GATE CSE Exam Experience

In this post, I want to discuss the strategy that I followed in GATE CSE 2020 and in the test series.

There were 65 questions in Gate CSE and 10 questions are from Aptitude and English and remaining on technical subjects.

I started with aptitude and English, these questions are normally easy and easy to score. Then I solved 1 mark problems and then 2 mark problems. There are different options like save and next, marked for review, etc. So, the questions where I was confident I saved those questions as save and move forward. For some of the questions that contain the calculation part, I marked those as marked for review. If a particular question took more than 2 minutes of time and I thought I can do it later, I saved it as Not answered and marked. For other problems, that seems very difficult, I just skipped them.

My suggestion is please do not waste so much time on a particular question even if you think you can do it, marked it for later. Also, Gate checks your patience i.e. they set some questions that you will not be able to answer these questions at that moment. Like if you skip 3–4 questions in a continuous manner, still do not need to worry, mark them for later. Some students get depressed thinking that paper is very tough and what will happen if they leave these questions. So, they marked the wrong options. But this can cost so much. Always be patient, marked them for later, and move forward.

I finished my paper within 2 hr 25 minutes, and the remaining time I gave for marked problems. First I checked those answers which I answered and marked for review. Then, I move to those questions which I didn’t answer but marked for review. In the end, I tried those questions which I skipped without marking.

Some useful suggestions:

1. 1 mark questions are normally easy, so always try to not do any silly mistakes which can cost you a lot.
2. Sometimes, some 2 mark questions seem very easy, please be careful here. These questions are like a trap where most of the students do silly mistakes.
3. Never make a random guess if you are not confident in that particular question.
4. Always read the question carefully, never pretended that this question is the same as that of … test series or from a previous year. Like in Discrete Mathematics, we mostly do vertex coloring but in gate 2020 they asked for edge coloring. Also, there are some questions like which of the following options are not true but due to carelessness, some students marked options which are true.
5. Try to finish the paper before 2 hr 30 minutes so that you can review your answers at least once.
6. A calculator is provided in the paper but tries to avoid it unless it is very necessary. Clicking everything on the calculator sometimes becomes hectic and a single mis-digit can cost you much. So, for basic calculations try to do it yourself.

After analyzing previous years’ trends, papers are easy but tricky. They force you to do mistakes but you need to be careful before answering. Remember, 72+ marks can easily land you below 100 but the carelessness of 3–4 marks can drop outside 500. So, be patient, don’t do blind guesses, never thought you have to answer all 65 questions, the important lesson is how many questions you are able to do correctly without committing too many mistakes. Of course, no one is perfect, there always exist human errors and it is all about reducing these errors in the actual Gate exam.

I remember some lines that keep me motivated. I like to share here:

These lines are from the novel ‘You can win by Shiv Khera’.