Most viewed posts in Preparation Advice

There are a lot of failures in GATE. 100s of people in top 1000 in GATE prepared by self and approximately 3000 CSE students are in the top 2 GATE coaching centers for CSE alone (contributing about 200-400 in top 1000) and about 4000+ in online courses (contributing about 50-100 in top 1000). If we count all those who took coaching this number will be around 15,000-20,000 and out of these more than 97% failed to get to top 1000. Why is this and who is responsible for this? The one man who is primarily responsible for this is Mr. Isaac Newton.

Now if you do not know what he did, this is what he said

Every body continues to be in its state of rest or of uniform motion in a STRAIGHT LINE unless an EXTERNAL UNBALANCED force acts on it

And due to this almost all GATE aspirants continue in their motion in a straight line without checking if it is correct or not. A few of them who are in good path become toppers. Hardly or almost 0 manages to change their wrong line during their preparation. A few of them do this after GATE when the GATE result acts as the EXTERNAL force. In stead if they use the available previous year papers and other mock tests to evaluate themselves and study from standard text books, some years can be saved. I don’t think this post will act as an external force, still I’m posting for my self satisfaction.

What each person must do is specific to him/her and in India where we have 100s of varieties of people coming from different backgrounds there is no universal way of preparation. Still some of the typical mistakes are as follows:

1. Not following Cormen and Rosen. These two books are a must for GATE CSE aspirants. Again, GATE CSE portions are only a small part of these books and you can focus only on those.
2. Mathematical Logic – You must understand first order logic in the proper way and not use some short cut to get to answer. Because this may not work for GATE and this topic is relevant in answering many other topic questions too. 
3. Ignoring Verbal Ability – Like for above Verbal Ability is crucial in answering many of the CSE questions as well. You do not need to be like Shashi Tharoor but must be at least as good as Virat Kohli in Verbal Ability. 
4. Blind following – Unfortunately our current generation is trained to do blind following and always asking for questions like “Please tell me what to do, etc”. Instead you should be strong enough to identify your mistakes and take outside help only when strictly needed. 
5. Solving only those questions which are in your comfort level – this is fine if the comfort level covers >95% of the questions. Otherwise, please switch to some other exam preparation.

Hi guys, I am Arathi Nair M. This is my second attempt in GATE (CSIT)- 2021. In GATE (CSIT) 2020, I got AIR 11966 with 30 marks and in GATE (CSIT) 2021, I got AIR 306 with 60.6 marks. This might not be much, but I hope it is good enough to get into a good college.

Feel free to scroll down to resources and advice if you don’t want to go through the whole journey.

If I can, anyone can!!!

A Little About Me

I am a B.Tech (Hons.) graduate in Electronics & Communication Engineering(ECE) (2016-2020) from College of Engineering Trivandrum(CET), a government college in Kerala. In my school days, the subjects I loved the most were CS and Maths and so was planning to do B.Tech in CSE. But since I got admission in ECE in the best government engineering college of my state, I ended up deciding to do my M.Tech in CSE.

GATE 2020

I don’t remember when or from where I heard about GATE exam. Somehow, I came to know about it and realized, I will have to write GATE if I want to do M.Tech. But what I didn’t know then was, I could write GATE CSIT instead of GATE ECE. I thought I could get admission in M.Tech CSE only by writing GATE ECE. So stupid of me… I know… haha.

In short, I started my GATE preparation in ECE. But thankfully, I realized that I can write GATE CSE around the time GATE 2020 application form was out and obviously, I decided to write GATE CSE. But, by that time, it was placement season and I got placed in a product-based company and as expected I relaxed and decided to work for one year and then join M.Tech. So, I took GATE CSE preparation too lightly. Basically, I decided to write GATE 2020 as a confidence booster.  I borrowed books from my friends, and studied the easy subjects including digital logic, DS, Logic and a bit from TOC, CN, DBMS and Algorithm. That was pretty much my whole preparation for GATE CSIT 2020.

GATE 2021

As the first step, I decided to enroll in a coaching and joined ACE Deeplearn. It had recorded classes and I thought I can watch them whenever I feel like and also if I join the company (which I didn’t), I won’t miss any classes. I joined Deeplearn in May 2020, but got a bit busy that I started my preparation only in June (And in between at times I didn’t prepare when I needed long breaks). I started watching lectures and writing notes. Here I would like to mention my first mistake.

“I concentrated more on finish watching the videos and far too less on doing more questions and in all subjects except one or two I didn’t solve questions other than those in lectures at that time.” Mistake 1

I started with subjects that were easy for me. This was a trick to boost my confidence, I guess. And I prepared Engineering Maths and Discrete Maths in between technical subjects. After a point, I realized I remember only a few things I studied until then and I didn’t have a short note to revise from. This was my second mistake in the initial stage of preparation.

“I didn’t make short notes in the initial stage of my preparation.” Mistake 2

The best thing about making short notes is on writing it again, it stays in mind for longer and if proper revision is done, one will remember those concepts for a life time. I started preparing short notes (even though my short notes are long, thankfully not as long as original notes) after finishing around 2-3 technical subjects and also a few topics from maths. Here starts my third mistake.

“I neglected revising many subjects until the last few days before the exam, which ended up in me not being able to revise all subjects before exam and this panicked me and I lose a few marks from well known topics.” Mistake 3

Basically, I listened to lecture, note down everything and made short notes then started another subject and continued this pattern. In case, I feel bored while studying a specific subject, I either took break for a few days or start a new subject which piques my interest. It is really important to feel fresh when one decides to sit and study.

“Started being lazy for some time as I had only around 4 subjects to finish” Mistake 4

This mistake costed me to lose marks from 3 subjects. I ended up not studying half or even more than half the syllabus of three subjects.

