Introduction

Hey Friends,

I have started this blog to share my post GATE experience about filling infinite number of  forms and later visiting various IITs.

I am Rohit Katariya, just completed my B.Tech in Information Technology from University School of Information Technology, GGSIPU.This year(2014) I gave GATE CSE/IT exam and secured AIR 241 with a GATE score of 802.

CAT/GATE/GRE or Campus Placements

By the end of the third year of my B.Tech, just like most of the others I was confused whether to go for higher studies CAT/GATE/GRE or for campus placements. First I totally ignored these exams and decided to go for campus placements. But as the time went by I saw most of the people seriously putting effort in these exams, I decided to take a look into what these exams were and what were the future prospects of these exams.

CAT was the exam that many of my classmates and friends were preparing for. I saw the syllabus for the exam and the future prospects.After seeing this I knew that this I was not meant for an IIM. First I was not too good at English(as you would have seen till now) and Secondly I didn't want to leave technical field that I loved a lot. So CAT was off the table.

GATE was the next thing that was hot among the students of my class. Its syllabus was nearly everything from 4 years of B.Tech. I was familiar with the course still I was not sure whether to go for it or not. A few months passed, some of my friends joined some classes for GATE. They told me the benefits of GATE, IITs PSUs etc. I still wasn't sure about whether to go for it or not. One thing that I found good about it was that everything that they will teach will be useful at my campus placements as well. So I took some trial classes and joined the classes thinking even if I don't crack GATE, at least I will have a campus placement.

How I studied For GATE

I joined weekend classes at Gateforum Pitampura. I found the lectures to be interesting, heard them carefully and also made notes but hardly gave any effort after the classes i.e at home. 2-3 months passed, around 3-4 subjects were covered. I was lagging behind the syllabus. I had not practiced these subjects myself which is the most important thing. I started slowly, then end sem practicals and theory exams came and GATE preparation nearly came to a halt.

After 7th semester end sem exam it was a moment of introspection. I was placed at a services based company with an average package, and not many companies were expected to visit the campus this year due to internal affairs of the college. I had lost hope to get placed in a nice company from campus and decided to put my whole effort in GATE exam. I still had around 2 months with me for preparing for GATE. As attendance wasn't an issue at my college I could give my whole concentration on GATE preparation.

I read only class notes and touched books only for selected topics which I couldn't get from class notes. After reading class notes I practiced all the previous years questions that I could do from MadeEasy and GateForum question bank books. Online test series was one of the things that made a lot of difference in my preparation. It gave me a lot of confidence and I could set short term goals to be achieved by next test. It helped me analyze my last week's work and I surely gained a lot of confidence by getting more marks than the previous test.

How GATE Went

From the experience gained by giving the online tests I had a blue print of how I would attempt the paper and had an aim of attempting about 50-53 questions. I started answering questions of aptitude and verbal section. I could attempt 9 out of 10 questions from the section. Then I moved on to 2 marks questions of the next section. I was on a roll, one by one I could solve around 5 questions.It gave me a lot of confidence which helped me in keep going without much thought. Next I lost track of the time and next time I looked at timer I had around 25 mins left and 19 questions of 1 mark left un-attempted(unread). It was time for me to accelerate. I picked up some speed and started doing questions which required less time first. By the time exam ended I had attempted 47 questions. I was upset as I thought I could have attempted 3-4 more questions had I managed time properly.

After GATE

After GATE was over I talked to some of my classmates who had given GATE with me. Most of them had attempted more questions than me.I was sure that according to last year's marks I would get a good rank, but knowing everyone had attempted so many questions made me tensed. I became depressed and thought that the GATE race was over for me, IITs were out of reach for me. I was now getting back to looking for a placement from the campus.

GATE Result

One thing good about GATE is that they give the result within a month, 28 days to be precise in case of GATE 2014(CSE/IT). I wasn't very excited about the result and as the day approached near I became more and more depressed. I just wanted it to be over. 

But what happened was unexpected. I got a rank that would have got me to some of the older IITs. I was more than happy.