Recent posts in 2018

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GATE 2018 AIR: 352

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

NIELIT Scientific Assistant Rank (17 Dec 2017): 59

ISRO Written Rank(22 April 2018) : 35

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

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

BARC OCES/DGFS-2018 Selected (Interview Experience)

 

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

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

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

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

How GO helped?

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

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

NIELIT Non-Technical Preparation :

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

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

IIT Kanpur M.Tech. Test  Preparation :

Written Test : Same as GATE preparation.

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

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

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

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

BARC Interview Preparation :

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

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

 

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

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

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

VS posted in 2018 Jun 29, 2018 edited Jan 3, 2020 by VS
by VS
4,346 views
2
I would like to thank you all for helping me achieve this dream.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks & Regards,

Abhishek Varma
the fallen bat posted in 2018 Mar 25, 2018
3,906 views
3
I started preparing for GATE after completing my B.E in Electronics. The major reason for most of us to appear in CSE is because of the subject Data Structure and Algorithms. I was introduced to DS & A in my final semester and from then and there everything happened!

Thank you Gate Overflow community for your superb answers which fetched me an AIR of 352.
Prashant Kumar 4 posted in 2018 Mar 22, 2018
1,377 views
4
I secured an AIR 377 . A lot of thanks to GATE OVERFLOW community. The GO pdfs for previosu year questions where absolutely fantabulous. The way the questions were organized and answered and the discussions about each and every question helped me to acquire immense amount of knowledge and concepts.
Nirjhar Roy posted in 2018 Mar 22, 2018
1,168 views
5
AIR - 118

I cannot thank GO enough for the motivation and guidance I got from it. GO PDF and course text books are all you need for GATE CSE preparation. The accuracy and the clarity of concepts in GO PDF is no where to be found. Since few months, visiting GO and it's Facebook page has become kinda hobby for me. I don't know how can I repay the forum. Hats off to the owners and every active contributer here. I have committed many silly calculation mistakes in the exam and had to pay for them with around 12-13 marks. Else I could've made it to top 50. So, I feel that good grip on GO PDF can make you score above 75 if not 80 if you don't commit silly mistakes. I vouch for it. (By good grip, I don't mean to memorize the process of each model of sum. I mean to understand the intuition behind every solution with clarity.)

Million thanks once again.
g.sreedurga posted in 2018 Mar 22, 2018
1,831 views
6

Hi, I got AIR 94 in GATE CSE 2018. The actual preparation started after my 6 sem exam in May. I started with Discrete Mathematics. The strategy I used to follow is that at a time I used to do only 1 subject. I learn the concept either from Standard Books or Videos. Make my own notes. Then do the previous year of that subject. Then move to the other subject. and Keep revising in between.

For previous year I used GO PDF soft copy. For easy question, I solved it within the PDF only. For good question, I used to open it into the browser, then I try to solve it. Whether I solved it or not. I checked the answer, read the discussion, and visit the mentioned links to understand it properly. Especially the links mentioned by Arjun sir, are really awesome, it really helped me to understand the concept better. I feel that solving like this really helped me to widen my strength and also tackle new questions in the examination.

How much quality videos you watched for a subject, but I personally feel that better concepts are built by reading the standard books. Once you read from Standard books it will be cemented into your mind and you will not forget it for a long time. But you should also know how to use those concepts and for that previous year questions or the exercises questions in the book will be too good. I purchased one standard book for all subject, except compiler.

For me, Managing my environment is also a big task. I don't find any person from my college who is actually preparing for Gate. So whenever I have 2 or more days holidays I come to my home and start preparing. Most of the good preparation time I spent at my home. And whenever I was in college I try to attend all the classes so that I can take big holidays and go home, and somehow I also able to manage 75% attendance, otherwise, I have to pay a huge fine. Already paid it many times :p.

You may have heard that quote "Surround yourself with those on the same mission as you", and for that Gateoverflow comes in rescue, Make lots of friends, solved each other doubts. Thanks to @Nitish Joshi, @Ruhul Sharma, @Ashwin KulKarni, @Soumya Jain, @Sonveer Tomar, @anup patel and many many more for being part of this. :)

After Completing Discrete Mathematics, I started C/DS/Algo and I didn't take too much time in it as I already good in it. After that, I moved to System subject and give proper time to understand them. I completed my syllabus in mid of November then I started taking tests. I really enjoyed taking tests at Gateoverflow because we can do discussion if we have some doubt and also we can answer the question if we want and have a better approach for that. Answering the question at GO really helped me a lot. :)

I also took Made easy full-length and testbook test series. It helped me to manage the time and to know that how many questions should we safely attempt (not get negative :P) to be on the safer side. While taking the actual Gate exam I was left with 25 minutes, I already go through the question paper once and only solved 46 questions, I know that it is not enough to get good marks, drink that 250ml water bottle, and again started solving questions with a lot of focus, Solved 11 more question and I think most of them are correct, But on the other hand also did silly mistakes :( and lost 7-8 marks. But it is okay, happened with everyone :) .

