GATE

Introduction
Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering also known as GATE is a competitive examination conducted by Indian Institute of Science and by the seven Indian Institute of Technology. GATE is conducted by these institutions under the auspices of National Coordination Board – GATE, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India.

The administration committee of GATE constitutes of representatives from all the IIT institutions who are responsible for setting the paper and conducting the exam.

Why Should You Appear for GATE?
GATE is the qualifying examination that you should appear for if you wish to pursue Post Graduation with MHRD. GATE scores are also required if you wish to pursue Government sponsorships or fellowships in Engineering colleges or Technology Institutes. GATE students can apply for Junior Research Fellowship in Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CISR) Laboratories and can also work on CISR related projects. If you score a top rank in GATE then, you can apply for the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Fellowship” which is also awarded by CSIR.

Apart from this, many Universities in India and abroad recognize GATE scores as a qualification to gain admission into their Post Graduate and Doctoral Programmes.

GATE Eligibility
The following are the eligibility criteria for GATE –

• Students who wish to appear for GATE should have a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering, Technology or Architecture.
• Students who hold a Master’s Degree in Science, Mathematics, Statistics or Computer Application can also apply.
• Students who are doing their four-year Integrated Masters’ Degree Programme in Engineering or Technology are eligible to appear for GATE
• Students who are in their third or fourth year Five-year integrated Master’s degree or with dual degree programme in Engineering or Technology can also appear.
• Those candidates who have written examinations that are conducted by professional societies such as Associate Membership of Institution of Engineers (AMIE by IE(I)), AMICE(I) by the Institute of Civil Engineers (India)-ICE(I)) are also eligible to appear for GATE since these exams are equivalent to valid BE/B.Tech programs
• Students who have appeared for their final examination and are awaiting results can also apply for this exam.

GATE Application
Students can apply for GATE exams through both online and offline process.

Online Application for GATE
Students who wish to apply will need to visit the official website of the IIT of their relevant zone.

Offline Application for GATE
Students can purchase the GATE application form from the following banks. Click on this PDF to know where to purchase the form.

Detailed instructions for filling the application form are given in the official brochure of the prospectus, which you will get while purchasing the form. You can also download the latest GATE brochure here. (Detailed instructions for filling the application form are given in Pages — 11 — 14.)
GATE Paper Pattern
Candidates who wish to write GATE can appear for any one stream from the below given list

Students must carefully enter their choice of paper and zone while applying for the GATE examination. However if they wish to change the zone or paper they will have to write to the Chairman of the particular zone before the last date.

Though it is recommended that the students apply for a Paper that is appropriate based on their Undergraduate study, any paper from the above given list can attempted as per the eligibility criteria of the Institution where they are going to apply next.

GATE Exam Pattern
The GATE examination is for duration of 3 hours and each paper will contain 65 questions for 100 marks. All papers except AE and TF will have objective-type question with multiple-choice answers. Each question will have four choices of answer.

Students who take AE and TF papers will get a question paper with 60 questions of which 5 questions will be of numerical answer type.

Students who are taking the following papers – AE, GG, MN and TF will have to take their exams online where they will need to give the answers using a mouse/keyboard. For the rest of the papers, the students will have to take an offline test by marking the correct answer in the Optical Response Sheet (ORS).

All papers of GATE examination will have a General Aptitude section for 15 marks.

There will be negative marking for each wrong answer. Marks deducted for each question will vary with each paper.

GATE Syllabus
The detailed GATE Exam Syllabus for each paper can downloaded from the GATE’s official website – http://www.iitk.ac.in/gate/gate2011/downloads.php.

GATE Preparation
GATE is one of the toughest examination, that an engineering student can attempt to write. But experts opine that if the student strong in basics and fundamentals of his subject, then GATE is not be that tough a nut to crack. To prepare successfully for GATE, you should not sit and mug up formulas, instead you should work on deriving them. This is the basic difference between GATE and other competitive examinations like JEE.

here is no dearth of materials available for preparation. Mock tests, sample question papers, previous year’s question paper are all available online. There are also many coaching centers that offer preparation materials of their own.

It is recommended that the students follow the prescribed syllabus for GATE. There are also many practice workbooks and detailed books available in the market for each paper of GATE. For example, many students recommend R.S. Agarwal’s books for Mathematics and Engineering. Click here to view the entire list of recommended books for GATE preparation.

It is also opined by many students that preparation for GATE should begin from the second or the beginning of third year of their Engineering program. Students can also take the All India Test Series, which will give them a fair idea of how they have prepared for GATE exam. This online test will also give them the percentile score and an All India Rank based on the scores of all the candidates who have taken this test.

GATE Timetable

The above given dates and schedule are tentative. It is advisable for the students to visit the official website of GATE – http://www.iitk.ac.in/gate/gate2011/ to know the exact schedule.

GATE Results and Top Scores
GATE Results will be announced in the second week of March and the results will be available online in the official website of GATE – http://www.iitk.ac.in.

The GATE scores awarded for students will be between 0 — 1000. The formula for calculating the GATE score is the following –

1000/150 {a_g + S_g (m — a/s)}
m — Marks procured by the student
a — average marks of all the candidates who wrote the GATE examination that year
s — stands for the standard deviation of marks got by all the candidates who wrote the examination that year
a_g – is the global average of marks that candidates have got for the past four years
S_g – stands for the standard deviation of marks got by all the candidates who wrote the examination for the past four years
               
To calculate the percentile score of GATE, the following formula is used –

P = (Number of candidates who have scored less than you / N) x 100

With 1000 being the maximum score, scores between 800 — 1000 is considered outstanding, 675 — 800 is excellent, 550 — 675 is very good, 425 — 550 is good, 300 — 425 is above average, 100 — 300 is averages and scores below than is below average.

Students who are trying for admission any IIT in India will have to score more than 500 in GATE.

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