Are you not able to secure a good paying job because your engineering college did not equip with the relevant skill sets? Was the syllabus that your college taught you old and not up to date? Did your college not provide placement support? Don’t over stress yourself and look forward to the GATE exam.

The Graduate Admission Test in Engineering (GATE) is an All India entrance test for aspirants hoping to pursue their Masters or Direct PhDs in India and Abroad which will help them secure a good paying job. For those lakhs of students hoping to secure their dreams of pursuing their Masters in India’s top Engineering Institutions such as IITs, NITs, IISC and others or get a high paying job in either the public or private sector, the GATE entrance test is the best way to achieve this.

An added benefit for the students who write GATE is that their previous academic and non academic performances are not accounted for. Unlike CAT, where your previous academic and non academic performances are taken into account along with work experience, GATE is based on scoring well in a single exam and provides you an open ground to compete. You can beat the students from top engineering colleges like IITs/NITs and others with your efforts.

Following are the steps all fellow GATE aspirants can follow:

1.Study well using the right Resources

All the knowledge that you have gained in the three to four years will be tested in the GATE Exam. The selection of books and areas of focus is very crucial as you need to go through all the topics as thoroughly as you can. A major advice to students giving GATE exams is that they should never have the mindset of ignoring some specific subjects completely. The moment you build this negative mindset you will not be able to cover these subjects till the end. Our advice is that you must do a realistic allocation of time for each subject as you need to cover each topic thoroughly because the syllabus is huge and questions can be asked from anywhere. By making and following a timetable you will be able to complete the entire syllabus and furthermore enhance your chances to score top marks. Keep in mind that even if a subject has lower weight age compared to others, it also contributes to the question paper.

2. Make concise notes and revise continuously

What most GATE toppers of the previous year recommend the aspiring candidates is to always keep short notes of all the chapters, subjects and revise as often as possible. They will be very helpful in the last 30 days when revising directly from the book would be difficult. By following it the way you want such as underlining the important details, highlighting the key points, having a separate notebook for key information and formulae, making flash cards for formulae and key points, short forms or remembering the details with the initials of a song or any other new way will enhance the your learning methodology.

3.Always Test yourself !

Even if you’re the smartest or dumbest person on the planet, the best way to understand your strengths and weaknesses is to test yourself. By doing multiple tests, you will be able to improve your knowledge, time yourself better and have a complete understanding of your strengths and weaknesses which will help you even further when you give the GATE exam.

4.Use Time Management and Complete the preparation on time

One of the very important things is to ensure that you complete your syllabus on time and using time management skills you will be able to avoid being in a situation where you miss some chapters or a subject completely. Plan your studies accordingly and time it well.

Make a month-wise plan on what topics you will be covering and when. If you have joined some coaching institute, they will give you a schedule as well. You can plan as per the same too. If you have not joined any classes, there is nothing to panic about. Make your own plan. If you want to ensure you are doing it right or just to make yourself feel better, discuss it with friends who have joined coaching and compare the same. Ensure that you complete your syllabus at least 45 days before. Ensure you revise all your topics in the first 30 days of this 45 Day timeline. In the last 15 days solve GATE previous year questions and attempt more mock papers.

5. Believe in yourself

It is extremely important to set the upcoming GATE exam as your goal and believe that you will be able to clear it with top marks. Until the time you don’t really believe that GATE 2014 is your goal all the planning and management will turn out to be a waste. While it is important to read the complete information about the exam, its pattern, eligibility, syllabus and others, are extremely crucial that you start making strategies to clear the exam. In case, you are currently pursuing your qualifying degree or have recently completed it, it will be an added advantage as the questions will be asked on these very topics.