Its December : HighTime of GATE aspirant

I have been out of broadband internet reach lately and that's why couldn't write much. Anyways its been December already and almost 2 months in hand for the aspirant to chase there dream of being an IITian. On our Facebook group for GATE, someone asked, "How many still reading textbook?" Well I think this is importantly irrelevant question.

At this moment, I urge to remind you one line which you must have heard like infinite times while preparing for GATE. "In GATE, they ask question based on basic concepts." Yes, this statement is absolutely correct. They ask problems and theoretical question based on basic only. If basic has such prime importance then why to stop reading books especially if you reading textbooks. 

I, myself, prefer to read textbook and solve problems. Right now I am in middle of my examination of M.Tech. But once I am done with the semester examination ie. from 15th Dec, I will again continue my journey from GATE 2013. In those last 50 days, I will follow 1 : 2 ratio principle, which already helped me in cracking GATE 2012 examination. 

1 : 2 Ratio Principle in preparation :

It's a basic principle and there is not so great about it. It says if you study (to be precise, read books) for 'x' hours then you must solve the problems (on what you studied/read) '2x' hours. This technique helps to get very good insight of what you have studied after giving '3x' hours. 

Disclaimer : Since now I got broadband internet connection, I will posting very often you keep you motivated. Kindly give your THANKS by making comments or suggestions on the blog. It takes only a couple of minutes to comment. Help me grow as per the aspirant requirement

Experience of Programming in MATLAB

Its been a long time I had stayed away with real programing, but as they say history repeats itself, as a part of curriculum in my college, we have to write MATLAB programs. This time we were suppose to find the 'Satellite Angles' viz. Elevation angle and Azimuth Angle. Mainly the algorithm is mathematical but last step which is to determine the position of SS-point (sub-satellite point) with respect to ES (Earth Station) is out of my conceptual reach.

It will definitely need a great insight study to determine SS-point w.r.t. ES and write a code on it. But still I am loving the benefits of MATLAB as a programming tool. It has everything, I literally mean everything required for an engineer to solve a particular problem using Numerical Technique or Trigonometric relations or even Calculus. Also today while studying about the codes and samples on MATLAB, I came to know that like in C/C++/Java, in MATLAB also we can define 'function'. And I just love this part of the coding, its like write a few codes under certain function and use it again and again till you determine the final output.

Anyways now I will keep posting about the proceedings with this particular program and also LIFE @ PICT. 

After getting admission in PICT for ME in Microwave engineering, I become a strong believer of a quote "ALL GOOD THINGS COME IN SMALL PACKAGES".

How says experience and hardwork doesn't pay?

I have being closely the GATE aspirants from a couple of years. Many of them study day and night, joins famous coaching institutes and what not, but within couple of months, they turned out into a QUITTER instead of being QUICKER. Just keep them motivated, I have brought a true story which happened near "Dead Sea". What story is all about and how it will help many aspirants is left upto you to understand. 

A giant ship engine failed. The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine.

Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a young. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom. Two of the ship's owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!

A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.
'What?!' the owners exclaimed. 'He hardly did anything!'
So they wrote the old man a note saying, 'Please send us an itemized bill.'
The man sent a bill that read:
Tapping with a hammer...... ......... ........ $ 2.00

Knowing where to tap.......... ......... ...... $ 9, 998.00

Moral of the story:

Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort makes all the difference!

Can anyone really live on Rs. 26 a day??

Late last year, two young men decided to live a month of their lives on the income of an average poor Indian. One of them, Tushar, the son of a police officer in Haryana, studied at the University of Pennsylvania and worked for three years as an investment banker in the US and Singapore. The other, Matt, migrated as a teenager to the States with his parents, and studied in MIT. Both decided at different points to return to India, joined the UID Project in Bengaluru, came to share a flat, and became close friends.

The idea suddenly struck them one day. Both had returned to India in the vague hope that they could be of use to their country. But they knew the people of this land so little. Tushar suggested one evening — “Let us try to understand an ‘average Indian’, by living on an ‘average income’.” His friend Matt was immediately captured by the idea. They began a journey which would change them forever.