There are many up and down during my preparation, especially when I have to go to college continuously. Sometimes I'm not able to study one day, two day but whatever happened I don't lose my belief. I have a belief that I will make it. Really happy to make it. :) 

Few advice for the future aspirants:

1. Don't leave anything, complete the entire syllabus. Even a 1 marks in GATE make a big difference.

2. Solved previous year question at least twice or more.

3. Take Tests (either free or paid). In last 2 months trying to take lots of tests for practices.

4. Whatever you are aiming to score, Suppose 70 Marks in actual Gate then try to score 75 or 80 in test series because there will be examination pressure in actual Gate. Have some marks for it in the worst case.

5. Don't compare yourself to anyone.

6. Even the NPTEL videos are bit boring but they are really a high-quality one. They really help to build the good intuition. 

7. Even you are not scoring good in test series. Don't worry. Sometimes questions in test series are not good and answers are wrong.  But in actual Gate Exam, it is not like that. You will do good in actual Gate.

A Big thanks to @arjun sir, @preveen sir, @bikram sir, @anirudh pratap singh sir, @Habib sir, @Sachin Mittal sir, @Debashish Sir, @Digvijay sir, @Manu Thakur sir and many more for their guidance and inspiration.

In the end, I want to quote, 2 of my favorite quotation for inspiration for future aspirants. I used to take print out of quotation and paste them at my workspace. They give positivity. :) 

"There is no greater power in heaven or on earth than the commitment to a dream." ~Ignited Minds

"It doesn't matter what your past is, it doesn't matter what your present is, what only matter is where you want to go."

Hemant Parihar posted in 2018 Mar 21, 2018 edited Mar 21, 2018 by Hemant Parihar
7,007 views
7

I went all out.

Year: 2017(Final year, Engg.) I didn't opt for placements as I wanted to do masters. I applied for MS in the US, got rejects from every university(top 30 - 50). I took the decision to drop an year and not to apply for MS in US as it doesn't make sense to spend lakhs of rupees for universities below 50 rank.

I went all out.

I prepared for gate 18 like hell. Sacrificed everything, movies, friends, even family. I messed up during the exam or maybe the surroundings messed me up. There was construction going on near the test center(just for three hours 9 am to 12 pm). I know I am "lucky". I believe I lost at least 400-450 rank because of the disturbances.
 

I Failed.

Gate 18: Score 659 Rank 960.

Is it possible to get into any good research institute in India with this score (and OBC-NC category)?

Is it the end for me and my dreams to build a strong research-oriented career in Computer Science(AI/ML specialization)?

 

 

aoao posted in 2018 Mar 21, 2018
by aoao
2,115 views
8

AIR-71 THANKS GO
THANKS ARJUN SIR ,MANISH JOSHI SIR , SHIVAM CHAUHAN SIR , NIRMAL GAUR, TUSHAR BHATT
I AM FINAL YEAR ECE STUDENT FROM COT PANTNAGAR (STATE GOVT. CLG) WHO STARTED DOING PREPRATION FOR ECE GATE BUT IN ONE WEEK I UNDERSTOOD THAT THIS IS NOT GOING TO BE EASY FOR ME TO PREPARE WHOLEHEARTEDLY FOR ELECTRONICS .THEN TWO OF MY FRIENDS TUSHAR BHATT AND NIRMAL GAUR RECOMMEND ME TO SWITCH BRANCH FROM ECE TO CS GATE. BEFORE THAT I WAS  CODING ON CODECHEF SO I KNOW ABOUT PROGRAMMING AND LITTLE IDEA ABOUT ALGORITHMS AND MATHEMATICS. AND FOR THE REST OF THEM I WAS FULLY UNAWARE BUT AFTER TALKING TO MY SENIORS MANISH JOSHI SIR(AIR-29, EE ), SHIVAM CHAUHAN SIR (AIR-14 , ECE ) I MADE MY MIND TO TAKE THAT RISK.

IN THIS JOURNEY GATEOVERFLOW IS REALLY AWESOME  AND THERE CAN NOT BE ANY BETTER ALTERNATIVE POSSIBLE. ALTHOUGH I DON'T TAKE PARTICIPATION IN ANY DISCUSSION BUT I SUGGEST TO GO THROUGH EACH OF THEM EVEN IF U KNOW THE ANSWER, MAY BE A BETTER WAY IS POSSIBLE.

