Most viewed posts in Testimonials

21

Quick Read : Follow the resources given in gatecse.in. Those are the best that you can find online. Solve GO pdf thoroughly unless you've mastered the concepts involved in the PYQs. Read comments and different approaches for answers. Take test series if you've time but don't take the marks seriously :P

A big thanks to GO community. Here you will find everything you need to strengthen your concepts. Best thing about GO is that you can argue about answers, have healthy discussions and get to the root of why the solution is the way it is. Aspirants of GATE CS are fortunate to have this platform.

I fell sick in last week leading to the exam. All my confidence was lost and was unable to perform that well in test series. So I decided to once again go through the GO pdf and discussions and not give any tests. In this period I did all 3 books and complete revision of my notes. Even on the day of exam, I was not feeling well. A bigger achievement for me was begin able to conquer the fear of failing. I never felt nervous before or during exam. I was calm and high on confidence. Most of my friends who prepared well for the exam lost the battle to panic and anxiety. One more thing you need to care about is silly mistakes. Everybody makes silly mistakes but it’s about who makes less of them.

There is no such thing as born-genius. Just work hard. You can’t control the luck factor so focus on things you can control. You don't learn anything from exams. You learn while preparing for them. Don't forget to live a life.

GATE is an easy exam and not as competitive as JEE. So if you have failed at JEE, don't think you won't make it in GATE. Life never stops throwing opportunities at you, it's upto you to make the most of them.

 

Rituraj Joshi
AIR 29

22

GATE 2018 AIR: 352

NIELIT Scientist-B Rank(17 Dec 2017): 11

NIELIT Scientific Assistant Rank (17 Dec 2017): 59

ISRO Written Rank(22 April 2018) : 35

IIT Kanpur M.Tech. TA Selected (Test Experience)

IIT Delhi M.Tech. Computer Technology Selected (Interview Experience)

BARC OCES/DGFS-2018 Selected (Interview Experience)

 

Hello Everyone! My name is Vidhi Sethi. I have done my B.Tech. from the University Of Delhi, Kalindi College, 2013-2017 batch.

In final year I prepared for gate but managed to get a rank of 1867. I even cleared the Code Chef, written and interview rounds of IIITD and managed to get an admission there. Through my campus placements, I was placed at Hitachi.

But, somewhere in my heart, I believed that I deserve even better things and somehow could not manage my GATE studies with B.Tech. curriculum. So, I decided that I would prepare full time for GATE. It was a very tough decision for me since my family was not supporting me into this, they wanted that I should join IIITD since getting there is also not a cake walk. But, I was adamant and hence started my preparation in May 2017 end.

I prepared at home and did self-study. First of all, I completed my syllabus, made short notes and did previous year GATE and TIFR questions. Later I joined some test series and also gave tests on GO. I made it a point to frequently revise the things that I have already covered.

How GO helped?

  1. I followed the GO PDF of 2016, whatever questions I could not understand I studied the explanation here at GO. The explanations here are simply awesome and most accurate. Especially answers by Arjun Sir, Praveen sir, Pooja mam, Akash sir, Digvijay sir, Pragy sir, Habib sir, Sachin Mittal sir and Debashish Deka are simply awesome.
  2. The thing that makes GO unique is the freedom it offers to the aspirants to question and discuss the things rather than just mugging up. Seriously, no matter how small or silly your doubt is, you will always find someone here to clear things.(Special thanks to Bikram sir for clearing my doubts)
  3. The tests here are just incredible, I don’t think I have seen such well balanced and conceptual tests anywhere.
  4. ‘The Rank Predictor ’ by Pragy Agarwal is very accurate and saves the aspirants from unnecessary anxiety and waiting, for knowing their GATE results. This year GO have provided this for other branches as well.
  5. Motivation: Some of the posts here on general motivation are simply great. I read them whenever I felt low e.g. ‘Remember the guy who gave up?’ by Sachin sir.

 I am writing the following paras as many people have asked me about it :

NIELIT Non-Technical Preparation :

For Aptitude and Reasoning, I did basic concepts in these like Time and work, blood relations, direction, distances, races, etc and solved the previous year GATE questions.

For General Knowledge, I haven’t prepared much but I have this habit of reading the last page of  Employment news. It has the important news items in view of the competitive exams like these.

IIT Kanpur M.Tech. Test  Preparation :

Written Test : Same as GATE preparation.

Programming Test: Now, here I want to say that I am seriously very bad at coding. Still, I managed to solve the 2 coding questions in IITK test half an hour before, that’s how :

After the GATE exam, Arjun sir created a group on Whatsapp for the people who aim to clear the IITs interviews, especially Research interviews. We were given programming assignments on GO classroom, each with a deadline of a day or two depending upon the difficulty level of the question and we were required to submit the code within the deadline, otherwise, we would be excluded from the group. I think we did 6-7 assignments, each with very unique problems that really make you think. We were allowed to discuss on GO group regarding the assignment. Digvijay sir checked submission of each candidate and provided personalized corrections. The correct code was released after the deadline.

