First of all, I would like to thank my parents for giving me the freedom to do anything, especially to bear and support me. Our parents work very hard to give us a better life. And also thanks to all my friends, teachers, and aspirants here on GO, Special thanks to Arjun Sir.
My name is Nikhil Dhama, I got AIR 8 (980 score) in GATE CS 2021, This was my second attempt with full-time preparation.
Last year my rank was 1531, I guess this is enough introduction for me, I’ll get to the point now…

How did I prepare for GATE 2020?

I followed some coaching material(freely available, wasn't enrolled) blindly, I won’t name it here, Actually it was all my fault all along not following some good content, I did nothing else, not even pyqs. This turned out to be a big mistake. I realized it later after losing a year. Now After preparing again I think it’s for the best that I didn’t get a better rank last year, otherwise, I would have gone for post-graduation with half misconceptions in my mind and that would be a disaster. I didn’t even deserve 1531 rank last year, it was too good for my preparation level, preparation was way poor (soon you will know why I’m saying so).

What makes me drop and prepare again?

I enjoy learning stuff, I like solving mathematical problems with low-sound music :p, so I was sure for post-graduation. For this reason, I did not sit for campus placements, because I didn’t want to have a second thought if I had a placement in my hand. I left no choice for myself other than a drop or taking some college with this rank only...

Why didn’t I apply for some other tests like PGEE, ISI, CMI, last year instead of repeating?

No doubt there are many good colleges in India, but after giving Gate 2020, I realized my concepts are not that strong, I’m missing something, and second I could do much better. This wasn’t my best, I wanted to try again.

I decided right after the result of GATE 2020 that I will prepare again. But the first step was to analyze the mistakes I have done throughout my preparation and during those 3 hours inside the examination hall.

Mistakes I did last year...

The first mistake I made was to trust in the coaching material and their false claims, I got a bit lazy, the second big mistake was not solving pyqs.
I was overconfident last year, during that 3 hours I could not even read all question, left 8-10 questions unread. This shows a lack of practice and time management, as I invested lots of time on few particular problems, that turned out to be wrong later :( Maths is my strong suit, and I couldn’t solve a simple calculus problem there. So I had to work on all these things and improve myself.

Steps I took to counter those mistakes...

I checked who is going to conduct GATE 2021, found out it’ll be IITB most probably. I had a very bad experience with JEE Adv 2015, I knew what these people usually do. This gave me a hard feeling that what if I fail again? anyhow I got through that.. and started looking for the solution to my mistakes.. decided to read books thoroughly this time.
I researched for 10-15 days and gathered all my study material for the preparation. My first stopping point was GO, found almost everything I need. Enrolled in the test series as early as I can (gave tests from GO and applied only). and improved on each of them one by one.

What was my schedule for preparation for GATE 2021?

I started slowly around 4 to 6 hours a day, enjoyed the rest of the time, watched some movie or anything, then shifted gear in July and changed my preparation time from daytime to nights.. started studying from approx 3 PM till I could, with small breaks in between. Every day studied at-least till 4 AM, for some days I stretched it till 7 AM, depending upon how much interest I have in that topic. This was my daily schedule, with minimum full-day breaks.

I divided the weekdays into two parts, Mon-Fri study with the same schedule, Sat-Sun solve pyqs from the topics I covered earlier, usually a different topic from what I studied during that week and give a test or revise everything I studied during the week or any topic if I got stuck in pyqs. This way I was doing both preparation and revision side by side.

Took a break for 20-25 days in Oct, had to give final sem exams.. started back again.. and finished the syllabus by the end of Nov. Only a few maths topics were left... I was already confident in those topics. I started giving tests late, from the beginning of Nov, I don’t suggest you do it. I had less time and had to cover lots of stuffs.. also sharp memory helps me keep things longer in my mind. Was doing well in tests.

By the end of Dec, I was done with the full syllabus, one-time revision, and all pyqs.
Changed my schedule from Jan, admit card was out, got the morning session, so I had to adapt myself to that timing.. took me 15-20 days for it... In Jan, gave a mock test almost every single day, analyzed my mistakes during the day, and revised in the evening. Every third day of the month I solved one previous year GATE paper as a mock test (from 2011 to 2018 at sets).

Appeared in GO mocks, almost everybody here knows about those.. took a test by Ruturaj Sir 2 days before the exam.. just to have the feeling of a hard paper and be ready for the worst-case as I was already expecting a hard paper.
Gave all these tests for time management, GO subject tests were an informative and conceptual test for me.

NOTE: you need not follow this schedule at all, I like studying at night.. and wanted to read everything in a short time, that’s why this schedule.. make your schedule at your convenience, which suits you the best.

What resources did I follow?

You can find them here.

While reading books, I found out I had many misconceptions and was lacking basic details of almost all of the concepts.. that’s why I didn’t deserve any better rank than 1531 last year.

How much stress was I having during preparation?

You can imagine by reading my schedule... side by side I was going through emotional stuff which needs to be taken care of, I decided to keep all such thoughts aside and kept focusing on my preparation, sometimes I even started to feel like a failure that I couldn’t do anything and many more stuff.. but I made it through, the good thing is I enjoyed studying all these concepts that’s why I never got bored or exhausted with my schedule. I wanted to give my best.. and I was targeting 90+ marks, so it was all worth it. I would like to add that there was a time once where I couldn’t read or study anything for 8-10 days, it’s alright as long as you make a comeback, also it’s necessary to take small breaks, I used to play online cards and video games, watch movies during my breaks. Just find your comfort zone.

How did those 3 hours inside the examination hall go?

To be honest I wasn’t feeling like I’m going for the exam until I reached the center and sat on my allocated seat... Started to get some butterflies after sitting there.. plus I prepared myself to attempt the exam in a single pass without revisiting too many questions.

It’s almost 9:30 AM and the exam starts, directly went for CS section, the first question was based on the covariance of two parameters of a distribution, damn I left this topic just because it was not required for GATE, I knew one part of it.. but couldn’t take a risk of -0.66.. so just left it.

10 mins past I have seen 4 questions, only 1 attempted.. situation got a little bit tensed now. I closed the question window so that my mind won’t divert by looking at how much I have attempted.. started attempting one by one.. with 15 mins spare, I was at the end of the paper, I opened the window again, and felt a bit relaxed, only 9 questions were unattempted.. attempted 5 more in that 15 mins (4 of them turn out to be correct).. so in total, I attempted 61 questions, 52 correct 9 incorrect, 8 out of 9 are MSQ or NAT so no negative here. Only 0.66 negative marks in one question.
 

Final result

The first official answer key was out, one big debate on one aptitude question, the official key was against me ;-; It could cost me a lot, but finally things settled in my favour, and both answers were given right in the final key.

I got 80.33 marks in set 1 (before normalization). Now I just had to wait for the final result.

Got AIR 8 in the final result.. still feels like I’m dreaming :))

I hope this covers almost everything. If anyone has any queries, feel free to ask.

My response sheet

A collection of blogs by previous GATE toppers. Preparation experience and strategies they followed are given in these. 

2024

AIR 8

2021

AIR 8    AIR 13    AIR 75    AIR 118    AIR 123    AIR 152    AIR 152    AIR 179    AIR 206    

AIR 306    AIR 477    AIR 965

2020

AIR 6    AIR 12    AIR 13    AIR 29    AIR 101    AIR 129    AIR 166    AIR 188    AIR 202   

AIR 202    AIR 283    AIR 283    AIR 312    AIR 372    AIR 616

2019

AIR 45    AIR 78    AIR 86   AIR 116    AIR 175    AIR 308    AIR 388    AIR 479    AIR 498   

AIR 582    AIR 558    AIR 673    AIR 888    AIR 1454

2018

AIR 2    AIR 14    AIR 25    AIR 48    AIR 71    AIR 75    AIR 67    AIR 94    AIR 94   AIR 94

AIR 118    AIR 157    AIR 223    AIR 260    AIR 275    AIR 323    AIR 352    AIR 352   AIR 377

AIR 960   AIR 1457   AIR 1644

2017

AIR 5   AIR 20   AIR 28   AIR 31   AIR 35   AIR 37   AIR 39   AIR 70 AIR 72   AIR 77

AIR 88   AIR 164   AIR 167   AIR 172   AIR 174   AIR 207   AIR 242   AIR 248   AIR 265

AIR 297   AIR 302   AIR 383   AIR 2803

2016

AIR 1   AIR 4    AIR 28   AIR 34   AIR 51   AIR 96   AIR 119   AIR 159

2015

AIR 1   AIR 5   AIR 11   AIR 12

> 2015

AIR 8   AIR 1

Hi there!!

I am Deepak Poonia, AIR 67, GATE CS 2018. What I want to share today with you guys is not my GATE journey or GATE Strategy etc.. But How poor was my College academic life(B.Tech) before GATE.

Just like many of you, I too was a bright student in my school life...Always topped in the class. Got pretty good marks in my Board exams and Parents were quite happy. Then came JEE and AIEEE exams (At that time, They used to conduct different exams for NITs and IITs..AIEEE was mostly the exam to get you into NITs)..I passed AIEEE exam and was getting some pretty good NIT but I had always dreamt of getting into IITB..So I left NIT and prepared for one more year But as the time passed and Exams came near, I went into extreme depression and left Studying....did not (could not) study for entire 2-3 months and couldn't crack JEE as well as AIEEE that year. So, I got into whatever college I could get (It was a State Govt College) and Started my B.Tech.

Again, Just like many of you, I had thought, in the beginning of the First semester, that I will study my ass off and Top this college..But that all went down into trash when I talked to my seniors and felt the environment of the college....Almost everyone in my college just wanted to pass the semesters somehow (with or without good percentage) and somehow get placed into some Mass recruiter company. And I, being one of them, did the same. Studied for One night before the exam like almost everyone else and Tried to pass through my B.Tech.... But I even couldn't do that. And I passed by Grace in one subject in my Second semester. But it was just the trailer of what was coming next. I mostly spent my time in college Watching TV series, Hanging around with friends and doing stuffs every college student does..But Not Studying. So, In the Third Semester, I got $5$ backlogs (out of 6 subjects)..Which didn't break my heart because I saw it coming.

After this terrible result, My Friends thought that Now I will take College academic life seriously and start studying. But I disappointed them and Got $4$ backlogs in Fourth semester  and $5$ backlogs in Fifth semester.

By this time, I had become immune to Backlogs or semester results. So, I even skipped appearing in Exams few times..And couldn't clear my Backlogs on time. And because of this, I couldn't sit in campus placements.... But this could not affect me... until the day came when I got a call from my Mom. She told me that someone in my society got placed in some big company with big package in pocket. I could feel what my Mom wanted to say to me without actually saying it..and for the first time in entire college time, I regretted what I had done and hadn't done. I couldn't sleep for few nights because My college was about to end and I had 14 Backlogs to clear. So, I needed something that could change my life and neglect the effect of backlogs in my B.Tech. And just at that time, My dearest friend told me to prepare for GATE.