COMPLETE YOUR COURSE WITH IN TIME SO THAT U HAVE ENOUGH TIME FOR TEST SERIES WHICH IS VERY MUCH NEEDED FOR TIME MANAGEMENT AND SWITCHING BETWEEN DIFFERENT TOPICS . DON'T FOLLOW THEIR SOLUTIONS BLINDLY FOR ANY CONCEPTS. KEEP IN MIND THAT 15-20 DAYS CAN BE WASTED IF U HAVE TO SIT FOR PLACEMENT IN COLLEGE  .

BELIEVE ME GATE IS A CONCEPTUAL EXAM EVEN IF U KNOW LESS U CAN SCORE GOOD BY ONE YEAR OF PREPRATION.ONE OF MY FRIEND OF ECE BACKGROUND IN CS SCORE 45 MARKS BY HARDLY TWO MONTHS OF PREPRATION (ANCHAL JAKHMOLA JAI HO.. ).AT LAST DON'T COMPARE YOURSELF WITH OTHERS. STAY FOCUSED.
WISHING ALL THE FUTURE ASPIRANTS VERY BEST FOR THE PREPARATIONS.

 

ANKUSH KUMAR posted in 2018 Mar 20, 2018 edited Mar 22, 2018 by ANKUSH KUMAR
2,478 views
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I am Ahwan Mishra, Air: 223 in gate 2018, This is all about my journey with gateoverflow.

    I had started my preparation for gate 2017 from a long time before the exam. I could not get what I wanted in my first attempt. I felt like, I gave my best, so GATE might not be my cup of tea. This is what I deserve. I was going to study in NIT Durgapur/Rourkela. Then someone came into my life for whom my life is going to be better. He is @Bikram sir.  He said me again and again that you should try once more, you will get into IITs next year. He knew me just for 2-3 months before that. Still, I had not decided to drop a year, I was not convinced enough. Then I saw a video in youtube by Sandeep Maheshwari. Its title was "Kuch To Log Kahenge".  That video affected my mind so much, I felt he was talking the exact same thing which I was going through. I did not have any reason for not dropping a year, the only thing I was wondering was "What will I answer to my relatives about not joining Job or mtech?". Anyway, I took the decision of dropping a year and convinced my family and said Bikram sir that I was dropping.

From that time Bikram sir was constantly motivating me in our fb group. Then I sticked to GO pdf only. I did not do any unnecessary material or qsn bank or test series.  I just focused on GO pdf which contains GATE, TIFR, CMI, ISI previous year question as per Arjun Sir's advice. I think they are huge in number and very logical. Nothing else is required for practicing.

 Then I became a friend with a guy named Bala with whom I was discussing difficult questions from GO pdf. Thank you bro, for being my friend throughout the gate preparation and for those long discussions of hours and hours on FB.

 In the last two months every day I was giving previous year gate full length at exact time 9:00. The advantages are you will get addicted to sitting 3 hours, you will get addicted to the gate interface, and the type of questions. A disadvantage is, it makes you slower. You can think it as a practice, not as a test and try to solve it within 2-2.5 hours. Anyway, I got Air: 223 this time. Could have been way better, but this year my main goal was to be in safe side. So I took more time in each and every qsns. So did not get time to do all questions and did some silly mistakes too. (You cant get rid of it, only you can reduce it.)

And thank you GO for everything. When it is the "one and only", nothing else is even close to it.. Do I need to say anything about it? The best source for prev yr qsns, most accurate rank and score predictor. Simply the best source for GATE.

Anyway, in the end, I thank all my teachers, seniors and friends.  Thank you Arjun Sir, Bikram Sir, Ravi Sir, Praveen Saini sir, @Debashish Deka bro, @Sachin Mittal bro, @Shiva Kulshreshtha bro, @Habib bro, @Digvijay Pandey bro, @balaeinstein, @Vineet, @Hemant.

Ahwan posted in 2018 Mar 20, 2018 edited Mar 21, 2018 by Ahwan
by Ahwan
4,462 views
10
I owe my success to GO. This is the best place for previous year question and explanation. Never thought I will get into top 100 . I can surely tell one thing, doing all the previous year questions honestly , will land you in top 100 ( I am definitely not suggesting to mug them). Unfortunately I have never contributed as such to GO,only countless upvotes (if that counts) to the beautiful answers by experts like Arjun Sir , Bikram Sir , Habib Sir , Praveen Sir (TOC answers) , Sachin Sir ,Praggy Sir (always seen him answering the most difficult math questions) and many more . I know only these words will do no justice , but thanks again.
Pritam Dutta posted in 2018 Mar 19, 2018
2,336 views
11

Hi everyone! My name is Rishabh Gupta and I secured AIR - 2 in GATE 2018. Marks: 83.00. Credit goes to my parents and GATE OVERFLOW.