Except this, I did previous year programming problems of  IITK  and one ‘Question Set’ provided by Digvijay sir.

ISRO Preparation: Except GATE I solved previous year questions of ISRO and did some basic concepts in Software Engineering.

BARC Interview Preparation :

I spent most of my time reading the previous interview experiences and reading the topics I was unaware of. I tried very hard to find interview experience of someone who cleared the interview but could not find it. I also talked to people like Digvijay sir and Habib sir who have already faced this interview before.

I feel except the knowledge what you really need to crack such interviews is the ‘Confidence’ and ‘A Smiling Face’.

 

Whatever little I could achieve belong to people like Arjun sir, Bikram sir, Praveen sir, Digvijay sir, Habib sir, Kapil sir, Anirudh sir, Pooja mam, Sachin Mittal sir, Debashish and anyone else who have contributed to GO in any manner.

I would also like to thank people that I met here on GO during my preparation Nitish Joshi, Hemant Parihar, Sreshtha, Chotu Ji, rahulsharma5, Sadbhavna, Rishab, Ashwin Kulkarni,Churchil and many more. It was wonderful discussing concepts with you all.

I owe GO a lot! I seriously would consider it as my privilege if I could be of any help to GO and the future aspirants.

23

Hi, This is Vishal Gourav, I work at TCS,Noida presently and prepared for GATE 2020 while having a full time(9-6) job.

Short Back Story: I was never great in studies not because I couldn’t understand the concepts but because I lacked the hard work and discipline. While I was pursuing B.Tech from JSSATE,Noida I was content with just finishing up with my studies finally and getting into a job,start earning money and spending it.

In 2019, I had given GATE with 1 month preparation and got 38.33/100(AIR:7045, Score:448). Though the score was not much to be proud off but for the first time in my life I had enjoyed studying so much. I had only prepared TOC,EM,DS for GATE 2019.

It was the 30th of July when I received my first salary, I felt that I was not satisfied with what I had achieved till now in life.I always wanted to do something that brings about a change but never had a goal in life.  While I was awake thinking all this the whole night, I realized that after the GATE 2019 result was the only time in the past that I had felt content and satisfaction. I decided to give GATE another go. 

Study Hard: I never was a coaching enthusiast(as I feel coaching centres make mug-up machines except for a few students who really like to understand the concepts instead of mugging up the formulas) so decided to go with self study. Next was getting hold of study material. I thought who can teach me B.Tech subjects better then IIT professors. So NPTEL lectures it was.

Started to study on 3rd Aug at normal video playback speed, soon incremented to 2X.After that I had to download the lectures(as youtube has max 2X) to increase speed further to (2.75-3)X. Used to study in office with lectures on my phone whenever I got time. Finished syllabus by november mid.

Practice: Started with previous year question papers(1991 onwards). This was the first phase when i realized the importance of GO. As, there were many questions which had a answer different in the question book then what my solution would be. I googled a question and the first link that would pop up every time would be GO. The solutions and discussions on the question gave so much insight to the question concept wise. Soon I found out that GO had all the questions in CBT format so started giving the tests on GO.

Got a test series from a reputed coaching site(if you are from around Delhi, you would know which one). It had a lot of mistakes and again I used to google and found the right answer on GO. The test series only taught me how to manage time.

GO toh hai hin: By end of December I totally shifted to just revising my notes and doing questions from GO. Did the previous year papers for the 2nd time.

08/02/2020: After paper I was not fully satisfied(because of after exam discussions, thinking some of my answers were wrong) as the paper was a bit tricky.I had done 51 questions out of 65. But I always aimed for accuracy over quantity even when doing papers on GO.

12/02/2020: Response sheet was released. Checked using predictors at 2 sites. One as GO and the other was the reputed coaching institute previously mentioned. And I have to say that GO predictor was bang on in predicting marks out of 100, rank to +-5 range and specially the score(it was accurate with 0% error) i.e. I got that exact score in the final result.

Now I know what I want to do in life. I have an aim. I have a goal and GO has a huge contribution in it. Would like to thank all users especially Arjun(for every question I useed to just scroll though the answers to find his solution).

Finally, I guess I should end with the result I got which is very important but not as important as finally finding a goal in life(which I won’t discuss).

So, once you decide you want to do something and have the discipline to do it, no one can stop you. My father always says, “Tumhari Naseeb naa koi bana sakta hai aur naa hi koi chheen sakta hai”.

Toh padhai karo,mehnat karo aur GO toh hai hi.