So, College time ended. My life was all messed up..Had 14 Backlogs to clear which my Parents did not know about. Didn't have any knowledge, whatsoever, of Computer Science.  And with this burden on my head, I started my GATE preparation. And my GATE journey began.

I started learning subjects one by one and make detailed notes of every subject. And Though, I did not know anything of any technical subject, I bought Standard books of almost each subject and Started reading them alongside. In August, I had to go back to College to appear in Backlog exams. So, I missed DS and TOC subjects. In September, I fell severely sick and again missed the DM subject. In the end of October, I again had to go to College to appear in remaining Backlog exams and I missed CO subject. So, In the last two months of GATE 2017 Exam, I just focused on the subjects that I could learn in the last 7-8 months and appeared in GATE 2017 exam..without 4 major subjects in my fold....So, I could only secure AIR 1278 in GATE 2017 scoring 52 Marks. But the good news was that I had cleared all my Backlogs in this Year. But as I could not get good enough rank in GATE, So, I made my mind to prepare for GATE one more time as I wanted IISc for me.

So, I started preparing again and this time I did not want to leave any stone unturned and told myself that I will learn from wherever I can learn..So, I Started solving each problem on GO, Reading Standard books for each subject etc.. And I did whatever I could do in this year of preparation. And Finally, the day came, I secured AIR 67 in GATE CS 2018. Did some silly mistakes which brought me down but I could still get IISc this time and Now I am going to become an IIScian, effectively from 24 July 2018.

So, I would say If you believe in yourself then your past doesn't matter. Just give your best shot and do not give up on your Goals. Even if you had terrible past, you can neglect its effect on your future.

All the very best future aspirants!!

Edit 1: I secured AIR 53 in GATE 2020.

Edit 2: Driven by my passion and interest for teaching and GATE CSE, I started Go Classes for GATE CSE Preparation. Students preparing for GATE CSE, join Goclasses for best learning experience:

www.goclasses.in

Join GATE 2023 Complete Course and learn everything by properly understanding everything. Don't by-heart, don't do Rote-learning of any concept.

"GO" for the best!! 

Hi,

When I decided to write about my preparation I collected it all together and all recollected is that whole strategy I had I got from posts various toppers. So now Instead of writing each and every thing again, I’m going to write post link & I’m going to tell what I got from each blog post You can built your strategy from there

1. http://www.engineering.careers360.com/articles/gate-2015-topper-interview-ravi-shankar-mishra-air-1-in-computer-science-engineering => I got list of books from to use from him. This is essential read for any future toppers. Read this blog to see how someone can get AIR 1 in just few months of preparation in first attempt. Thank you Ravi for your blog.
2. http://gate2015-tamojit9.blogspot.in/ => This is really nice blog. Do have a good read. Thanks Tamjit for writing this blog. Best thing you can get from this is -> “ REMEMBER THERE IS NO SHORT CUT TO HARD WORK“
3. https://cdn.rawgit.com/AgarwalPragy/GATE16Tips/master/Tips.html => This is blog by Pragy Agrawal. Best thing to take from this is “Flashcards”. This flashcards help me revising. Thanks Pragy for this blog.
4. https://gateetude.wordpress.com/ => This is blog by Pradeep Pandey. Please check ‘https://gateetude.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/gate-paper-structure/’ this post . That is must. Every post by Pradeep is like Gold mine for serious preparing students. Thanks Pradeep for thsi blog
5. Check answer by Arvind Devraj here -> https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-best-way-to-study-for-GATE-so-as-to-get-a-good-rank-to-get-into-IISc He talks about which reference books to use and how to study. This is really great post, and you should definitely go through it if you are serious. Thanks Arvind for writing this blog.
6. http://gatecse.in/ and http://gateoverflow.in/ are two good resources for any serious GATE aspirant. You must go through this websites. Thank you Arjun Suresh , Kathleen bankson for creating this huge corpus of questions, for Gateoverflow book and compiling toppers blog, linking good video lectures etc.

Taken from -> https://akashkanasegate2016.wordpress.com/2016/04/01/how-i-prepared-for-gate-i-used-strategy-of-old-toppers/

If this is too long to read, here's the summary:

1. I found a good peer group to study with.
2. I used standard textbooks and standard resources for almost all subjects.
3. I realised that analysis of the mistakes I made in tests is more important than the marks that I scored. 

You can find the resources I used here: https://goxul.github.io/My-GATE-prep-pt2/

You can find my test series marks here.

GATE 2019 

I decided to appear for GATE somewhere around October 2017, but didn't actually start preparing for it until January 2018. I enrolled for a coaching in Bombay - Vidyalankar Classes. They used to happen on the weekends and while some of the teachers were good, some were okay and that's putting it kindly. They didn't even finish our syllabus and the only subject I learned there was Theory of Computation (which to be fair, is the same content that's freely available online by RBR.) and as time progressed, I slowly became uninterested in attending classes and kept studying on my own. With all this, I also had to manage my semester exams and a final year project which I was trying to do seriously. Oh and also, I decided not to sit for my campus placements because I thought it'd give a an impetus to do well in GATE.

The biggest mistake I did was not solving enough problems and giving tests. I was so engrossed in just understanding concepts that I totally ignored problem solving, foolishly believing that I'd be able to do it on the D-Day. I had read some blogs in which the toppers said that they didn't appear for any test series and yet were able to clear the exam, and I thought I'd be like them too. 

Takeaway 0: Do not overestimate yourself. Be brutally honest when you are analysing where you stand in your preparation.

The signs were there that I wasn't on the right path - I still remember the first Made Easy topic-wise test I gave in September 2018 and I scored 5.33/25. Instead of working on the mistakes that I made, I simply chalked up that performance to me being sleepy. This was just one of the countless tests that I failed to analyse during my preparation.

Takeaway 1: More than the marks of the test, the mistakes of the tests are more important. Analyse the hell out of your tests and make sure you don't commit the same mistake twice.

Eventually, I was able to finish my syllabus around last week of December 2018 (and finishing to me meant solving all the questions of GO Book at least once.). I still didn't know where I stood in terms of my preparation because I had barely given any full-length tests. I gave my first full length test in second week of January (it was Bikram Mock 1 on GateOverflow) and I was happy to see that I had scored 69/100. However, the paper was easy (my friends scored 79 and 80 respectively) in the same test. So in a way, scoring well proved detrimental to me as I thought that my prep was in the right direction and gave me a false sense of confidence. I attempted a few more tests and I remember the last test I attempted was of GATEBOOK and I had scored 44 marks in it. I just ignored and tried to focus on whatever I had learnt till now, and kept revising. I had used Anki to make flashcards for the entire syllabus instead of making proper notes and that's what I used to revise. I had zero written notes. 

The D-Day 

As soon as I started the paper, I realised that I had no proper strategy on how to attempt the paper. Why? Because I had hardly given any mock tests to form a strategy. Anyway, I started with the aptitude section and gave it some 15 minutes, and still wasn't able to solve all of it. Then I moved directly to the 2 mark section and started solving stuff, and post that, it's all a blur to me honestly. The only thing that I remember is I was stuck looking at simple, basic questions and thinking to myself "Surely GATE won't ask such simple questions. There _has_ to be a twist in this somwewhere.", which turned to be horribly untrue. 


Takeaway 2: Go in without ANY presumptions about the paper. Don't expect the 2 mark questions to be difficult, don't expect the 1 mark questions to be easy. Just don't have any expectations - take the questions at face value and solve them. And for the love of God, don't ignore aptitude at any cost. It can make or break your exam.

As soon as I left the exam hall, I knew that I had screwed up. I thought the paper was difficult, and when I came out and checked Facebook, people were discussing how easy the paper was. And as expected, my result was bad -  I had scored 44 marks, with rank of 4434.

Anyway, I had already started preparing for other exams - namely IIIT Hyderabad and CMI. I was weak at coding and algorithms in general, and this is when I slowly started improving my coding skills. I used to solve problems from GeeksForGeeks and Leetcode and I had solved around 100-120 problems in a month. While this is a pretty small number, it allowed me get comfortable with coding and get better at time complexity analysis. I used the textbook "Algorithms by Dasgupta, Vazirani et al" as my primary resource to study algorithms. Since I was also preparing for CMI, I also used to solve subjective exercise problems, which were mostly proof related problems. So in short, I got better at Algo/DS, relative to where I stood before.

IIIT Hyderabad's exam was on 28th April and I was able to clear the written test and got called for an interview. Meanwhile, around mid-April, I lost interest in preparing for CMI, and just gave up on it. CMI's exam was on 15th May and I scored 51/100 (Objective: 27/30, Subjective: 24/60), while the cutoff was 60/100. Had I solved even one more subjective question, I probably would have made it to CMI. 

Either way, with these results, I knew that I had the capability to do well in GATE and my marks weren't an accurate reflection of my preparation level. So I decided to take a drop, and move to Delhi for my preparation. I convinced my parents to let me a famous coaching institute, as I thought it'd be a great coaching institute (I couldn't have been more wrong.) and as I had decided to take a drop, I didn't even appear for IIIT Hyderabad's interview.

[A small detour - luckily a few companies were still recruiting in my college and due to that, I was able to get one job on-campus and one job off-campus. Why is this relevant? This, along with me clearing IIITH's exam, gave me the confidence that even if I screwed up GATE after a drop, I'd stll be able to find a job or at least get into IIIT Hyderabad, as I had already done it once before. ]

GATE 2020

I moved to Saket, Delhi on June 15, 2019 and joined a coaching class. I won't name it, but it should be obvious.

After attending a handful of classes in the beginning, I knew that I had wasted my 70 thousand. I only attended a few classes, which I felt I personally needed. 

There were around 450 students in each batch and we had to stand in line early in the morning, just to get good seats in the class. I literally saw people running to catch seats. Since the classes where hugh, there was no scope of personal attention. On top of that, the pace was too slow (on one instance, the professor taught Fibonacci series for over two hours. I doubt even Fibonacci spent so much time on it.), some concepts were irrelevant (eg: we were taught 8085 instruction set architecture? Why? God knows.) some concepts were wrong (eg: simultaenous memory access was being taught extensively in the classes. Till date, I have not found a single textbook which mentions this concept.), the syllabus was delayed by over a month (they finished the syllabus in first week of December). 

Takeaway 3: Join offline coaching classes only if a) you have a lot of money to waste or b) you are an absolute beginner and have no clue about computer science or c) you have zero self discipline and can only study in a classroom environment. Else, you're better off with online coaching or free resources, both of which are available aplenty.