I am a final year student in a tier-3 college. It was my first attempt. Even being in a central university, we have zero placements. Really, not a single company visited our campus this year for CSE(till now), not even the mass recruiters like TCS and Infy.
But I think that is why I got this rank. There was no other option, but to study and prepare for a competitive exam which offers a decent chance to excel in the professional sphere.

Whatever I am writing here is a part of my own viewpoint. Many might disagree with me. I would, rather, like to suggest you do not follow me blindly but rather analyse yourself and do what suits you best.

I always followed standard books during my BTech, even when teachers forced us to follow books of some local authors. This resulted in a relatively not that good performance in my college exams, but I knew that I was building concepts instead of mugging up and rotting my knowledge.

It would be my suggestion for you all aspirants to follow the standard books. It might take more efforts, but its worth it. Don't ask for notes from toppers, seniors, etc. but create your own. When you will make notes all by yourself, you will understand better. There is no secret to success, It's all up to you as you have to do the intended labour. Your teachers can teach you, blogs can motivate you, seniors can guide you, coaching people can tell you everything, but it's YOU who have to put your brain to work.

I started proper GATE preparation from July 2017. I prepared the complete schedule up till the exam.
I went through books of all subjects in this duration. Since I had already been through them earlier, so it was not difficult for me to do it again.
You should be clear about when and how you will do each and every subject. Create your plan according to your grasp in each subject. My plan was:
July - Discrete Maths (started with this because this is the base for cs)
August - C, Data structure and Algorithms (These were comparatively easy subjects for me since I did competitive coding)
September - TOC and Compiler Design (Compiler Design took a lot of time since I was studying it for the first time, so I made sure to do TOC quickly as I had a grip on it already)
October - DLD and COA (DLD is considered easy. COA can take time and I spent a lot of time in clearing my doubts)
November - OS (only 1 subject because of 7th sem exams)
December - DBMS and Networks (Don't take networking lightly!)
January - Aptitude and revision (and also Engineering Maths, which I kept neglecting)
February - Relax and gave the exam

Although, I set the deadlines but sometimes was not able to achieve it and extended a day or two. Make sure you stick to your plan and make changes to it as you proceed. The key here is consistency. Work hard, DAILY.

After reading books and preparing notes, I used to solve previous year GATE questions. And often got stuck. GO comes to the rescue at this point. There are so many aspirants like you, here at GO, who will help you in resolving doubts. You should also engage in helping others and clearing their doubts, this will, in turn, will clarify your concepts too.
For the name of the books and relevant chapters see this: https://engineering.careers360.com/articles/gate-2017-topper-interview-ravi-shankar-mishra-air-3-cs
You can find all book's pdf on the internet.

COACHING
I didn't attend any coaching(mainly because there was no coaching centre near me).
I felt that they just help us in mugging formulas, without giving an intuition of the core concepts. I have seen their study material, it often consists of "points to remember", and they expect you to memorize them(or rather to say mug them up), without having much of understanding.
Mugging up formulas is not at all required(at least this is what I believe in Computer Science it's all about Common Sense). I think if you intend to memorize the formula then it indicates that you do not have a hold over the concept. For example, people often try to "mug up" the formula for the average access time in cache (and Virtual memory) and often get confused when to use what. But once you understand that how the cache works, the confusion won't arise. You should understand the meaning of the terms related to it like hierarchical access or simultaneous access, miss penalty, main memory access time, etc.
Similarly, there are concepts in TOC like closure properties. Don't try to learn it by-heart, instead, try to make sense out of it, try to develop an intuition for it, try to visualize the concept, read the books and try to understand through the lines. Search on the internet, you will find lectures, ppts of great university's professors. When you began searching on the internet, you often come across new things surrounding that concept. It's YOU who need to browse things. No one is going to spoon feed.
It might not be possible to grasp everything and you might need to just memorize the formula sometimes due to time constraints. It's okay, everyone does it. But try to keep it at a minimum level. I was not able to understand a lot of things like probability distribution formulas, Catalan numbers, and a few other concepts. So I just learnt it by heart but you should try to by-heart things as minimum as possible. Mug it only when it is the last option.

I have already said a lot against "Coaching". But this should not be taken in a bad light, some of them might be worthy of their popularity (since I never went to one). But still, they are not the "masters" of their field. One can learn directly from the MASTERS of CS. Video lectures by NPTEL, MIT, Stanford, Aduni(Shai Simonson), etc. are all available for free. Those are some of the professors who developed these concepts, so you can't doubt their knowledge.
Going for coaching or Self-preparation? totally depends on you. Ask yourself. "Can I do it without coaching?"