Marks: 70/100    AIR:129     Score:834

 

24
I am a final year student at IIIT Bhubaneswar of CSE branch. I secured rank 178 this year with 68.67 marks and 818 score. This is my first post on gate for all future gate aspirants.This was my first attempt of gate and I studied with the help of video lectures and then self study.GO helped a lot during my preparation.Whenever I faced any doubt on any topic or faced trouble solving any question I would search it on Gateoverflow, and everytime my doubts were resolved.Students who prepare by online courses or do self study,GO is life saviour for them.Because eventually you will have trouble solving questions and you would not have anyone to resolve your doubts, that time you can search on GO your question or ask on it.Thank you to all GO team members who helped me to achieve this rank in gate.
25

Hello Everyone,

I’m Aditya Pradhan, a final year student of Information Technology at a state government college in Udaipur. I have secured $AIR\ 312$ in $GATE\ 2020$. I expected much better rank before the exam, but was not able to attempt more questions (attempted only $52$) and was depressed because of this. But hopefully I got only $4$ or $5$ of them wrong and landed at this rank. Now, I am preparing for IIT Kanpur M.S., IIT-B M.Tech. RA and IISc CDS Coursework and CSA Research interviews and hoping that my semester exam dates don’t clash with any of them.

Regarding my preparation journey, I used to study my semester subjects through standard books and resources given on $gatecse.in$ and started proper GATE preparation from the month of July after I got placed on-campus. I had gone through all the standard books once again and used to solve GO PDF after completion of a subject. In the month of January, I revised all the subjects once again and gave 7-8 full length mock tests.

I want to thank Arjun Sir for creating this platform and now people can crack GATE CS purely by self-studying and not relying on any coaching institute. Government of India should be grateful to GateOverflow for increasing the quality of students going for masters at IITs and IISc.

For future aspirants, my message is that utilize your $4$ years of engineering well. Even if your classmates have ‘copy-paste’ attitude, you should always try to learn using standard resources and do lab assignments on your own, trust me, this will build your base in Computer Science and will help you in the long run.

Thank you :)
------------------------------
Edit : I’m selected in IIT Bombay M.Tech. (RA) and will be joining it, for interview experience please visit: https://gateoverflow.in/blog/10586/iit-bombay-m-tech-ra-interview-experience

26

My journey towards AIR 39!!

I would like to start by thanking the person whose guidance made the journey pleasant and interesting, Arjun Suresh Sir. I believe it’s the legacy that he is continuing. As Lord Krishna guided Arjun during war similarly Arjun Sir is guiding all of us during our war.

I would also like to thanks Bikram Sir and other GO members for their contribution in my journey.


Students asked me whether to join a coaching institute? Which institute should I join?

I believe there are two ways you can gain knowledge.

  1. Read all the reference textbooks. Do everything by your own.
  2. Learn from those who are already master in it.

There are pros and cons of both. From textbooks, you get exact information but effort and time needed is more. To minimize your effort, you can get the guidance from GateOverflow. On the other part, from the coaching institutes you get required information and guidance in relatively less time.

I would like to say that it totally depends on you.

I chose mix and match of both the options. There is nothing bad in either of the option. As I said it varies from person to person.


Many candidates asked me about the strategy.

I believe,

Success is an iceberg! Yeah, that’s right.

For people, success seems to be small and easy from outside but they don’t realize the dedication, hard work, good habits, disappointments, sacrifices, failure and persistence behind it.

To achieve a good rank, first thing you need is a good time table then you have to follow it accordingly till the exam date.

I had a fixed time table. My day started at 6 am and ended at 11 pm. Also, it’s important to give priority to health. I used to workout daily for 2 hours.

Coming to the studies part. I completed the syllabus in two and a half months and then started the real part that is practicing and revising. I daily studied for 6 to 8 hours. Note that here ‘daily’ is important aspect, number of hours depends on the individual.

At the end, I would like to say don’t follow anyone. Everyone has their own strategy that suits them and may not suit you. So set your own time table, your boundaries and work smarter. All the best!!

27
I am an ECE, B.Tech pass out from NIT-Jamshedpur. A long story behind why I switched to CSE that I will tell in another post. First of all, salute to @Arjun sir for providing this platform. Bikram Sir and You are so so good in so so many ways. Thanks for being so generous to our each silly doubts and showed a lot of patience. This online community played a key role in GATE preparation especially for the students like me who do preparation from home without having a suitable GATE environment. Most of the GO test paper are really balanced with a good number of quality question, so big thanks to @Bikram sir for making test series possible. And thanks sir for your suggestion on avoiding my silly mistakes( But did 4-5 question silly mistakes in core section and could score 4.66 / 15 in aptitude ..:( my bad ). I didn't know about TIFR before but after seeing the question here with great ans, I even tried TIFR 16-17 and fortunately got selected in written test ( Interview is on 6th of April ). Irrespective of my GATE result, I learnt a lot just by reading answers and comments. Whenever needed any resource, gatecse.in helped a lot and with some important previous year statistics as well.  Thanks, @Praveen sir for giving the proper solution in TOC and Digital.
Finally, I want to thank all GO members who helped me in one or another way.

