Recent posts in 2019

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Well, after my BTech in EXTC, I had managed to get a good job at Wipro in Telecom domain. However, after few months in the IT work, I started feeling that this is not the place where I belong, I felt I am born to do something more, the IT work can be taught to any other BTech guy, and he was any day replaceable. I didn’t wanted to be that replaceable person, and wanted to do more fruitful work, and I also wanted to study more, and then I thought of giving GATE, and yes, I wanted to give GATE in CS.

 It was a difficult decision for me and a risky one too, to leave my well paid job and go back to studies, that too in a new branch for me since I was from EXTC. I was blessed to have very supportive parents and friends, who suggested me to join classroom coaching in Ace. Coaching gave me the competitive environment which I needed to focus. It gave me a basic idea of subjects which were totally new for me, like Algo, DS, CD, TOC, DBMS, OS in a shorter span of time, and for in depth understanding, I used to refer the textbooks. It gave me a push to study more, ask more questions, manage time well, but then I realized this is not enough. This is when I came across Gate overflow. Coaching materials have lot of incorrect answers and the moment I used to search for a Gate question on net, the first hit was GO.

I found GO very useful, then I practiced all PYQ’s from GO pdf. I used to read all the comments from the seniors and how they arrived at answers, how they eliminated the options. Till in Ace, I felt I am doing quite well, but when I found the questions getting asked in GO site, I realized that  there are people well ahead of me. I bucked up myself, there were many days when I used to feel low seeing my fellow colleagues going onsite, then I uninstalled Facebook, Instagram, and I used Whattsap just to be in contact with parents. I had a clear vision that I need to study all topics once, revise them once properly, and during this time make clear short notes, then for next revisions, I would follow short notes only. And in between if I had doubts anywhere I used to refer textbooks. 1 thing that helped me a lot was solving doubts of others, I always approached a question from basic definition level, and was firm that it will have a valid answer, and if I am unable to solve it, then I don’t know some concept. I also used to solve lot of questions from GO. Then started with test series, gate tests from GO, Gatebook, Ace, Made easy. Quality of questions from Gatebook and MadeEasy were very good.

Finally the big day came, 3rd Feb and I tried to be as cool as cucumber and answer well. I got a score of 762, marks 66.67 and AIR 388. I feel I have got what I deserved, nothing more nothing less. I didn’t get much time to read all the subjects and concepts from textbook, since I understood lot of things from coaching itself. I feel I could have got better rank, if I knew about GO before my prep started, nevertheless, I knew that I will face interviews at all IITs and IISc at this score, so I started preparing for the interviews. Again GO was very helpful here, the score predictor app by Pragy sir allowed us to start our interview preps well before the GATE results were out.

I have written blogs for my interview experiences at https://chaitrasj.github.io/interview-exp/ I will add them in GO site also. For interview prep also GO came as a boon for me. There were interview experiences shared by seniors and they were very much detailed posts. Only because of those posts, I got some idea what to prepare. And GO classroom coding questions also showed the coding level that is needed in IIT coding tests, after solving those questions, I felt a bit more confident.

Finally with the blessings of my parents and my friends, and a lot of help from the entire Gate Overflow community, I got selected in IISc as an MTech Research student in Computational and Data science (CDS) dept. If I look back today, I'm happy for having taken that risk, it was worth it.

Thank you: A very big thank you and salute to Arjun Sir for running this community with so much dedication and all other members who have made GO such a huge success, who selflessly continue to help the students, specially Digvijay Sir, Srestha Maam, Shaikh Masthan Sir, Bikram Sir

Suggestions to Gate Aspirants : Conceptual clarity is what is needed in Gate, question everything, don’t accept anything unless and until you know why it is so, practice lot of questions, be dedicated and confident, during the last month of Gate you may feel it’s done, can’t read more, but that’s the time we must push ourselves more, and everything you read matters.. and don’t give up, even if you score less, you may get calls for interviews, if you don’t get calls, there are other exams like IIITH, JEST, etc. be updated, there is very nice fb group of GO (I would suggest joining after GATE though :p)

“There is always a way, we just need to find it, and there is always an answer, we just need to solve it” ..!! :)

Thanks for reading guys, if you have any queries feel free to reach out to me, I would be happy to help :)

Cheers!! 