STUDY MATERIAL
People often ask me for this, "Without the help of coaching material from where you have practised?"
1. First of all, GATE PREVIOUS YEAR questions. I am emphasizing on this a lot. These are really really very important.
These will give you an idea about the type of questions you will be confronting to. So solve them at least twice.
2. Then questions from CMI, TIFR, ISRO, etc.
For above points(1 and 2) GOPDF is best. It's better than any question bank book because you can comment and argue in GO, and attain a deeper understanding. And it's free!
3. Solve questions from standard textbooks. Those questions are more about thinking and letting your brain do some hard work.
These are not MCQs which you just try to look out for correct answer by eliminating options. Rather these are generally proofs or "finding an efficient algorithm" types. Here seeking the answer is not that important rather your approach matters. You might not be able to solve all of them, but at least try to grab a few. The time you will spend in thinking about the problem will be fruitful, whether you find an answer or not. It will increase your thinking capability.
At least understand what the question is asking. If you are not able to solve yourself, then search for solutions.
4. If you still have time, search for IIT, MIT, Stanford, CMU, etc. assignments. They are great. Be aware that you don't step far away from GATE syllabus. Caution: Some of these questions might be very difficult from GATE point of view. But at least giving it a try will help you. You will get a feeling that GATE questions are pretty easy as compared to them.
5. See questions here at GO. Many people add questions from their study material or test series. You can have a look at these questions too.

Also, try to modify GATE questions and try to develop an understanding about their solutions.

TEST SERIES
Test series are important. They might not increase your knowledge, but provide an environment of competition and help you in self-analysis.
GO and Virtual Gate test series are great. I would like to thank Techtud Group for providing free quality tests.
Other than these, I joined ME test series, but it wasn't so qualitative like they advertised it to be. I was hardly able to cross 70+ in these test, mainly because there were so many wrong questions. Nonetheless, taking them can be advantageous.
Importance of test series is that you can analyse your mistakes and they help you in time management. Try to give the exam at the same time as of GATE, it will train your mind to work at that time.
Don't bother much about rank. I was never in top 10 in ME full-length MOCK test. And I saw people getting 90+ in these tests.
Silly mistakes, you cannot eliminate, but can reduce them significantly by practice.
A single mistake of writing 0.231 instead of 0.0231 made me 2 instead of AIR 1  :p

At last, a rank is just a number, it does not prove your intelligence or brilliance(but yes they give you admissions to good college). I have seen many people here at GO who are far more knowledgeable than me (like the LEGEND, Habib Sir, and many more). They had written many great answers here, and I often asked doubts from them. After a certain level of preparation, almost everyone comes at an equal level. It just boils down to what you are going to do in those 3 hours. How you are going to manage the pressure. I was lucky enough to do good in those 3 hours. Take proper rest before the exam day and be confident.

Thank you very much Arjun sir for this platform, thanks to Bikram sir for so many good tests(which are way better than paid ones), and thanks to all seniors here at GO, whose blogs and answers motivated me. And Thanks to all other active users of GO. It was a great experience preparing with you people :)

All the best to future aspirants. You can message me anytime, I will be glad to help :)
Thank You!

Rishabh Gupta 2 posted in 2018 Mar 18, 2018
45,058 views
12
( Its a brief "Thank You note". I am looking forward to write a lengthy post in near future to help future aspirant ).

I am a final year student and I got AIR 94. Marks 67.33. (Quite disappointed because of the stupid blunders I committed worth 15 marks but it is what it is and I can't do anything but accept the fact. But hope it helps whosoever reads it to realize the importance of solving questions carefully.)

I want to thank Arjun sir, all the veterans of GO and the whole GO community who is always willing to help and guide one through one's way. The quality discussions with sources to reliable content helped to level up my thinking and shaped the perspective as how to approach a problem. Actually to a famous person who once said that "nothing worthwhile comes free", I want him to have a look at GO and get to appreciate the values of this community. I am really thankful to GO.

Quick tips for future gate aspirants(which helped me and my friends who are under 100):

// These are just my views and may/may not work. So take it with a pinch of salt.

1) Standard books( I did not buy and but had pdfs of all and I used to highlight the content I would want to reread)+ Reliable material from universities(available online).

2) GO pdf I started solving it from mid-december. The discussions about standard questions help a lot.

3) I will encourage you to Master Maths and Programming at first and do in-depth study for the same. These will be helpful in other subjects as well. More specifically, combinatorics, probabilty and discrete Maths( Logic and tree, graphs are super important) in maths part and C, SQL, Data structure, Algorithms in programming. You should at least study this part very thoroughly and in first place.

4) If possible Do competitive programming, it will help you in ways you can't imagine. BONUS: Colleagues who used to do programming got better rank ( Just an observation, doesn't necessarily mean its true).

