Preparation Besides Core Preparation.

Any competitive exam, whether it is of defined (GATE) or undefined syllabus (CAT) have some common peculiarities. We should keep these in our mind while writing and preparing such exams.

I am trying to cover some of these in my post.

1. GATE contains negative marking system. So attempt the questions about whose answer you are 100% sure/confident. If you are in two minds for any question please don’t attempt.

Read the question very carefully. Carefully reading the question is as much important as you know the answer of any question. They use complicated language for a simple logic. So comprehending the question is the most important point.

Never take a chance as you don’t know how much this will cost to you. For example in my case I had taken a chance for a one 2marks question. Unfortunately it had gone wrong. So it has cost me 0.66 marks only if we see. But 0.66 means 25 people had gone ahead of me. And unfortunately it has cost me a seat at IIT Bombay. So you can imagine how dangerous it is.

2. Don’t count the number of questions attempted while writing an exam. As you never know how hard or easy paper is for others. Some times only 35 to 40 marks out of 150 are enough to score above 98 and sometimes 45 out of 100 are also insufficient. So just play your natural game. Don’t be greedy for marks or attempts.

3. Peace of mind while writing any competitive examination is the most important point. So I suggest you that don’t read anything on the day of exam. Don’t read till late nights before the day of exam. Have a sound sleep of 8 hours.

Take a deep breath before few minutes of exam in the examination hall. Just try to become cool and calm. And don’t think about the topics which you have not prepared on that day. Be confident enough.

And my personal advice is to try to recall all the formulae once before the final day. Just go on recalling all the topics and if you can’t remember some topics then don’t worry, just have a look at it from your books and note books. I promise you that you will surely remember those in exam.

On 2 days before exam write one of the previous years GATE paper at the same time of GATE. This will help in boosting your confidence. This will let you know what mistakes you can do in GATE. Write it as sincerely as you are writing the actual GATE.

And in the last days try to solve more and more objectives only as your mind should be habituated for objective kind of exam. You don’t have to write subjective answers so there is no meaning of reading only theory part in last days. And if you have joined any test series then please see the mistakes you have done in those papers.

4. Another question comes in mind of every aspirant that what should be attempted first and what at the last.

This is the matter of choice. But I have done in this way.

First I had attempted 1 mark questions, as they contain only simple logic or one formula.

Then I had attempted last 10 questions, as they are linked questions. So if you know the logic then you can score 4 marks on the basis of that question.

Then I used to attempt the questions like matching and all first in 2 marks questions.

This is what I have done. You can have different strategy also.

So that is it for this post. Now if you have any queries then please ask. We are trying our best to cover all the important points but we can’t come to know about what are the difficulties other than these a GATE aspirant is facing.

National Programme for Technology Enhanced Learning

This is a special post for all the students who want to prepare for themselves or clarify their doubts on various subjects. The link http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/index.php will guide you to the lectures and presentations by the best faculties in India. It's an initiative by IIT themselves to enhance the quality of education in India and it has been backed by Human resource ministry, although during our preparation we were not able to go through this or refer this but for those students who want to have structured instructional study can surely go through this. Also for those students like me who did not study in IIT during our bachelors program have a great opportunity to study courses here which would clarify our basics and help us very much in preparation.

For my first and second year friends i would strongly recommend them to go through this.

Important instructions during preparation contd . .

Prepare the Tough topics First

Once you have indentified certain topics as difficult on terms of preparation and you are sure that same are going to take time to prepare, start with those topics. Completion of these topics will give you ample confidence and will relieve you of lots of pressure. Also as you will know the time you take for preparation of these topics you will be able to gauge the time you will require to prepare for the other easier topics. If you start with easier topics and take enough slack for preparing them then you have invariably wasted time on the topics that you should not have wasted and you would be left with less time to prepare for other topics. So as per me the best option would be start with tough topics and move towards the easier topics.

Keep in touch with other people who are preparing.

This is one of the most important things. Always keep in touch with other people who are preparing for the same subject. If possible I will advise to form a small group of people who are going to appear for GATE in your own college or you own locality. This will give you different perspective on what should be prepared and how should you go around dealing with different subjects. Also, this will be an additional support system and will help you to keep yourself charged up for preparing for the GATE. This in our case was very important, all three of us have known each other from our college days and we have been encouraging each other to do better and this has helped us lot in preparing properly for GATE. Ashutosh had already passed last year and he was a very helpful support for us as he gave us very helpful guidance and if you can find someone who has passed the earlier year he will give you a lot of additional inputs that would prove invaluable.