That being said, the only advantage that the classes offered me was that it helped me find a peer group. The PG I lived in was filled with people who were preparing for GATE CS, and all of us had joined a nearby library. We used to go study together, take breaks together and helped each other with studies. I never studied in my room and spent most of my time in the library. 

Now, given that I was taking a drop, I had the entire day to my to study. However, I never tried to study more than 10-11 hours a day, because I knew that it wasn't feasible over a 7 month period. I didn't want to start off by studying 16 hours a day and then burn out later. There's a wonderful answer by a professor of Computer Science at UIUC, who was asked this:

”Q: How can I study hard with full concentration 8-9 hours every day without getting tired or burning out?

A: You can’t.

But if you really insist on trying, here is what I would strongly recommend. Take a 15-minute break after every 30 minutes of studying, take a 30-minute break after every two hours of studying, and take a full one-hour break after four hours. During your breaks, stand up, walk around, go outside, and relax and/or exercise; do not think about work. Eat three leisurely healthy meals every day; do not work while you eat. Stop studying (and I really do mean stop) at least two hours before going to sleep every night, and get at least eight full hours of sleep every night. Take at least one day completely off studying every week. Go easy on the caffeine. Don’t forget to bathe, or do laundry, or shop, or pay your bills, or go to classes, or talk with your friends and family.

Finally, and most importantly, do not strive for perfection; instead, work for improvement. Give yourself credit for every modicum of progress, every new concept that you understand, every new skill that you master, every new tool that you can use, no matter how small.”


So as a result of that, my routine used to be something like this:

Wake up at around 8, have breakfast and reach the library by 9. From 9, study till around 1, have lunch and come back to the library by 2:30-3. Study till 5:30-6, take a break and again come back to study till 9. 

[PS: It's not the hours that you put into your studies that matter but how effective those studies are. Please don't be obsessed with a number - that I need to study 8 hours, or 10 hours, or 12 hours. It. Doesn't. Matter. Always study still you are satisfied with what you have done - it could be 2 hours or 15 hours.]

I used to not study on Sundays and kept myself busy with things I liked - attending concerts, plays, sightseeing Delhi etc. That one day of the week was something I believe helped me to not burn out and anybody considering a drop should definitely have it. 

Coming back to studies, as I had already done my syllabus once, this time completing my syllabus was aking to just revising it once and doing previous year questions again. I was also solving questions from foreign university assignments and textbooks. 

So I kept chipping at the proverbial mountain and before I knew, it was already November. I finished giving all my topicwise and subjectwise tests by the end of November and I was doing okayish at them. [I've shared my marks from all tests in the other blog post, you can find it there.]

I gave my first full length test on 1st of December. It was a TestBook test and I scored 58.7 marks. I was disheartended, so I gave another one the same day. Again from TestBook and I scored 51.7 marks.

I was at a complete loss of words. 

I had prepared well, I was putting in the hours and yet, I was scoring terrible marks. 

I say terrible because the paper was easy (if I remember correctly, the topper had 88 marks.). 

I went back to my room that day and confessed to my friends that maybe I couldn't do it and that probably I wasn't made for GATE. But somehow, they gave me the courage to try again harder tomorrow and hence I say, 

Takeaway 4: It's really really important to have a good support network of friends and family who'll help you get through the difficult times. It would have been impossible for me without the help of my friends. They were the ones who gave me hope when things were looking bleak, as they often did. If you can't find any such people, feel free to contact me as I know how much it sucks at that time, and I'll try to help you in any way possible.

I woke up next morning, revised a bit and gave my first Made Easy test. I scored 69.34. Not bad, I guess. From there, I gave almost a test daily for the next 25 odd days and I mostly stayed in the 60s. Not once did I cross 70 in any Made Easy test and my ranks mostly used to be under in double digits. 

My scores used to fluctuate a lot and at times, my frustration, stress, anxiety and everything else used to be so bad that I'd randomly break down at times, for no apparent reason at all. Heck, I didn't know why it was happening and I didn't talk about it to anybody either. I just assumed it was due to stress and ignored it, hoping that it would go away after the exam. My point being - 

Takeaway 5: My last two months were awful. The stress was horrible and at times, I wished that I hadn't prepared for GATE at all and just taken up a random shitty job. This was further compounded as I was preparing for it a second time and I could see first timers score much better than me. And most likely, they'll not be easy for anybody who's reading this. It will suck, but the good part is - you will come out of it. You're not alone and EVERYONE goes through this. 

Then, January 11 was the date of my first Made Easy CBT. In my mind, for some reason, I had convinced myself that this would be accurate reflection of what GATE would be like (spoiler alert: it isn't).

I went and gave my test and again, it was dogshit. I made countless silly mistakes and I was again dejected that the same would happen in GATE as well. When my results came, it was bad. I had a lot of incorrect attempts. Half of them were silly mistakes, which I was able to solve after the exam. I had given a lot of tests up to that point and yet, my exam temperament sucked. And there's no magic wand to fix it - I just realised that you have to practice more and more tests.

[On a side note - my friend scored more marks than me in Made Easy's CBT and got a worse rank than me - go figure how.]

By the point, I was kinda used to the disappointment of not doing well in tests, so I just rolled on with it.

12th January was ISRO's exam and again, I made loads of silly mistakes. The results haven't been declared yet, but there's a good chance I haven't qualified for the interview. [EDIT: I did.]

But amidst all these disappointments, I did one important thing - I noted down all the mistakes that I had made, and was very careful to not avoid the same mistakes again. It didn't matter to me if I made new mistakes, but I wanted to be 100 % sure that I wasn't repeating the same mistakes. I used to frequently revise the mistake book again and again.

CBT 2 wasn't any stellar either.

I didn't take my results any more seriously and just kept giving more and more tests. But I never forgot to analyse it. I'll repeat it again - ANALYSIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.

I gave Ace Academy's CBT and it was easy - I scored 76.67 marks and a rank of 24 out of 500 odd people. But the questions were so bad, I wished I had not given it at all as I had to travel loads for it.

Then, 22nd January was Applied Course's AITS 4 and I scored an amazing 48 marks in that, out of 100. (although, the paper was quite difficult and I got a rank of 61 out of 1200 odd people.)

After that test, I bid goodbye to Delhi and returned back home. Here, my intensity reduced and I mostly stuck to revision of my notes and solving previous year questions.

I gave one final test on 2nd February, of Applied Course and scored 76.67, with an AIR of 22. I was satisfied with it, and gave no tests after that.

The D-Day - encore

I sat down at my PC 40 odd minutes before the exam and I meditated for a while. Around 20 minutes or so. My nerves were considerably lesser this time, because I had given around 30 odd full length tests. I had a fixed pattern of attempting questions too - I did the aptitude section first and then I attempted the question paper in serial order and then I'd come back in reverse order to check the question apper. You have to make your own strategy, and find out what works for you. 

The paper went according to my plan and I was able to finish it with around 30 minutes remaining. Instead of solving new questions and I was able to find a mistake of 2 marks. Anyway, I had attempted around 52 questions (this was how I usually did, as I aimed for more accuracy.)

I hope this extremely long post was worth it and was useful.

In case someone wants to read the resources I used, you can find it here: https://goxul.github.io/My-GATE-prep-pt2/

Hello everyone!

I am Aravind and I appeared for GATE CS in 2020, and I scored 82.67 marks and got 6th rank. This was my first attempt, in my final year of BTech. I have seen many students (including some of my friends) worked really hard for GATE but still not getting a good enough rank. My experience tells me that GATE CS requires smart work, and not just hard work, and I feel that was one of my biggest strengths. In this blog, I’ll share my own experience as well as some useful strategies and tips for future aspirants as well. I have broadly divided my preparation into 3 phases for convenience. (This is a long post, if you want to read only my tips for future GATE aspirants, you may skip my preparation experience and scroll to the bottom).

Phase 1 (Jan 2018 to May 2019):

Most of the core Computer Science subjects in the GATE syllabus are covered in 2nd year and 3rd year of BTech. So if you are a college student and thinking about giving GATE in future, 2nd year would be the ideal time to start your preparation (my personal opinion) so that you can study in parallel with your college. 

I myself started preparing in 4th semester of BTech, and started with Algorithms and Data Structures, which was one of my strong subjects. I also enrolled in an offline coaching, so that I don’t get carried away and complete syllabus on time. During this phase, I was able to finish most of the GATE syllabus in my coaching and also since I prepared well for my semester exams, I got a good grip on all the core subjects by this time. I also prepared neat and organized handwritten-notes for all subjects in my coaching itself.

Phase 2 (June 2019 to September 2019):

I started solving GATE Previous Year Questions (PYQs) from June, and also revised all of the subjects in parallel. After solving each PYQ, I would check the answer on GO website, and also read all the discussions and comments. This is very important, as solving a question correctly does not necessarily imply that you have fully understood the concept. This is where GO helped me the most- reliable answers for every GATE question or concept. I also spent a lot of time in solving questions from Maths, Aptitude and Verbal Ability because these 3 subjects are the most scoring subjects, and I didn’t want to lose a single mark here. Also, whenever I faced difficulty in solving any of the PYQs, I would write down that question/concept in my mistakes copy (I maintained a mistakes copy for keeping track of all the questions I found difficult / solved incorrectly). This helped me to not repeat the same mistakes, and my accuracy improved as a result. 

I allotted around 1 week per subject for solving all GATE PYQs. I also attempted a full-length mock test in the beginning of June, just to check how well I have prepared so far. But I failed miserably in that test, and could score only 26/100 marks. After giving that one test, I realized that it’s not enough to just study a concept. I made lots of careless mistakes/calculation errors, and lacked practice. After that, I decided not to give any more tests for a few months and completely focused on solving PYQs, to improve both accuracy and problem solving ability.

I also participated in my campus placements during this period, so I took a break of approximately 1 month to prepare for interviews and coding rounds. In my view, taking a break for campus placements is totally justified because if you have a backup job-offer in hand, you will feel less pressure in the months of December and January, leading to better performance in GATE. We don’t know what might happen in those 3 hours, so it’s good to have a backup. I managed to bag offers from both TCS (7lpa) and Infosys (8lpa), even though I didn’t prepare that much for interviews. If you prepare well for GATE, cracking interviews of software companies also becomes easier. In fact, in my Infosys interview, I was asked a few questions on Computer Networks, and I was able to answer them only because I prepared for GATE.

