My name is Abhishek Kumar. My rank in GATE 2018 is AIR-159 in ECE. Currently, I am pursuing B.Tech. from Motilal national institute of technology Allahabad. My JEE Mains AIR was 7742 and of JEE Advanced was 8283, due to which I had opted for electronics branch. As such, I was having no such interest in electronics just after seeing the branch cut-off I have opted for this branch. As all of you know there are two possibilities in electronics either core or software, but since I was interested in physics related to electromagnetism, electrostatics, etc. I opted for core electronics. Then from second year onwards is started exploring the opportunities in the core as there are only a few companies in this field. At that moment I thought of preparing for GATE. Like in my 3rd Semester I was having signal and systems in my syllabus which is being common to GATE syllabus. So I studied it using Oppenheim book and cleared my doubts from that book. It is the best book for signals. At that time I was not having much idea about GATE but I just want to study it carefully as I knew it will help me in long run. In the same I have prepared for analog electronics from Sedra and Smith the best book that I have read, the concepts have been explained very nicely. Therefore at the end of 5th semester, I have a good idea about almost every subject except communication system, emft, and electronic devices. Then I come to know of that without these subjects it will be impossible to get good rank in ECE. Therefore I decided to join coaching for six months in order to prepare these subjects. But since I was in the seventh semester I become a little bit anxious since I also have to study for placements, semester exams, and to handle the projects. But I left all these things beside and study for GATE. Luckily I got placed in September in one American based fiber optics company at a good package. At the time I relaxed for about 15 days.

Then I again started preparing for GATE and started giving subject wise tests in October. This is very important time for GATE. Till 10th of December, I covered my whole syllabus. One of most important thing is that I have learned while watching the preparation strategy of Ankit Goyal sir is that I have prepared the short notes of 5-10 pages of every subject. This has enabled me to give a lot of test with a quick revision. I had taken full-length test series of Kreatryx which were very conceptual and I also scored very well in that. I also joined test series of made easy and ace academy as I knew without practice I cannot succeed. I was always among the top 200 in those tests. l was confident of getting rank below 100 but it didn’t happen. I wasn’t able to perform well in Aptitude and Maths. Only 14 marks out of 28 and in aptitude section 7 marks out of 15, this has happened because I have not practiced this section enough and neglected it. Please do take it seriously.

But I don’t have regrets as I have given 100% effort, had it would have been my day I would have got rank under 10 but still I am happy.

One last thing I want to say that it is not necessary to study a lot but you should be regular for 1 year and study of about 3-4 hours a day is enough as for those who are giving GATE in final year it is not easy to give enough time than that, and please do prepare a short notes of every subject, it will help you in long run.

Best of luck !!!