What it is to crack GATE Exam? Part - II.

1) How much time i should dedicate in-order to crack GATE?

-> GATE syllabus covers all the subjects one have learnt during the 4 years of engineering(Includes only revelant subjects to the specific department that are covered in 1st year though). So if you are conceptual learner(kind 4) as described in the previous post, few months of serious preperation before the exam is enough for cracking Gate Exam. For others it varies according to how far are away from the being conceptual learner.

2)Is Coaching Classes necessary for Gate Exam?

->Most of the people think, coaching classes are necessary to crack Gate exam, but its not true. Only thing coaching classes help is they consolidate all the information one required for cracking the Gate exam and mock tests, but just reading the formula's and solving the problems at the end of the chapters will have no effect until you understand the solutions for the problems and their application. As Gate questions won't get repeated, only way is to understand the concepts for all the subjects. Gate has different weightages for different subjects, so you have to check it before starting your preparation for Gate exam. 3-4 mock tests in the last week before the Gate exam, will surely help in boosting your score.

3) What is the rough rank i should get in order to get a good college?

-> This information is regarding CS, If you are planning to get into IISC or IIT's you need a rank in the range 1-300 depending on percentage of people appeared for Gate really interested in doing higher studies. Getting into an IIT and completing your Masters with good percentage will assure you a job with a salary of 7-15 lpa(Lakhs per annum). Next best are NIT's, a rank around 400-700 will assure seat in one of the top NIT's. The job prospects in hear depends on the NIT though, You can expect salary range of 4-10 lpa(depending on the institute). For more information about the cut off, previous years trends, etc visit one of the following websites.

• gateforum.com
• onestopgate.com
• gatementor.com

4) How much impact does getting into nice college on my career?

-> As you can clearly guess answer to this question is yes it has impact and it varies from IIT's to NIT's, but it all depends on you. If you have chosen a good research project, and professor who can guide you well, IIT or NIT or IISC doesn't matter much. But the chances for doing so is much easier in IIT's than in NIT's. You can find the ranking of various college using Google Search. An old ranking order can be found here.

- Satyanarayana Manyam.

What it is to crack GATE Exam? Part - I.

1) How difficult it is to crack Gate Exam?
-> Gate is like any other multiple choice technical examination like AIEEE, EAMCET etc, only difference is it concentrates on one branch of study like Computers, Electronics, Mechanical, Civil etc. The main difficultly of this exam is wrong perception of what exactly 'Gate examination' tests for? It tests your understanding of core engineering subjects you have learnt, not the amount of content you have mugged, unlike other exams. I will eloborate on this in my third post, for now let's move on with a small example.

What is the complexity of quick sort?

1. If your answer for the above question is O(nlogn). Well you are good in mugging(Nothing else). (Note: Mugging is not something bad, I am just referring to 'blind understanding of the subject' as mugging)
   
2. If your answer is worst case complexity O(n^2), average case is O(nlogn) and best case is so and so. Well you have good knowledge on understanding the question, and answered the question, i rate you as mugger, but intelligent mugger.
3. If your answer is above, and u know why is it that complexity. Well then you are hard working guy, trying to learn very thing from books and have a good bookish knowledge.
4. Finally If you know what is the answer, why is that so, why is it Big O(), rather than Theta() or Omega(), what exactly these three things mean, when to use what notation. There you go, Gate exam is a cake walk for you.

So your answer to above question explains how difficult it is for you to crack gate exam. If your answer is

1. U have a long way to go, concentrate more on understanding rather than answering the question.
2. U have the right attitude for understanding, you have to just question "why" for every question u answer, :)
3. U are almost at the edge of success, give a bit more thought on "why X is X but not Y?".
4. U are perfect and have enough talent for cracking Gate Exam.

But this is not all, you need 3 other things along with understanding of the subject, for you to be topper in the Gate.

• Speed, amount of time for u to respond for the question.
• Mental Peace, Or "Not having tension" as you can call it. This is one thing, most talented people lack at important situation of life.(I will write a post on it later).
• Luck, Or you can call it "Law of Attraction", as documented by BBC.

Part - II, click here.

- Satyanarayana Manyam

What it is to crack GATE Exam? Overview.

So I am just googling my name and found my GATE credentials posted in www.gatementor.com, which made me think why can't post my views on GATE Examination(though it relevant only for CSE, IT Gate aspirants). First of all i like to inform my GATE ranks, for you to have reasonable credebility of what i am posting.
GATE 2007 CS - AIR 17.
GATE 2008 CS - AIR 4(Percentile 99.98).

One other reason of this post can be attributed to recession which made lot students to go for higher studies as getting a job in current situation(summer 2009) is very hard. Please bare with grammatical mistakes if any :)
I am posting my detailed views on few topics.
PART - I :

1. How difficult it is to crack Gate Exam?

PART - II:

1. How much time i should dedicate in-order to crack GATE?
2. What is the rough rank i should get in order to get a good college?
3. How much impact does getting into nice college will it have on my career?

PART - III:

1. What are you going to be tested for in Gate Exam?(If u can grasp this 100% and follow it u can see ur name in the Gate toppers list).

PART - IV

1. Mock tests.
2. Last minute preparation.
   

- Satyanarayana Manyam

Few random sites that hit upon recently.

siliconindia.com - the humour section of this website is hilarious, i can't stop laughing over the jokes.

robozzle.com - Robot programming website, very addictive, interesting and brain power consuming.

mashable.com - techie news portal, very intersting articles.

bumptop.com - Nice Destop GUI, but needs more functionality for a person to stick to it.

photofunia.com - Make a fool of yourself (and your friends).