Phase 3 (Oct 2019 to Feb 2020):

Since I had already completed the PYQs and revision of all subjects, and also had backup job, I focused only on giving lots of mock tests during this phase. I started with topic-wise and subject-wise tests, and later moved on to full-length tests. I attempted multiple tests every day, and after every test I noted down all my mistakes in my mistake copy (whether it’s silly mistake or conceptual mistake). If I come across any new concept in Test Series, I first check whether it’s included in the GATE syllabus, and then studied that concept from Wikipedia or some standard resource, and included it in my mistake copy. From time to time, I also revised all my mistakes that I have noted down, so that I don’t repeat the same mistakes. For e.g., if you previously made a mistake in a Pipelining question in COA, the next time you see a similar question in another test, it should immediately click in your mind that you made a mistake here previously, and you would be more careful while attempting that question. Whether you get a single-digit rank or 2-digit rank or 3-digit rank will ultimately depend on how many silly mistakes you made in the exam hall. That’s why it’s crucial to properly analyze all your tests. Also, I always revised a subject after giving it’s test, not before giving the test. This way, it’s easier for me to analyze which concepts I’m forgetting.

I attempted more than 300 tests during this period. I know that it’s not required to give so many tests, but since I already completed my syllabus and had plenty of free time (I didn’t go to college after getting placed), I thought why not give as many tests as I can 🤣. When I finished all tests of one coaching, I would purchase yet another test series and continue giving more tests, just to keep the flow going. I also took a break of 3-weeks in December to prepare for my BTech semester exams, lab exams, etc.

After my semester exams, I had a lot of free time so I made short notes for each subject (15-20 pages per subject). I made short notes for all subjects in 3-4 days. Making short notes is very easy- Just read 10 pages of your main notes and compress it to make 1 page of short note, by including only the most important concepts and formulae. Short notes help you to revise all subjects very quickly just before the exam, and one more benefit is that while preparing the short notes, you become aware which concepts are the most important which needs to be kept at fingertips all the time.

In January, I was able to score 85-90 marks in most full-length mock tests, so I thought of giving the final touches to my GATE preparation. One last time, I solved all the PYQs of all subjects very quickly (I focused on medium/difficult problems and skipped the easy ones in which I was confident), and also kept on revising the full-length notes of all subjects in round-robin manner. Revision is the most important part of GATE preparation- after all, on the day of GATE exam, what matters is how much you remember, not how much you studied. 

I also attempted the Made easy Centre Based Test (CBT): it’s a mock test which you have to give in a real, proctored exam centre. The thing is, you might be very comfortable in giving mock tests while sitting in your home, but traveling to the exam centre and being seated in the exam hall with hundreds of other candidates can make you nervous and lose concentration. After preparing for GATE for 1-2 years, after putting so much effort, getting nervous in the exam hall is the last thing you want. So it’s good to be prepared for such situations by giving CBTs (Centre Based Tests).

During the last 1 week before GATE (1st Feb to 7th Feb), I decided to relax a bit, gave only one mock test, and just revised all my notes one last time. Still, after so much efforts and precautions, I became nervous in the exam hall due to some unforeseen circumstances, and ended up doing many silly mistakes, that too in easy questions (I attempted 64/65 questions in GATE). Luckily, I somehow managed to get 82 marks in GATE (Even I couldn’t believe it till I saw my GATE response sheet with my own eyes).

Some tips/pointers for future GATE aspirants:

1. GATE is NOT just a test of your knowledge. It’s also a test of your aptitude (ability to solve problems), speed (solving 65 questions in 3 hours), accuracy (identifying and controlling silly mistakes), observation skills (reading and interpreting all questions properly), ability to remain calm under exam pressure, and even the ability to use the virtual calculator properly. So just having good knowledge is not enough for getting a top rank, you have to work on all the above points too.

2. Give lots of mock tests and analyze them properly. You won’t know your mistakes and weak-topics till you start giving tests. Not giving tests or giving tests but not analyzing them properly, can be fatal. And maintaining a separate notebook for keeping record of your mistakes and weak-topics can be very helpful. 

3. Don’t ignore Aptitude and Verbal Ability. Many students study the technical subjects for years, but completely ignore the Aptitude and Verbal section, and end up losing significant marks in the Aptitude section itself. I agree that Aptitude is very easy compared to core subjects, but still it’s good to practice them. Even solving the Aptitude and Verbal PYQs would be more than enough for GATE, do that atleast.

4. Give equal importance to all subjects. Don’t check the subject-wise marks distribution and all. If you want to top GATE, you cannot afford to leave any subject, since easy questions can come from any subject.

5. Don’t go into too much depth in any subject. It would mean less time for other subjects, and moreover GATE questions require just the basic concepts. Know what to study, and more importantly, know what NOT to study. Also, it’s good to follow standard resources but again, make sure you’re not spending too much time on one subject. And if you are following some coaching and want to clear doubts from standard resources, searching in books can be time-consuming. Alternatively, you can also use Wikipedia as a standard resource to clear doubts, it saves time (I did that for some subjects).

6. Limit your usage of social media. This is very subjective and varies from person to person, but I personally find it difficult to manage time for both social media and preparing for competitive exams at the same time (maybe it’s just me, I don’t know). Since I was determined to top GATE at any cost, I did not want to take any chances, so I deleted every social media account during the last 7-8 months of my preparation, even Facebook and WhatsApp. You may keep a separate Facebook account for GO.

7. Don’t follow any topper’s advice blindly (not even mine 🤣). Don’t just copy someone else’s preparation schedule or strategy, instead, create your own strategy (so that you can post it here when you top GATE next year). And don’t blindly trust any coaching or tutor to guide you in your journey. Don’t be afraid to think independently for yourself, and ask lots of questions. If some solution or concept doesn’t make sense to you, use the internet. Google let’s you search for anything in the world and gives you results in a few seconds, so use Google more often. If you can’t find your answers on Google, ask questions on GO. But at the same time, try not to argue with anyone during your discussions. It’s important to have an open mind while learning new concepts and solving new problems.

I will end this blog with one of my favorite quotes: 

Jaan laga do, ya jaane do!

Before you make a decision to repeat or not I would like to make two things clear:

(1) If you are getting a 3 digit or 4 digit rank this year does NOT imply next year you will definitely get a 2 digit or single digit. You need to earn it. 
Let’s assume 500 aspirants(much less than actual number) are repeating with this year’s rank within 5000, all of them cannot get within TOP 200. And final year students are also there to give tough competition apart from repeaters. You need to give your best.

(2) Set Target: GATEOVERFLOW is increasing the competition with every year because it’s free, provides quality resource and is  accessible to every one.
Here’s the proof

Source : https://gatecse.in
You can see the increasing marks year wise.
Note: The topper’s marks is 80+  every year irrespective of the toughness of paper.
We can safely say that next year one should target atleast $70$ to be assured to be in top $100$. But 70 marks might not guarantee a rank in top $100$, infact this year it does not fetch a rank in top 200 also. So better aim for $75$. Moreover others will also see the data and put extra efforts in their preparation.
You can be argue that in 2018 the paper was comparatively tougher and top 100 went down to 67, so target should be around 70 and not 75,  the competition is increasing every year and having a small margin of safety is better than crying after results.

Now once you are clear with your goal there will be various questions that comes to your mind:

• Give with a job !(Make proper assumptions that how many hours you could give in weekdays and weekend, what if there is project pressure in December/ January and you are asked to work on weekends)
• Partial repeat (continue with job for few months and resign mid way)
• Full time repeat.
• $2-3$ months leave before exam: (Many companies do allow you to take a maximum break of 3 months with loss of pay, figure it out that it is allowed in your company or not and will that be enough.)

I will advise do to prepare your schedule in advance.

• Weak Concepts : Strengthening the weak concepts, take out the syllabus from Gate site and note down your weak areas/ conceptually wrong and figure out the time required for completing them.
• GO book: All previous year questions should be solved.
• Subject wise test : Previous year papers as subject wise test will ensure that you have properly covered the topic well even the tough questions before 2010. 
• Previous Year test ($2010-2019$): Evaluate how’s your preparation, your basic attempt strategy, time management should be fixed, you can always modify it later.  
• Difficult Problems of GO book: You must have faced difficulty in solving few problems or liked few problems which you would like to re-do once more, a month or two before Gate exam. So it’s important to mark them.
• Test Series or anything else you would like to add (In my case I added TIFR and two CBT)
• Aptitude : Most ignored but essential part, if you are confident that you can  do well and don’t need much practice, then my suggestion would be that every day from December 1st  take 15 minutes daily and solve one aptitude paper from previous year. There are 8 sessions every year and you will get previous year paper from official gate website. It will ensure you have all basic formulas covered and you are able to solve them fast.
• Previous Year test ($2010-2019$) with 2 hour 30 minutes as stipulated time : (Even if you have given them for $n^{th}$  times given it for $(n+1)^{th}$ time.) This should be done at last, when you are complete with your preparation. So if you are doing job then you can give it only on weekend and will need 7 weeks for 15 test and for those repeating full time will need 2 weeks. It is recommended that you give them @ time of day you have your exam(9:30-12:30 or 2:30-5:30).

Revision: Continuous revision of strong subjects is also required to ensure none of your topics becomes unfamiliar with same.

Now when you have figured out what needs to be done assign months to them, and you could assign a schedule for it. And decide whether you can do it with a job or you need full time repeat or partial repeat.

In my case I figured out that 5 months will be enough for me. (1st September to 31st January )
My last working day was on 31st August 2018.
While working I used to study on weekends which made sure that I am in touch with the subjects. 
Make proper schedule what needs to be done, if you don’t have a strict schedule you will keep delaying your studies. The competition will be getting tougher each year, so give your best.
 

To top GATE you have to beat quality people and not just those around you.
So you can help others, but first, help yourself.

My name is Abhishek Pratap Singh. I got AIR-297 (Score 771) in GATE 2021. This is my story.

Background

I did my B.Tech in CSE from AKGEC (a tier III college). I am 2017 batch pass out. I was placed in the bottom 5 in my engineering class. After college I delved into UPSC preparation. So for 3.5 years after graduation, I was not remotely related to any of the subjects of engineering and no work experience. I provided the above information to show the fact that I was not at all well versed with GATE subjects. 

Why did I switch from studying General Studies (History, Geography, Social Science, et al) to diametrically opposite technical subjects and not try for other exams where the above subjects would have helped me? This will require another blog. Here I will focus on how I approached my GATE preparation. 

I had 2 exams lined up for 4th October, 2020 and 11th October, 2020. After giving both, I knew I would not get through. For one week I pondered the future course of action. From 20th October, 2020 I started my GATE preparation.

Understanding demands of the exam

To clear an exam, first you need to know the nature of the exam. GATE selects candidates for post-graduation degree, therefore, it expects candidates to have strong foundation in undergraduate subjects.

I had also made up my mind to do it without coaching. Having realised that studying standard books and NPTEL lectures are your best friends for this journey.

The start

Anyone thinking of doing something always faces the first challenge in terms of where to start from. Luckily I got hold of GATE Toppers algorithms by Bikram Ballav Sir. That small pdf file of 21 pages was my guide. I have looked at it numerous times. It helped me in finalising my resources. 

