GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) is one of the most important and in-demand entrance exam for engineering graduates in our country. M.Tech. in Computer Science is one of the most demanding courses at prestigious institutes like IISCs and IITs. GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) is one of the paths to get into these top institutes. Every year more than 9 Lakh candidates apply for GATE exam and very few of them manage to ace the exam with good score. So the competition is clearly very tough and simply preparing without any strategy will make it difficult to land you into IISCs and IITs.
How to prepare for GATE Examination?
To prepare for a national level entrance exam like GATE, you need analytical, strategical and consistant approach. Completion of syllabus, previous years question papers and mocktests should be the basic ingredients in GATE 2020 Preparation.
Tips for GATE 2020 Preparation
Below are a few essential tips that shall help ypu crack GATE 2020:
Analyze GATE syllabus:
Start with analyzing the GATE syllabus. Start divide and Conquer, try to break the syllabus into sub-categories and do the same with each subject further. It will help you to prioritize subjects and important topics in each subject. After doing this, you will get a clear insight into where you stand and how far is left to cover. Analyzing and knowing about the syllabus in a proper manner will also help you to understand about the important subjects and pattern of GATE exam.
Start preparing today:
Time is like money, so spend it wisely. The best time to start your GATE preparation is from now on, just after completing this read. Just pick one of the subjects you feel good and start the preparation. You can start your preparation with some easy and high scoring subjects like DBMS, Operating Systems or Computer Networks (totally depends on individual). After completing the first subject and its GATE questions, you should immediately pick the second subject. As soon as two subjects are completely prepared, you will start feeling more confident and motivated. After completing one subject, the next task you would be doing, that should be solving previously asked GATE questions of that subject. It will help you to expose your weak topics, try to work on those weak topics and resolve those questions to avoid that weaker point.
Follow a disciplined schedule:
You should make a schedule and should follow it at any cost, literally. Try and schedule a fixed number of hours for your GATE preparation and complete it daily; remember, consistency is a compulsion here. The better option is to start maintaining a calendar from starting day to intended course completion day and stick it in front of your study table. Every day you completed those hours, mark the date with green pen and do the same with red pen if you missed.
Take running notes while studying:
Note down the important points or topics in a notebook while covering the topics. It will definitely help you in revisions. Decide one day in a week to revise one of your previously completed subjects and use your notes.
Subjects easy to score:
There are few subjects which you will find easier to score, like Digital Logic, Mathematics and Aptitude. These three subjects cover around 25-28% of complete GATE paper. Try not to avoid these subjects uncovered as they are high scoring and will help to boost your GATE AIR.
Track your preparation periodically:
Get some previous GATE questions and solve them for each subject. It will help you to recall and revise the subjects you were preparing for.
Revise and practice are keys to GATE:
After completing each subject, start revising each subject thoroughly. Revise the subject then solve previous year GATE question and take subject-wise tests. Remember, the only keys to score good All India Rank is to revise and practice more.
Take Mock Tests:
At this final stage of preparation, practicing some difficult questions before attempting actual GATE will boost your confidence and improve your problem-solving speed. Questions in these Mock Test resembles with GATE actual questions and will give the GATE aspirants trailer before the Film.
Use short notes:
At this final and crucial stage, don’t try to read any new topic. Just use your last minute notes to recall only the key points in each subject.
Some other Important Tips
Time management is important:
Keep following the schedule for this long time won’t be an easy task. Though, you can achieve it with time management. Making a schedule for each subject and topics will be very helpful. Wasting time is the worst thing any GATE aspirant can do while preparation. Also, keep yourself distant from time killing machines like social media and random youtube surfing etc.
Since, no one can study the whole day; nor it is efficient. You can make a healthy hobby like reading novels, watching comedy or animation movies or anything you truly like. Use this as a reward to yourself each time you finish the target.
Stay motivated, but more inspired:
Being motivated gives you energy to study and help you stay focused, so be motivated. But with passing one/ two-months motivation might decrease because of the efforts you are putting in this preparation. Here, the inspiration comes into the picture. Remember one thing and that is motivation is an external force to keep you moving but Inspiration is something which comes from inside.
“Inspiration is one thing and you can’t control it, but hard work is what keeps the ship moving. Good luck means, work hard. Keep up the good work.”
-Kevin Eubanks
You can refer to the books given below
Computer Science (CS)
Name of the Book | Name of Author |
Operating System | Galvin |
Algorithm | Cormen |
Architecture | Hamacher |
TOC- Theory of Computation | Ullman |
Agricultural Engineering (AG)
Name of the Book | Name of Author |
Concept of Agricultural Engineering | Mohanty Das |
Soil & Water Conservation | VVN Murty |
Farm Machinery by Three Authors | (popularly known by this name) |
Electrical Engineering (EE)
Name of the Book | Name of Author |
Fundamentals of circuits | Alexander, Sadiku |
Electrical machines | Nagrath, Kothari |
Power Electronics- | P S Bimbhra |
Chemical Engineering (CH)
Name of the Book | Topic referred for |
JP Holman | Heat Transfer |
McCabe -FPM and MO | Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering |
BK Dutta | Principles of Mass Transfer and Separation Processes |
Fogler | Essentials of Chemical Reaction Engineering |
JM Smith | Introduction to Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics |
Ram Prasad | Chemical Engineering For Gate Principles Solved Problems & Objective Type Questions |
M.Subbu | An Insight into Chemical Engineering |
Mechanical Engineering (ME)
Name of the Book | Topics |
R.K. Bansal (Numerical point of view), Frank M.White (For understanding) | Fluid Mechanics |
Cengel (For understanding concept) | Heat Transfer |
P.K.Nag | Thermodynamics |
Swadesh Singh | Production Engineering |
S.S. Ratan | Theory of Machine (TOM) |
Civil Engineering (CE)
Name of the Book | Name of the Author |
Highway engineering | Khanna and Justo |
Soil mechanics and foundation engineering | Gopal and Ranjan |
Environment 1 and 2 | S K Garg |
Open channel flow and engineering hydrology | K Subramanya |
Fluid mechanics | R K Bansal |
Steel | Bhavikatti |
RCC | Pillai and Menon |
Geology and Geophysics (GG)
Name of the Book | Name of the Author |
Complete Master Guide GATE | Amresh Singh |
Geophysics | Telford |
Production and Industrial (PI)
Name of the Book | Name of the Author |
Thermodynamics | P.K Nag |
Heat Transfer | Made Easy Class Notes |
Production | S K Mondal Notes
Swadesh Sing |
Material Science | Made Easy Class Notes & Swadesh Singh |
Fluid Mechanics and Machinery | Modi & Seth |
Machine Design | VB Bhandari |
Strength of Material | Sadhu Singh |
Refrigeration | Made Easy Class Notes |
IC engine | Mathur Sharma |
Theory of Machine | SS Ratan |
Best of luck!
More on GATE Exam Preparation
- Syllabus
- Mock Test
- GATE Previous Year Question Papers with Answers
- GATE Topper Interviews
- 5 Month Preparation Plan
- This QnA clears all GATE Preparation doubts – Mr. B.Singh, CMD MADE EASY (Interview)
- GATE Preparation Tips and Tricks for All Papers
- Why to appear for GATE?
- Important books for GATE preparation
- GATE Coaching – To Join or Not?
Books for. Maths is not given by you