AIR - 265.
28

Hello everyone :)

So after a long time, writing comments, answers and asking the question, finally a day came to write a testimonial.

i am currently final year undergraduate and secured AIR-14, GATE-2018(CSE).

Firstly, i would like to thank my family for having belief and faith on me. now 50% credit goes to me(my hard work, passion) and other 50% completely goes to Gateoverflow.

If i start to descirbe a role of gateoverflow in this testimonial, i will end up in taking lot and lot of time, therefore i will just summarize it. Arjun sir is my idol and i owe my success to him. apart from this a great thanks to Bikram sir, Habib sir, K.D sir, srestha mam, Anu007 sir and some of my good friends Hemant Parihar, Ashwin Kulkarni, just_bhavana, saxena0612, rahul sharma, Shivam Chauhan and many more.

Now here are some tips for GATE-2019 aspirants.

  1. Firstly end up in finishing your syllabus as early as possible, I finished my entire syllabus till August end (as it lays a foundation of your preparation). Finishing syllabus means you should know underlying concepts beneath every topic. GATE is an exam which only test concepts(not a rote learning or direct formulas) .
  2. Then revise your subjects on weekly basis(it is most important part of preparation), and practice as much questions as possible, and gateoverflow is indeed best for it, because practicing lot of new questions help in generating a mind that can tackle a new question in GATE
  3. Sometimes days come when you feel very low(like secured very less in test series, not able to grasp some concepts, not able to solve questions, at that time don't loose your will and keep going :)
  4. Never set a mindset, in exam i had a mindset that i have to not touch english questions, after exam i came to know that those questions were very very easy and due to which i was in lost of 2 marks(silly lost).

Finally, all the best to all the aspirants of GATE-2019, Use gateoverflow as much as possible(if you are really aiming for top ranks), have a faith and belief in yourself and that's all that is needed :)

Thank you!

29

I am writing this post not to give any tips about the preparation strategy as it has already been given/will be given by many toppers.

This post is just an attempt to motivate whoever is planning to take a drop.

Last year (2017-18) was a nightmare for me and I know there are a lot more to come as this is what life is! I have faced many hurdles in a short period of time and each of them had broken me from inside.

Background: I have done my graduation from a private college in West Bengal. I was not a very average student in my college. My theoretical as well as practical knowledge was not bad I believe and my gate prep had significant contribution in that. Still was not able to crack the initial rounds of many companies and finally got placed at an MNC which offered pretty low lpa (3.36). I am not being over confident at all but I believed I deserved better than this when I saw some particular students getting higher package than me. But I also knew some students who deserved much better, yet stuck in the same kind of package.  In short I encountered a series of rejections during that time. Nonetheless, I got that one job and had to stay happy with it.

2nd half of 2017: After getting this average lpa I became sad but had to come out of that zone else I would have also ruined the Gate paper. I really worked hard and was dedicated throughout the entire period. I compromised with all kinds of social gatherings, entertainment just to focus on Gate.

Feb, 2018: But…I still ruined it ( 1000< my rank <2000)

I became clueless as what to do next! The final year project kept me distracted from this thought for quite a while but after the final sem got over I realized I had to face the tough reality now!

After Gate there comes an array of tests like ISRO, PGEE, ISI etc.

I filled up their form but totally lost the motivation to study for them. Naturally couldn’t clear ISRO and PGEE but somehow cracked the ISI written but was not selected after the interview.

April-May, 2018: The good part was that I got calls from IIITD and IIT, Mandi for interview. I could clear only IIT Mandi but didn’t wish to go there. 

June, 2018: Now I was getting some lower NITs and state govt colleges. I just didn’t know what to choose.

Whether

  1. Join company and appear for Gate’19
  2. Join a state govt college and appear for Gate’19
  3. Totally take a drop and appear for Gate’19

Then one of my seniors suggested me to join the state govt college (JU i.e. Jadavpur University) and prepare for the next year. The curriculum over there was not hectic so I might be able to balance both of them simultaneously.

On the other hand, rejecting a job offer was also frightening me from inside. But then after consulting with many experienced people (seniors, cousins…) I realized that it would be really difficult for me to manage job and gate prep simultaneously.

August, 2018: So finally I decided to join JU. It had some strict rules on attendance which supposedly had started from that year only. I soon realized that if I had to abide by their rules of attendance, I can’t give proper time to my prep. Each day was difficult for me in the beginning. I used to cry from inside thinking about what was happening to me. Why was it happening to me when I genuinely tried a lot for Gate’18!