After being lazy for some time, I decided to do previous year questions(pyq) and questions from ACE workbook. For this, I prepared a timetable and tried to follow it. But making a time table never worked for me till date and as expected, this time too it didn’t work for me. I like to take days off when I am not in a mood to study and also when making timetable, the habit of pushing me to do far more than what I can take, didn’t help me in following the time table. I consider this as my fifth mistake.

“Not making realistic timetable” Mistake 5

Even after failing to make a realistic timetable, I did a fairly good number of questions mostly pyq except for a few subjects. For the rest of the subjects, questions solved in class were the only practice I had.

The thing I am sure I did right is that while doing questions, even when listening to lectures, I tried really hard to find answers myself and only then checked their solution and learnt it too if they used a different method. I might end up not getting the answer or while checking I end up finding a far easier solution but I never let it discourage me. This is one of the most important habit, which helped me get this rank even when I did so many mistakes.

After this I did one of the four subjects, I didn’t yet cover the syllabus of. By that time (Dec last week or Jan first week) I realized that I forgot to make short notes for 2 to 3 subjects I covered and also that I didn’t yet do test series except for two. In those test series, I got only 49 marks each. I decided to not study anything new anymore. Even though, I had studied a bit of the remaining three subjects, I didn’t finish them. I chose to make short notes while revising over studying new things.

In between making short notes I did a few test series. I attended test series from ACE Academy, free tests conducted by Gradeup, pareeksha series of unacademy and did two or three previous year question papers. But I could find the marks of only two of them and as far as I remember, I got less than the lowest mark I mentioned below in previous year question paper in the third one.

Test Series Marks

ACE Academy:                 Lowest: 49          Highest: 63

Gradeup:                          Lowest: 50          Highest: 56

Pareeksha:                      Lowest: 48          Highest: 62

Previous year paper:      Lowest: 53          Highest: 56

“I didn’t even bother to analyze the questions which went wrong while attending test series.” Mistake 6

I didn’t analyze those questions thinking I don’t have enough time. But I now know that is a stupid excuse. Moreover, what happened was I lost confidence and decided to take no more test series. Stupid move but still a wise move as I was not analyzing where I went wrong and was simply taking tests. I recommend gate aspirants to not lose confidence at any point of time. Working hard is the only solution to success.

Once I stopped giving test series, the only thing I did was revision. I watched YouTube videos of Gradeup. I watched selected playlists of them along with some other videos which I thought I should watch. Along with this I revised my short notes, except for some portion as I said earlier. But the effect of low marks in test series stayed with me, and my confidence level was pretty down.

Exam Day

I was pretty nervous. As I said earlier, I decided not to join the company, and it added to the nervousness. I was afraid if I lose one year for nothing and so on. I wanted to give the best but these thoughts made me so nervous and actually affected my marks.

“Being nervous during the exam hours.” Mistake 7

Being nervous, I did silly mistakes in few questions which could have been easily avoided otherwise and thus, losing the chance to get a rank within 100. But if I be honest, after my exam, mainly due to my nervousness I guess, I thought I did my exam very poorly and is not going to get good marks.

Resources

• ACE Deeplearn Lectures
• Gradeup YouTube videos
• A very few videos from other YouTube channels

Advice for Future Aspirants

• Believe in yourself no matter what. You are the best. Never let anything or anyone take away your confidence. Work hard for what you dream.
• If you are planning to make a time table, make a realistic one which will not tire you. Find out what is best for you.
• Don’t neglect aptitude and maths. They are really scoring areas.
• Solve questions related to the portions you cover. Try solving it yourself before checking the solution. Check the solution even when you get the answer correctly, you might be able to learn a new method.
• Make short notes and revise it regularly. Regular revision is a must and short notes makes it easier. Don’t neglect a subject from revision totally just because you know that subject well enough.
• Never procrastinate. Try finishing the portions as early as possible.
• Do as much test series as possible but never let the marks make you feel underconfident or overconfident.
• Analyze every test series you attend. Dedicate the time after test series to analyze your mistakes. Read the short notes from that portion and if you are making mistakes in that portion repeatedly, read notebook or even standard text books if needed.
• Be calm on the exam day. Take deep breaths. Believe in yourself. Don’t waste too much time on lengthy problems. You can come back to it after the first round of answering questions.
• Don’t just read this article, but do not repeat the mistakes I did during my journey.

All the best!!!

Conclusion

I thank Almighty, my family, friends, teachers from ACE Academy and Gradeup for helping me in achieving this rank.

Hope this article is helpful. I might not have the best rank but still feel free to ask in case you have any doubts regarding preparation.

Thanks for reading

Arathi Nair M

I have been getting many emails/messages about preparation advice. So, thought of adding some more points. Previous blog was more about what not to do for preparation. Here I'm going to reply to many of the FAQs I'm getting.

• I have covered all previous GATE questions, what to do next?

I'm surprised to see many people asking this. I have not done this even after more than 2 years here though I'm not a full time GATE aspirant. Anyway just to point out what you might have missed - these are the corrections which have been made for the answers here and corrections being made usually denote the questions was more confusing. Did you find these errors while preparing? If not why?

Many people are used to reading listening to a teacher and studying. Such people can even top University exams in India but wont do well in GATE. Why? Because GATE is one exam which tests the thinking ability of students and hence unless one thinks, he/she won't do well in GATE. So, for each question think why any given answer is correct, what else can be possible answer, how can that question be modified and asked again etc. That is, by solving 1 question, effectively solve 10 questions.

• Which test series to take?

