From this year the country’s premier entrance examination, for admission into engineering PG courses, Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is expected to go online. There are about 21 different streams under GATE and three streams such as civil, biotechnology and chemical have already gone online two years ago and this year (GATE-2014) all the remaining are scheduled to go online.
The paper for 2014 is being set by IIT-Kharagpur and they have called for tenders for migrating to the online format and that means that GATE will no longer be a paper-pen based test, said the Gate Academy Director Nitin Rakesh Prasad.
The examination window is scheduled to be open from February 1 to March 2 and for acclimatisation to the online format IIT-Kharagpur will be offering practice sessions between January 25 and 29.
In a chat with The Hindu Education Plus, the Director of Gate Academy, said the options for GATE are many and the examination is not confined to just admission into PG courses in premier institutes such as IITs, IISC and NITs.
“Over 18 public sector companies and major private sector giants from core sectors have set the GATE score as benchmark for their recruitment process.
And this apart, students interested in getting into MBA programme can join NITIE- Mumbai (National Institute of Industrial Engineering) for a management programme in industrial engineering,” he said.
He further added that students can take up fellowship programme in IIMs (Indian Institute of Management) with GATE score or join Ph.D programmes in IISC and IITs.
Elaborating on Ph.D programmes he said, “The Government in a bid to retain good talent pool had initiated this direct Ph.D programme a couple of years back. Students interested in doing research can directly enrol into Ph.D. programme after B. Tech with the GATE score. They even are paid stipend during the research period.”
On how to crack GATE, Nitin Prasad said, “There is only one mantra- get your basics right. The examination basically tests the depth of a student, it is conceptual in nature and hence one should be strong in his or her fundamentals. Follow more than one textbook for your subjects.”
Here are a few tips:
* Subjective preparation is important
* Strengthen your basic mathematics and engineering mathematics
* Spend time on fundamentals- read from more than one textbook
* Focus on study material and chalk out a plan earmarking what to study and what not to study. Adopt selective conceptual study pattern.
* Solve at least 10 years past question papers
* Practice and set your speed of solving papers
* Do not neglect all India level test series. Set them as benchmark.