I literally didn’t know where I was heading to! 

After attending JU for 2 months with a lot of gaps in the middle I decided to leave it! Thankfully my family was very supportive about it.

 I talked to our coordinator and he advised me to concentrate on Gate prep only else I would lose it again! I didn’t expect such cooperation from a college which I was planning to leave :P

Nov, 2018: I totally left JU. I decided not to appear for the semester exams there.

I fully concentrated on Gate’19 prep, participated in the discussions on Gateoverflow which has immensely helped me in clearing many concepts!

But then everything should be done within limits. I felt that I was spending too much time here and less on my actual prep. I tried to get over the addiction and was able to do it after days of trying .You cannot suddenly stop it. In order to stop, you have to reduce it first.

I have extreme exam fear for which I took CBTs and also took many mocks at home. CBTs helped me realize that I have to practice waking up earlier as I felt sleepy during the CBT :P  

Finally the D-day came. The Apti questions were pretty easy. Then the 1 mark questions were also easy. I felt very confident from inside. But when the 2M questions came, I started getting nervous when I had to leave 5-6 questions at a stretch (I marked them for review). Still, the nervousness was not like the one which I felt during Gate’18. I proceeded and did all those questions which I could in the 1st scan. Then I returned to the questions which I had marked for review.

I could solve some of them. I solved a total of only 51 questions in this easy paper as I wasted my time over analysing some easy questions as tension of getting –ve marks engulfed me.

According to me this year’s paper was not really well set as it didn’t really test some core concepts.

Anyway, I secured AIR 308 ( marks: 68, GS:777, cat: Gen) and took admission in IITG Mtech CSE.

Some imp tips:

  1. Never fully trust someone during preparation. Be self-dependent and don’t rely on others to get information. You might be misled.
  2. Some will say stuffs like “I have prepared for only a month”, “I am appearing for Gate only because I have filled up the form”. Try to stay away from these Big liars (Some of these people might be genuine but most of them are not).
  3. Always participate in the discussions on GO but within a limit :P
  4. Don’t avoid studying from books. I hated reading books but had to do it to enhance my knowledge. It was tough initially but later I started enjoying it when I began to know new things from book. If there is time constraint, then study the imp topics only.
  5. Test series marks might not be a deciding factor of your actual Gate performance, but to clear your concepts and widen your knowledge, GateBook and Gateoverflow tests should be taken and for increasing speed Made Easy tests are good.

Token of THANKS:

Firstly many many thanks to Arjun Sir. Gateoverflow’s contribution was immense!!!

I enrolled to the GATEBOOK online video lectures during my Gate’19 prep. It has helped me a lot to understand some really important concepts. I would like to thank Kiran Sir and his team for this.

My family, friends have been a constant source of motivation.

I would like to mention some people whose participation in this forum was of great significance. 

Prashant Sir, Digvijay Sir, Soumya, Shaik Masthan, srestha Magma, Mk Utkarsh, Arvin, Somoshree, Headshot, Prince Sindhiya and all the veterans. It’s been a while since I have participated in any discussion here so I might be forgetting names of some important people. Please pardon me for that. Last but not the least thanks to my elder sis Trishna and my parents for supporting me throughout the journey… :)

30

Reading the past year’s toppers testimonials on GO and thinking whether I will be able to perform well and be an example for future aspirants always seemed to be a motivating factor for giving my best, and now this feeling is totally magical. I am Tejasvi Sharma, a BE CSE 2018 graduate from UIET, PU, Chandigarh, managed to climb up from 4 digit rank(1707) in Gate-18 to 2 digit rank(78) in Gate-19. Joined an abc coaching for last year’s attempt but was not satisfied by the performance last year. Thought of giving an attempt with Job for the next year. Got motivation from my senior who also achieved the same feat there. About the preparation strategy, the best thing is planning beforehand and creating a roadmap for the journey that lies ahead. The best resources available for study are the standard textbooks by the renowned authors and not the local books being used in the college or at other institutes. If you have plenty of time to read every book at least twice or thrice then it is best , but if you lack time then only go for video classes but that too for only some of the subjects and book should be read at least once in that case too. Just like people usee to open instagram, facebook  I used to open https://gateoverflow.in/activity for the recent activity and happenings on GO, daily at least 4-5 times. You have any doubt be it a previous year question or any xyz coaching material question, the moment you search the key term in GO , you will find the same already answered most of the times and that too by the likes of veterans including @Arjun sir, @Bikram sir , @Shaik sir ,@Sreshta mam and many more. Really also  appreciate the efforts of GO team in keeping the past data admission responses, result responses, cutoff ,interview experiences  and revision slides and discussions done by  @Arjun sir and there are many more. Not to forget the GO testing platform which is available 365 days 24/7 and gives real experience for the past year examinations. As has been rightly said ‘Those who sweat more in training bleed less in war’ so give good quality tests by joining a decent test series and try to learn from the mistakes and constantly aim for improvement. Also there is no shortcut to success so yeah one has to invest a lot of time for the same and there is no substitute for that. Thanks GO for everything..