I am very grateful to whole GO community and whosoever has ever contributed even in a very small proportion.

Thanks a Trillion.

Wish you a lot of success.
AskHerOut posted in 2018 Mar 18, 2018
1,672 views
13

Although AIR275 (GATE18 1st attempt) is not that good rank. But 5 months back when I joined GO even this was not possible...thanks a lot, everyone in GO ... I was not much of a contributor but more of a follower but now I think I should have participated in those healthy discussions. I devoted first 3 years of my college life to competitive coding, web and Android development but being from a teir3 college these things were not enough to fetch a job with a decent package... after discussions with friends and seniors, I decided to prepare for gate'18 half-heartedly (because I thought getting into IIT would be tough just like JEE advance but this is not the case with GATE if you are conceptually clear and have a good presence of mind you can crack gate with a good rank ) .... 

although the list of people who guided me and helped me during GATE is large but would like to give special mention to Ashwin Kulkarni , My batchmates Atul Bhandari ,Amrendra, Satyam rohella,Shubham,Neeraj  discussions and following these guys helped and encouraged me a lot to clear my concepts.
THANK YOU so much, GO, family,

abhijeet pandey posted in 2018 Mar 18, 2018 edited Mar 26, 2018 by abhijeet pandey
1,976 views
14

Hello Everyone,

I'm Ashwin Kulkarni GATE 2018 AIR 323, in my first attempt. Though the rank is not very very much attractive But it is quite good.

I joined GO in mid-October, I guess after that it boosted my confidence drastically. The confidence of tackling questions, a habit of continuously exploring new terms helped me a lot while solving a question paper.

I will share my journey (I'm sure many people can correlate with it :P)

So in the third year, I decided to go for a GATE 2018. But as I mentioned in the title I was very very crazy during my college days from 1st year itself, took part in almost every anchoring, interviews, Street-Plays, magazines team head and many more college events. Then the question arises How should I prepare if I'm not stable enough. Because GATE exam needs only consistency and continues Hard work. So in Feb-March, i started studying subjects one by one. Remember If you want to get into Top 100 or 400 and if you are my type of person then first complete all the subjects because we can't rely on a particular subject by skipping other one or two. Then I completed my syllabus in December '17. One of senior Kantikumar Lahoti (GATE '17 AIR -39) Introduced me to the GO. Then, believe me, I completely left all the social media platforms. (This was a drastic step towards success for a very social guy like me) and after that GO is the only social cum technical platform for me.

I tried to answer many many questions, many wrong answers were corrected by Nitish Joshi (AIR 14 GATE '18). I learned a lot from him. Then special thanks to Arjun Sir, Anu007 Sir, Habib Sir, Debashish Sir for their valuable answers. In this GO journey, I got many new friends - Nitish Joshi, Abhishek Tiwari, Gauravkc, Hemant Parihar and many more.

My habit of coding also helped to tackle questions of Algorithms TOC and OS. So if you're Hackerrank, Codechef member then it will somehow help you. All Gateoverflow Question papers are seriously the best. and this year's GO answer key is 100% correct :) Still while solving question paper I made 3 silly mistakes which surely took me to top 200.

So my message to all GATE '19 aspirants - Believe me GATE is a too much conceptual exam and we are fortunate our competition is little less compared to CIVIL and MECHANICAL, Just prepare consistently and positively. Solve as many as question papers in the last month. If you have a girlfriend or a boyfriend keep him/her aside for few months :p. Do everything in the college don't miss those days too. But while studying you should be focused and consistent.

Thank you so much, GO family.  

Ashwin Kulkarni posted in 2018 Mar 18, 2018 edited Mar 18, 2018 by anonymous
3,529 views
15

I secured AIR 157 in Gate-2018.

Thanks to the entire GO community.

About myself: I did my B.tech from BIT Sindri ( Jharkhand state govt. college), passed out in 2017, IInd attempt ( got AIR 1457 in 2017), Self preparation ( Only took online tests ).

GATE-2018 JOURNEY: After getting the Gate-2017 result, I was unsure about whether I should join any college ( IIITB,D, NITs/ New IITs ) or I should repeat fulltime. I decided to give one more try and started my preparation in the month of July ( A bit late because I was busy enjoying the last few days of college life).

But, Before starting my actual preparation I took some time to analyze myself, to know where I lagged in previous attempt. I made a lists of all the subject, topic etc. in which I was weak and had scored less marks. ( I had left Digital logic, SQL, Turing machine and decidability topic in TOC, COA etc.), also made another list of the topics in which I was good. 