I have already answered this many times. Of the popular ones my strict advice is to avoid ACE test series as they put so substandard questions which makes even low level placement tests to shame. Remember solving good questions gives +ive mark for GATE and solving bad ones give -ive marks.  Also, I see that many technical questions in many test series are having grammatical errors in test series - this is indirectly going to loose you marks in Verbal Ability. So, why even take any test series? One needs to do some full length practice before GATE - for this full length previous year papers are sufficient if you have kept some unsolved. Even for subject wise preparation follow previous GATE questions followed by text book (of course standard) exercises. Then if you need ask our daddy - Google. For any subject he gives links to good resources. For example: http://www.google.co.in/?gws_rd=ssl#q=sliding+window+protocol+practice+questions

In the above query avoid giving "gate" etc. as they might take you to gate blogs usually written by gate aspirants/coaching institutes and are of poor quality. You should know the top universities in world and even the question formatting tells you how good a question maker is.

• Bad in Aptitude

To be true, if one is bad in Aptitude he/she cannot clear GATE. But aptitude does not really mean scoring 90% above in placement tests or practicing 100s of distance/time, work/pay examples. Aptitude means ability to adjust to a new problem and solving them - Well 90% of GATE problems are like that. Only difference in Aptitude Numerical section is usually there is no concept involved or concept is known (supposed to be known) by anyone (like sum to n terms of AP). Also, verbal part tests your English grammar skills and 1-2 questions your vocabulary. Those who practice a lot of test series questions from substandard places can almost forget most of the verbal ability marks.

In any place 20% do good things, 20% do bad things and 60% follow what the boss does

So, for GATE preparation, one has to be in the good "20%". I'm sure you are not in bad "20%" as then you would not have taken time to read this. So, if you are in "60%" time to jump to "20%".

• How to do this?

This is about self improvement. First you should have a clear mapping of GATE syllabus in your brain (remove the page frame allocated for some question and replace it with GATE syllabus). Then analyze what types of questions are expected from each - can you do them with confidence etc. For the weak ones, do special care - mostly by re-reading standard text books, standard notes, asking experts. 

• CO is hard for me

Well this is my area really. Still, I have to say some of the CO questions in GATE should not have been asked as the difficulty level is way above the other questions. In IITs/IISc. also this happens where both difficult and easy course have same credits. So, as a smart person, one should concentrate on easy ones. See CO is my area- that shows I'm not smart but that was my decision to take it - also shows most people in this area are crazy :) Anyway there are some simple, typical problems like finding the number of tag bits, cache access times ,simple cases of memory access time with VM (OS combined) etc. Do these questions from previous year GATE and standard books (STRICTLY AVOID COACHING material questions here unless they have copied from standard sources). Also as I told earlier those working in CO area are crazy- if they make a tough question for GATE, it is better to leave them and concentrate on others as usually reading and understanding such long question takes 5+ minutes at least, then solving takes 1+ and many times, wrong calculation gives you negative marks in end. So, unless question in this area is typical my advice is to "SKIP" it while taking GATE- because maximum 1 such question will be there. During preparation based on your time, you can solve even the hard ones- I guess I have solved/verified all questions in this area from previous GATE and 95% they are correct though many of them contradict with answers given elsewhere.

• TOC

Some people or most people find TOC also tough. Actually TOC is more tough than CO and if tough questions are asked no one can really answer them in GATE. But the difference is that rarely happens or never really happen - 1-2 only in whole GATE history. Most times, they are simple to solve and won't take time also. But it is like maths- understanding concept and applying is necessary. Not like history- where you can copy paste from your RAM. One advice is - never attempt learning decidability etc. before doing set theory in Discrete Maths. Also, do see Rice's theorem portion as it works for 90% of decidability problem and if one understands it that shows he/she has aptitude level even to get AIR 1 in GATE. In short my advice is to give more importance to TOC as those who cover it can expect to get 80-100% of the questions correct in GATE. Also compare the decidability answers given on this site with else where and you can know the main reason why we started GATE Overflow. 

• Bad in Maths

Well, you should be good in probability and set theory. Otherwise even other subjects are at risk. Graph theory is also important - in algorithms. Then, for GATECSE most of the Maths questions can be predicted- see previous year questions and you can know the type of questions to be asked. Please do not ask me this - because my eye sight is not better than yours and I'm no expert in Maths.

 

GATE usually never checks the depth of knowledge - this happens in IISc/IIT Research interviews - but the correctness of the basic understanding and the aptitude of applying what you know.

If you cannot explain what you understood in simple words, it means you have not understood it

 

Since many people avoid this I say again:

I have told to keep test series to minimum level - but not to stop solving problem ON OWN. This is very very important.

 

Hello Guys,This is **** Who started my gate preparation at the start of the 5th semester.I Initially followed RBR lectures blindly.Even though i don’t say it as bad, But it alone don’t suffice and there are many mistakes in his videos in some topics.Some of the concepts are taught wrong.I didn’t even knew this until I got into Gateoverflow. Another mistake I made is buying Madeeasy testseries.It contains a vast number of Errors in questions and It can impact your concepts as well.

Trust me guys If you really want to get into top 100 ,Don’t consider coaching institutions test series seriously.

The Biggest mistake I ever made while gate preparation is not revising periodically.Even though I know some subjects very well,I frequently forgot the remaining one’s due to the proper lack of revision.I have not given much attention to Maths during my preparation.

One should Periodically revise whatever he learnt , You could plan yourself the revision sessions.BUT REVISION SHOULD BE MUST.

Thereafter My college started from November and Continuously there are exams from november to february (Mid and sem exams of two semesters) My preparation got some impacted due to it.I lost my crucial time in gate preparation.Here comes the D-Day.I kept faith in myself and I got set 2 .Even though I initially found the questions difficult , I found questions can be do-able if one strictly solved previous Year Questions of gate. I started with CS section instead of Aptitude section.some questions are time taking.I failed to manage time.Therefore in last 30 mins ,I need to Solve 20 questions of CS and 15 questions of aptitude.Finally due to tension,I could not able to solve aptitude well(I lost 9 marks in aptitude due to it which were very easy) My total marks went to 40’s. Had I got total marks in aptitude and avoided silly mistakes in CS section according to my set 2, I could have got top colleges.I Shattered my dreams myself.