Also you can find people on social networking site like Orkut or if someone in your acquaintance has cleared then you can be in touch with them for the guidance. But the guidance is important if you are going to prepare on your own. If you are planning to join some coaching classes than it’s not a problem.

Preparation

Hi friends, I have promised you in my last post that I will share my view on the very important question “How to prepare?” In the last post author has discussed very important issues which should keep in mind during the preparation.

In this post I will try to show one of the ways to prepare from 1st day of preparation to the day of examination-the total plan. Personally this is just an example; one can have one's own plan.

1st step: Analyze the previous years GATE papers.

• From this and the syllabus available one will come to know that exactly what is to be prepared from each subject. I have noticed that questions from particular topics of a subject only are being asked repeatedly. So list down all such topics for a particular subject you want to prepare and follow this for all subjects. This will give you correct direction for preparation. Or it happens many times that one spend ample amount of time in preparing one topic which is either of least important or not in a course even.

• Now analyze the paper in a different way for a particular subject. What kinds of questions are being asked?

It is clearly mentioned in the GATE brochure.

The types of questions in a paper may be based on following logic:

(i) Recall:
These are based on facts, principles, formulae or laws of the discipline. The candidate is expected to be able to obtain the answer either from his/her memory of the subject or at most from a one-line computation.

(ii) Comprehension:
These questions will test the candidate’s understanding of the basics of his/her field, by requiring him/her to draw simple conclusions from fundamental ideas.


(iii) Application: In these questions, the candidate is expected to apply his/her knowledge either through computation or by logical reasoning.

(iv) Analysis and Synthesis:
These can be linked questions, where the answer to the first question of the pair is required in order to answer its successor. Or these can be common data questions, in which two questions share the same data but can be solved independently of one another.

For example I have noticed that always 2 or 3 questions are being asked from CASTING. One is of application type in which one has to solve the problem by calculation for 2 marks. Second is of either recall or comprehension type.

In case of FORMING they used to ask to solve 1 or 2 problems for 2 marks questions. And one comprehensive type question for 2 marks.

In mathematics one can notice that questions are of logical type. One or two step calculation is needed at most. You can answer many of these questions with out calculation. For this you must know the basics of mathematics. So they just want to know whether you have understood the fundamentals of mathematics well or you have just learned mechanical rigorous mathematics.

So I hope one have understood the importance of previous years GATE papers.

2nd step: Analyze your strengths and weaknesses.

List down separately the topics in which you are strong and weak.

From the analysis of the previous papers you have already come to know about the topics which require lesser efforts but fetch too good marks. If such topics are of your weakness then give considerable time in preparing it. So do prepare these subjects first. But if your weakness is the subjects which are very rigorous and too much time consuming and fetch less marks then do concentrate on your strengths. Prepare subjects listed on your strength side first.

In this way you will come to know the order in which you have to prepare subjects.

Personally speaking never ignore mathematic at all and if possible prepare it first.

3rd step: Its time to prepare too hard.

Some of the points should be taken care while preparing are as follows.

1. Make concise notes while preparing. It will help you to refer it in the last moments. After referring to all the reference books do write basic fundamentals in your own language. List down all the important formulae.

2. Try to understand the topic through its application. Consolidate fundamentals by solving related problems from standard books. Mark the very difficult problems which only are to be seen while revision. No need to waste time for the problems which you already know.

3. After this just solve the various questions only from GATE and GATEFORUM or Test series papers.

4. After completing each subject revise it with the before completed subjects. Don’t left any subject incomplete. Do prepare all the subjects completely.

5. After doing this try to revise the whole course in a few days say 1 or 2, then after try to recall all the formulae from all the subjects in one day. As you will practice the revision time will reduce considerably for the next revision.

Note: It is not must to complete the whole course.90% course is enough to score well. But this 90% course should be perfect. From other 10% prepare easy topics. I am insisting to cover 90% course because sometimes it happens that one can not answer the toughest questions asked from the topics he has prepared and also the easy questions asked from the topics he has left. So if one has prepared 90% course then at least he can answer all easy questions asked from all topics and some hard questions from the topics he has prepared well.