Chaitrasj posted in 2019 Jul 4, 2019 edited Jul 4, 2019 by Chaitrasj
5,475 views
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I got GS : 618, rank : 1855 and marks : 53.67 in GATE 2019.

I’m not a topper, I didn’t get even under 1000 rank, so why will you read my testimonial about GO? Totally depends on you. GO doesn’t need any testimonial to prove that it’s THE first and ultimate option for Gate Aspirants.

Unfortunately, I came across Gate Overflow during mid-September of 2018, when Gate-2019 was only a few months away. But within only 2-3 months, GO raised my exposure level from 20% to 90%

So, why does so many people believe in Gate Overflow?

Reasons? These many:

                       for(i = 0; i >=0; i++) {

                                 count++;

                       }

 

ENVIRONMENT

One of the main reasons is that GO provides you an environment, which generally you don’t get, especially if you are from a tier-3 engineering college. The posts from other aspirants, challenging questions, and even more challenging comments, all these things made me realize what a cut-throat, yet healthy competition is going around for Gate.

 

EXPOSURE

I got to know a lot about Gate, and what to do after Gate . I came to know about IIITH PGEE, BITS HD, ISI, CMI, TIFR and other highly anticipated examinations and their value. I came across various myth-breaking things about Gate. This kind of exposure is much needed for a student who doesn’t belong to any prestigious institute.

 

GO PDF

GO PDF is like the Bible for the Gate aspirants. A single PDF, containing years of information and knowledge about the exam of your life. The best thing I liked about GO PDF is that it is directly linked to the Gate Overflow discussion forum. If you couldn’t understand any solution, just a single click takes you into a realm of knowledge, where highly intellectual people have discussed all the approaches to solve that problem.

 

GATE CSE

This website is really helpful, and when i say “really”, I mean “seriously really helpful”. It contains all the resources which you could possibly need for Gate preparation. From reference book to the recommended lectures, everything is properly researched and mentioned here.

 

GATE OVERFLOW WEBSITE

Test by mentors, interview experiences, preparation strategy, what to do for a good rank, what NOT to do for a good rank, How to be ready for Masters after Gate, you just name it, and you will find here. Featured questions will tell you the level of difficulty of Gate exam.

 

RANK & COLLEGE PREDICTOR

One of the best statistical analysis tool I have seen in my life. I don’t know what magical machine learning algorithm it uses, which makes it 99.99% accurate. It’s a wonderful gift from Pragy Sir. I got calls from exactly the colleges which were mentioned in the green list and blue list. The answer keys provided by GO are 100% accurate, even IITs change their original keys as per GO keys.

 

GO CLASSROOM

Instead of wasting your money in a coaching institute and getting spoonfed knowledge from there, join GO CLASSROOM. Doubt solving, discussions, live interaction with mentors, these things are a fortune for someone who is doing self-study for Gate. I will not say anything more about it, join and see for yourself.

 

And last but not the least……

MENTORS

The Godfather of Gate Overflow, Arjun Sir, an intellectual being, a treasure of knowledge; and I’m not buttering because he doesn’t care about it. I like his sarcastic and straight-forward behaviour, which sometimes leaves you in splits, and many times you will be amazed. I don’t know about his life, I’m just a fan of his knowledge and his way to approach any problem. Just see his answers to previous year questions and you will get the feeling – “Yeah! Man, that’s how you solve a damn problem”. Not only him, but other mentors like Digvijay Sir who helped me during interview preparation after Gate exam, and Bikram Sir who devoted his life to help and guide gate aspirants, and many unknown people who are constantly putting in their efforts to improve the level of education by promoting self-study and self-gaining of knowledge. I don’t think even in my wildest dreams that without these people, I could’ve achieved what I have today.

Even at such a low score and being from General category, I got calls from IIT Madras, IIT Hyderabad, IIIT Delhi and IIT Patna.

I also gave PGEE for IIIT Hyderabad, and cleared the written exam and interview, and got MS in CSE by Research in one of the best institutes in India; and without GO it would’ve been almost impossible.

Thanks to each and every member of GO Community.

