GATE:-
GATE, an acronym for Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering is an entrance test for admission to post graduate programmes (M.E., M.Tech, Ph.D.) in various higher education Indian institutions and various public sector units for employment screening purposes. It is conducted jointly by Indian Institute of Science and seven IIT’s. GATE is conducted by IITs in turn fashion. For e.g. GATE 2011 was conducted by IIT Madras where as GATE 2012 by IIT Delhi and GATE 2013 by IIT Bombay.
The basic difference between GATE and GRE is that while GRE checks the general aptitude of the applicant, GATE focuses on checking the aptitude of the applicant in engineering.
GATE exam is conducted once in every year on the second sunday of February. You can attempt gate when you are in final year of your Under Graduation. So, if you are in B. Tech. you should attempt gate in your 4th year. You have to keep an eye on the news for GATE notification to be released approximately in August/September of the previous year i.e. if you are writing gate in 2013, notification will be released in 2012. So, do everything you do to keep yourself updated about GATE, Follow blogs related to GATE, Like the facebook pages related to gate, follow online news, and finally find some sincere friends writing gate atleast online(if not offline) so that you accompany each other through the whole process.
IMPORTANT DATES:-
The application forms come out around Dusshera/Navratri and the exam is conducted on 2nd Sunday of February which is usually around Valentine’s day. The exam is conducted in offline mode. Only less popular branches like Aerospace engg, Architecture and Planning, Geology, Geophysics, Textile engg, Fibre science, Mining engg, Architectural engg have online examinations conducted in last week of January. Results are out usually around 15th march(around HOLI).
Before you give GATE, Fix your aim - M. Tech in IIT or more specifically M. Tech in some particular IIT, or M. Tech. in NIT, or whatever. Know your strengths. Don't estimate yourself based on your marks in your college. GATE really tests your ability to think by posing you selected questions. I don't say they are tough, they make you think. If you like thinking, solving problems, or facing challenges, and if life is too boring for you in your college then GATE is for you. GATE exam is conducted differently for each programme i.e. different question papers and different ranking for Computer Science, Electronics, Civil etc. That is fair because you don't have to compete with students of other branches. To know in which subjects GATE is conducted visit the Wikipedia page on it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graduate_Aptitude_Test_in_Engineering)
Preparation for gate exam should start well before gate exam. I strongly suggest you to start preparation atleast from the beginning of your final year. Probably, the notification for gate is not released at that time so, prepare for the syllabus of previous year. I hope that syllabus won't change frequently. Even if syllabus changes you have an advantage over those who had not started preparing yet. It is better if you prepare for GATE exam from day 1 of your under graduation (Yes! if you know that you will take gate). It lays a strong foundation.
To prepare well for GATE, I recommend taking coaching for it. Coaching takes you through the process of your preparation easily. The institute where you take coaching may guide you even after attempting gate for applying to M. Tech. Allocate as much as 2 to 4 hours for gate preparation daily, if you start preparing from final year(pre-final semester). Preparing gate is just nothing but making yourself strong in fundamentals of your branch. If you are a CS student you already know which subjects are fundamental for your branch for instance Programming in C, Algorithm Analysis, Mathematics for CS, Computer Networks & Security etc. are fundamental for CS. Just learn them from the examination point of view and you are done. Look at the syllabus and learn each topic. Follow standard text books or materials given by your coaching institute only. Don't follow materials designed to score marks in your college examination. They are irrelevant here.
One mistake done by students attempting gate exam is preparing only selective subjects. Don't select subjects before preparing. Even if you have less time, learn every subject at least up to some extent. You should be able to do average problems in all subjects and any kind of problems in your favorite subjects. This kind of preparation guards you from being the victim of so called tough paper.
With a good GATE score you can apply to all IITs including IISc Bangalore and NITs and other institutes or universities (i don't know much about these). If you get a GATE rank of 500(for OC category) or better or GATE score of 800 or more you will probably get a seat in some IIT. Just after the release of the GATE result each IIT opens their portal for applying for admission in M. Tech./PhD. to IITs. As of now there is no central counseling, so you should apply to each IIT from their own application online. Apart from that, Nayang Technological University, Singapore (NTU) and National University of Singapore (NUS) are the only colleges abroad that consider GATE scores for admissions into their Masters program. IOCL (Indian Oil Co. Ltd. ), BHEL (Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd.), NTPC (National Thermal Power Co.) are the big govt organisations PSU's (Public Sector Undertakings) that recruit engineers on the basis of GATE scores.
In the next section I shall cover some information about CAT. Stay Tuned. :)