To begin with, what was the average income of an Indian? They calculated that India’s Mean National Income was Rs. 4,500 a month, or Rs. 150 a day. Globally people spend about a third of their incomes on rent. Excluding rent, they decided to spend Rs. 100 each a day. They realised that this did not make them poor, only average. Seventy-five per cent Indians live on less than this average.

The young men moved into the tiny apartment of their domestic help, much to her bemusement. What changed for them was that they spent a large part of their day planning and organising their food. Eating out was out of the question; even dhabas were too expensive. Milk and yoghurt were expensive and therefore used sparingly, meat was out of bounds, as were processed food like bread. No ghee or butter, only a little refined oil. Both are passionate cooks with healthy appetites. They found soy nuggets a wonder food — affordable and high on proteins, and worked on many recipes. Parle G biscuits again were cheap: 25 paise for 27 calories! They innovated a dessert of fried banana on biscuits. It was their treat each day.

Restricted life

Living on Rs.100 made the circle of their life much smaller. They found that they could not afford to travel by bus more than five km in a day. If they needed to go further, they could only walk. They could afford electricity only five or six hours a day, therefore sparingly used lights and fans. They needed also to charge their mobiles and computers. One Lifebuoy soap cut into two. They passed by shops, gazing at things they could not buy. They could not afford the movies, and hoped they would not fall ill.

However, the bigger challenge remained. Could they live on Rs. 32, the official poverty line, which had become controversial after India’s Planning Commission informed the Supreme Court that this was the poverty line for cities (for villages it was even lower, at Rs. 26 per person per day)?

Harrowing experience

For this, they decided to go to Matt’s ancestral village Karucachal in Kerala, and live on Rs. 26. They ate parboiled rice, a tuber and banana and drank black tea: a balanced diet was impossible on the Rs. 18 a day which their briefly adopted ‘poverty’ permitted. They found themselves thinking of food the whole day. They walked long distances, and saved money even on soap to wash their clothes. They could not afford communication, by mobile and internet. It would have been a disaster if they fell ill. For the two 26-year-olds, the experience of ‘official poverty’ was harrowing.

Yet, when their experiment ended with Deepavali, they wrote to their friends: “Wish we could tell you that we are happy to have our ‘normal’ lives back. Wish we could say that our sumptuous celebratory feast two nights ago was as satisfying as we had been hoping for throughout our experiment. It probably was one of the best meals we’ve ever had, packed with massive amounts of love from our hosts. However, each bite was a sad reminder of the harsh reality that there are 400 million people in our country for whom such a meal will remain a dream for quite some time. That we can move on to our comfortable life, but they remain in the battlefield of survival — a life of tough choices and tall constraints. A life where freedom means little and hunger is plenty…

Plenty of questions

It disturbs us to spend money on most of the things that we now consider excesses. Do we really need that hair product or that branded cologne? Is dining out at expensive restaurants necessary for a happy weekend? At a larger level, do we deserve all the riches we have around us? Is it just plain luck that we were born into circumstances that allowed us to build a life of comfort? What makes the other half any less deserving of many of these material possessions, (which many of us consider essential) or, more importantly, tools for self-development (education) or self-preservation (healthcare)?

We don’t know the answers to these questions. But we do know the feeling of guilt that is with us now. Guilt that is compounded by the love and generosity we got from people who live on the other side, despite their tough lives. We may have treated them as strangers all our lives, but they surely didn’t treat us as that way…”

So what did these two friends learn from their brief encounter with poverty? That hunger can make you angry. That a food law which guarantees adequate nutrition to all is essential. That poverty does not allow you to realise even modest dreams. And above all — in Matt’s words — that empathy is essential for democracy.