Astitva Srivastava posted in 2019 Jun 30, 2019 edited Jul 2, 2019 by Astitva Srivastava
3,164 views
4

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Whether

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some imp tips:

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

Token of THANKS:

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

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

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

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

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

MiNiPanda posted in 2019 Jun 29, 2019 edited Oct 13, 2020 by MiNiPanda
4,176 views
5
I would like to share my story with you all.

My rank in gate 2018 was 10374 with marks 27.67. I didn't sit in college placements because I wanted to give it one more shot. Didn't wanted to be a financial burden on my family so I decided to stay at home and study. I arranged some lectures from a friend and started watching them and making notes. But when I started giving mocks I was only scoring around 20-25% marks. I was depressed. I was able to solve previous year questions but wasn't able to score well in mocks. There was a time when I was regretting my decision of not joining a coaching institute.

But then GO came to the rescue. The motivational blogs here are simply awesome. What I have observed is that the main quality of this website is the discussion that follows the answer and a number of different approaches which really helped me understand the concept which the lectures were lacking. These discussions helped me a lot. It helped me change my approach to the question.

As Arjun Sir mentioned the main thing is to evaluate yourself at regular intervals.  I started to note all my mistakes from the mock tests in a seperate notebook and read that daily. That helped me to some extent. But still I was only able to score around 40% in tests. But I completely ignored those marks and focused on learning.

All I want to say to the future aspirants is that don't give too much thought to the mock test marks, find out where you are lacking, find out your mistakes and rectify them and don't ever loose hope while preparing. 2 days prior to the GATE 2019 I gave full length mock and scored 37 but I told myself that this is not me and I'm going to do much much better in the main exam.

I scored 64.67 marks with rank 479 and will join IIT Kanpur Mtech(TA).

Thank you GateOverflow !!!
anuraagkansara posted in 2019 Jun 28, 2019
2,540 views
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This was my first attempt for gate and I scored gate score 737 and rank 498.. Though it is not that good score.. But without gate overflow I seriously dont think that it could have been possible.. A big thanks to all the gate overflow community members especially Shaik Masthan Sir, Arjun Suresh Sir, Srestha Mam..

I started preparing for gate since 3rd year but at that time I didnt know much about gateoverflow site… I started using it from may 2018 and that was the turning point of my preparation. I think the previous year questions are sufficient for practice and one should do them atleast twice.. I guess there is no need to say as we all know that the best resource for it is The Great GO Previous Year book!!!

Tests do help us to rank ourselves as we can test our concepts and work upon our real areas.. One serious advice that I would like to give to all future aspirants is that have confidence upon yourself and dont doubt your answers.. I somehow panicked in the last 2 minutes of the paper and unmarked 5 questions which were actually correct and ya this is the mistake I will always regret.. So be confident and practice as much as you can..

At this rank I knew that being from general category there is no chance for any old iit.. I got interview call from iitb ra but couldnt convert it .. But my studies and hardwork didnt go waste as I got admission in IIITH.. A very big thanks to Gate Overflow for it .. Thanks and all the very best to all f
anjali007 posted in 2019 Jun 19, 2019
2,304 views
7
*This is my first post, so forgive me if its written badly*

