Every year millions of students appear for GATE exams for various streams. Only a few students are successful in clearing GATE exams because of their good study habits. Some students do extraordinary hard work and pass the exam with good ranks. But, the thing is that education is a long term process, therefore, by the time a hardworking student enter any good reputed institution, he or she is totally exhausted or eventually will suffer burnout. Some students just give in after few attempts.
In this post, we try to list out the method, purpose and need for studying GATE. The reader should keep an open mind as there are several other option to study well that suits one’s taste or ability.
How To Study In General ?
Any kind of education or studies in general need one thing – engagement. It means you find a proper time, place and fully committed to study some topic. You must be very specific and purposeful about your engagement. Once you develop this habit then there is not stopping. It is a very useful tool, not only in education but also help you in your professional life.
Even if you devote 10 hours of study in a day for next 3 months. You will forget most of it. Forgetting is our human nature; we forget if we are not in touch with a topic. The tool to overcome forgetfulness is to review what you studied regularly. The reviewing process will make sure that everything stick to your brain.
The final rule of studying is consistency and health. You must be consistent with you studies, means you should not study for 4 days and abandon for 5 days and come back again to start from scratch. It does not work that way. Also, you must not over do it, so that you get sick and tired. Over study, which is overloading of information cause depression. Occasionally, go out and meet friends, watch a movie or eat health. Sports of any kind is good for mind and body as it release stress.
GATE Preparation
The Gate exams are all about solving problems with mathematics being the most dominating subject, throughout all branches. Therefore, most of the student not good at math will fail this exam. If you have lot of time to prepare for Gate exam, then you first thing you must do is to brush up your math skills.
To prepare for the Gate exams, you must go through three stages which are:
- Know the syllabus
- Get the right study material
- Study systematically.
We shall now discuss each point in detail.
Know You Syllabus
The first thing you to start with GATE preparation is to learn what to study. For this, visit the any of the organizing institute and learn download the syllabus. Do not download gate syllabus from other sites as they may be omit subjects or incomplete. It is always better to get it from IIT or IISc websites because you can trust them.
Get The Right Study Materials
Now that you know your syllabus, there is confusion about which books to study from, it is only to join coaching class, or self-study. There are two types of students – one who can manage their study by themselves and students who need some help from others. Those who seek assistance go to a coaching institute that will provide tons of study materials and guide the students.
Whether you are a self preparing student or a student of coaching institute, you are going to need three types of study material.
Lectures – to understand the concepts. Student with coaching resources will attend lectures, and those who do self study may go to NPTEL site where IITs provide you free video lectures on each topic.
Books – to study concepts and solve problems. Gate preparation books are available in online book shops or offline book marts. Some of them are freely available online itself. The best books are those than are mentioned in the NPTEL lectures for a subject matter and any books recommended by your current related course, for example, if you B.Tech student then your collage might recommend some books for you for the preparations. Make sure you get a book that gives you end of the chapter question and practice.
Old Gate question papers – is available for you to practice solving questions and understand the nature of exam. These question are very good and test your abilities and understanding about each subjects. You must try to solve as many as possible questions. Some websites may provide you with question papers with answer keys.
Study Systematically
Your system of study depends on how much time you have before the Gate exam and how much you know already about your subject matter. Therefore, it is always better to work on you weak area first and then go for easy subjects. Another approach is to study the easy subjects first, then devote more time for hard subject.
No matter which strategy you choose, divide your time properly for reading, practice problems, and revisions. So you must know what and how much to study each day, each week and each month.
A week before the exam, when you will be revising your notes, start taking online mock tests to get the feel because you must learn to mark questions that you will review later, and so on.
With dedication, hard-work and a positive attitude it is possible to pass GATE exams.