So I tried to attempt other exams like IIITH PGEEE,BITS HD and ISI.I Didn’t participated in CCMT.

Our family got affected with covid and my uncle died in May(due to covid).I didn’t prepared for a single hour for PGEEE,but somehow i qualified PGEEE and got put in WAITLIST. I Got IIT JAMMU Information Security Branch.I rejected the offer straight away.I waited for the further rounds in IIITH ( : (  Not got selected) ,The only option I got now is BITS HD,Just prepared software Engineering and didn’t even prepared any other subjects.But I still managed to get seat.

Finally I GOT SEAT IN BITS PILANI (GOA CAMPUS) and I took the seat .I Thank Especially Yash Singhal for advice during IIITH and BITS HD.

Everything I learned till today is due to the Gateoverflow be it Algorithms or DS or whatever .Gateoverflow has the best stuff for one to prepare for gate.Arjun Sir used to say that people who can solve the 80% of the paper by themselves can easily be into top 100’s.This is true guys.PYQ IS THE X-FACTOR FOR GATE PREPARATION.

Trust me guys ,Dont run after Coaching Instituions.If you got your concepts well and if you solve every bit in GO PDF and Attempting Previous Year Questions on Daily basis you can score huge guys.I have seen some questions from GO testseries ,Its standard is very good and the questions are very well framed and also the standard one’s..It is your wish to opt for it or not.If you opt for it ,It could be better.But PYQ itself is sufficient guys.Every Year gate paper is loosely based on the modification of PYQ.Even it is the same case with this year’s 2nd set paper(Probably 1st set too).

Long Live,gateoverflow.

NOTE:

IF you are really a serious aspirant ,please refrain from taking Made easy or Ace or RBR series..PYQ ITSELF IS ENOUGH IF YOU ARE SINCERELY PREPARING.

𝐈𝐌𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐓

***AND MY ANOTHER MAIN REASON FOR THIS POST IS ,GUYS IF YOU ARE GETTING GOOD COLLEGE OF YOUR CHOICE DON’T APPLY OTHER COLLEGES FOR BACKUP WHICH YOU ARE UNSURE OF JOINING ,THE RANKS BELOW SUFFER BADLY DUE TO IT. IT IS THE REASON I DIDN’T APPLIED FOR CCMT ,I.E EVEN THOUGH I MAY NOT GET GOOD COLLEGES ,BUT PEOPLE BELOW MY RANK SUFFERS BY DOING SO.IT IS THE SAME REASON I REJECTED IIT JAMMU STRAIGHT AWAY.

MANY PEOPLE APPLIED FOR IITH SELF SPONSORED AND ULTIMATELY DIDN’T JOINED THEM AFTER GETTING ADMISSION.WE PEOPLE SUFFERED DUE TO IT.SO I PLEASE REQUEST THE RANKERS TO THINK ABOUT IT.

Ok, I know that to mug up things in gate is a sin. But still you will agree with me that there are a few points in gate that are definitely worth just digesting. Some known example might be complexities in algo., some formulas in maths like eigen values, Grupoid, Monoid etc., Some closure props. in TOC. etc.

Some topics are there  on which questions are guaranteed && those topics need no concept no mathematics but a very simple knowledge of that -- i.e just and just knowing that.

 

Also, as to do so is shared in numerous gate experiences too. So i would request all kind people here on GateOverflow to share all hat they think is extremely ease and is like- “Marks for Free” → all under one post

We'll all be really grateful.

I have been asked by many aspirants so many times, that how to prepare for GATE with a full-time job or how to manage the time? I hope the following short video of less than 4 minutes will answer your all the questions

 

Hello all the future GATE aspirants out there. I will be talking here about some few points regarding GATE and the counseling process post exam.

First of all, lets see how competitive the exam is.
So, here are the marks (out of 100) corresponding to some of the ranks in GATE 2017.

AIR 1 - 86.26
AIR 50 - 73.09
AIR 101 - 69.90
AIR 200 - 65.26
AIR 302 - 62.93
AIR 401 - 61.12
AIR 500 - 59.31

So do you see the competition? All you need is just 4.64 marks to jump from AIR 200 to AIR 100. Or you need just 2.33 marks to jump from AIR 300 to AIR 200. That means you just need to mark one 2 marks question correctly to make a jump of 100 ranks. I think you can feel the competition now. Once you have assured 60 marks in GATE, try to get few more marks, because it is just a matter of 3-4 marks to make a transition from an NIT to an IIT. I am sure you will figure out how to make those jumps of 50-100 ranks, before GATE 2018.

Also, as you see the marks vs rank comparison, you see that there is actually no difference in knowledge between AIR 100 and AIR 200, or between AIR 200 and AIR 400. The difference is made by those 3 hours in the exam hall, where someone does 2 questions correctly more than you, and gets 200 ranks better than you, only because he/she can handle the pressure a little bit better than you.

Next I will talk about the closing rank (not score) in IISc and the top 7 old IITs this year.

• IISc (estd. 1909) - AIR 55.
• IITB (estd. 1958) - AIR 104.
• IITM (estd. 1959) - AIR 167.
• IITKGP (estd. 1951) - AIR 242.
• IITG (estd. 1994) - AIR 321.
• IITR (estd. 2001) - AIR 245 (till 4th round) and 468 (at spot round)
• IITD (estd. 1961) - Based on interview as well as GATE score (70% GATE score and 30% interview). As a result, the closing rank was within AIR 240.
• IITK (estd. 1959) - Totally based on interview. The cutoff to get an interview call this year was GATE score 740 (around AIR 470)

Now, if you look at the closing ranks of IISc and the top 7 IITs for the last few years, you will see the same trend i.e. The seats in IISc and IITB get filled up earlier, followed by IITM, IITKGP and so on. Why is it so? What do students see while choosing a college?