After preparing twice (Gate 17 & 18) and failing twice I was frustrated and disheartened. I left the hope of getting into premium institutions and joined NIT Delhi with no other option. But still that dream was awake in some corner of my heart. I decided to appear for Gate 19. I started stealing time from academics to prepare for gate 19. I had this in mind that I know the concepts well as I have had prepared earlier so I will revise the syllabus and practice gate questions. I joined GO_classroom and started reading discrete maths and doing programming assignments given but I couldn't continue this with other subjects. So then I switched to my notes which I made while preparing for gate 18. It was really tough to find out time for gate as academic pressure was piling up but somehow I completed my revision by December along with practice of previous year questions from GO pdf. Gate Overflow community has helped me all around my preparation and my revisions and practice. In January I did more revision and gave 3-4 full test which are freely available just to check the timings also I went for a Shimla trip with my friends to experience snow fall 🌨️😅. After 20th jan my concentration level decreased drastically and my attitude was like even if can't perform well I already have a college. I watched series and played games in my free time instead of studying for gate. Night before exam I talked to friends and family and slept. Next morning it was chilled outside and mine was morning session. I had exactly zero pressure on my mind I had no such big expectations from this paper as I knew I couldn't give proper time for preparation. Those 3hrs went very calmly and I went to meet my friend after the exam. I felt positive about the results but didn't give much of my attention to it. All my expectations and my emotions came to life when I checked my results with pragys app. It didn't took long to get back to the previous state as scoring 60.33 was not enough to assure good IIT. With score 692 and rank 888 I thought the only possible way to get an IIT or IISc. So I started searching for how to prepare for ms interviews at iit k m b h. I did all programming assignments posted in GO_classroom. And as I was interested in Machine learning, I started watching Gilbert Strang's linear algebra lectures and Probabilistic Systems by Jhon Tsitsiklis. Also as my mtech at nit delhi was in Data Analytics it helped me alot. After doing all this I had only one fear that my nit smester exams and interview dates should not clash. And exactly the same happened. Exam dates 30th 31st April and 7th to 9th may. IIT M MS interview 30th and 31st April (wow). After going through a roller coaster of yes or no, I decided to leave the interview. IIT H AI test 7th may. By this time I had decided that I would accept even a Better NIT but I will take this risk and I went to Hyderabad. Then the journey started. After Hyderabad IIT G Data Science test then IIT B RA test but couldn't clear any. Last one was IISc CDS 21st may and CSA 22nd may. For CDS I was out in written test itself. I thought to myself that's it Ravi, CSA test will also be similar and then you're back to some nit. Luckily I cleared the test and got interviewed. I didn't knew the results but I was happy that I got the chance to get interviewed at India's no. one Institute by some of the best professors. 25th may I got shortlisted and 5th june I got final Offer Letter. It was the Happiest moment of my life!

My suggestion to future aspirants would be to not think about results while preparing, just do your bit rest leave on time. We all know that we can't change the past and won't know the future but we tend to forget this. Everyone goes through different circumstances and each have different ways to face them. So find out your own strategy that suits you. Learn from mistakes and don't repeat them.

Cricket Match analogy of Gate preparation:

Think of Gate preparation as a one day match. First 10 overs players are fully charged hitting boundaries. From 10 to 40 overs match goes a bit slower as these are the crucial ones where you don't want to lose wickets. Finally the last 10 overs decides whose side the match will be.

Similarly in gate initial 2 months we are fully charged and motivated. Then the motivation degrades and it continues for next 3-4 months. Here you need to sustain. Don't Quit! If you could pass this phase you will be able to regain your motivation and will be able to finish your preparations as you thought. And chances are you will win!

Finally remember to follow Gate Overflow, it'll help you throughout your preparation.

Thank you Arjun sir for gifting us with Gate Overflow!
Ravi Raja posted in 2019 Jun 13, 2019
4,464 views
8
Marks : 66.33 AIR: 410 . It is my first attempt to GATE CS.Firstly I am not topper but I tried my best to qualify gate with good rank. I am currently pursuing B.Tech. from Tier-3 college. GATE Overflow Books really helped me to achieve that rank and also post GATE guidance provided by Arjun Suresh Sir really helped me a lot. I got IIT Guwahati in COAP 2nd round . At the end I would like to thank GATE OVERFLOW Community.
sanil.upadhyay12 posted in 2019 Jun 7, 2019
2,471 views
9

