilize them properly, boom! you are the winner. This is what I did in last month:

• Planning: making plans is easy but implementing them is a bit difficult. I made this sheet to make sure I am going correctly. One column was put to asses the completion of every day task. I considered having some fillers ( gaps as shown below ) so that I can cover up if something is left. Although things wasn’t completed as per the plan but 75% work was done efficiently and It’s better than nothing.

• Timer Application: When you are preparing at home, it becomes difficult sometimes to meet your targets. I planned to study 8 hours daily in the last months but I was unable to do that initially. I solved this problem using the timer application. I set timer of 8 hours and whenever there is some call, I used to pause the timer and then continue from the same point. This worked for me pretty well.
• Revision: The short notes helped a lot in quickly revising the subjects. Also I solved some random GATE questions ( subject-wise ) to brush up the problem solving.
• Online Test Series: last 8-days period before GATE is the perfect time to take the full length mock test. This prepares you for the “Deciding 3 hours”. It helped me a lot in planning how I will perform in the final exam.

So That’s how I met my goals. I hope you will get some points out of it and plan your strategy properly.

As a footnote I would like to add some quotes that gives me inspiration:

“Define what is success in your own words before you try chasing it.”

-Mani Vaya, Founder, 2000books.com

“Whatever you be in your life, be a good human first.”

-Raghvendra sir, Ex. faculty, AKS Classes Srigangangar

“Believe In your own methods.”
“At the exam day, you all are having same knowledge, but your result will be decided by how well you perform in 3 hours.”

-Venkat sir, Faculty, MADEEASY

“Keep doing nice efforts, if you do nice efforts, he ( The God ) will take care about the results.”
“Don’t decrease yourself, if you decrease yourself who will increase you?”
“Don’t make things unnecessarily complex, try to make them as simple as possible.”
“Add small-small points daily, these small points will make you great one day.” 🙂
“Don’t repeat same mistake again and again, if you do so, you are a pig!”

-Reddy sir, Faculty, MADEEASY

“He (The God) is our designer, thank him daily for this prodigious design.”

-Sagar sir, Faculty, MADEEASY

” Do quality questions instead of quantity of questions.”

-Ravi sir, Faculty, MADEEASY

“Learning is a slow process, don’t give up at slow pace.”
“Don’t put too much burden on yourself, do less but do daily.”
“Take right decisions at the right time or else regret for the lifetime.”
“Don’t panic, stay happy and keep moving forward.”

- Someone

Thanks for your patience. Leave your quires in the comment box. Signing out. 🙂