As you do not attend any regular coaching class, you don’t know what to study and from where to study and how much to study. You yourself have to decide, which subject are you going to start and how will you proceed. I personally do not believe in sequence of completing subjects as anyhow you have to complete them someday and all have equal importance in GATE because even 0.5 marks matter.
Contents
5 Easy Steps to Crack GATE in Your First Attempt
First and foremost, thing I would suggest is you purchase Made Easy/ Ace Academy hand written notes from Delhi/Hyderabad market or you can find them online (I will upload 4-5 sets of notes). These days Exergic Video course is very popular and recommended by rankers (I personally don’t know). Hand written notes are better than postal study material because it is written by a human being and will also include some comments made my teacher in the live class that will help you better to understand topics.
Now after getting notes, you must understand one thing, notes have very limited content only to satisfy GATE needs, so after seeing the topics if you have time refer some standard books to know more about that topic and solve some questions (solved and unsolved) according to the need and importance of a particular topic.
GATE Preparation Tricks Special Note
When you are solving GATE and ESE questions for the first time follow a strategy. Mark all those questions which you find different from others (in any way), hard, super-conceptual, questions requiring formulas you find difficult to mug. Do this uniformly throughout the book. In this way you will filter out number of questions from thousands to hundreds and in last time (November-January) you will surely be benefited.
An extra thing which I adopted was I used to take pics of such marked questions and solutions in my phone, made folders of each subject and placed them accordingly. What this will do is suppose you are travelling, somewhere getting bored then just skim through these pics and this way the questions and concepts will never die in your mind and will give you an extra edge.
FOR PEOPLE DOING REGULAR CLASSROOM STUDIES-
You will not have the problem of what, how, where, when to study (I hope). Everything goes same for you as above just one thing whatever you have studied in class please solve all questions related to that topic on the very day itself. Do not procrastinate.
TEST SERIES RELATED FAQs
Your course (all the above stated content)must be finished by max October (mid end). I have taken approximately 240 subjects wise tests and 70 full length tests in the past two years combined.
✓ Take at least two test series, my suggestion would be ACE ACADEMY and EXERGIC. Made Easy test series have been highly unpredictable in the past years. Wait sometime before deciding. Anyway, you may choose any two between three and third one you can share with someone so that at least you will know all the important problems.
✓ November and December must be kept for subject wise, topic wise, multi-topic tests and after taking tests, retrospect your weakness and work on it.
✓ January has 31 days and considering 24 full length tests from two test series, take one test per day and do not break this habit.
✓ In last 4-5 days, take real GATE papers as mock tests, this will give you confidence and you will find this test very easy in comparison with Test Series. Believe me it boosts confidence significantly.
✓ Attend all three CBT (computer-based test) one from ACE and two from MADE EASY. This will make you familiar with real GATE environment and nervousness (which is major problem for a lot of students) can be dealt with this way.
✓ Make a “Mistake Notes” in which you have to write all the silly, conceptual, formula, calculation mistakes in your words and your language. The idea is that when you read the mistake written by you after 1 month, you should get the same feel and same anger which you got first time when you the mistake. Every mistake must be engraved in your mind.You must know what blunder making capacity you have and work on them.
✓ Make many mistakes in each test, no problem. But not same mistake twice, it is the greatest SIN.
✓ “Knowing and remembering your mistakes are as important as Knowing and remembering your formulas.”
GATE Preparation Tips
✓ Make Short notes and constantly upgrade them as soon as you come to know something new. Leave space for such provisions.
✓ Make your short notes look good because a finely written and beautiful (in terms of looks) matter will be captured in your mind for a longer time. Don’t make dirty and congested notes as most people do.
✓ In January, make super-short notes. This must contain all those things from short notes which you cannot remember or tend to forget half or some portion. Refer to this only during last days as time will be less.
✓ GATE always has elements of surprise, so the Idea must be to solve all kind of questions every species of problems. Leave no stone unturned. Let nothing shock you.
✓ GATE also tests how much can you remember in a single frame of mind so study in such a way that at last you will be able to accommodate all the things at one place i.e. your mind.
✓ Be active in Platforms like FB groups, Gradeup. Solve questions posted there regularly and get your queries solved certainly because doubt and confusion will create chaos in main exam.
✓ At last during your main exam, do not think of external world, do not think what will happen when you pass/fail always take one question at a time and try to solve all questions with utmost concentration. 80% Easy questions are there and these are enough to get you a decent rank just you have to focus that’s all.
“Be emotional towards questions. If you solve a question correctly you must feel joy and
pride, If you make mistake you must feel sad and furious. That’s the only way to make yourheart and mind work for a common goal.”
From,
Ankur agrawal
Gate AIR 65
Mechanical-19