Interview 2 - Abhishek Kumar GATE 2019 Mechanical Rank 277

Feeling like to give up just because your Rank isn't impressive ?
Meet
Abhishek Kumar, who gave the GATE exam not once or twice but thrice and proved with his Rank that " if you are determined to achieve what you want , then there's no barrier that can stop you and success will definitely kiss your feet "


Sharing a short insights of my interaction with him  and hope this may inspire  and guide you to devise a proper strategy to achieve good Rank in GATE 2020.



1   What is your GATE Rank and GATE Score?
      My rank is 277 in GATE 2019 and I got 845 as my gate score.

2     How many times have you taken GATE?
This was my 3rd attempt. I am 2017 pass out and started my preparation for ESE from June, 2017. I joined MADE EASY but due to lack of preparation, I didn’t get a good score in ESE and GATE as well in 2018, so I decided to go for another year but this time with a specific aim and that is to get a good GATE score and eventually to land in a good PSU. This time I got AIR 277.

3     When did you start your preparation?
My actual preparation started when I decided to do self-study after I terribly failed in ESE and GATE in 2018. I decided to stay with my parents so that I have a good atmosphere and a healthy life, I started with reading my notes from made easy and simultaneously solving gate questions related to the respective topics. I took one subject at a time and once I finished theory of a subject and done solving the previous year questions, I used to give subject wise tests for that subject from the test series I took.

4     Which books/Material You followed?
My basics were good so for gate I didn’t feel to refer any reference book but I strictly advice to those who wants to make their basic right. There are many good books out there and if you are not getting a topic you should refer standard books. For example we have
Heat Transfer - Heat transfer by PK NAG
Fluid Mechanics – SK SOM Biswas
Strength of Materials – Ramamruttham ,
Theory of Machines – Rattan
Basic Thermodynamics – PK Nag
Industrial Engineering – Made Easy Handwritten Notes , Hira gupta
Machine Design – VB Bhandari
Production – Amitabh Ghosh & Mallick , SK Mondal
Mathematics & Aptitude – Previous years gate papers

5     Did you made any short notes? Formula book for your preparation?
I feel making short notes depends on the individual, if he/she feels that he has command in a particular topic then short notes will help otherwise I recommend to go through your coaching notes now and then so that you can remember each and every line of it. But apart from making short notes of formulas what I did was prepared a file having all those questions which I unable to solve at one go or those questions whose concept I was forgetting easily or those I felt important and were new to me. Questions are from anywhere, test series, previous year, etc. but the main thing is to revise those questions once in a week as they will start to pile up very soon.

6     How many test series have you joined and how you attempted it ?
Now once you are through to the theory part and feel that you are ready with whole syllabus start giving full tests as many as possible. I joined 3 test series which were MADE EASY, ACE & EXERGIC. My only focus was to give a full test every day from JANUARY onward since it is the most important step for preparing for the GATE as it gives a confidence and shows you where are you standing now with your preparation. Another important thing is to analyse your mistakes and try to rectify it. Put down the question you did wrong in that file I told earlier and revise it.
Also n the month of January there are various CBTs and PREGATEs organised by various coaching institutes, so if possible do give them as they will give you the environment of the GATE exam and also it will help you to handle exam pressure.

7     Can you share your strategy of how you attempted the gate paper ?
Start with 1 mark technical questions. Start in sequence. Keep on reading questions from the beginning and if you read a question that is extremely easy/direct formula based, do it. You have to solve only those questions which can be solved without much calculation and in very less time. Spend the first 10 minutes of test doing this.
By the end of 10 minutes, you would have solved at least 6-8 of such questions.in which you are securing marks without any doubt. This will also give you an advantage to browse through a few of the questions which will give you an overview of the difficulty level of the test. After doing this, you can start solving 2 marks technical questions. Finish them off. Then come back to 1 mark questions. You have already solved a few of them and read a few of them in step 1. Finish the rest and then move to non-technical part.

8     Any advice for future aspirants?
Keep revisiting the mistakes you have done and never repeat them. Study the topics from which you have made these mistakes and keep your confidence high. All the
Best! :)