Last minute tips to crack the GATE 2013

The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is an important entrance test for admission to post graduate programmes in Engineering and Science at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Indian Institutes of Technology, National Institutes of Technology and other engineering colleges in India.

Mostly taken by engineering graduates, performance in the exam is crucial to both engineering and science graduates.

With PSUs using GATE scores for recruitment, the exam has become more important for technical graduates.

The offline exam is scheduled on Sunday, February 10, 2013.

To help students clear their doubts, we'd organised an online chat on February 7, 2013.

Jitendra Sinha, co-founder and head of academics, Gateforum addressed students' queries on how to crack the GATE 2013.

For those who missed the live chat, here's the unedited transcript below:

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Jitendra Sinha says, Hello everyone. This is Jitendra Sinha from Gateforum. You may post your questions and I will try my best to answer them. We will start at 4pm sharp.

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arvind asked, how much marks one shld target to be in top 100 ?

Jitendra Sinha answers, at 2013-02-07 15:54:41You could specify your stream. But in general you would need to score above 60 to get a rank of less than 100

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Rashid asked, Last minutes tips for IN for GATE-2013?

Jitendra Sinha answers, Last min tips cannot be specific to a stream but the most important thing you can do during the exam is aim for accuracy and not worry about the number of questions you are attempting. Also, you need to relax before the exam and remove the fear of failure from your mind

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arvind asked, sir iam from EC branch and with PWD category ..how much marks can ensure me an admission to good iits?

Jitendra Sinha answers, By PWD, do you mean physically challenged category?

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sds asked, hi, where can i find past question papers?

Jitendra Sinha answers, You can find the previous GATE papers on https://gateforum.com/gate_papers.php

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arvind asked, Syntax error its PD category

Jitendra Sinha answers, A rank of less than 1000 should help you get into the good iits

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erereerw asked, when to start studies?

Jitendra Sinha answers, The ideal preparation time for GATE is 8-12 months. But this would again depend on how strong are your concepts

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kalyani asked, can u please give me some tips for last minute I am an average student... i have studied quite well.. but i am getteing v tensed since last 2 days..

Jitendra Sinha answers, The first and foremost thing you have to do is relax.Read your favorite novel or watch some movies. Do not think about failure because this is not the end of life. During the exam dont worry about the number of attempts or dont get flustered if you are not able to solve the first few questions. Ideally you could start attempting questions from your strongest areas and then build confidence

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swati asked, sir, can we appear for gate again next year, if we do not clear it this time?

Jitendra Sinha answers, Yes you can. There is no restriction on age or number of attempts in GATE

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gaurav asked, to have a scorecard how much score is required(for mechanical)

Jitendra Sinha answers, All students get a scorecard and hence you will have to be more specific in terms of your objective(the institutes you wish to join or the rank you aspire to get)

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Illustration: Dominic Xavier

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arvind asked, Sir any specific strategy to proceed with paper on the exam day?

Jitendra Sinha answers, I used to follow a simple rule - Glance through the paper and quickly identify questions which are from your areas of strength. Starting from such questions usually adds to the confidence levels and helps in tackling subsequent questions. Also, don't worry too much about the number of questions you are attempting - focus on accuracy instead

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sudip asked, sir i just want know what are the main areas in cs i need to concentrate more to get a decent score as i am from IT branch?

Jitendra Sinha answers, TOC, Data Structures, Computer Networks are the most imp sections in CS

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avt asked, I passed BSC(IT) from EIILM University in Distance Modein the year 2012, can I apper for GATE??????

Jitendra Sinha answers, If the university is approved by AICTE, you can appear for GATE

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arvind asked, sir i joined test series with one of the institute in delhi and i m getting 150th rank out of 4300 students as well as getting arround 50-55 marks out of 100. could you please suggest something on this performance or can you predict based on this the GATE 2013 performance

Jitendra Sinha answers, Ideally it would depend on the distribution of the sample set i.e these 4300 students are from across the country or are from certain pockets and what is their level of prep. But as a generic rule add subtract a tolerance of 5-10 marks for the actual GATE

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mahesh asked, Is the opportunity limited for those who get rank of less than 100?

Jitendra Sinha answers, There are many opportunities through GATE - Masters programs in various institutes and Jobs in various PSUs. While the seats in some departments in the top institutes like IISc and some IITs are limited to the top 100, there are a host of seats in the other colleges.

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santosh asked, sir please tell me what is the minimum cutoff for getting into BHEL i am from ec branch?

Jitendra Sinha answers, A rank of less than 1000 (in the general category) for an interview call

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shreya asked, Sir, due to some problem i couldn'r prepare that well for my GATE exam.I m from CS branch.So what would you suggest me to concentrate more on during these 2 days?

Jitendra Sinha answers, Well, as a last ditch effort you could focus on the General Ability and Mathematics section (30 marks weightage) and hope for the best

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info asked, Sir , I want to get MTECH degree by distance course , please guide

Jitendra Sinha answers, sikkim manipal University,amity University,LPU,maharshi dayanand University,Guru Jambheshwar University,Kurukshetra Uiversity,Guru Gobind Singh University are some universities which offer M.Tech via distance learning. You could check their websites for more info.

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santossh asked, when i checked the BHEL website for 2012 list they have called till 400 rank only i am from OBC category,what is the cutoff for anna university,coep,pune

Jitendra Sinha answers, A Rank of 2000 and less will get you a call from COEP and Anna univ

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pooja asked, Sir,where can I get a summary or a good study material to just go through all important stuff as a part of revision

Jitendra Sinha answers, Actually it is a bit late for even revision, unless you mean a collection of formulae.

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Jitendra Sinha says, I think we have run out of time and will stop here. Good Luck for GATE'13

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Illustration: Uttam Ghosh