So friends I hope this will help you out. In my next post I will try to show you a typical nature of any competitive exam. I will focus on the issues which are most important besides preparation.

And feel free to ask questions. And post your suggestion too. Your comments becomes driving force for us.

Important instructions during preparation.

During preparation it is very important that you keep in mind some basic important things. You would feel them unimportant at initial phase but they would really help a lot later.

1) Concentrate on what you read during college examination :- Your college examinations are the best way to prepare for GATE, unless you have read and understood every topic to its utter basics do not think it to be complete. If you are preparing for GATE the results in the university examination will take care of themselves (this is my personal experience and may vary from person to person). If you want to prepare for GATE then prepare with only one aim and i.e to understand and assimilate the subject and not for just clearing the examination, that will help you a lot. Although i do not preach that you should ignore your university examinations, but you should also keep somewhere at the back of mind that you are going to appear for gate. If you prepare for your examination in this manner it shall help you a lot for you GATE preparation.

2) Prepare a separate notebook :- This according to me is one of the most important thing which you have to do. This is not optional it is compulsory. You have to make a detailed notebook of whatever you prepare for GATE. Write down all the topics that you have read, draw nice detailed figures of the topics that have one. Writing down the numerical is optional. Do not clutter your notebook with too much numerical. Instead make notes of something that you have understood in your own words which you will never forget. Also keep the notes concise, do not copy the whole text from the book instead write it in your own words only. The note book should be self-sufficient, it should give you all the information that you require about a specific topic. You should have understood the topic perfectly once it is in your notes. The notes should be referred regularly. Prepare a separate note book just for the formula's if you can prepare one cause on the last moment you can refer it. I have met many people during my admission procedure and i found that everyone use to prepare notebook's so this is an essentiality.

3) Plan your studies :- Planning of studies is very important, you should plan on basis of the time period in hand and your level of comfort with various topics. The more comfortable you are the less time it should take to prepare. Give ample time for preparation considering all the external factors which may affect your studies. But prepare the subject thoroughly. Best method will be to start back calculating from the day of exam but you can plan in the manner you want to. Every subject should be given enough justice, do not skip or overlook any topic. The most important part of your planning is to plan your revisions. Revision of the topics you have already read is very important. Revision from my personal experience i can tell takes almost 2 months. So you need to start you revision at least at the end of November or start of December and if you need to do that you should finish your preparation by that time so you can easily back calculate the months you require to prepare. Also keep a track of what amount of course has been completed and what amount is left, this shall help you to plan your studies in a better manner. You can also allot percentages to various topics and track exactly what amount of studies are left. Well allotting percentages is more of a personal task as no one can decide the percentage you need to allot to a give topic its your own gut feeling.

4) Writing down paper :- Writing down papers is the best method to keep a track of your performance and to keep on motivating yourself to prepare for GATE. Try writing at least 2 papers in one month i.e on alternate Sundays if you can accommodate more its well and good. If you want you can join any of the test series of GATE-FORUM or BRILLIANT, but remember that they are nothing but tests the actual preparation has to be carried out by you. You may score good or bad in those papers is not of that much importance. Important thing is to appear for them and make an habit of sitting in one place for 3 hours with your mind full of concentration without getting bored. Also it helps you to get a feel of things to come during actual GATE. Writing the papers prepare you for the type of question you are most likely to face during exams, you will never have same questions being repeated ever in any of the test or final GATE but you will have an aptitude for the questions you will face. This is of much importance and should not be ignored.

5) For doubts and clarification refer authentic books :- We have used books during our college examination which would fetch us good marks but when preparing for GATE clearing our basic understanding of the subject is of utter importance. So it is imperative to opt for books which are considered "the book" for a specific subject. Whenever in doubt do refer this books, if possible prepare from them, but then its not always possible to prepare from the reference books as they are far more in detail then one may required during preparation for GATE. But having them for reference is very important.

6) Take help of your Professor :- Whenever their is a topic going on during regular lectures or during preparation that you fail to understand kindly get your doubts clarified, this is of much importance as this will clear your basics. The professor will give you inputs which would prove invaluable for your preparation. Their might be some facet you would be missing on the given topic which might be made clear by them so always stay in touch with them and get it clarified.