 

 

31

I am Shreyansh Jain, a B.Tech CSE 2018 graduate from a tier-3 college, managed AIR-86 in GATE-19 with two months of dedicated preparation.


This post might help people who messed up their exam or could not held their nerves on the D-day. I will try to pin point everything wrong I did while preparing last year. Before that I would like to thank everyone who has contributed in the making of GO book and Arjun sir especially for all his selfless efforts to make this platform and bringing all aspirants under one roof.


After GATE 2018, I was looking for an answer to the question “Should I drop completely / or continue preparation with job / or focus on Job entirely?” having scored AIR 323.  As I got placed in a product based company so I thought I can continue preparing with job. But frankly speaking, preparation with job is a myth atleast in a start-up cultured product based company. It will only build pressure as there's no such thing as multi-tasking – just doing lots of things badly. So I decided to quit in mid November, luckily my company had provision of leave with LOP provided I should rejoin in mid-January (PS: I am still employed and working, will resign soon :D). All I had were two months to revise everything and practice. I planned to dedicate 2-3 days for revision of each subject with subject tests to check I wasn’t missing important concepts. It took me three weeks to revise all subjects except Maths and Discrete. For Maths and discrete I took few more days. After this I gave full tests only in the 2nd month of my preparation which included past year tests, made easy test-series,tests by @rituraj and @bikram sir.

Mistakes I rectified :

  • Gave full tests in single sitting of 3 hours (earlier used to shut the window to take break and later resume)
  • Referred GO book and following thread discussion for doubts clearance (used some other resource last year)
  • Made use of options like “Not Answered” and “Mark for Review” to prioritize order of solving problem based on difficulty level
  • Mentally prepared myself not to get panic by looking at some alien problem (test by @rituraj helped)

Blunders I made :

  • Ate something non-sense night before exam, woke up with headache
  • $225 \times 4 =1000$, might cost me with IITB

All the best to future aspirants. Prepare well without thinking about results. 

Thank you :)

32
Huge thanks to GO and the community for making a dream come true!

My GATE 2020 marks were 42 and my preparation was also not up to the mark. So I decided to drop out and give my best for Gate 2021 and in the process decided not to take any online Coaching. I Completed GO PDF 3 to 4 times during my preparation which helped in boosting my confidence. Also, a huge thanks to the GO Test Series community. The level of the questions was just perfect to push myself just a little more to get more marks. Slowly but eventually, I saw myself grow from 30 to 75-80% marks. I was hoping to get the same result in the main exam and thankfully i got 71.67 marks(after normalization). Thank you GateOverflow!

-Mayank Sati, AIR 34
33

Words would fall short to express how much thankful I am to GO for the helping hands that the wonderful users of this site had extended to me to enable me land up at AIR 116 in GATE CS 2019 in the very first attempt. I am currently pursuing my Btech in 4th year. Thank you @Arjun Sir , @Bikram Sir to come up with such a wonderful site and always helping fellow aspirants like us. Though this isn’t such an impressive rank, but behind the scenes, there were countless number of sleepless nights and lot of struggle and hard work which got all the recognition today because of GO.

I would personally like to thank my best friend @Manas Kumar Mishra for picking me up at times when I was low..for motivating and inspiring me to the extent that enabled me to carry on my preparation till the last minute. I can’t express my gratitude in words..There are certain emotions that cant be expressed in words..:)

Also, I would personally like to thank @Shaik , @MiniPanda , @Magma for helping me endlessly to clarify my doubts. Thank you so much :)

My GATE journey has been described here: https://www.quora.com/profile/Somoshree-Datta

 

34

I am a Final Year Electronics and Telecommunication student with a decent AIR of 242 in my first attempt with 5 months and 15 days of dedicated studying.

 

Let me start from the top - 

I was planning to apply for masters in the US and infact gave my GRE and TOEFL as well. I wanted to do my masters in Computer Science but being an electronics student the only way I could apply was via ECE branch and take additional credit courses, but any ways coming to the point during my internship while browsing through top colleges for masters in India I stumbled upon Ravi Shankar's blog ( AIR-1 2015) and his journey from changing his branch from Mechanical to Computer Science, that is where I got to know IIT's allow students to apply to any field.

