Introduction

After a month of anxious moments and few sleepless nights, the GATE results are finally declared. The people who get a good rank(below 200) feel accomplished; the ones with not so good ranks (200-500) are satisfied but not sure if they could make it to the Top five IIT’s in their desired specializations or not. The people with ranks greater than 500 start thinking about new IIT’s/NIT’s/BITS. All this leads to lots of confusion among the minds of the students; Which IIT’s to apply? Which specialization to apply? Which specialization is good in which IIT? Most of the students feel almost helpless and in their attempt to gain some answers start browsing net looking for Institute rankings, previous year cut-off scores, etc .To add to the anxiety of students comes other things like BARC, ISRO, IES and many more.

Well, I also faced the same situation as everyone does .Since my score was good, I felt that my job is done and didn’t do much research before applying to different courses. But I was wrong!! GATE result is only 50% of the story; the other 50% and the more important stuff is applying carefully and preparing well for the interviews. For those of you who got a rank below 500 and are confident that you will easily get an IIT; believe me it’s not a cakewalk for you. You need to prepare well for the interviews and deliver your best. Unfortunately, most of us realise it much later. I received no guidance from anywhere (neither my friends nor internet) and so I made a few mistakes( fortunately they didn’t cost me much 😉 ) I want to share my experiences and my mistakes with you so that all of you can make a wise and informed decision.

So let me start by giving details about my GATE exam:

AIR: 189

Score: 859/1000

Marks: 69.32/100(normalized)

Paper: EC (Electronics & Communication Engg)

Year: 2014

Category: General

 

Preparation:

I prepared for GATE along with my job and believe me it was quite difficult period for me. After working 9 hours a day at office you don’t feel like studying at all when you come home. All you want to do is to lie down,may be surf net,watch a series;but the last thing you want to do is to open a book and study Electromagnetic Theory :P.On weekends, you feel like you have lots of time and sleep initially, go out with your friends for dinner or movie later, read a novel and boom you wake up to realize that today is Monday. This cycle keeps on repeating. Your salary at the end of the month does wonders to add to your lack of motivation to study.

To avoid these distractions and to keep me focussed on my aim, I decided to join the evening classes at ACE Academy, Hyderabad. So after working hard at office I went to attend two hours of coaching. I wouldn’t say that coaching is essential for GATE but for me it provided the necessary environment to analyse my competition, to know my weaknesses and work harder to remove them. I devoted the last month in practising previous year’s question papers and paid emphasis on accuracy rather than speed. I will not go into the details of my preparation (that will be the subject of another post in the future I guess).In the coming sections I will be sharing my detailed Post GATE experiences with you.

Applications:

Institutes applied	Program	Mode of Entry
IISc Bangalore	ME/MTech, Research Program	ME: Directly based on GATE scoreMTech(CEDT):Written Test/Interview
IIT Bombay	MTech TA ,RA	TA: Directly based on GATE scoreRA: Written Test/Interview
IIT Delhi	MTech	Interview
IIT Kanpur	MTech	Interview
IIT Madras	MTech	Directly based on GATE score
IIT Kharagpur	MTech	Directly based on GATE score
BARC	OCES/DGFS	Interview

 

Do’s & Dont’s:

• Prepare a ready to refer notebook containing all the important concepts and formulas written briefly for all subjects. Most of us feel lazy enough to do so but believe me this practise will prove to be very useful for revision both before GATE and before Interviews.
• Do not completely abandon your books and notes after giving GATE ( as I did).You will not only lose your grip over concepts but it will also affect your confidence and speed while answering questions in the interview.
• Keep a note of all the important dates of applications, interviews, etc. I will advise you to prepare a chart containing a list of all the Institutes, courses, last dates, etc. for your reference. If possible do an advanced booking of trains/buses/flights for reaching your interview venue.
• While applying to the courses and choosing your preferences make sure to go by your interests and not what others say is the best branch. Remember you have to study this for two years and it will decide your future. So, keep all this in mind before choosing the preferences. If you are still not so sure, rank them based on the feedback of your seniors who are studying there.
• If you don’t feel like studying for interviews from your notes and books (which I did) try browsing interview questions on the internet. I came across a lot of wonderful sites full of tricky questions and good explanations of concepts.
• Reach the venue one day in advance and try to familiarize yourself with the local landscape which will help you getting to your destination the next day. Try talking to students there about the facilities and whatever doubts you have in mind.
• Lastly, do not take much stress. Enjoy yourself in the wonderful campuses of the most reputed institutions of the country and imagine being an IITan 🙂

 I found very few blogs relating their interview experiences at different IIT’s; but the few I found gave me an idea about the type of questions asked and the strategies; though I always felt something missing. So, I have decided to provide a fairly descriptive and systematic account of my interview experiences at each Institute individually along with some unknown facts and my observations (important points to remember) in the coming sections. Hope this helps you in your preparation. So, stay tuned and enjoy reading 🙂 🙂