The Plan

After calculating the number of days left and the number of subjects to study, I had around 10 days for each subject. 

I had also looked at relative distribution of marks to various subjects. With that data in hand, I decided to leave Compiler design and Computer Organisation. A major part of the plan was to score full in the aptitude section (I scored 14/15). 2nd pillar of my preparation was DS and Algo. 3rd pillar was TOC, CN, OS and DBMS

A typical day of preparation

Most of the time I took along two subjects at a time

Morning - new topics of Subject 1

Afternoon - Solving PYQs

Evening - new topics of Subject 2

This schedule I followed till 25th January, 2021. After that I could not study anything new as I was afraid of not being able to tackle problems of topics I already studied. So after that period I focused on revision and problem solving.

Test series

Keeping in mind the limited time, I only subscribed to GateOverflow test series.

What worked for me?

FlashCards

During the last couple of weeks, the major concern is how to collect all the preparation in one place and make a coherent picture out of it. Flashcards did the trick for me. I could revise a whole subject in 2.5 - 3 hours.

Subjectwise test

We often hear that one should stop giving subject wise tests 2 months before an exam and only focus on full mock tests. I will challenge this hypothesis. In fact, the subject wise test I gave in the last week did all the trick for me. I gave most of the subject wise tests in the GO test series 2021 as well as subject wise tests by Bikram sir. I could only give 2-3 full mocks.

Subjectwise test work well in condition when they are designed well, which was the case with GO test series and Bikram sir mocks. 

Why did I decide against Full mocks in the last 10 days (I gave only 1)?

For a particular subject, a full mock can only cover a limited portion. More often than not these sections are those from which the majority of questions are asked. Some niche topics get neglected. So a holistic study of the subject is not possible this way. What if for that subject the real GATE exam goes for less asked topics. One may suffer if not thoroughly prepared.

How did I spend my last week?

Everyday I would pick one subject. Use flash cards to revise it (2.5-3 hrs). Then give a subject wise test of the subject (1 hr). Analyse the test and pick out the weak areas ( 2hrs). Then work on those weak areas (rest of the day).

My mindset

In tackling competitive exams, mindset is really important. Personally If there is a lot at stake over a single paper I often give in to the pressure. So to ease the pressure, I had already prepared a list of other exams and colleges (IIIT H, ISI, CMI, etc). So that I can approach the paper with no baggage.

I got Set 2 in GATE 2021. At one point during the exam I did feel that I might mess up the exam, but eventually it went good. 

I got AIR-297 (Score-771)

I will be joining IIT Guwahati for my M.Tech. CSE

Hello friends!!

It is October already. So, many of you might have started feeling the heat of GATE 2018, especially with the volume of course still left to cover with the added pressure of projects or workload at job. A very alluring option to cope up with this issue is to start byhearting standard results (or formula) and not giving attention to how they came (usually, the mathematics part), as it takes very less time to do so, covers the syllabus faster and most importantly gives us the feeling of being fully-prepared (illusion). We have lot of such standard results in:

• trees (binary, AVL, m-ary, B tree and B+ tree) and graphs,
• computer networks as a whole,
• automata designing (no. of states),
• computer architecture (cache, memory management, disc management and file management),
• digital electronics (combinational and sequential circuits),
• probability and permutations and combinations.

But, is it a wise way to do so? NO, and I will tell you why?

• The fact that GATE examination in CS/IT dates back to 1980s itself nullifies the probability of a direct standard result based question compared to subjects in which GATE has been started recently. Even if such questions comes, 90% of the aspirants will score +1/+2 (full), which means you may have got +1/+2 on paper, but technically you are still at 0 competitively.
• This necessitates the need of questions to be a little deviated from the ideal cases for which those standard results hold which happens in GATE a lot as the question setters already know what kind of loopholes one makes in preparation every-time. Now, the standard results won’t work. But, yes if you learnt the way those results were derived, you can derive the answer for this deviated/ modified/ tweaked case as well. Remember, GATE scrutinizes one’s merit via his/her understanding of the subject, unlike other exams like ISRO, BARC or any other PSUs like BEL, CIL or SBI that tries to gauge one's merit through command over formula based questions (majorly) in their written examination.
• Not only this, this will help you during interviews and written examinations in IITs/ IISc as well, where they very often ask to prove or derive a very commonly known result or some modification of it.
• For example, derive the maximum number of nodes in a m-ary tree of height (h) (root is at height 1). A very handy way of solving this question in an objective type exam would be to take m=2,3,4 and h=5(say) and safely conclude that it will be m^h. But such an approach will fetch you no good repo in an interview or written tests in IITs/ IISc. But, have one learnt during preparation that for a binary tree (2-ary), the formula 2^h comes from a GP of 1,2,4,….,2^(h-1), he/she could easily proceed in the way to get the desired result. Note that, the former was verification while the latter is the proof/ derivation, the terms which are fundamentally different in mathematical premise.

Especially the people, who are taking any coaching as THE BIBLE, have to pay attention to it as the course completion in coaching institutes revolves majorly around giving a brief introduction to the baics and then providing with all set of standard results for advanced concepts, a term called as over-fitting in Machine Learning. Coaching is supposed to be a catalyst and is not a substitute to self-study.

Finally, I would like to address another elephant in the room, which is lack of acceptance. At any point of time if your answer goes wrong, instead of trying to prove it right by bringing a bunch of friends to an online discussion to support you or point others to show what is wrong with your solution with an intention of non-acceptance, realize this for your own good that it is better that your mistake got rectified at this stage and you will not suffer on the exam day. Instead of arguing un-necessarily, focus on LEARNING, which is central to the process of preparation. A problem may have n ways of solving it out of which only a few are correct. So, a complexity analysis of wrong ways will be of O(n) while the analysis of the correct ones will be O(1). This decision to opt for what is efficient as well as beneficial rests with you. 

PS: Life is not long enough to learn by committing every mistake on your own. Sometimes, we must optimize our learning algorithm so as to learn from mistakes of others too. 

ALL THE BEST !!

HAPPY LEARNING !!

Ask anyone in any in any marks range they will say that they could get few more marks if they did not do silly mistake. So if we could minimize it then our marks and ranks could be slightly better.
Giving GATE for the 3rd time I knew I had done lot of silly mistakes in my previous attempts so I thought let’s analyze them and make sure I don’t repeat them in 2019. Few stats

So my $50$% of my mistakes were silly and could be corrected in examination hall, and is clear that in 2018 I did not learn from mistakes made in 2017, but this analysis is available only after exam is over.
Inside the examination hall I have knowledge about attempt only and I need to figure out those silly mistake from total questions with a chance of mistake as 13% for 1 marks and  21% for 2 marks based on my previous stats.

So apart from improving my knowledge and accuracy I managed to reduce my silly mistakes also, so thought of sharing how I managed to do the same.

Pre requisites:

1. Using Mark for Review and answered option effectively. (Mark for review option can also be used effectively to finish visiting all the questions in around 1 hour approx as discuss in the blog)
2.  Maintaining the rough work clear and understandable (possibly in order) 
3. Develop a habit of finishing the paper in $2:30$ hours: In every test and make an habit of having $30$ minutes for revision.
4. Having at least $15$-$20$ minutes in the end for revision and having a habit of not chasing undone questions in that time.

Basically average attempt is around $50$ questions, so reviewing $50$ questions in $20$ minutes is very difficult if we can reduce the number of questions to review that would be of great help.

(Q) Which type of questions do we perform silly mistakes ?
Generally what I noticed in my attempt is that I perform silly mistakes in questions that involves calculation,  while silly mistakes in theoretical questions are less likely to happen (except those in which NOT TRUE or INCORRECT has been asked so for that read the question properly).
So the prime objective is to know which type of questions we need to revise in the last $20$ minutes.

(1) How I used is mark for review and answered option?
After answering a question having calculation I marked for it review instead of Save and Next and was shown as marked for review and answered.
So at the end in the last 20 minutes the paper looked something like this:

Image Source: Gate 2019 Mock Test
So basically at the end I had a clear idea of how many questions I need to review only around $17$ questions approx in the last $15$ minutes, so that’s a do able task.

(2) Now maintaining rough sheet in proper order( serial order or any proper order you like) will help in viewing the calculation of the question and reviewing it quickly instead of spending 1 minute searching for the solution.
In 2018 & 2019 we were provided a scribble pad of $24$ pages(considering both sides) and in my center were told specifically that under no circumstances they will provide any additional scribble pad and I had practiced with same so did not have any problem. I recommend you to solve previous years question paper as mock using a scribble pad of 20 pages(4 less) so you are habituated of doing it. Make it by diving an A4 paper in 2 half.

(3) If you are habituated to completing paper in $2$ hour $45$ minute or $3$ hours, speed up you will leave no time for revision.

In the last 20 minutes you need to take the tough call of revising vs the not answered/ not attempted questions. I will recommend revising and here’s why ?
I revised and found 3 silly mistakes in 2 marks questions(2 MOCQ, 1 NAT) that made a difference of $2*3 +0.67*2=7.33$ marks.
I scored $71.67$ and if I had not revise I might have ended up with $64.34$
or if I had managed to do 1-2 2 marks question then $66.34$ or $68.34$ or
making them wrong also and ending up with $63$.
You can figure out the rank difference in each case.
So clearly best case is revising the questions.
Even after this I had a silly mistake of 2 marks I could not eliminate silly mistake but I could clearly minimize it.
.
And even the popular tests series/coaching centers have made mistakes in their answer keys don’t key whether they are silly or conceptual :p

I am Jaynik Gaglani and have obtained AIR 26 in GATE 2021. My actual marks are 69 and after normalization I have obtained 72.89. 

I am a final year student pursuing B.E. in Information Technology from Dwarkadas J. Sanghvi College of engineering in Mumbai. It is a good college with good placements for CS and IT branches. I did not sit for placements except for 1-2 companies because my focus was completely on GATE.

Some tips and Advice:

• Don’t rely on last month/week, try to finish everything on time.
• Past failures don’t matter, just keep interest in subjects and you are good to go.
• Please don’t keep any specific mindset like biasness towards certain subject. All subjects are easy if concept is understood.
• Minor hiccups like less marks in certain tests don’t matter.
• Please read questions thoroughly and don’t assume anything unless told so and also practice more problems to improve thinking skills, speed and accuracy.
• Just persist even in tough and boring times, that phase will pass.
• If you are giving topic wise tests simultaneously with the topic then give it 2 – 3 days after you finish the topic in order to increase retention capacity.
• Analyze each test properly by checking all mistakes and unsolved question.
• The comment section of GO is itself a good resource so check that too.
• When solving PYQs with multiple option correct given in MCQ, solve them as MSQ without checking the options. Also, solve each question with its true solution, that is without tricks like option elimination since it gives clarity to concepts, improves problem solving skills and lots of such questions can come as NAT where such hacks are not applicable. You can definitely use whatever solution you like in the exam.
• Don’t forget to understand basic concepts of maths too.