So I started my preparation for computer science from scratch from August. I read through all preparation strategies from toppers I tried to build my own plan from that.This where Gateoverflow helped me THE MOST !! . I read through every possible answer of Arjun Sir on Quora and Gateoverflow ( I literally stalked him :P ) and after I came back from my internship in August , I studied (10 Gate Subjects + 5 Semester Subjects) in 6 months time.

The one thing I really grasped from Arjun Sir's blogs was to be Conceptually Clear in everything you solve, the every why and how matters.So my aim in this little time was not to solve as much as possible but rather understand the why in every question I solve. Bikram Sir also helped me alot in the last crucial months of my preparation. 

So, From stumbling across Ravi Shankar's blog , Stalking Arjun Sir, Maintaining 93% attendance in college , getting my heart broken (story for another time :P ) and passing my semester exams in these 6 months. I couldn't have even qualified if Gateoverflow wouldn't have been there. So a BIG THANK YOU To All OF YOU !!

I could have scored more ( lost 6.67 marks to silly mistakes) but then again every other person reading this blog feels the same way. So that's just makes it Fair :)

If I could score a decent rank against all odds. So can you. DO NOT GIVE UP till the time you come out of the Examination Hall.

AIR - 242 

 

35
Thank You GATEOVERFLOW!!!. Finally after an year of hardwork, I got AIR-152 in gate CSE-2021. All the questions and doubts I had were cleared in Gateoverflow site , leaving no doubts .

And , Your RANK-PREDCITOR is next level .

                                        GO-Predictor Showed :   Rank – 130-160  , and Score = 820.6

                                        Actual Result  :                Rank – 152           and Score = 820

One can totally rely on Gateoverflow.

They have got some free stuff that You cannot get anywhere else, Eg:- All previous years paper questions and solutions, TOP-level Practise Tests , etc.

 

 

 

Once Again Thank You all @arjun sir @GATEOVERFLOW_TEAM.
36
I would like to thank you all for helping me achieve this dream.

This was my first attempt.
I did my B.Tech in CSE and graduated in 2016. I was working in TCS and simultaneously preparing for GATE. Gateoverflow content made my concepts stronger as I progressed.

Towards the end I started enjoying re-reading the solutions (even for the questions which I marked correct while practicing) only because of the perfect way they were answered. How to tackle a question from all possible scenarios, making use of every word in the question, etc are what I learned from this site.

Kudos to the team, I've already resigned from the company as I already knew I'd be in top 100 (my predicted rank was 71-97).

The rank predictor kept me and my dad on an adrenaline pumped journey since a month now. I'm not there in Facebook, so my dad used to ask questions/comment regarding the rank predictor in GATECSE FB group and sometimes Arjun sir used to reply. My dad became an active member of the group towards the end.

Because of you all and my family's support I could be in top 100 and now am looking forward to the next big turning point of my life.

My younger brothers have also started preparing for GATE and I've asked them to refer to this bible called "Gateoverflow" for their practice sessions and doubt clearance.

Thanks & Regards,

Abhishek Varma
37

Without this platform and the people behind it working tirelessly to maintain its quality (including all the good people in the FB group), I would not have been able to succeed. I’m not the typical applicant – I graduated in 2014 and have 5+ years of product startup experience. I had to start preparation from scratch in 2019, and by scratch, I really mean from zero – I graduated with CS BTech from tier 3 and my CS background was nowhere close to the level needed by IITs. Thanks to Bikram Ballav’s “what to read” series, I could even begin to build the necessary background for GATE. I really enjoyed studying computer science and it gave me an enlightened perspective on my past work experience as well (a lot of things clicked!).

I took GATE the second time this year, managed to scrape by with a rank of 658 and gave the MS interviews at Bombay and Madras, and cracked Bombay (Madras results pending as of now). Getting Bombay was especially sweet after I thought I had bombed the interview. My initial goal was IISc CSA research and I did not clear its cutoff, but I don’t feel so bad about it right now.

I will probably add much more detail to my journey in a different post. All I know is that I will cherish this journey for a lifetime.

Thank you, GO.

PS: The resources I used are listed here.

38
Hey friends and all the aspirants of GATE 2018

I SUMIT KUMAR GUPTA,  AIR 88 In Gate 2017,  wants to share some of my experience, the flavour of my journey to all of you.

Friends first of all best wishes for all of you to opt the way to crack GATE. Really this decision would lead you to reach your dreams soon.

I also chose the same like you in 2015 , when I was in 3rd year.  I was not much aware of so much thing so I joined coaching but in final year when I wanted a trusted and helpful guidance and material for self study, soon, I came to know the MOST AMAZING AND TRUSTABLE source of preparation that is GATEOVERFLOW. yes, friend, it is no doubt best place to prepare.

you all come across a plenty of doubts and confusion during study or revision where you need some trusted and easily available source to whom you could believe and follow, friends at that time no other thing except GATE OVERFLOW would be better.

here you only needs to type your question there are so many brilliant and experienced minds to help you at the instant . and in most of the cases, your doubt would be already there with a good solution.