[Source : 

http://bhavdeep009.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/the-hindu-columns-harsh-mander-barefoot-the-other-side-of-life/]

Step to prepare/plan your study time-table for GATE preparation

It is obvious that the popularity of GATE (i.e. Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) is growning day by day because of its advantages. It is THE ONLY gateway to get into IIT (for masters and PhD), if you failed to get in IIT for UG courses through JEE. Along with this, you can get admission in 20 national level NITs and all top regional colleges. Overall, in short, you can say, if you want to do M.E./M.Tech, GATE is the pathway. But that’s not enough. GATE has one more importance, viz. its syllabus structure. Many of us don’t know this side of the GATE exam. The GATE syllabus is designed such that it covers all basic from a particular stream viz. Electronic and Telecommunication (EC), Computer Science Engineering (CSE), Civil Engineering (CE), etc. Once you prepare for GATE, i.e. once you study the GATE syllabus, you can even apply for various profile job oriented examination like IES, PSU’s exam, DRDO, ISRO, etc. It had been seen last year that many (almost all major) PSUs have given jobs without conducting their entrance but on GATE score.

This is why GATE is getting enormous popularity. In 2010, 1,13,531 these many aspirant applied for the exam, which increased to 1,49,948 in 2011,which further increased to 1,76,944 (appeared) in 2012. From distribution function you can say at least 2 lacs students will appear for GATE in 2013. [NOTE : The above mentioned numbers are from EC branch only]

So in such breath taking competition, one must plan very well during preparation itself and must follow the dream. I am trying to write down few steps which may help aspirant to find the proper path which leads to IITs by cracking the GATE exam. It is advised to all aspirant to modify the paths mentioned below as per their IQ and understanding levels with lot of thinking and planning.

STEP. 1] Realizing what is your demand?

It is very important to know the answer of this question : “Why you want to give GATE?” Many has dream to get into research or to do PhD, for them GATE is mandatory. But it is observed that a major crowd give GATE because they don’t fetch a job in UG for themselves. GATE is like a second chance for them to get a good colleges and try once again for the campus placements for M.E./M.Tech. And for whatever the reason you apply for GATE, you target the IITs only. So a simple answer to question asked is simple i.e. to get into IIT. But I feel that’s gives birth to one more question, WHY IITs? One may go to IIT because of the reputation of these institute which may help them for good jobs, one may go to IIT for research oriented job, one may go to IIT for PhD or for better PhD scope in foreign universities. So better you be clear why you giving GATE and what you want after 2 years of your MASTERS

STEP. 2] Understanding the scope of the subjects

Once you are clear with WHY GATE? You must start chasing your dream by following proper preparation steps. And for this you must know the SCOPE of the syllabus. You can check the GATE 2012 (last year GATE) syllabus here CLICK. Understand the subject and topics it is covering. GATE IS ALL ABOUT BASICS. So understand the basic and its scope in application of a particular subject. This will take its own time. eg. When I think of NETWORK ANALYSIS subject, all circuits, current and voltages, Thevenin’s and Norton’s, etc come in my mind. But that’s not enough, this subject has a lot more. There are so many topics, which one must NOT ignore before concluding that “I know circuit analysis that’s why this subject is easy for me” (This is one of the mistake I made in early stages  but recovered in time coz of starting of early practice sessions). I would like to say, don’t bother if subject is easy or hard, just start it preparation as you know nothing about it, start from a scratch/zero.

STEP. 3] Whom to give importance and why?

After following STEP 2, you will be knowing, as per GATE syllabus, what subject you know in how much depth. Studying syllabus mentioned on GATE website has enormous importance while starting the preparation. Understanding the syllabus will lead you ahead half the way. Subjects which seems easy initially may not remain easy after studying the syllabus and so on. So after completing the study of syllabus, you will be knowing which subject most likely to study first (to gain confidence) and which last (to score more possible marks). 

STEP. 4] Proper calculation of time in hand till 10^th February

After knowing what you need to prepare and practice, one must know how much time he/she has in hand before taking exam. One mistake which many aspirant do while preparing timetable (even I did the same and faced the consequences later in results) is allotting time to subject to prepare only. I prefer to explain this with an example. Lets say, I am allotting 20 days to Communication, and I will plan myself to read the course in 20 days. But at the end, I don’t have time for practice. Practice plays an important role in GATE preparation and cracking the GATE exam.  So allot time to a particular subject keeping two aspects in mind : studying/reading (to understand the concepts including BASICs) + practice of MCQs. (For EC, I will prefer Kanodia and Brilliant Tutorials are more than enough). 