1. Academics - This should be the foremost criteria of choosing your college, but actually students see placement records first before choosing the college. Before choosing your college, try to know about the faculties from the institute website and the areas they are working on.
2. Placements - Students focus on this point more than the other points to choose their college. When you are studying in one of the best engineering colleges in the country, and that too CS, you shouldn't be worried about placements, should you? Placements in IISc/IITs are more or less similar. Only difference is that some 10 companies visit one institute more than the other. Placements in a particular year also depends on the students, market dynamics and a few other factors.
3. Location - Students tend to prefer to choose the college which is near to their home, so that commuting to and fro becomes easier. This factor should be considered only after you have shortlisted your colleges of choice based on academics and research. In my opinion, the worst sufferer due to this factor is IIT Guwahati, due to its location in the north-east, thus being far from most of the other parts of India.                    
4. Herd Following - Though this is not so important compared to the above factors, still it plays an important role in choosing the college. People tend to follow the closing ranks of the previous years and try to select one college over the other. When in dilemma between two or more colleges, they look at the past records and make a decision. One such comparison that I have seen is when people have to choose between IIT Madras and IIT Kharagpur. They simply follow the herd and finally choose IIT Madras.

Some people (not all) try to make their decision based on 'location' and 'herd following'. In my opinion, they should make their decision based on 'academics' first and then based on 'location'.

A small note: I have made all the above points based on my observations. My intention is not to demean any of the IITs or IISc (if anyone feels so). I have just explained the ongoing trends regarding the competition in GATE and what happens after GATE.
Also, the statistics shown above are are based on my collections from various sources. If anybody finds any of the figures in the statistics as misleading, please inform me. I will make the required corrections.

Hello everyone, I am selected for M.Tech Computer Science in University of Hyderabad through CCMT counselling in round 1. Please let me know if it is worth it to do M.Tech from here. How is the faculty and location? I have also given M.Tech AI in UoH as a higher preference but didn't get it in first round. My gate score is 584. I have already dropped a year after b.tech for GATE. Do I have a chance to get M.Tech AI in further rounds?

This is my 3^rd time giving GATE (passed out in 2017). By my own stupidity I did not take any job that i got on campus and now I am suffering from joblessness. Score predictor puts my score in 54 out of 100 which is not enough for IITs and even NITs in good CS M.Tech specialisations. Now I will take the BARC IIITH BITS and ISI examinations along with CMI, But I am not at all confident about even qualifying for interviews. My Lack of quality project works and internships closes my prospects for any jobs. What should I do? I am confident that I can do better next time in GATE but should I go for 1 more year loss or should I take admissions in any other Master courses.

Please advise and need help regarding this. I am extremely sorry for breaking any site rules and problems to those who think this is a waste of time. But this place is my last hope.

 

For those who want to know I messed up in probability questions and in total LOST 16 marks due to my mistakes. I will accept that my preparation in mathematics was not upto par.

 

Please please advise.

only difference between gate and iitjee is that iit jee may be hard but has only 3 subjects mainly, but gate has its own difficulty parameters, ie, remembering all 12 subjects till the end , which really becomes a major issue.

I had three types of notes:-

1. FULL – SUBJECT COPY
2. FULL – SHORT NOTES(In around 3 to 4 A4-pages)
3. MICRO-short notes(in only one A4 page,with only most important points and formulae which you have difficulty to remember)

HERE ON I WILL TELL WHEN AND HOW TO MAKE THEM AND I WILL BE CALLING THEM AS:-  1)NOTE,2)NOTE,3)NOTE RESPECTIVELY.

Once you complete one subject with all 1)NOTES , and start with next subject,it will be ok but once you het till the third subject the one you read at the start will bw almost out of your mind. Same continues on as you proceed with other subjects. 

Solution = 2)NOTES.   As you finish one subject sompletely, make a short notes copy and after solving all prev year ques of that topic, make 2)NOTES out of that subject, in no more than 3-4 A4 pages, as you only want short notes and not another replica of your old notes.

Revising the 2)NOTES is much easier than 1)NOTES,  MY way was after every subject ends, I used to quickly revise 2)NOTES of previous subjects(is say 4 subjects already done, then 3 subjects via fast revision of 2)NOTES, and any one subject of full revision via 1)NOTES) and continue this routine for all subjects one by one, this will help you keep all subjects info in your mind.

ONCE, YOU ARE OVER WITH THE SYLLABUS, NEXT IMP. POINT IS TO REMEMBER ALL FORMULAE,AS           12 SUBJECTS*(100-200)DIFFICULT FORMULAE = nearly 2000 formulae to be remembered(only talking about difficult one, easy one can be more in number).

Solution is 3)NOTES:-   once you have done all subjects , now you will get to know which subjects which part, and which formulae are you laking, Take one A4 or atmax two A4 and write down only the key points in , and where to keep it is, “””PASTE THOSE IN YOUR ROOM’S WALL”’’’’, so that when you wake up early in the morning you first see those points on the wall and just spend next 30 min-1hr, revising all 3)NOTES on the wall. AND you have to do this standing and not laying on the bed. Once you have read all those 3)NOTES you will also see that the sleepiness one have in while waking in morning is also gone as you were standing all the 30-60 min and now, you have no more sleep left, now you can continue whole day with full energy.  I had done me 3)NOTES with such confidence that even without seeing those notes on my wall , i could even mug those formulae like a poem.

 

and at last but not the least, if you want to wake up in the morning, PUT AN ALARM, BUT “NO SNOOZE”, SO THAT YOU WON’T BE HAVING CHOICE TO SNOOZE FOR NEXT 5MIN , BUT ONLY TO WAKE UP.

