An effective preparation strategy can help you ace GATE - By Rahul Attrey, GATE 2019 AIR 87

After graduating from Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology, he went on to prepare for GATE, the widely chosen entrance test amongst all engineering graduates. He then interviewed for prestigious organizations like ONGC, IOCL, GAIL and many others to end up bagging his first job at BARC. Let’s learn from his experience and gain insights into building an effective strategy for GATE 2022 preparation. 

A major hurdle faced by GATE aspirants from chemical engineering branch is that they are not able to find the right direction to crack the test. After securing AIR 87 in GATE 2019 in Chemical Engineering, I believe I can bridge that gap.

Choosing the right resources

Many students tend to run behind varied books available in the market. Forgetting the variety that the market will inevitably offer, confusion between choosing the right resources sustains. And thus, the value of standard books is brought down. While I was preparing for GATE 2019, standard books came to my rescue, and for sure they can help you too, if notes are prepared along with it. It is necessary to understand the basic concepts underlined by the book.

One can also follow NPTEL online video lectures for GATE preparation. A not-to-be forgotten fact is the preparation of a formula sheet for each subject. Memorizing these formulas is totally inescapable as many questions are based on them.

Recommended books for GATE 2022 Preparation

I would like to share the standard booklist which I followed during my GATE preparation.

Understanding the value of GATE Previous Year Papers

Post completion of each subject, I tended to move towards solving GATE previous year question papers. My mentors had guided me about their importance and how many questions in GATE paper are based on previous year concepts.

Though there are plenty of resources available where one can find these papers, I suggest to visit unitoperation.com as it will not only give an online exam flavour but also the habit of using a virtual calculator. 

As they say, “A dream does not become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work”, ideally we should try all our strategies and tactics to devise the best-suitable GATE preparation plan. For this exam is not a cake-walk, but a sticky wicket on which it is difficult to bat.