Preparation:

I started my GATE journey from March 2019 (Semester 4) when I joined Gateforum offline coaching. I took offline coaching because I was not disciplined and also had not done proper research that online coaching is better for GATE since for me, coaching institute was 1 – 1.5 hours away from my house which wastes a lot of time. They were on weekends for total 13 hours. I was not at all serious for GATE then as I had started thinking that the exam is 1.5 years away. I kept making notes in classes but didn’t study seriously and solved PYQ myself in the class as taught by faculty. I started studying seriously from June 1st 2020. I had most of the notes with me and started watching lectures on YouTube and gateforum online. I finished my portion around October and PYQs around mid – November as I used to study in a pipelining manner. Complete a subject from all resources, give topic wise tests, give subject wise test. Start next subject, start PYQ of previous subject. And in next subject, revise the first subject.

I was using gateforum PYQ book for solving but whenever I didn’t understand questions/solutions, I used to google them. Initially, I used GFG but some answers in there too were confusing which led me to temporarily use GO. Once I started seeing some great answers and my other doubts were also getting solved through comments, I started using it full time for solutions. Just exploring, I came across the pdfs which I decided to solve later. A mistake I did as the pdfs have very good accessibility by just clicking a question redirects to GO and also the bookmarks.

I used standard books just for theory topics in OS, CN, DBMS and also some topics like sockets for which I didn’t have any material. I didn’t prepare for aptitude much apart from profit and loss and time and work as I had prior experience with it and also got practice with the help of test series.

At the end of October, I prepared short notes from my own notes, bookmarked questions from tests and from GO comments. One advice here is that when you read short notes, you should be able to recall everything from main notes and lectures else check them again.

My preparation journey was not only studying all day though. On an average in these 5 months, I used to study around 5 – 6 hours a day. During June – July, I also used to do competitive coding and various extra courses. Completed watching The Office US from June to January, used to play games, watch movies/tv shows, went out once or twice a week. But didn’t do this between studies, I had a time dedicated for all this after lunch, so don’t get any wrong ideas. The thing is that GATE is basically an aptitude test so just the core concepts matter. Once you know the concept and have problem solving skills, you can counter any problem.

Last Months:

I kept giving full tests every alternate day except for days when we had the semester exams. Before 8th Jan, I kept switching times from 9.30 to 12.30 and 3.00 to 6.00. After 8th when I found that I am in set 2, I gave all tests at that time. I even gave at least 5-6 tests with mask. I also started using GO PDFs for the first time from December 1st when I was doing PYQs for the third time. I marked some conceptual questions with specific comments in book for seeing in the last 7 days, completed PYQs of all subjects except aptitude till 9th February. I only had last 4 days to finish marked questions which weren’t many. Though for some topics in CN, OS and COA I checked most of the questions again.

I also kept revising from my main notes (used short notes later from around mid – January). On days when I didn’t give full tests, I gave MadeEasy topic-wise/subject-wise tests just for revision, solving more questions and also increasing accuracy. I analysed the test series after giving each test to know my mistakes, new methods to solve problems and any new formulae/concepts. In the last 5 days, I checked all the marked questions, questions from my weak topics, gave GO Test 5 and kept revising from my short notes.

This was a sprint period and I used to study averagely 7 - 8 hours a day including test series analysis. I had stopped going out of home from around January 15th so as to not catch the virus. Also, in these two months, I just used YouTube as an entertainment tool and watched one movie: “The Pursuit of Happyness” (it’s a really good movie to watch when you feel down). At the time of study though, I used to study with full concentration and without distraction.

Test Series:

Totally I gave 35 full tests just to make a habit of sitting for 3.5 hours and also to practice more questions and also improving my accuracy. Also, I used to give them from 3 to 6 after it was confirmed again for keeping my mind active at that time.

Ravindrababu Ravula Test Series: Used just 2021 series, the questions are basic and on easier side. Used its release date as my schedule for studying and gave tests 2 – 3 days after completing the topic. Though, I couldn’t follow it after August when CN came due to a bit of burnout and start of college. I left some multi subject tests at the end. Started full test on 29th November. Gave 14 full tests.

Highest Marks: 87.33, Lowest Marks: 63, Avg. Marks: 76

Gateforum Test Series: Used for extra practice questions. Didn’t give all tests, only for weak topics. Full tests were good but other tests were basic. Gave 6 full tests.

Highest Marks: 78.33, Lowest Marks: 63.33, Avg. Marks: 72

MadeEasy Test Series: Bought it in December, gave most topic wise and subject wise tests just to solve more questions as they were really good though sometimes out of scope according to me. Full tests were also good, gave 13 full tests.

Highest Marks: 74.33, Lowest Marks: 62, Avg. Marks: 69

I also took GATE 2020 paper unseen at the end and obtained around 74 marks giving a really good confidence boost at the end.

At the end, on 10th Feb, I gave GO Full Test 5 for that shuffled paper feel and obtained only 51 marks which shocked me but regained my confidence with the help of my mentor, Gitin Kakkar sir who was my TOC and Algorithms teacher at Gateforum and helped me throughout my journey with some really great advice and also doubt solving. Also, read comments of Arjun sir as my handle name was mentioned in the list of 50+ marks. And my parents motivated me too to not worry and finish it off on Saturday (Day of exam).

Exam Day:

On the day of exam, I woke up at 9.30 having a good amount of sleep. I was surprisingly very calm as I knew I had done whatever I could on my part and there is nothing much significant I can do now. Though had some sudden anxiety, overall, I was fine. Just took some deep breaths and kept calm. Left for centre around 12.30 with my parents in a car and reached there at 1.45. Went to exam hall and closed my eyes till the instructions came. When the paper started, I did the first aptitude question just to not leave the first question of the paper. Then attempted CS section calmy just like giving test series. The trick to solving was keep going on and mark for review whatever I could definitely solve later. After solving everything, I just had 5 minutes to check the mark for review answers and a mistake I did was not marking even ones without any negative marking while parsing them. I lost marks in optimization question where I forgot to count addition in for loop and one where I gave answer as Syntax Error. Also did mistake in Boolean Function question where answer was 6 and I got 10 (due to missing out some value as I didn’t have much time) and not reading the math question on finding standard deviation which was pretty basic. I attempted 60 questions including random guesses in total.

The questions are always new but it doesn’t matter as concept is important and if you know the concept then any question is easy. This paper was not very difficult just the questions were a bit lengthy. The main thing is to read the question fully without missing any word so that you don’t have to read it again and since last few years some questions are coming such that they have one word which completely changes the answer.

Final Result:

In CS Section, I got 17 one-mark questions correct and 8 wrong. I had attempted all of them. And 19 two-mark questions correct and 6 wrong out of 25 questions attempted.

I got full marks in General Aptitude, Algorithms, Programming and DS, Databases and 10/11 in TOC which boosted my performance as these were my strong subjects from start.

Final marks were 69, though less, but due to difficulty of paper, I could get a really good rank out of it with a score of 918/1000.

Finally, I would like to thank my family, friends, all the teachers and GateOverflow for helping me achieve this rank.

Thank you for reading,

Jaynik Gaglani

PS:

You can contact me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaynik-gaglani-3a87a616a/

Testimonial: https://gateoverflow.in/blog/13078/thank-you-gateoverflow

My experience on video: https://youtu.be/2EEAtZWmzC0

Hello fellow rankers, and future aspirants. Congratulations are in order for all the brilliant people whom i hope to meet soon, and also to the ones who weren’t fortunate enough to meet their own expectations this time around, but still have come out of this journey wiser and with renewed hope and determination for acing their next attempt.

I didn't plan on sharing my experience as there are already a lot of them out there which are a great read and frankly way more relatable to most people than what my experience is going to be.

Having said that, everyone is welcome in giving it a read and sharing their thoughts/comments/critiques, but do keep in mind that I'm mainly writing this for the ones who are unfortunately (or maybe fortunately :D) currently in the same position as I was in 2020.

So exactly what position was I in?

I had just graduated without any placement in hand and had no hope of finding a job without drastically lowering my standards, especially because of companies slowing or freezing their hiring due to the lockdown, and being from an average private college didn’t help in attracting a lot of good companies, or even if the company brand was good, the job profiles and pay was not something I wanted to entertain. (can’t sacrifice peace of mind for a few bucks and ‘experience’. Learned that the hard way)

But this is not the complete picture. I have always been the “laid back”, “will relax and have fun whenever I can” type of guy. I had no big aspirations and just wanted to earn a good living so that I can have fun with family and friends, and enjoy my life without having to worry about my finances. This attitude towards life I’ll admit is not the best one to have, but thankfully I have amazing parents who have always taken care of all my needs and provided much more than I deserve, so I never had any overwhelming sense of urgency to get my life sorted.

I didn’t really take my 11th and 12th seriously enough, to even get into an NIT or a good state college. I wasn’t even able to clear JEE MAINS. This will be my first “what could’ve been” regret that I will have in my life, but I’ve learnt not to dwell in the past, just learn from it and move on. 

Now in my college I have had some great company, and have made lifelong friends which I cherish, but it wasn’t the most intellectually stimulating environment, or an environment which motivates you to find your passion and excel. The professors were below average and I would say most of the students (not all, as there were some good ones, although that is bound to happen when your sample size is large enough) had a “study enough for passing” mindset.

Therefore it is mostly my fault, because of the choices I made throughout the years, and not entirely the college’s, that I don’t have a job or any useful technical computer science skills. No one is there to stop you from being better and change yourself if you really want to, but I guess Newton’s first law applies physically as well as philosophically :P.

Don’t get me wrong though, I always had good marks and grades, and always worked hard enough whenever it mattered (cue last minute studying), to avoid embarrassing myself, or disappoint my parents. I was good at understanding concepts, curious about science, tech and a lot of other things by nature, but as I mentioned earlier – was also lazy and the college environment certainly didn’t help. As an extra note, I was really bad in rote learning, but I did improve it a little in college, after all the Indian education system values rote learning above all :D

Fast forward to May 2020, 1 month into the lockdown, with abysmal placement support from the college, it was a new low point of my life. Fortunately (I guess), the world was at a halt, and I therefore quite literally had all the time in the world to introspect, re-evaluate my priorities, and answer the question – what next?

Won’t go into anymore detail, as everyone has a different way of dealing with stuff and therefore will have a different way of processing things. For me, the outcome of this was a strong sense of determination and motivation to not only crack GATE, but achieve rank 1 (Aim for the stars, you’ll land on the moon, am I right?).

GATE PREPARATION –

It was already 1st week of July by the time I started planning my preparation strategy for gate 2021. The idea of gate as an option was planted in my head around the 3rd week of June by my uncle, and before that I had just heard about gate from here and there and had a brief idea what it is all about.