Firstly, I completed all the topics in which I was fundamentally weak ( Watched NPTEL / MIT Ocw lect. videos, Read from standard Text books - As mentioned by Bikram sir ). I had made notes of almost all topics during my first attempt and these helped me a lot in completing the syllabus very fast because I didn't have to worry about making notes once again. I read the topics ( in which I was good ) from the notes,as I had given ample times to these topics during first attempt, I was able to recall almost all the concepts, Watched lectures/ read textbooks of only those subtopics which are either very important or confusing.

The big discovery was finding the GO website and GO pdf. It changed the whole game. As I was preparing by self there are some prev. year gate questions / sub topics which are tricky/confusing and I was having hard times tackling those ( since I have no mentor to guide, also no good book available in market which contains satisfactory answer/explanation to prev. year gate question ). I stumbled upon some post on FB where people have mentioned about GO pdf. This was the second best thing happened to me apart from getting a decent rank. I found awesome explanation of prev. year gate question which removed my doubts in almost all the topics. Awesome answers by awesome people in GO website motivated me and I started thinking logically after seeing a question. A big boost to my confidence about a certain topic.

I couldn't thank enough to the entire GO community, especially Arjun  sir, Bikram sir and all the awesome seniors.

Note: One should use GO pdfs as a guide/mentor and shouldn't use this in memorizing an answer but understanding concepts. Same can be applied to Online test.( you should give tests to examine your concept and preparation level and shouldn't learn any new concepts from these tests before verifying those concepts ) Good luck to all future GATE aspirants.

Wish me Luck in my future endeavors.

Edit : Ignore grammatical mistakes, if any.

Abhishek Kumar Singh posted in 2018 Mar 17, 2018 edited Mar 20, 2018 by Abhishek Kumar Singh
2,349 views
16

Sorry for the length of the post!

For someone who had no clue about the GATE exam, GO came to the rescue! For those who are still oblivious to the power of this community, the websites https://gateoverflow.in and https://gatecse.in/ are such a huge support that you don't have to look anywhere else for most of your needs. So, a huge thanks to the creators and contributors of this forum. Furthermore, I implore the GATE 2018 toppers to add their own few cents if GO has benefited you, for remember the time when you read such posts and they motivated you.

I'd also like to add a few points as an advice for the times when the going gets tough for the aspirants : 

1. When I started my preparation, I had already quit my job and traveled for two straight months. It was only after that, that I decided I wanted to study further and not get back to the industry. And so, I was extremely clear in my mind and all set for around next ten months of studying on my own. Obviously, you don't have to do any such thing because that just applies only to the travel freaks like me. But my point is, you have to "feel ready" to give yourself completely to the journey. And after that, it would really be a breezy, fun ride.

2. I had no clue about any subjects when I started preparing except Algo and DS, only because I was an active competitive programmer during college (although I had not remembered much by then). I started with easy subjects like Digital Logic and TOC, and then headed towards Discrete Maths, then Algo & DS and then towards the system subjects (DBMS, Compilers, OS and CN, in that order). I added Engineering Maths topics in between these subjects as breaks. (I love Maths!). So, basically, you have to plan the order of subjects and the duration of each. I took around 15 days for each.

3. I started with around 10 hours each day of studying in April, tired down to around 2 hours each day by the time I reached DBMS, and then again back to 10 hours per day during CN days. I study only when I am fully focussed. I don't study when I don't want to. What worked for me is that I love computer science - this beautiful world of logic where everything makes sense unlike the one we live in, especially in India where everything religious and cultural adds so much to the chaos. So, if you learn to love computers, think logically and analyze, you will make it.

4. Also, I love reading books. I read books for all the subjects and that's why my preparation took a lot more time than usual. I did not care about scoring in the exam only until the last two months. You can definitely score well if you learn from the videos and in fact, that's the right way to go when you don't have time. But I gained confidence in each subject only because I read all the books.

5. My parents are not much supportive. My relatives are weird. But who gives a damn. I quit a high paying job to pursue research and it's only people like us who can change the mindset of our society. So, if the society bothers you, you are not thinking straight. 

6. How do you know if you are preparing your subjects right? Solve questions from the GO pdf (topic-wise questions) after each topic. It is a huge help. I have no idea how I'd have prepared if I did not have the book. Do not leave the TIFR and ISI questions. Gate exams are getting tougher. You need those questions.

Also, I attempted the aforementioned GO pdf around three times (skipping the easy topics the last two times). I did not attempt the previous year papers separately (except one or two to understand the distribution of marks and difficulty over the subjects).

7. I subscribed to three test series - MadeEasy, ACE and Testbook. I used to attempt Testbook topic wise tests once a subject was over. After my preparation was complete, I started revising all subjects and taking subject wise tests of MadeEasy. I took around all the full tests of MadeEasy and a few of ACE. Tests not only help you know where you stand in the crowd and which topics you need to work on more, but you can also use them as fun when the revision gets boring. At the least, take full tests of MadeEasy.