 

GIVE  Your BEST and You CAN DO IT,

ALL THE BEST.

"Relax, allow the mind to become empty, and surprise yourself with the great treasure that begins to flow from your soul."

―Paulo Coelho.

 

Hi everyone, myself Shubhodeep. I want to address a significant topic that goes unnoticed, Mental health.

The famous quote says, "A sound mind lives in a sound body “. This is the truest line you’ll ever hear. How can you achieve your desired goal when you are unwell.

The most common thing to notice amongst aspirants is peer pressure, lakhs of students go to KOTA every year, but only some thousands are able to get the thing for which they went there, and this results with every coaching present in this universe. During the preparation what happens they get DPP’s, assignments, and Test series. In the initial stages, a student's mind is in the peak and he enjoys doing it, without thinking about the results. As time goes on, when he is not able to see the results he faces mental anxiety and emotional breakdown.

Let's hear a story

Keisuke, Itachi and Kiyoshi started preparing for GATE, 3 of them were batchmates from the same college. Now Keisuke and Kiyoshi are a bit average in their studies whereas Itachi is very good in every subject. Now whenever there is a test Itachi tops every subject, but Keisuke and Kiyoshi nearly manage 50-60%. 

Now Kiyoshi is a weak-willed boy now he faces this  

1. Self doubt
2. Lacks confidence
3. Thinks whether he chose the right path
4. Affects physical Health
5. Affects Relationships and Social Connection

Whereas Keisuke is weak-willed too, but he is somewhat smart, what he does is:

Whenever he feels low, he

1. Listens to Music
2. Goes for a walk
3. Takes a nice nap
4. Goes to play Cricket, Football
5. Watches a movie/ web series
6. Watches anime
7. Discusses his mistakes with Itachi after doing 1 of the above-mentioned points

In real life we all are Kiyoshi, but try to be like Keisuke, just like all of you dreamed of becoming IITians in Higher secondary, think this as another opportunity not the last one. Life is like a sea, its full of endless opportunities. don't make gate your destiny, live in the moment, and you’ll automatically arrive at your destination. I was also average student and faced the same problems as Kiyoshi, but I converted myself to Keisuke and I succeeded.

My suggestions

1. Your mistakes are not proof that you are dumb, they are proof that you lack in certain areas. Those are like potholes on a road, everyone ignores them until accident happens. Be happy that you got to know the potholes to cover up before time.

2. Watch anime/web-series/movies only to divert your mind, do not go to procastination stage, that is harmful again.

3. Try to interact with friends regarding your mistakes, you’ll gain vast ways to solve a single problem.

4. Do not overburden with expectations. Like I need to be AIR 1. set small targets like : My target in mocks tests will be 70, if you get even 55. Be happy, you'll do more good as your progress.

5. Do everything you have to do, but not with ego, not with lust, not with envy but with love, compassion, humility, and devotion. – Shree Krishna(Bhagvad gita).

6. Good sleep is very essential to have at least 6-7 hrs sleep always. When your mind is fresh you can achieve infinity

7. Someone maybe beating you 100 times in life, but if you can land that Knockout punch on D-day you win.

8. You are your biggest enemy, no one I repeat no one can affect your dream, it is up to you to catch up.

9. Just give your 100%, Don’t ever regret that you had the opportunity but you did not utilise it properly. When I went inside the exam hall I had this mindset, without expecting any result, and only due to this attitude everything worked out. Just stay calm.

10. "What if I fall?" Oh but my darling, What if you fly?

"IF YOU WANT YOUR LIFE TO BE DIFFERENT YOU HAVE TO START REACTING TO LIFE DIFFERENTLY “

- Kiyotaka Ayanokoji

 

BARC CSE 25 september online test

1. Evaluate postfix expression.
2. one question on binary tree traversal. Postorder and inorder given, we have to find number of left nodes and right nodes.
3. calculate histogram when pixel and color is given.
4. CAP in software engineering
5. numerical on star,mesh and ring topology.
6. Multicast address of ipv4
7. one question on PCA
8. hexadecimal to ip conversion.
9. calculation of machine epsilon.
10. one question on conflict serializability.
11. arrangement of array after one pass of quick sort.
12. one numerical question on aloha.
13. sql based question on inner join.
14. programming based questions on c and c++
15. compiler design question- subset of lalr,lr.

Truth is one cannot start to study for 13-14 hrs on the very first day. You have to start from a small amount of time for which you are comfortable, Eg→ 5 to 6 hrs daily, day time by time increase your limit. Just remember “21 days RULE” , it always works, ie, any habit can be taken by practising it for atleast 21 days continuously .

I started with 6 hrs daily, which also felt as a burden to me in the start , but after 21 days 6 hrs was seeming too less for me , so in next 21 days i started to study around 9-10 hrs . in about next month it was also not a big issue to study 10 hrs daily . Now, actually 10 hrs is enough for gate . But, as i was in final year, I had less burden from the college and only 2-3 subjects so I thought to increase my limits further,almost upto JEE aspirants, ie , 14 hrs daily , and almost 85hrs+ each week. It was something very difficult to pursue , waking up 6:00 am and going all the way till 12:00 at night. with few breaks in between after every 3 hrs.But again 21 days rule did help me achieve it.

