Hi everyone, I am Sonu Yadav, an M.Tech second-year student at IIT Delhi. I hope you all are doing well. In this post, I will share my GATE CSE exam journey with you. I promise this will help and motivate you if you are preparing or planning to prepare for the GATE exam.
Beginning of My Story
When I took admission in B.Tech CSE, I had no idea about computers—I had never used one in my life. I am from a small village and studied in Hindi medium until the 12th grade, so it was challenging for me to pass engineering successfully.
First Semester: Overcoming Initial Challenges
In my first semester, we had basic subjects like math, physics, basic mechanical, and basic electrical engineering. I cleared the first semester with a decent SGPA of 9.05. I was really happy at that moment, and it motivated me for the rest of the semesters.
Struggling with Programming and COVID-19
In the second semester, we had C programming, which was really difficult for me to understand. I tried my best to learn it, but then the lockdown happened due to COVID-19. My learning halted, and I lost hope. For over a year, I struggled with online classes and couldn't grasp the material. In the second year, most of the courses like DSA and DBMS were beyond my understanding. I decided to quit engineering, thinking it wasn't for me.
Turning Point: Considering GATE
However, I considered GATE and talked to some seniors. I decided to start preparing for GATE, thinking that if I didn't get a job from my B.Tech, I might get into one of India's top colleges through GATE and secure a job from there. But how to crack GATE? By the end of the fourth semester, I knew very little about CSE.
Preparation Strategy
I stopped worrying and started my GATE CSE preparation using YouTube. I mostly followed Unacademy and RBR Sir's channel. I began with COA and Data Structures and gradually developed an interest, giving it my 100%. It took me almost 2.5 months to complete COA and Data Structures.
Covering Important Subjects
By October, with three months left until the GATE exam, I hurriedly covered subjects like DBMS, CN, OS, and Algorithms. I didn't study Math, Digital Logic, or Compilers at all. I aimed to clear the cutoff in my third year of B.Tech, hoping to achieve a good rank in my final year.
GATE 2022: The Exam Day
On GATE 2022 exam day, I aimed to score at least 30 marks to qualify. The paper was more difficult than in previous years, but I stayed relaxed and solved around 35+ questions. I returned to my college and awaited the results.
Result and Recognition
On the result day, I was shocked—I never expected to achieve an AIR of 1012. I was very happy and became famous in my class and college as a third-year student who cracked the GATE exam with a 1012 rank. This motivated me to pursue higher studies.
Final Year Challenges
In my final year, I completed my preparation by October and went home to Bihar for a week. Unfortunately, I ended up staying for a month and didn't study at all. When I returned to college, I faced another problem: students with attendance below 75% were ineligible for the final semester exam. I had only 31% attendance because I spent all my time in the library preparing for GATE.
Managing Attendance and Study Time
To manage this, I was given a punishment: I had to attend classes from 9 AM to 5 PM and complete daily assignments until December. After the final semester exams, I realized I had lost crucial study time for GATE 2023. I managed to revise for 15 days before the exam, hoping to score around 50 marks.
GATE 2023: The Outcome
When the results came, I scored 64 marks and achieved an AIR of 460. I then took admission into IIT Delhi for an M.Tech in AI, and currently, I am in my second year of M.Tech.
Conclusion and Contact
If you want to connect with me, you can find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonuyadav5504/
Thank you!