AIR-$175$
Marks-$71.67$
This was my third attempt and I got AIR-$175$. Gate preparation  can be described as $30:70$ ratio, $30$%  is learning concepts from videos/classes/books. $70$% is about practice.
So for $30$% have a look at videos, books before joining anything/ paying your money.
Gate Overflow is very helpful for the $70$% part of preparation. Previous year questions(more than 3000 questions) are very important and solving them required me around $4$ months, because if I couldn’t solve a question means I didn’t knew the concept well so I had to learn them properly and not just see the solution and happily move on to next question.
You get answers to all the previous year questions with enough discussion and even after that if you are not satisfied you can ask doubts in comment section of each question and get it clarified by experts.
Previous year paper as mock exam.
In my third attempt I evaluated using my plan, and estimated that $5$ months will be enough to prepare full time (without a job) so I left job on 31st August and started my full fledged preparation.
In first week of September I gave previous year as mock and saw the average was around $54$. I marked out all my weak areas started preparing them, few from YouTube videos, few from Standard Text Book, solved GO Book, gave subject test and moved to next subject. So I kept doing that for all subjects and eventually my concepts got stronger. Meanwhile I used to appear for few subject wise/ topic wise test on Gate Overflow and this was my schedule for four months(Sept-Oct-Nov-Dec).
In December just to test my preparation I appeared for TIFR as it has new questions and standard ones I scored $77$ and knew my preparation was going in the right direction. Thanks to Go we could evaluate it by just submitting the URL of our response sheet(were available within $10$ days of exam) and also knew the current rank also. As official TIFR results were out after Gate exam cut off was 75.
In December I also started focusing on aptitude, I used to give $20$ minutes to aptitude everyday and I used to solve a aptitude paper from previous year(8 sessions every year, so for last $5$ year I had $5*8=40$ papers in $40$ days) and continued working on my weak areas.
In January I focused on previous year again and started giving them again daily from $9:30-12:30$, completing the paper in $2.5$ hours leaving $30$ minutes for revision. Initially I couldn’t find any mistake(silly mistake) but after practicing I did and helped me in saving few marks in actual gate exam. I also appeared for two Center Based Test of Made Easy and ACE and scored 55 and 60, I was not concerned with marks but knew my attempt strategy was okay and I am scoring well in previous year not because I am memorizing but I am solving.
After Gate exam, response sheet were available within 4 days of exam and Gate Overflow’s Praggy app start working from mid night and we could see our marks and current rank. Other institute’s answer key had $3-4$ wrong answer keys provided, and were changed as soon as the Gate key were out. But all the key provided by Gate Overflow were right.
Further Gate Overflow has guidance for post exam also for admission and counseling and college predictor is also very accurate. If I did not knew about Gate Overflow I could not have managed to get 70+ in Gate.
My other blogs:
Test Series
Figuring out attempt strategy 

Abhishek Shaw posted in 2019 Mar 20, 2019 edited Jun 16, 2020 by Abhishek Shaw
9,915 views
10

Before you read any further, you should judge me, because I am not a topper! My rank(558) and gate score(729), marks (63.67). It is important for you to decide if my experience is worth your time. Also, the usual disclaimer, below is My reasoned routine for GATE 2019.

First things first, there is "NO SHORT CUT TO THE GATE JOURNEY". Quite trivial a line it is and you must indeed learn to value the meaning that it holds. For those preparing for GATE 2020, the biggest challenge you have right now is time. Not that you have less time in hand, but the fact that you have way way more than whats required to kill GATE, calls for immense dedication to keep the regularity of studies going. At times you shall feel that the pace at which your preparation is going is pretty good, and you deserve a break. Trust me, you DO NOT DESERVE A BREAK, SHOULD YOU WISH TO BE AT IISc. At times you shall feel that the pace is below par, and that you are not gonna make it. Everyone feels so. But the secret is to keep pushing. Ask those who go to gym, what matters. Trying to lift the weight, when you thought you could not, gets you the shape!

Secondly, there will be a lot of advises and preparation strategies from your well-wishers. But before resolving to any of them, you should know that "These are tips, that worked for them", might not work for you. So even after following the tips and strategies of your well-wishers, you should have your own ingredient.

If at all you are feeling comfortable in the course of your preparation, trust me, you are not putting in enough. If a comfortable effort could get you an IISc or a good IIT, you would not have bothered reading such a long post, at the first place. You are supposed to feel the sense of loss of social enjoyment.

Thirdly, for freshers, try to get placed into a company in your college interviews. Takes the pressure off for GATE. Makes you write GATE with little expectations.

Final days(last 2 months) of your preparation are the most important. This is where I believe your rank gets improved by around a 1000. Be brutal with yourself. Dont let yourself sit idle. Every second of your last moments count. As far as I am concerned, I used to have one of the four corners of my mosquito net hung, to save time before and after my sleeps.
In this period of your preparation, having friends(normal ones as well as the Shona Janu ones :P) is poisonous to you. However, having a best friend shall be your penicillin. He will push your mind from the outside.
You will also need an internal sense of "I CAN DO IT". You have to find yourself, what it is that you can do, to give you a sense of achievement. I used to walk a distance of 10-11 Km a day, to make me feel mentally and physically enabled.