So dear aspirant if you are taking benefit of this platform no need to shift to other places just follow this one.

beside website doubt content, you must join FB group to get updates and queries of people in your news feed so that it make you scroll some beneficial material with your entertaining FB time.

and please don't forget to take its 2-3 test at last time to judge you and boost you before final battle because you will find a different type of question set here that will be available nowhere.

SO ALL THE BEST GUYS............ KEEP PRACTISING & KEEP LEARNING .......
39

Hello everyone . My name is Ayush Tripathi . I have secured AIR 56 in GATE 2021 . In begining of year 2020 I found Gateoverflow . It is a place where i am sure all the top rankers were in months of their preparation . I want to thank Arjun Sir for creating this great platform . Sir you have blessing of all those who wanted to explore GATE CS . 

From starting of my preparation for every previous year questions and other TIFR , ISRO problems only place I find perfect was GO . People here are so great and awesome . every comment , every answer just create a new perspective towards the problem . I never answered any question on GO till now . But I am very grateful to this community and I will be continuing to help students . Because you should pass what you learn thats how knowledge sail through generations .

To all students who are going to prepare I am suggesting few points which one should consider ---

(1) See if you get very low marks in test series . Please don’t stop giving tests . You should continue giving tests . You should revise questions which you did wrong .  And never get disappointed by test series results . Try to buy a test series which contains tough questions . Because I have seen some test series which were having very easy questions and students solve them only which was not sufficient for tough paper like this year . 

(2) Try to solve previous year at least two times .

(3) Take mathematics seriously . While preparing for maths you will automatically be ready for aptitude section . 

(4) Try to give full length tests to learn how to manage pressure and time . This year managing pressure became hardest thing because of toughness of paper . So I would suggest you to give as many as full length tests as you want .

(5) Try to prepare notes in such a way that during last days of your preparation you can easily revise things . Don’t try to make bulky notes (if you are not in offline coaching) . Because that will make your revision tough .

(6) There will be times when you have self doubts . Try not to think that much . If you prepare well you will definately end up good .

Lastly I am thankful to Arjun Sir and all those who answered so well . 

Praggy app was also very accurate in predicting rank and score . GO answer key was accurate and whatever assumption made about challenging questions was also very accurate .

On whole internet you can’t find something as perfect as gateoverflow . 

Thank you !

40

Hello everyone,

I got AIR 302 in GATE 2017. So, here's my GATE journey and experience on this awesome community.

I was introduced to GATE Overflow last year by one of my friends who is doing M.Tech in IIT Kanpur. It was around the time when IISc Bangalore released the answer key for GATE 2016, and everyone was predicting their rank in the GO App. Yes, 2016 was my first attempt, and I got AIR 3935 in that. Once I predicted my rank, I knew what was coming, and decided to drop an year and reappear next year.

My Preparation: I had a habit of reading textbooks during semesters. While the rest of my friends read the University Question Bank before exams, I used to read textbooks. So, I had finished majority of the textbooks (Galvin for OS, CLRS for Algorithm, some part of Forouzan for CN etc) during B.Tech itself. But I was not motivated to take GATE. As a result, I didn't practice anything, didn't take mock tests and simply went for GATE 2016. The result was a 4 digit rank.

I started my GATE 2017 preparation from 2nd April, 2016. This time I focused more on practice. Since, I had read some textbooks already during B.Tech, I didn't read them again. Instead, I filled up the blanks in my preparation from online lectures, NPTEL, Ankur Gupta notes etc. I finished my syllabus by September end. During the last 4 months, I solved all previous GATE questions thrice, and attempted mock tests to master time management skills and accuracy.

Exam Day: I got Set-1. One thing I learnt from the test series is not to panic on stressed situations. It worked for me. But since Set-1 was a bit tricky, my attempts were low (47/65) because I spent some extra time on few questions (like RSA Algorithm question).

Its okay, everyone cannot get into top 100. But I had learnt few lessons that day.

My GateOverflow Learnings: I started using GATE Overflow full fledged from October. I used to post my doubts (maximum silly, a few very good) and got answers within hours. One of my problems initially was that I couldn't take criticisms. So, whenever someone downvoted my answers/comments, I used to hide those (There is a Hide option for everything you post). GateOverflow gradually helped me in overcoming my that problem, and I am thankful to the members for the same.

Thank you Arjun Sir, for your so precise explanations. Thank you Bikram Sir, for your support. And I didn't wish to write a blog (because I was a bit disturbed because of my rank. A little better would have kept me on a safe side). Thank you Bikram Sir, for motivating me yesterday to write it.