GATE

GATE exam (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) is a computer-based standardized test conducted at the national level in India with an aim to examine the understanding of various engineering and science undergraduate subjects. In the last couple of years, GATE exam has been opened to international students from the following countries as well:

• 1. Bangladesh
• 2. Nepal
• 3. Sri Lanka
• 4. Ethiopia
• 5. United Arab Emirates

GATE exam is conducted by the following institutes on behalf of National Coordination Board-GATE -

• IISc (Indian Institute of Science)
• IIT Roorkee, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Bombay

GATE exam consists of 65 multiple choice and numerical questions over a 3-hour duration. GATE Score is valid for a period of 3 years.

Benefits of GATE Exam (Why GATE?)

GATE score enables students to gain admission to various prestigious PG programs in IITs and IISc such as -

• ME (Master of Engineering)
• MTech (Master of Technology)
• Doctor of Philosophy

Students also get direct interview calls for prestigious PSU jobs in India whose starting salary is sometimes as high as 14.9L (example, Power Grid).

GATE score can also be used in the following prestigious programs -

1. Admission in reputed foreign universities with good scholarships such as
1. Aachen university (Germany) - best known for mechanical and automobile engineering
2. Technical University of Munich (Germany)
3. National University of Singapore
4. Nanyang Technical University (Singapore)
2. Fellowship programs in IIMs (equivalent to PhD) with stipend ranging from Rs. 35,000 to 40,000 per month along with a one time grant of Rs. 1,00,000 to 2,00,000 specialization in
1. Behavioral Sciences
2. Economics
3. Finance and Control
4. Management Information Systems
5. Marketing
6. Human Resource Management
7. Operations Management
8. Public Policy and Management
9. Strategic Management
3. Admission to NITIE, Mumbai - best known for Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Management, Project Management. In 2018, the average salary of graduates from this prestigious institute was 19.2L.

GATE Eligibility

The following students are eligible to take the GATE exam -

• Bachelor’s degree students in Final Year of Engineering / Technology / Architecture (4 year program after 10+2) programs
• Master’s degree students Final Year in any branch of Science / Mathematics / Statistics / Computer Applications or equivalent

Pre-final year students are not eligible to appear in GATE exam. There is no age limit for students eligible to appear in GATE exam.

GATE Syllabus

GATE syllabus is one of the most intensive topics covering various topics in engineering. GATE exam questions can be broadly classified as follows -

• Engineering mathematics questions constituting 13-15 marks
• General aptitude questions constituting 15 marks
• Core questions constituting 70-72 marks

General aptitude questions (common for all streams) test analytic skills in verbal ability and numerical ability.

Streams

Popular streams on the basis of number of exam takers are as follows -

Other important streams are as follows -

Test Scores

GATE Exam score is usually announced in the 3rd week of March (around 40 days from the exam date). The GATE scorecard consists of the following -

• GATE Score (on a scale of 1000)
• Marks (out of 100)
• Qualifying marks for General, OBC and SC/ST/PwD categories.
• All India Rank
• Number of candidates appeared in the paper

Both Marks as well as GATE score is released because

• Marks tells the candidates about his performance in his question paper
• GATE Score is normalized score across different sets of question papers. Example, Because of the huge number of students, Mechanical Engineering (ME) is divided into 4 time slots of students each of which get different sets of questions. Since the difficulty level might vary across slots, the organizing body releases GATE score which can be used to compare and rank students in different time slots.

Fees