The tips that I religiously followed are:
1. Write my own notes.
2. Besides writing my notes, I also wrote my reasons to kill GATE. These reasons are personal to me so aint writing here(Whom am I kidding :P I had a breakup). Made sure that when I went through these notes, my reasons were right in front of me. These were like my statement of purpose to my future self.
3. I tried to solve questions mentally. I did not use pen and paper. Once solved in my mind, I wrote the solution along with the question in my notebook.
4. Every time I solved a question in an inappropriate way, wrote my mistakes. However silly a mistake that might be(REVISING YOUR MISTAKES IS ALSO A FORM OF REVISION. THE ONE THAT MAKES YOU REMEMBER WHAT NOT TO DO). Along with the mistake, also wrote the correct solution.
5. Posted my doubts in GO as well as in other groups. Sometimes, the posts were silly enough, to make me laugh at myself. But that’s worth it.
6. I started my test series somewhere around the start of January. Appeared approximately for 35-40 full length tests. TEST SERIES SHOULD BE TAKEN VERY SERIOUSLY, AND TAKING THEM AT 9am IN THE MORNING IS OPTIMUM. Even more important than appearing test series is, statistically analyzing them. By that I mean you should know in numbers(by number i mean positive and negative marks) how you perform in every subject. For me, I was specifically weak in discrete and compiler. I had enough time to boost one of them. So I chose to be better at discrete.
7. Except for the last two months, watched one English movie every week without subtitles, to keep my English in shape for college campus interviews.

8.THIS POINT IS MY OWN INGREDIENT IN MY PREPARATION. I used to tell everyone that I am gonna crack GATE with a rank<500 in first attempt. Yes. I ADVERTISED. PEOPLE USED THINK OF ME AS SOMEONE WHO BOASTS(CAUSE INITIALLY MY COLLEGE GRADES WERE HARDLY AROUND 6.5 TO 7, INCREASED LATER THOUGH). THE THING IS, IF YOU ADVERTISE YOUR POTENTIAL SUCCESS, YOU ARE SUB-CONSCIOUSLY FORCING YOURSELF TO DELIVER. Even if you fail, worst case is people remember you as a jerk. But its up to you to decide what you want.

All the best for 2020. Wish you a good health. :) Jai Hind.

Mriganka posted in 2019 Mar 18, 2019
5,909 views
11
Firstly i would like to thank gateoverflow community for my success. Without gateoverlfow air 45 would have been only a distant dream for me. The detailed solutions to all the question on gateoverflow is unmatched. I would also like to thank all the members of gateoverlow community for guiding me directly or indirectly through their comments and blogs.

I would also like to thank my seniors abhijeet pandey sir and sarthak chauhan sir for their valuable guidance during my preparation. They were the people who inspired me to get better rank. Last but not least i am also thankfull to my friend sarthak sharma for his valuable input during discussions and motivating me through my preparation.

Tips for gate2020 inspirants.

Gate is not a 100 m race it’s like a marathon.

one should plan his/her preparation in well advance.

set some benchmarks for yourself and try to achieve them.

Don’t take test series too lightly they are vital part of your revision. Don’t get disheartened if you get low marks/ranks in test series. but always look for improvement.

Do previeus years question atleast twice or thrice.
sandygate posted in 2019 Mar 18, 2019
5,280 views
12

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


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


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

Mistakes I rectified :

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

Blunders I made :

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

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

Thank you :)

shreyansh jain posted in 2019 Mar 17, 2019 edited Mar 17, 2019 by shreyansh jain
4,050 views
13

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

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

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

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

 

Somoshree Datta 5 posted in 2019 Mar 16, 2019 edited Mar 16, 2019 by Somoshree Datta 5
3,937 views
14

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

 

 

Tejasvi96 posted in 2019 Mar 16, 2019
4,172 views
15
Marks:68 AIR:308

Currently BTECH Final Year SGGS College nanded

I had no coaching but I never felt like one as whenever I got problem I just googled it out n guess what first link was of GO. Comments in that problem on GO page by experts really helped me a lot #I'm not bragging but hatssoff to u arjun suresh sir . Thanks GO once again
Sunil Shinde 1 posted in 2019 Mar 16, 2019
3,129 views
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