GATE CSE Exam Experience 2024

So being a final-year student of my engineering degree, my focus was on placement and GATE. There are a lot of opportunities for GATE-qualified candidates like being able to go for higher studies in reputed institutions, and lucrative jobs in PSUs. I attended the GATE CSE exam.

I mainly prepared for GATE 2024 by watching YouTube videos from w3wiki, Gatewallah, and Unacademy. Additionally, I completed all the Previous Year Question Papers from the past five years. Taking Mock Tests of the previous year’s papers within the stipulated time of three hours, which is the same as the exam time, helped me enhance my speed and become familiar with the question patterns. At first, my scores in the mock tests were low, but with practice, improvement is achievable. I also compiled notes for each topic, which proved beneficial for revision one week or one month before the exam.

I had a positive and educational experience during the exam. While I encountered some challenges while solving problems, I was able to navigate through most of the topics smoothly. I found the questions related to Computer Networking, particularly the numerical ones, to be quite difficult, resulting in a loss of marks.

Result:

I did pretty well taking into account my preparation. My rank was within 10K which is above 90 percentile for CSE. While you always yearn to do better, I was satisfied with my result.

Tips:

• Always learn every topic in depth. The basic concept should be as clear as possible.
• Time management is extremely important in these exams. You cannot get stuck on a question for a long time. You have to move on if a question requires a lot of time or else you won’t be able to finish all the questions and your overall score will get hampered.
• Try to solve application-based questions for each topic. Merely theoretical knowledge is not enough for such exams.
• Practice Aptitude, Logical Reasoning, English Grammar, and Comprehension based questions.
• Practice is the key. The more you practice the easier it gets to solve certain problems.
• It is important to have a good sleep before the night of the exam and to be confident as well.
• Remember, failure is a natural part of everyone’s journey. If you feel like you’re not performing well during the exam, or if you realize afterwards that you didn’t do well, don’t give up. Keep working hard and have faith that success will come.