8. You need to plan. But more than that, you need to understand that plans never work out. You need to keep updating them. I planned to finish the syllabus by October and do revision and tests in the last four months. I ended up consuming two more months in finishing the syllabus. I took full tests only in January, but by then I had prepared my concepts well and was scoring under 20 rank in almost all the tests. So, you see, concepts need to be strong. You'll naturally score good in tests and the confidence will kick in.

9. Read all the blogs but your plan has to be your own. Analyze what works for you. GATE is easy because competition is not much unlike other exams.

10. Last but so not the least - Keep yourself hydrated. Never overwork yourself. Jog everyday. Breathe fresh air. Love computer science. 

P.S. - I made silly mistakes of 10 marks - which was a constant during tests too. That made the difference between the topper's marks and mine. :(

Vishal Goel posted in 2018 Mar 17, 2018 edited Mar 17, 2018 by Vishal Goel
4,456 views
17

Hello everyone :)

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

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

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

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

Now here are some tips for GATE-2019 aspirants.

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

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

Thank you!

joshi_nitish posted in 2018 Mar 17, 2018 edited Mar 18, 2018 by anonymous
4,204 views
18

A journey from AIR 3511 to AIR 94

I  completed my B.Tech. from The NorthCap University Gurgaon in 2017. I have given gate twice once during final year(rank 3511) and now in 2018 with full-time repeat by self-preparation. I really want to express my gratitude to WAHEGURU, MY FAMILY and GO OVERFLOW Community.

How Gateoverflow helped me:-

  1. Best possible solution to each and every previous year questions. It has not only helped me in building my concept but also the answers written by people like Arjun Sir, Sachin Mittal, Debashish Deka motivated me to have to the good grasp over the concept and in-depth knowledge regarding the topic like them.
  2. Best Test Series as the level of the questions were similar to GATE. Thank you Bikram Sir for providing these tests.
  3. Best possible answers to my doubt by gateoverflow users like Joshi Nitish, Ashwani Kulkarni.
  4. Giving the accurate rank prediction. As per Praggy App, my Rank estimate was 88-119 and I got 94 rank. Thankyou Pragy Sir and Arjun Sir for this app.

My Strategy

  1. Build my concept from standard books and by watching some videos on youtube.
  2. After finishing my syllabus. I revised it for the first time and solved all previous year questions subjectwise.
  3. Revised my notes and did previous year questions once again.
  4. I started giving topics and subjectwise tests. I used to note down my mistakes and any new concept being asked in the question in a separate register.
  5. After completing subject test I revised my notes again and mistakes that I have committed while giving tests.
  6. Start giving Full-length tests.

InShort:- I have read books and solved only previous year questions multiple time.

Mistakes did by me during preparation:-

  1. Started aptitude bit late i.e in end of December due to which able to score only 11/15 marks despite the fact that this year aptitude was very easy.
  2. Feeling depressed when use to score lesser marks in test series but actually marks in test series are not the right way to judge your preparation.
  3. While giving the GATE exam couldn’t able to maintain the cool and panicked because of thinking about the results.

 

akb1115 posted in 2018 Mar 17, 2018
by akb1115
5,000 views
19

First of all thank you everyone here in Gate Overflow Community for making this place a knowledge heaven.
I learned lot of new things , cleared lot of doubts regarding various topics here.Finally Got AIR 260 


About My Journey 
I am 2015 pass out from Guru Jambheshwar University,Haryana where i didn't learned anything at all.Quality of education is miserable there.But i managed to get a job in Service Based MNC through off campus placement and they didn't gave me joining during whole year. At that time i didn't know much about GATE  so my only thinking was to get into an MNC only.I wasted about an year just for a joining .I learned some Web Development and mostly wasted my time.But after an year i started to realize i can't live like this.Then one of my friend advised me to take GATE coaching and from there i started my preparation.Initially my mind was an empty box,every weekend i learned some new things it was just an amazing feeling for me.But unfortunately i was not able to cover 4 subjects for GATE-2017 which costed me a lot. I got AIR 1747 untill then i didn't knew what GO community is , then freind told me about GO and i found this community so helpful and has rich source of knowledge.In Feb 2017 that MNC sent me joining letter and i joined that company but after 2 months i left that company and decided to prepare full time for 2018.During whole year GO community is my only source for doubt clearing and learning new concepts and finally i was able to secure AIR 260 and also cleared ISRO exam with 24 rank but Got rejected in interview.

Thats all ,this is my story in short.Again I wish to thank all GO community and my family for such support because without them i couldn't have done this.

My English is also miserable like my Btech college :D

aehkn posted in 2018 Mar 17, 2018
by aehkn
2,582 views
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