One strategy i followed was work 6 days a week. Reasons:-

1.   14 hrs * 6 = 84 hrs(almost as i wanted)
2.   Leave study completely on sunday , One may think that I am joking, But I myself practised this,Why? Becoz, If you keep working daily your efficiency gradually goes on decreasing, but if you skip one day for rest , your mind would not allow it , and thats waht we want , as just thinking that we are wasting lot of time whole sunday, sleeping and watching TV (only tv an no social media or web series), your mind will release diff harmones for under pressure and by the night you would be so much pumped up for the next day that on monday you would be super ready to start again 14 hrs daily. Just try once the above method, and once without it and then see which prefers you as choose for the best according to your body requirements.
3. But finally, it is better to study 10 hrs with 100% focus than to study 14-15 hrs with  lack of concentration.
4. Lastly , Fix a goal and just say to your mind that you will not accept anything lower. Doing so will atleast fetch you some good things in that range, so just aim big, very big. For my case it was IISC Banglore and ISRO , just seeing their picture also should kept me going. I just wanted to have them in any case, nothing except them were acceptable.I got an injury in my thumb in november and doctor said to stop writting as it may grow even worse , but that was not an option.As said in CHICHHORE Movie “Pain can give you pain If you allow it to do so”.and I had not given it that permission, three months I continued with by injured and painful thumb , least caring about that.
5. Lo and behold, I finally got AIR-152, that day I actually felt the pain in my thumb ;), it was very painful but I was happy as it was the remembrance of my struggle to achieve my goal. I am not sure how long will it take to cure my thumb or would i have to go from some surgery but actually what matters is that I was able to bring a smile and pride in face of parents and family members.

 

--->>>SO IN THE END, IT DEPENDS ON YOU WHAT YOU WANT TO ANSWER:-

ques1) can i get some iit or not??

ques2) Which IIT should i choose among the top ones and which to leave?

                                       IF YOUR MIND SAYS “ A BIG YES” TO THE QUES (2) , THEN YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT TRACK, AND NOONE CAN STOP YOU .

 

 

                                                            ‘’’’’’’’ALL THE BEST TO ALL’’’’’’’’’’.

 

 

Hey Everyone, I am ADITYA currently pursuing M.Tech(CSE) from IIITH have done my B.Tech from IET Lucknow(2020).

First and foremost, I'd like to express my gratitude to my parents for allowing me to do anything I wanted and always support me. Our parents work extremely hard to provide a better life for us. Thanks to all the aspirants on GO, especially Arjun Sir for this beautiful Platform.

When I started for Gate?

I have started my Gate preparation in January 2019 in my third year(6^th semester) and followed one man lecture(not hard to guess) which was available free and blindly following him without knowing that his syllabus is out to dated and till may I was able to give some amount of time to gate and from June i started giving more focus to coding as for placement as most of my batch-mates was doing. In placement Gate Subjects do help me to clear the interview and in August i got placed in 2 companies and then I thought of started seriously and started solving PYQ from GO PYQ BOOK(hard copy) and meanwhile started giving test-series of some coaching-center and my marks were improving which started giving me confidence to perform better in GATE 2020 and I was expecting the similar type of Rank in final exam. I was able to do 80% of my syllabus(I finds COA tough and couldn’t practice much discrete) and on the D-Day I was not able to sleep before exam night(Reason: still not known) and on exam I was unable to perform as expected as there was so much question from COA and I do did many silly mistakes due to which I loose many marks and decided that i will give another attempt 

Another Attempt for Gate 2021

In this my most of the syllabus is already completed and i started while doing Job(6^th month intern+fte) from online course which I bought from my First Salary in April and preparation was going good till October and then work getting lot hectic in Company and I can’t left my Job due to some economic-constraint. In whole November able to study little less than expected and in december work is so much hectic that i could not able to study many days(as due to WFH some days I have to work around 12+ hours) so decided to take medical leave in January and talk with many people who have taken and i just take leave from 16^th January till my gate exam 12^th Feb by mentioning Jaundice to my manager and decided not to reply of any mail,call from him(which is very risky) as my company is not known to give such long holiday and in this time i revise everything and my gave mocks of many coaching and my marks were coming around 70-75 which gave me lot of confidence my lowest marks in any full mocks were 53 something of GO-final mock before 2 days of Gate(It was hard and came to later that 53 is good marks in that even with that marks I got AIR-25). I was expecting Under 100 and was also confidence of getting in that but sometimes you can’t do anything with your luck.

But on D-day again I did many silly mistakes( Due to MSQ I loose many marks) and lost the hope of getting into IIT

due to which I decided I will not be giving any more attempt to gate and I never want to do M.Tech from NIT or New IITs so just filled IIITH form with no expectation.

WHY IIITH?

Just filled the form without any expectation to know Have is my concepts stronger? After having 2021 gate I decided not to attempt Gate as I understand that many times if you didn’t perform on D-Day then whole year preparation is wasted. So to all those who are in same condition IIITH is one best bet for you.

Believe me This line”Congratulations! You have been allotted a seat” still gave me a goosbumps.

What Should be focused for IIITH?

Aptitude- keep preparing as this section will play a major role in your selection. You can go through RS Agarwal book and simultaneously solve questions from Indiabix.

For technical Section just keep revising Gate notes and it will help while in 2021 they also asked 2 coding questions(Basic) because of NO INTERVIEW due to COVID so keep focused on that also(basic questions only) but Only C language will be allowed so make sure you practice in that.

Is IIITH worth if not got the IIT?

Yes, definetly it is among one of the best college for CSE in terms of knowledge as well as placements(similar to IITs or even greater than some old IITs)

This would be one of the best bet for all those who are NOT getting Old IITs (To those who thinking it is expensive? Yes, it is but don’t worry bank will take care easily your whole expenditure) 

Intake is around- 120 with NO reservation so competition is gonna tough.

NOTE: DREAMS DO COME TRUE SO KEEP PRACTITING.

If anyone have any query about IIITH you can ping me https://www.linkedin.com/in/aditya-sharma-71015a160

Schedule for experienced ( CS students, or who knows Algo/DS):

http://gateoverflow.in/?qa=blob&qa_blobid=13198584675035433606

Schedule for beginners:

http://gateoverflow.in/?qa=blob&qa_blobid=15159947004400658583

Some important tips:

1. Gateoverflow pdf is must to be followed. Don't practice from previous 2 years, take them as tests. Mark good ques while practicing. Revision is most important. Toppers do 3-4 times.