By 2nd week of July I had a sufficiently detailed plan of how my next few months were going to be. I won’t be sharing the details of my plan as it will differ from person to person depending on how you spend your average day and what obligations you have in the near future. Also there are a whole lot of amazing preparation strategies you can read about on quora or listen to on youtube.

Fortunately it is not rocket science, and every strategy has the following generic things to keep in mind:

1. Ask yourself how much do you already know and how good is your mathematical and critical thinking aptitude.

2. Accordingly have a rough estimate (conservative) of how much time will it take to finish a subject and practice it enough to become confident in your ability to solve questions you’ve never seen before. This estimate also includes time for revision and tests in between and just before gate.

3. See if the required time and the available time add up. If not, compromises are required to increase your available time to accommodate the required time.

4. Always strive to finish your goal atleast 30% of the time before, meaning if you planned a subject xyz for 10 days (which was a conservative or ‘max’ estimate), make sure to the best of your ability to finish it in 7 days. Trust me, these saved ‘bonus’ days will be very important towards the end.

5. Be ordered when making notes, as it is the best way to save time in the future. Make it especially easy when trying to find a past mistake, i.e. what you did wrong and what was the lesson you learnt from it. I could’ve been atleast 25% more efficient in utilizing my time during revision and mock tests if only I spent a little bit more time making better notes throughout my prep (including revision and mock). Learning from your mistakes and trying to never make them again is easily the single most important thing you need to top gate. This is an important point so bear with me a little more.

The ‘mistakes’ are not limited to a mistake you made during the test. For example: when you were understanding a concept via reading or maybe watching on youtube, chances are you missed some of the subtle details and even though you feel like you understood it correctly, you either understood it partially or incorrectly. The moment you realize this later (maybe during revision), write this ‘mistake’ down! We are very susceptible to overestimating our ability to retain what we have ‘understood’. Don’t fall for this trap, and spare a few minutes to jot your thought process down clearly and concisely as a favour to your future self :)

My mental state one month before gate –

By now I had gone through all the subjects once, revised them once, and had finished all subject-wise tests and their related pyq’s from made-easy’s 30 years pyq book once. I had full length mock tests left and also a final round of revision, because the portion is just so vast you never feel like you remember all of it (or atleast I didn’t feel that way).

Now the possibility that - “what are the chances that I’m in the top 100 or even 500 students out of ~1.2 lakh others?” - started to set in. Remember I didn’t even clear jee mains. My thoughts started running wild – “7 more months gone with nothing to show for it if I don’t ace this”, “1 more year lost after all those years of college”, etc. etc.

Still, I trusted in my plan that I made all those months ago and tried to brush aside this feeling (rather unsuccessfully :P). I started giving 1 mock every 2.5 days on average. Rest of the time, one by one I revised all the subjects by simultaneously solving the GO PYQ pdf as much as I could. In retrospect I should’ve started the GO pdf from the 1st month itself.
Even though I had ‘solved’ all the pyq’s once before (from made-easy’s 30 years pyq book), to my shock there was a lot of stuff I couldn’t figure out how to solve the 2nd time around. This was a major hit to my confidence. I still powered through it, making it a point to try and remember all my mistakes this time. Thankfully, my rank in the mocks were improving, giving me the confidence boost I desperately needed. (I’ll attach an excel sheet of my marks/ranks of all the tests I gave of both made-easy and ace test series, but please don’t use it as a benchmark, because there is a lot of variability in my performance initially, and it isn’t useful for anything except just maybe glancing it once to get a glimpse of ‘my progress’ over time, which isn’t at all indicative of what an ideal progress journey should be, because I don’t think there is one.)

Side note – I found made-easy much much better than ace, both because of the number of people that had enrolled in it and the selection of questions. Although both of them had a lot of grammatical as well as outright conceptual mistakes in the questions and answer keys. In this aspect, even though only maybe 200 people on average attempted GO’s mock tests, the level of GO is easily 5x better than any coaching institute, and one should strive for scoring above 80% consistently in all their tests. Proof is Nikhil Dhama who was consistently scoring well in all GO tests, subject-wise as well as mocks.

Now, by d-day I had a fair idea of where I stand. I had decided to not let the uncertainty affect me during the test, and was going to treat it like any other mock test I was giving. Finally, it did indeed feel like one of the mocks, only this time I didn’t get my marks instantly, and after a few days when answer keys started popping up, my anxiety went through the roof. I’m extremely grateful that it all turned out for the best in my case, but still couldn’t help but think that there is no reason except some luck that I’m in the top 100, because in any other given day it is possible that I wasn’t fortunate enough and others who were unlucky to lose out a few marks could’ve done better than me.

-----------------

As a final remark –

1. believe in yourself even when things seem impossible

2. be disciplined. because motivation may come and go, but the game is long, and you need something to keep you going even when you are low on juice. Fear is a strong, but bad motivator, I will discourage people from being driven primarily by fear.

3. “Success -> Hardwork”, which means “no hardwork -> no success”. “Hardwork -> success” is a false belief. This is an unfortunate truth. There is no certainty in this world. But this shouldn’t deter you from trying to work hard and be better in the first place.

Hello , my name is Bodhisattwa Dasgupta . This year I got 66.29 Marks and AIR 123 in GATE (CS) – 2021 , and this was my first attempt in GATE. It’s not the best rank , but decent enough to fetch me a good IIT hopefully ( hence the title...)

My Background:

I’m currently a final-year student , pursuing my B.Tech in CS at Future Institute of Technology , Kolkata. It’s a Local Private College here in Kolkata which was established just in 2015. I never was a good student at anything throughout my school days and most of my college life. I remember in 11^th  class Mid-Year exam I failed every subject other than English and CS , the amount of judgement I got from my classmates and teachers were tremendous.

For those who are wondering , I attempted JEE Mains 2 Times, 1^st time I got ~1 Lac Rank and in my 2^nd attempt also I got ~70k Rank. So nothing to write home about. All throughout my academics I absolutely despised subjects like Physics , Chemistry ..etc , the ONLY thing that made sense to me and I enjoyed was CS ( in school-life it was basic coding and DS stuff.. ) and bits and pieces of Maths. 

So naturally I choose CSE over other branches in better colleges and this was the BEST decision of my life.

My GATE Story:

I first heard about GATE from my friends in 2^nd Sem and then after a few days of research I decided to prepare seriously for the same. The idea of studying CS from Top IITs intrigued me a lot and not just that , an All-India based exam based fully on CS got me very excited. 

I never had any Coaching till this point in my life , but since I decided to prepare seriously I enrolled @ ACE Coaching back in Jan 2019.

But unfortunately for the entire year ( from 2019 to Dec 2019 ) I only attended the classes and didn’t put much effort myself , as a result in Late Dec 2019 , I found myself at a very bad position , I had all my class-notes but couldn’t recall any concepts. (MISTAKE #1)

So from Jan 2020 , I decided that I’ll put consistent effort from now on , and try to get a sub-500 Rank. I made a time-table and started preparing accordingly. For each subject I used to give ~2 weeks , and in that 2 weeks first I used to learn the concept , then look at examples and then finally solve the PYQs in parallel. Using this approach I more or less got over with my syllabus by July 2020.

In the month of July I wrote my First Full-Length Test and I got ~62 Marks in that. (  The test was an easy one.  ) , But here I noted that I scored very less in aptitude section , but I ignored it. And I continued to ignore Aptitude for the remainder of my preparation ( MISTAKE #2 ) , why this is a mistake you’ll see later on.

From Aug onwards I decided to do revision and I did so by solving all the PYQs again, this time From GO-PDF. ( Previously did from ME Book ) , and this blew my mind. For each and every problem , extremely detailed solutions were available at GO along with necessary references . And this not only helped me to Learn more BUT ALSO helped in developing a habit of reading standard papers/articles/wikis/books. Which I feel is going to be very useful later down the line for M.Tech.

From Sept onwards I started writing tests more often and regularly. After writing the tests I used to rectify my mistakes.

My marks in Test-Series are:( Avg / High /  Low )

• Made-Easy = (74 / 87 / 47)
• ACE = (82 / 91 / 68)
• Applied-GATE = (78 / 89 / 65)

Looking at my performance I assumed that I’d surely get a sub-100 Rank ( MISTAKE #3 ) . This mindset would prove detrimental in my preparation. 

Things were going pretty good until in Mid-Jan we tested +ve for COVID , while it didn’t affect much but after that point there was a noticeable dip in my test performance. Still I was fairly confident with my preparation.

During the GATE Exam:

I got allotted Set-2 which was a bit lengthy and quite different from previous years. First Question was the Little-Endian One , I never solved such questions before but I knew the concept clearly so was able to get it Correct . Same thing happened for the next 5-6 Questions. I was able to solve correctly but took lots of time and my fear-level was increasing as the Question types were pretty uncommon. 

After going through the first 25 Questions , I had only attempted 13 Questions and left 12 totally. Now Panic started and every negative thoughts came to mind .. “Will I even cross the 50 Marks threshold?” , “Only 2hrs left , this year gone to waste….” ...such thoughts. (MISTAKE #4) . Since I already had made some assumptions about my performance earlier (see Mistake-3), this was exponentially more difficult. 

Because of this Panic-mode , I made mistakes which I could’ve easily avoided otherwise.

Lastly , since I didn't do much prep for aptitude , this really showed in my exam. As I only got 9/15 in Aptitude . Even IF I had 13/15 in aptitude , then probably I would’ve been in Top 60. This is my Biggest Regret YET. 

And In retrospect ,It’s quite Ironical that if I didn’t make assumptions about my performance before the exam , then I wouldn’t have panicked as hard and would’ve been able to meet my expectations. 

Conclusion and Advice for future Aspirants:

• Does Test Series Marks and Actual Marks have any correlation? Yes and No .Don’t make assumptions based on test-series marks . If you are not getting good marks , don’t be under confident , analyze and move on. If you are getting good marks , don’t be overconfident , analyze and move on.  But certainly if you are performing well in Tests , that’s great and indicative of good preparation.
• Revision should be done consistently , otherwise not possible to retain all the concepts clearly. Even if for 10min , just go through your own notes and that is good enough.
• NEVER Ignore aptitude , because it can make or break your exam. I ignored and paid the price . So take necessary steps and don’t make the same mistake that I did.
• How many Hours should I prepare?  Doesn’t matter.  But consistency should be maintained even if its 1hr a day.
• Learn to manage pressure . I didn’t handle pressure during the exam well and suffered the consequences.

Still at the end of the day , I’m quite satisfied with my rank and planning to join IIT-Madras or IIT-Kharagpur. My learning journey has just started and I still have a long way to go.