 “I believe, in GATE, it is not important to cover all subjects before exam, the important is to learn the most of it”

STEP. 6] Study seriously and follow honestly

Be motivated, be inspired, be aspired for GATE and study honestly. It doesn’t matter how much you are studying for GATE daily, call it 2 hours, 4 hours or even 14 hours, the only thing matters is how much you are becoming confident after covering syllabus. It’s better to TARGET the syllabus by 31^st December, so that you can get ample of time to practice papers. For practice papers, you can try GATEFORUM test series which is so far doing good with quality of question. Solve around 30-40 practice papers including previous papers before GATE exam. People study Previous Year GATE paper during preparation which is good to get confidence but I personally feel one must use previous year paper for evaluation of preparation i.e. to evaluate how depth you are prepared for the GATE exam. 

STEP. 7] REVISION

Allot only last 10 days to revise the syllabus and a practice paper daily along with revision. The more you practice in the last period before exam, the more confident you will get and more accurate with the timing during last 3 hours of examination.

[NOTE : Since MATHEMATICS + QUANTITATIVE APTITUDE holds 30 marks and they are huge subjects to cover, it is advised that one should give at least 30 minutes each everyday. This subjects are more on practice and less to read/study. For QUANTITATIVE APTITUDE, one must read QUANTITATIVE APTITUDE by R S Agrawal. It has chapter wise approach and one can read a chapter in 1 day or 2 days and later can allot time to ENGLISH VOCABULARY/WORDS. along with Maths simultaneously from the first day]

Back again with LIFE still its messy

Hello followers and friends, 

After GATE 2012, I got engaged in my coaching institute and then admissions. Let me tell you admission without any centralized procedure is like "YYEEWW". One will never get judgement of what he can get and all. 

After getting GATE SCORE 482 , AIR 5378 (out of 1,76,944 aspirants) and %tile 96.96, I decided to follow my dream instead of going into the well renowned MODERN courses in big-shot colleges. So then I started looking for the courses which will deal with core subjects which were proved to be the base of advance scientific progresses. After giving lot of thoughts and thinking and consulting to many profs, teachers, friends and industrial big shots, I had chosen to stick with my favorite branch for specialization i.e. communication engineering. While looking for the course on local level, (it is not like I am not getting national level college on this good score, I never wanted to move out of Maharashtra state, of-course if i was getting an IIT then scenario would have been different ;-) ) and found this one particular course of Electronics and Telecommunication : Microwave Engineering. Microwave is core / mother branch of communication engineering. But as they say, No-one gets free meal in the end, same thing happened here also. This Microwave engineering is happen to be in "Pune Institute of Computer Technology (PICT), Dhankawadi, Pune". This is one of the well known (unaided/private) college in University of Pune. Since it is an unaided college, I've to pay fees of big amount compare with government colleges. And more over they don't give guarantee for GATE stipend (Stipend paid by MHRD to every GATE qualified candidate if he takes admission in AICTE approved college). Anyways, I took admission here in PICT but was confuse because of the fees they are charging. :( I don't want to take support from my parents or family. I wanted to do masters on my own.

Also I was targeting Electrical Engineering : Control System Engineering courses from "College of Engineering, Pune (COEP)" and "Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute, Mumbai (VJTI)". My priority was PICT (Microwave) then COEP (Control) and lastly VJTI (Control) but due to money matter, PICT (Microwave) seems to be shifted in bottom on the list and that where I get tensed and couldn't decide what should I select. Everyone is suggesting to go for PICT (Microwave) as it was my first choice, money will get managed somehow but if I wont get stipend or any work load in the college, how am I going to afford that is the thing I would like to see in near future. 

Anyways for now, I am sticking to PICT (Microwave) and will attend VJTI rounds on 2nd July, 2012. Lets hope for the best.

Just one day to go..!!

This is the first blog after the GATE exam and I am sure many of you checked numerous number of answer keys available by different number of coaching classes in India. This year I have observed one amazing fact (specially about EC), just after the paper, coaching classes walas were on spree to upload an answer keys but none of them have solved 100% questions and even few of them were incorrect.
So you can imagine who tough the paper was. Thats why I stopped speculating my score on those false answer keys and decided to wait for the official keys which were suppose to release on 1st March on IIT websites.
Here, we are just one day to go and on 1st March, 2012 you will be able to see your answer sheet (which you bubbled on exam day i.e. 12th Feb, 2012 and computer generated response to it). It is an indirect way to get the official answer keys from IITs.