2. Atleast take 6-7 full test in Jan. Don't take test in last 3 days. Learn skipping ques.

3. 1 or 2 onsite test will be helpful. Ignore if you have to travel alot to take it.

4. Best motivation is your own daily improvements. Rest are fake or temporary.

5. Luck plays good role. So, do good deeds and earn it.

Which spoon am I talking about? I'll come to it.

A baby crow is pushed out by mother as soon as it grows up. But this rarely happens in humans. The current generation especially is taken care of by parents so much that they do not know anything. Not true for everyone but for many. This is not only true of parents but also teachers. Teachers are forced to spoon feed the students due to pressure. So, in the end students know only to read and by heart notes which fails them when it comes to competitive exams like GATE.

Okay, now most of you are not parents or teachers but GATE aspirants. Still, why are you doing the same mistake to your friends/juniors? Do you think sharing your notes is going to give them a top rank? I also did this during my bachelors and later only realized my mistake. One can learn only by doing it himself. If you have learned, tell others how you did it-- but not what you learned. When you share a resource think if it is going to help others. There was a big demand for handwritten notes on gatecse site and only I objected to it. My point was to only give "quality" resources. Many people won't agree to it, but quality is what it takes to reach top 100. There is no short cut to success- you have to make your brain work and study the hardway. So, rather than giving your notes or shortcuts to your friends/juniors tell them to learn the subjects properly from standard resources as per GATE syllabus and to do previous year questions. Otherwise you are just ensuring that they never reach top 100 - I hope no one is doing this intentionally to reduce competition. 

The spoon I told early does not stop here. Let me ask you some questions:

1. How to apply for MS?
2. How to make an SOP?
3. How to make a resume?
4. How to apply at IIT?
5. How to even fill an application form?

No one is expected to know answers to these, but at 20+ and especially from CSE you all must be able to find answers to these yourself. There is no excuse in giving a resume in doc format -- even science students know to make them in PDF. Never wait for someone to teach you stuffs. Do it yourself with your own hand and not with someone's spoon. Always make you standout from the rest-- even in a resume. When you thrive for excellence you will get help also. Stop using your senior's resume/projects and giving excuse that everyone does it; unless you want to be useless.

You are all CS graduates. This time last year Pragy - who had once failed in B.Tech. made this app - https://github.com/AgarwalPragy/GATE2016_MarksEvaluator which saved the anxiety for CS GATE takers by telling their results a month early- yes he just mocked the GATE results with his programming/analytical skill. He is now in IITB and without knowing anything I can say that he will be topping there. So, instead of worrying about GATE results- which is anyway not going to help, I recommend you to do something useful for you as well as others- but certainly not sharing your preparation materials - because that just takes away people from reaching a top 100.

Rather than giving a fish, teach a hungry man fishing; that will give him food for lifetime

Many of you might be wondering how to prepare for Interviews and though many experiences are already given (Interview experiences) I just wanted to add a few points:

M.Tech. TA Interviews (for CSE this happens in IITD and IITK and IISc CDS/AI) are slightly different from Research ones. They will mainly check your CS skills which include understanding Algorithms, Data Structure, Coding and Aptitude in Mathematics – mainly Probability and Combinatorics.  Coding Interview preparation  and Prepare written interviews major subjects focus questions  should help. 

For Research Interviews it is slightly different. In 1-2 months you cannot do research and most Professors won’t be expecting that. Instead they will check how good your basic understanding is and how you are able to adjust if something different (a twisted question) is given. There is no use in trying to study a lot of questions or concepts because Professors will be at an entirely different level and they can see through you in 1-2 minutes. So, be confident in what you know and what you do not know. NEVER say any blunders. If you have followed standard books – that’s like 50% job done. If you have done coding – that’s another 25%. In most IITs/IISc – Professors struggle to get any good student because current generation is used to spoon feeding and not able to do anything on their own. Those who are watching videos to fill in Application forms – better not go for Research Interviews – there will be no videos telling you how to do it. Somethings you can do as extra are

1. Fix your area
2. Shortlist the Professors working in that area
3. Try to read and understand their work
4. If you have genuine queries you can even contact him/her 

Some of the Research Interviews might have a written elimination round and so preparing for Course program interview is also necessary for those going for Research Interviews. 

In short, if you’re good and useful everyone will want you. Otherwise no one will want you. For GATE, only ranks within 100 or 200 are valued and rest will have to show the worth in Interviews. This is because you should know how difficult it is to get 75+ as compared to 60+. So compete with those above you and become worthy of joining IITs.  

More about Admissions

How many number of questions Gate Toppers attempt in actual Gate Exam and How many marks they do negative?

In case of both Easy or Tough paper. Seniors, Please share your experiences.

Hello all,

Here I am posting some important questions asked in technical interviews by various govt organizations.

Some are from my own experience while myriad number of other questions are shared by other people. You can also add your experiences as comments. I will add them too.

I hope this will help you to prepare better for interviews..

ISRO SCIENTIST SC Computer science

?)  can this equation be solved <tell verbally>?

x+y=5    ;

4x+4y=12;

x+2y+3Z=20 

=============================================

SQRT(170)=13 is it possible?

=============================================

What is difference between RISC and CISC?

=============================================

What is the difference between array and structure code for reversing link list (normal link list not  doubly)

 

 

 

I got AIR 202 in GATE 2020.

I was working while preparing. Many of the GATE applicants will find themselves preparing for GATE while working. I have written a post on some points which I feel will be useful for future aspirants, may be specifically working aspirants.