Well, let me start with introducing myself.
I am Ashutosh Jani doing M.Tech in Thermal Engineering from IIT Madras.

While writing this post I keep in mind the aspirants for GATE 2010.

So, first of all you should ask a question to yourself.

Why GATE?

How will your academic life be once you clear GATE?

I would request all the students preparing for GATE to get rid of a mental block that IIT is a place where only NEWTONs and EINSTEINs can reach. IITs are not supposed to be the places for THE GENIUS,they provide you with a platform to make a Genius out of yourself.

Now comes the question. Why GATE?

If you want to write GATE seriously, aim nothing less than IIT, it is not so difficult as it is thought to be, but you can work sincerely in that direction, only if you are conviced about yourself pursuing a PG in your respective field.

Normally you can opt for M.Tech. or MS course after clearing GATE.

I would request all to spare at least a few hours in surfing the websites of all the IITs before opting for GATE.

Get some myths clarified.

"You will get a very good pay package once you finish your PG."
If you are after a good salary, you should better opt for MBA and not M.Tech., MS or M.Pharm. Of course you will get a brighter package compared to the one you may get after your UG, but the difference may not be salivating. Basically you should continue your technical education, only if you feel the longing to remain connected to your field, or you feel like innovating.

"Another myth is that you will be doing research in your M.Tech. course."

M.Tech. is NOT about research. In most of the M.Tech. programmes across all the IITs, theory subjects are taught during the first year, and project is carried out in the second year along with a few courses in the third semester. You cannot expect anyone to come up with a feasible innovation leading to major improvement in a short span of one year. By doing M.Tech. you are specializing your area of interest and getting deeper into it.

MS is research oriented course, where you get enough time to carry out your project work, which starts from the first semester itself and above all MS does not have any time restriction.

"You can get a job of a lecturer only after doing M.Tech."

To get this myth clarified, you should have a look once at the placement statistics of IITs. Normally more than 70% to 80% of M.Tech. students get jobs in the industries, and very few opt for teaching profession, this is not an attept of proving anything inferior or anything superior, but it is a general trend that I would like to reveal.

Now once you are convinced about writing GATE, let me share some tips for preparation of GATE.

When you are about to finish your graduation, or you've already finished, keep yourself away from asking the Childish questions like HOW MANY HOURS SHOULD I READ DAILY? HOW MANY MONTHS ARE ENOUGH TO GET A HANDSOME SCORE IN GATE?

One of our seniors could secure an IIT admission without a dedicated preparation for the exam; why? Because he was thorough with his fundamentals and the approach towards the exam.

Normally a month of serious preparation should suffice.

When it comes to competitive examinations, your approach has to be practical.

Out of my experiences of writing GATE twice, I can claim that it is not all conceptual knowledge that is required. You should be clear about all the concepts, but try not distracting yourselves from the other aspects of the syllabus. Keep in mind the structure of GATE syllabus.

Do not rely solely on any printed material for preparation. Do refer the books that you used to refer during your UG course. Along with that keep solving multiple choice questions. You may refer to G.K.Publisher's book for GATE preparation. GATE Forum also provides with some set of MCQs, but do refer the books simultaneously, as the credibility of the answers provided by them is not reliable in a good amount of cases.

That's it for now. Will come with something more soon.
All The Best.