Rough Guess (Incomplete though)

We tried hard to get the GUESS structure on time, but we couldn't make it happen. GATE syllabus is real tricky. And sources were not so useful as nobody knows where paper gets set. There are members from all IITs or mostly leading and active IITs who come together and set the paper. This was the general prediction we came at the end.

Apologies for not preparing this article in time. and it is still incomplete. 

NETWORKS:

RLC circuit (chances on resonance)

Determination of resultant resistance or its application

100% sure about a question on TWO PORT NETWORKs (mostly hybrid)

2nd order frequency analysis on RLC parallel circuit

Electronic Devices

An example of diode circuit. (chance for dynamic resistance of diode are more)

BJT doping cases

IC fabrication steps (no details but basic)

FET biasing or relation question

Control System :

Nyquist / Bode (any one for sure)

Indirect problem on Routh Array 

Transfer function (not expected though)

2nd order respone (100% sure)

Communication (only half syllabus is covered)

S/N ratio (there was confusion on this one)

AM (2 question : 1 theory and 1 numerical are accepted)

1 theory 2M question are expected on Shift Keying concept

Signal and System 

(almost everything is important in this subject)

Laplace transform (100% since this topic is in Mathematics and Control System also)

Fourier series determination or vice versa (basic concept 1 M)

LTI analysis of signal system (not sure)

Thats it..!!

We only able to make this much. Nothing is rectified or analysed detailed due to lack of time. We must have started this a month back. One week is not enough. Sorry for this hope. 

Hope for  the best. But as per the one of our source, one must qualify if he /she cover this much syllabus in detail ('detail' means 'along with basic')

All the Best Guys.. 

Sorry once again for the delay but we were helpless.

Upcoming Posts

Since the exam is just 5 days ahead and honestly speaking, I am kind of bore studying what I already know and avoiding the topics which I don't know. Mean while I was previous practicing papers and tests and model papers.

For the matter of fun, I have been working on the guess papers. So on friday, along with one of my co-ordinate, we will post a guess paper (ofcourse it will not have any questions) which contains only topic on which question can be asked. It is a step to analysis how one can crack the huge syllabus and an attempt to read the mind of the question paper setter.

Stay tuned in with this blog and kindly follow the blog by entering you email in box given below or join the google follower list of the blog.
Do comments on any blog so that I may get something to reply on comments. Last week is the most boring days which are completely filled with inquisitive.
Happy Learning and All the best

Getting New Look for Blog

Soon After GATE, I will be launching my personal website but will not stop writing about the GATE aspirants. So I was looking for unique kind of template which I found from Urangkurai. The part I liked the most was under 'About GATE' section, you can see latest 15 blog title menu which will help me to keep my versatile. Anyways thats it for today. Need to complete Signal System from Knodia though half is almost done.
Keep studying hard

Happy Learning
--------------------------------
Kindly your opinion/queries through COMMENTS for improvement

Few numbers from last 2 years GATE examination. Must Look

Number of Candidates appearing for GATE since 2005 and ratio of QUALIFYING candidates

Branch wise ratio of candidates appearing and Qualifying

Detailed analysis of GATE 2011 all branches

THE ABOVE FIGURES ARE 100% AUTHENTIC AND REAL. THESE FIGURES ARE TAKEN FROM THE REPORT ON GATE PRODUCED BY ORGANIZING IIT AFTER COMPLETION OF GATE 2011 EXAMINATION 

 

[Source : click here]

(Last 11days to go) SECRET of SUCCESS - NO SHORTCUT BUT HARD-WORK

(This posts and details for basically for EC and EE only but can be useful with sensible modification)

Total 9 subjects out of which how many have you prepared. As per rough guess, every subject will hold around 5-6 marks on average. That means 2-3 question. As per rough analysis, every subject has 5-6 main topic and concepts revolve around this topics. So from the above statics, our GATE paper may hold upto 50% of the question from the syllabus. 

