Meet Vandit Patel, The Surat Boy Who Retook GATE 2022 Despite Qualifying For IITs & Became A Topper!

When Vandit Patel took the GATE 2021 exam, he cleared it with a rank of 842 and was eligible for admission into IIT Dhanbad, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, and even Varanasi. For many, this is a dream come true, but for 23-year-old Vandit, it was not enough as it couldn't get him the course he always wanted to do at his 'dream college'.

Also read: Mother of Two, Cracks GATE 2021 at the age of 52!

As a result, Patel took the GATE 2022 exam again next year and got a GATE score of 966, which secured him an All India Rank of 2. This time, he was eligible for M.Tech in Data Science from IISc Bangalore, or from a top-tier IIT- something he always wanted to do. 

Putting Ambition Above Everything Else

Speaking to a leading news publisher, Vandit Patel explained his motivation behind leaving so many offers from top colleges and sticking to the plan of entering his dream institute.

“After my first attempt, even though I could have joined a reputed college and got offers from some too, I knew that I could do better,” Vandit said.

He then added, “I had left at least 30 percent of the total syllabus for my first attempt. If I could get a rank in the top 1000 based on that, I knew that a dedicated preparation could help me achieve my goal. My main aim was only three colleges IIT Delhi, Bombay, and IISC.”

As a child, Vandit has always wanted to be a scientist. In fact, since he was in class seven, he was determined to make a career as a scientist, just like his father Dr. Prakash Patel who is also a research scientist.

At the end of the day, Vandit owes his success to hard work, and the decision to not compromise on his long-term ambition. 

The Strategy For Improvement

Getting into a top-tier engineering college was always a dream for Vandit, but he couldn't get into one with his JEE Mains scores. He completed his graduation in Electrical Engineering from Nirma University in 2020 with a minor in Computer Science and was determined to get into a top institute for his postgraduate degree.

Also read: First JEE Advance, Then GATE & Finally Rank 1 In UPSC ESE; IIT Roorkee Student Shares Story & Tips

After his 'failed' attempt in GATE 2021, Vandit decided to make his preparation for GATE 2022 more thorough. He started with analyzing his mistakes and devoted a lot of time to subject-wise preparation as well as full-length mock test series. By the time the exam came, Vandit was capable of solving questions across difficulty levels. 

The fact that his strategy paid off big time is proven by his result in GATE 2022.

Tips For Young Aspirants

Vandit Patel has always been a good student who has enjoyed studying in general. In his CBSE boards, he secured 93.2 percent marks but couldn't get the subjects of his choice at the IITs despite cracking JEE.

Talking about his approach while appearing for GATE 2022, he decided not to repeat the same mistakes he made in JEE Mains. In fact, this is what he would like to communicate to young people who are appearing for exams like GATE and JEE.

His mistake in JEE was that he studied subjects in-depth based only on interest. "I did not like Chemistry so I gave less time to it. I was not to repeat this mistake in GATE. Even though I did not like machines as a subject, I studied it using different modes and dedicated full attention to it. After researching more and more, the subject eventually became one of my favorites," Vandit said.

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