GATE taught me that your college / background etc NOTHING MATTERS . The only thing that matters is your own Will to Learn and Self-Belief. If you believe in your own ability and put in the necessary effort , then you can surely get it.

I know I don’t have the best rank , but if you have any questions or doubts regarding preparation , please feel free to ask. I’ll try my best to answer.

Thanks for reading.

This was my third attempt and I managed to get $71.67$ marks, I found many fellow aspirants were too much focused on test series but I managed to get decent marks without taking any test series so I thought of sharing when I think one should take any test series.
I would recommend you not to take up any test series because of the following reasons:

1.  Wrong questions
2.  Wrong solutions
3. Incomplete questions

For the first two if you know or discuss among others you may correct it and save yourself from learning wrong concepts  but the third one is the most dangerous and I am going to discuss why.
Let’s take an example from a question asked in one of the most popular test series in a CBT i gave in January 2019:
(Q) Which one of the following represents overflow condition

1. $xyz+\bar{x}\bar{y}\bar{z}$
2. $\bar{x}y\bar{z}+xy\bar{z}$
3. $\bar{x}\bar{y}z+xy\bar{z}$
4. $x\bar{y}\bar{z}+\bar{x}\bar{y}z$

The question does not mention what is $x$,$y$ and $z$. The candidate needs to assume himself what is $x$,$y$ and $z$. Now when a aspirant is used to solving 100’s such question they develop the habit of not reading the complete question.
Similar question when given in gate has a proper explanation for each term see below:

(Q) When two 8-bit numbers $A_{7}...A_{0}$ and $B_{7}...B_{0}$ in 2's complement representation (with $A_{0}$ and $B_{0}$ as the least significant bits) are added using a ripple-carry adder, the sum bits obtained are $S_{7}...S_{0}$ and the carry bits are $C7...C0$. An overflow is said to have occurred if 

1. the carry bit $C_{7}$ is 1
2. all the carry bits $(C_{7},...,C_{0})$ are 1
3. $(A_{7}.B_{7}.\bar{S_{7}}+\bar{A_{7}}.\bar{B_{7}}.S_{7})$ is 1
4. $(A_{0}.B_{0}.\bar{S_{0}}+\bar{A_{0}}.\bar{B_{0}}.S_{0})$ is 1

Source: https://gateoverflow.in/118289/gate2017-1-9

Someone not reading the complete question might not commit mistake in this question, but will definitely commit mistake in this one.
(Q) We consider the addition of two 2′s complement numbers $b_{n−1}b_{n−2}…b_{0}$ and $a_{n−1}a_{n−2}…a_{0}$. A binary adder for adding unsigned binary numbers is used to add  the two numbers. The sum is denoted by $c_{n−1}c_{n−2}…c_{0}$ and the carry-out by $c_{out}$. Which one of the following options correctly identifies the overflow condition? 

1. $c_{out}\left ( \overline{a_{n-1}\oplus b_{n-1}} \right )$
2. $a_{n-1}b_{n-1}\overline{c_{n-1}}+\overline{a_{n-1}}\overline{b_{n-1}}c_{n-1}$
3. $c_{out}\oplus c_{n-1}$
4. $a_{n-1}\oplus b_{n-1}\oplus c_{n-1}$

Source: https://gateoverflow.in/1815/gate2006-39
Here Sum is denoted by $c_{n−1}c_{n−2}…c_{0}$ but many students will be in rush in exam and in speed treat it as carry and mark option $c$ in exam and proceed. 

In GATE all information and hints will always be there in question. But many aspirants are used to solving substandard questions prepared in test series and hence skip those vital information.
The question that follows is what should be done when one finishes his preparation.
This completely depends on the month  in which syllabus has been completed which includes solving all the previous year questions from any book (Gate Overflow pdf recommended).

Assumption 1: Syllabus completed early (October or before)

(1) Previous year question https://gateoverflow.in/exams/gate?type=1

(2) Analyze your average marks if it’s below 80(for 2016 onwards),70(for 2010-2015) then you are lacking some important concepts figure them out, complete them.

(3) Solve subject wise previous year also  https://gateoverflow.in/exams/gate?type=3 , this makes sure you have covered all good questions even before 2010 in the particular subjects and ensure proper revision.

(4) Now it depends on which month you are in, subtract the number of days from 1st January and take a decision on how many test you want to give in this duration and purchase a test series or take the free ones or redo the previous year ones, completely upto you.

(5) In the last month you should once again solve previous year gate paper once more but this time it should be solved in 2 hour 15 minutes and 15 minutes revision to spot any silly mistake done.(Will write another blog how I minimized my silly mistake)

Assumption 2: It’s mid November or later.
Skip 4th point.

Recommended exams to give before Gate:

(1) TIFR: Interface is similar with Gate, new questions are given, no repeated question, a litmus test of your preparation you must get atleast 60% if you are targeting below 100 (if not analyze where are you going wrong).

(2)One Center Based Mock exam in Jan: In the month of January both ACE and Made Easy conduct center based test if you want you can give both or one. Ace is recommended because it gave standard TCSion center and the interface was exact with gate. Like I got to know few things scroll won’t work, the zoom feature given in Gate Mock test won’t work, the options will be displayed beside the radio button, pressing save and next on question marked for review removes from marked for review to answered or not answered. etc…

What many aspirants do is skip 1-3 and directly start with step 4.
From Arjun Sir’s post after Gate 2018
For those who gave a lot of test series and was expecting same kind of paper in GATE and now preparing for GATE 2019, my only suggestion is to book a slot for GATE 2020. Some people never learn. Some others will now be switching their coaching institutes to improve the results -- please understand the whole reason whether good/bad for your result is just YOU. The toppers photos which comes in any institute page is just fooling you. Even in GO, the testimonials clearly say what the toppers did and what made them toppers -- no one came there, had some capsules and suddenly became toppers.
Source : https://www.facebook.com/groups/gateoverflow/permalink/746335835571629/?comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22O%22%7D

Hi my Brothers and Sisters :)

Hope all are doing well, this post is about my journey only but nothing else.

Got 57 marks only in Gate-19, i know this marks are not sufficient !!!

This marks are even less than my Gate-17 marks too…  After preparing well also, such things happens to few people only ( previously i seen HabibKhan sir only. ). I wrote Gate in 16 and 17, and this time i wrote 3-4 mocks also, in all those exams i completed my exam atleast before 20-25 min, unfortunately in the G-19, i even doesn't visited 8 more 2 marks questions due to lack of time, in those questions, six questions are quite easy and each question solvable under 1 min, I know the fact that “ LUCK can not favor all the time us only ”, But i am sure the journey is awesome :)

I don’t know what is the main motive behind to write Gate-19, I am not decided to choose PSU or M.Tech before starting the preparation, i know it’s not easy to leave the JOB and go to MTech due to financial problems of my family, i just thought if i have a good rank after that i can decide. I decided to fully dedicate DEC and JAN for preparing, but leave was not approved, Therefore i decided to abscond from the duties ( i know this is not the right way to do, but i don’t have any other option ), I would like to thank my parents to accept this decision. And i would like to thank my friends who support me and encougerage me alot :)

With lots of efforts i prepared, even some time it happens till mid night ! But unfortunately it doesn’t worked for me !!

But i am satisfied with my preparation, and i strongly believe that “ Better things are waiting for me which can worth my hardwork ! ”, it is already proven in my life many times !!!

I can’t thank enough the ADMINS of GO, Even they created a classroom schedule and very well maintained, i know how much tough it is ! and how much time they sacrifice for it !! and i know how much they love to help others !!! I am sure that these persons even doesn't spend this much time for their GATE preparation !!!!

I hope most of the people doesn't know that “ Even ADMINS created a Whatsapp Group and added some of the persons only ( who are actively participated in GO classroom, but luckily they add me also even i doesn't participated in GO classroom ) “

And the answers provided by Arjun sir, Bikram sir,  Akash Kanase sir, Debashish Deka sir, Kapil sir, Digvijay Pandey sir, Sachin Mittal 1 sir, LeenSharma sir, shekhar chauhan sir, pC sir, Pragy Agarwal sir, papesh sir, ManojK sir अनुराग पाण्डेय sir, are marvelous.

and i would like to thank jothee mam, Kathleen sir for uploading all the standard questions. and thanks to Subarna Das mam, for spending time for maintaining GO.

and a special thanks to GATEBOOK sir, for providing his questions on GO behalf of the request of Arjun sir !

without mentioning the following people, my journey of Gate-19 through GO doesn’t complete !

i would like to thank srestha mam, Mk Utkarsh, Ayush Upadhyaya, MiNiPanda, Deepakk Poonia (Dee), abhishekmehta4u, Soumya29 mam for sharing their knowledge and their support with me :)

i enjoyed the discussions with arvin, Magma, Lakshman Patel RJIT, tusharp, kumar.dilip,  jatin khachane 1, eyeamgj, himgta, iarnav, Somoshree Datta 5, Gate Fever, HeadShot, Prince Sindhiya and many more people.

PS : if i forget any one, forgive me :)

Hi,

Everyone who prepares for any exam needs  to have some to plan of action and has to execute it in order to crack it.Let me annotate it with a quote:

“It’s not the plan that’s important, it’s the planning.” Dr. Gramme Edwards

Here is the  plan which I followed during my preparation:

I  started my preparation from  June 2015.I spent 5-6 days  reading toppers blog and tried to understand their strategy..and what I concluded is that they  all relied on self-study and standard books.I didn’t join any classroom coaching and decided to do the self study..and trust me self-study is best..It increases your knowledge a lot ..I still cherish the time which  I spent in reading standard books.

By mid-October I had completed  syllabus.After that, I just focused on revision and tests.Initially, I started with subject wise tests of Made Easy ..soon I realized that it was time to focus on full-length tests rather than subject wise tests.So last three months ie November 15 to Jan 16 I spent time in revising , practising questions( from std books,TIFR questions),giving mocks ,analyzing them  and strengthening the weak areas

I used to keep track of marks which I was getting in those tests.After giving mock I used to list my mistakes..and discuss those questions on gateoverflow..Giving mocks is important as that boosts your confidence..but blindly following them is bad.And yes one should think of mocks when he/she  is done with all previous year questions.

I used to  maintain diary recording what I studied on daily basis..like if I studied calculus from 1pm-2pm I used to record it .At the end of day, I used to go through diary and see how much I studied that day.This thing was needed to keep me motivated.Motivation and regularity are the basic ingredients to make yourself study worth.

Online sources which were helpful in preparation:

nptel lectures ,

gatecse FB group and gateoverflow(awesome site for gate cs preparation)

https://gateetude.wordpress.com

http://www.engineering.careers360.com/articles/gate-2015-topper-interview-ravi-shankar-mishra-air-1-in-computer-science-engineering

geeksforgeeks

Thank you!!!

Pooja Palod

AIR 51,2016