When I was just started thinking about GATE, my seniors, teachers and colleagues always used to say only basic and conceptual questions are asked in GATE paper. And I am 100% agree with them after looking at the previous years paper. But one thing we should be aware of. Engineering or GATE syllabus is basic only. So my suggestion towards smart movement will be study/revise all possible topics, practice them well and make of habit of looking at previous years paper to get the great insight of the structure.

This year IIT Delhi is organizing, ofcourse everyone knows it. What you guys think, organizing means only setting up the paper? Ofcourse not..!! from declaring dates, then distributing forms, maintaining all candidates well fair and allotting them centres, management of exam centres and what not.. So in last 2 weeks if you think IIT Delhi is doing great research in communication sector so communication will hold maximum of marks, then it will be utter non-sense. 

Coz logically, communication have mods-demods circuit. And working of these circuits comes under the syllabus of Analog Circuits. Equipments required for the circuits are from Electric Devices, stability of the operation of these mods-demods are from Control system, study and effects of Noise and other frequency spectrum on the data signal can be studied under Signal and System and designing mods-demods will need configuration of resistors, capacitors and inductors i.e. Networks. So yes, now I can say IIT Delhi will only set paper on Communication and related syllabus. Hahaha. It means all subject. This is an example of communication. You can even think of any subject and you will find other subjects are inter-related with it (Do this analysis after GATE exam). So don't act smart and stop looking for shortcuts.

By the way recently I got the secret for SUCCESS. It is a simple phrase. HARD WORK. Many of us just avoid working hard by saying we had taken a SMART way. But now after all the SMART WORK done, there is no alternative to HARD WORK. So last 11 days to go. Make day and night as whole, and study hard. Cover as much syllabus you can cover, practice as much as you can, and finally your GATE score will be improved some what on 15th March.

Happy Learning

Last 12 days to go and tension builds up.

Last 11 days to go and everyone must be studying hard. You must be revising the topics or solving paper. And thats the only thing you should do now in last two weeks.

Even if you falling short in number of subjects to  cover and getting tensed, then let me tell you that, its not a problem to worry about. Just concentrate on what you know and you had learnt  and instead of learning new things in last few days, try to master the topic you know.
I personally concentrating on the practise more than revising. Knodia and Vidyalankar notes I am solving for practise and simultaneously reading from Brilliant tutorials Notes coz they have good conceptual aspects. So all I am trying to put a point that in last 12 days, assign last 7 days to solve papers only and in the remaining time, practice as much as you can.

Apologies for no posts from long time.

Since GATE 2012 is on over-head, I was bit busy with it. But now, in last two weeks, I am coming up with inspirational series of posts which will help you moving. Kindly keep following the blog and your comments means a lot to me and my team.

And one of our associates is busy making IMPORTANT guess for GATE 2012 ECE which will be available on 10th feb, 2012 as per the commitment for revision. He is designing this for me but I thought why not other also get benefit from it.

HAPPY LEARNING

Preparation when last one month is in hand

Sorry, for being offline from sometime, as I was busy with the coaching classes and stuff. My students exam are approaching so have to concentrate on them a little bit. Now all set with them. It seems to be they are prepared and their test series on full syllabus had been started. So its time when I think about myself.
As of on 5th Jan, 2012, we have only 38 days in hand and I feel its the time to think about revision instead of preparation. We must keep in mind that GATE is all about BASIC questions, so it becomes important to stick to basic and which need lots and lots of revision.
From today I will writing on how to revise all subject along with practice in 30 days. Its my observation that in last 30 days, many of us needs constant boosting up/motivation to keep studying otherwise we feel sleepy.
As per one of friend analysis, there are around 60 topics from all 9 technical subjects of GATE for ECE. So its important to take 2 topics (chapters) and 30 days we are done. Ofcourse, when we are dividing huge syllabus of GATE in just 6o topics, the load will be enough to keep you studying for hours and now in last month at least we need to study for 8-9 hours per day to fetch considerably good score.
So lets start with the series of 30 articles for next 30 days.
ALL THE BEST.