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Sunday, December 23, 2012

Changes to GATE

A strategy committee for GATE has been formed. They have a problem to worry about. The number of candidates giving GATE will be 11 lakhs in 2013. The number was less than 8 lakhs in 2012. It is obvious that the current model of conducting GATE, where faculty members of IITs and IISc are present in each and every center, cannot be scaled beyond the current numbers.

But I find the initial proposal amusing. I know that it is just an initial proposal, and it may get changed during the course of further discussions. So, in a sense, this article is really to initiate the discussion on a public forum, rather than keep that discussion only restricted to the faculty members of IITs and IISc.

The proposal is to have a two tier exam, and following the example of JEE, the two exams will be named as GATE and GATE Advanced (How I wish it were Main Gate and Advanced Gate). The first tier will be during September/October, only online, on multiple days (but each student can give it only once), and conducted with the help of a partner organization with expertise in conducting online exams. The question bank for this test will still be responsibility of the GATE committee. Each exam will be of two-hour duration, and will have only Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs).

The selected candidates in the GATE will only be able to appear for GATE Advanced. It is expected that about 15 percent students will qualify for GATE Advanced. GATE Advanced will be a 3-hour exam, and will only be in the discipline of that exam. No questions on Engineering Maths, Aptitude, etc., which would have been covered in GATE. So this will allow greater coverage of the subject, since the entire 3 hours is focused on the subject.

I have a problem with this two-tier exam. If we can have the first tier for 11 lakhs (or whatever that number becomes in 2014 and beyond), then why not just use the score of the tier 1 for admission, and any other purpose that anyone may use the score for.

The strategy committee has two reasons for not using the GATE score for admission, and insisting on GATE Advanced. (They don't give these reasons in the proposal. They don't even consider the possibility of just changing the current GATE to proposed new GATE. But the proposal has something from which one can guess these two reasons.)

The first reason is that GATE Advanced will be able to cover the syllabus better, by just focusing on the subject test.

The second reason is that it avoids the comparison of multiple tests, since some inequality of the various tests will only impact selection for the GATE Advanced, and that too of the weakest candidates, and all stronger candidates will get exactly the same paper (GATE Advanced) and thus the comparison for admission will be fair.

The first reason is going against the very reason for including aptitude and engineering maths in the GATE paper. These two items were introduced by arguing that they are a good predictor of quality of preparedness of the student for higher education. But now, we are saying that anyone ranked 1 and ranked 1.6 lakh in the GATE are equal for the purpose of admission, which will only be done on the basis of GATE Advanced. This immediately means that people who perform poorly in engineering maths and aptitude portion and do well in the technical questions may get poorer marks in the GATE, but that will not affect their admission at all. And given that selection to GATE Advanced will be at very low scores (similar to GATE qualifying marks currently), these two topics are as good as useless for most students to prepare. Then we might as well make the first paper subject only, and cover the subject well in that paper.

The second reason is an admission of incompetence. We are admitting that even after having an experience of more than 50 years of conducting competitive exams, we have no clue as to how do we scientifically compare the two tests. This admission of incompetence is not a problem by itself. After all, we are primarily experts in science or engineering and not in subjects such as testing. But what is amazing to me is that while we admit our incompetence, we do not wish to seek expert help. Surely, there must be people in this country who understand these issues. And if there are no experts in testing in India, can we not seek consultancy from people elsewhere in the world. After all, everyone faces the same problem in such testing. GRE faces the same problem, just to give an example.

The simple logic would dictate that if you are having two tests than you should test different things in those two tests. And this was the problem in the JEE debate also (and the compromise that we have all accepted for JEE for 2013). If one has to do two tier tests, the first test should be just aptitude and engineering maths. Everyone should be allowed to give the second test, with the expectation that most universities and PSUs and other users of the score will require a minimum score in the aptitude and engineering maths. This would automatically reduce the number of students for the second test drastically, since everyone will first give aptitude and if get poor score will not find any good reason to waste more good money. But even if lot of students sit for the second test, it does not matter, since that too will be online and on multiple days.

42 comments:

Ajit R. Jadhav said...

Dear Dheeraj:

What is the total number of students (of all branches/programs) that are admitted on the basis of GATE, at: (i) all of the IITs + IISc? (ii) the original 5 IITs + IISc?

If exact numbers are not available for the past few years, even estimates would do.

Thanks in advance.

--Ajit
[E&OE]

Dheeraj Sanghi said...

@Ajit, At IITK, we admit around 500 students in MTech based on GATE, and another 150 would give GATE as part of the BTech-MTech dual degree, and may be another 50 who go directly from BTech to PhD. So about 700 students. We are, I suspect, smaller than other 4 older IITs, and may be slightly bigger than IISc. So the number will be between 4000 and 5000. For all IITs and IISc, may be 6000 to 7000.

Ajit R. Jadhav said...

Dear Dheeraj,

Thanks.

Ok, so, with 7000 students from 13 lakhs, you are looking towards selecting the top 0.54 %. ... Hmmm...

Once again, it's a stiff problem. Sort of like today's JEE. Only, some 4 times worse.

Since saying that something is more competitive than JEE, is going to be shocking to most readership of your blog, here is the evidence: The Wiki page informs me that since 2010, there have been about 4.5 to 5 lakh candidates appearing for about 9,500 seats at JEE. A selection of about 1.9% or so.

From memory (not quite reliable, but still, as some sort of an indicator), in our times (late 70s), there used to be about 1200 seats for engg programs and about 1--2 lakh candidates in all, if I am right. So, it was like: about 1.2% to 0.6%. And, during mid-80s, it was about 1200 MTech seats and about 1 lakh candidates. About 1.2%.

Does it mean that GATE has always been almost as competitive as JEE, if not more? Possible. [But there aren't influential JPBTIs living in the USA to offer howls over this kind of a statistic. So, shall we expect it always to remain slipped under the carpet? [LOL!] ... Ok, ladies and gentleman, returning to the topic at hand...]]

Nothing fully satisfactory can be done for problems this stiff. And, here, I use the word "stiff" deliberately, to import all the technical sounding aura the word carries. I mean, the situation is, *very* vaguely speaking, sort of like those stiff differential equations. The difference in eigenvalues is too great, and so, nothing fully satisfactory can at all be done by way of a generally applicable technique. Something similar here. You can't have a good separation between the candidates at the top-end, and also, simultaneously, have too many people appearing at the same examination. (At least, too many people at the qualifying threshold, which, for GATE, is around 75--70 percentile, right?)

No *single* exam can retain a good, repeatable, reliable sort of discriminating ability at the top-end and also a good discrimination at a qualifying level at which there are just too many people.

Apart from it all, off-hand, I seem to be in favor of retaining engg. maths marks into the final score.

... For UG admissions to IITs, I had advocated shortlisting by XII boards marks and actual selection via an IQ test (with branching decisions postponed until after 3/4 semesters and on the basis of merit at the individual IITs). I am not sure if I could advice a similar scheme also for the PG admissions---though, even for PG admissions, IQ tests could perhaps be made an important component. I also think that, at the PG level, once the big milk is thrown out and only the "cream of the cream" remains, it would be useful to ask them to write statements of purpose and research interests, and to include those things at the time of admissions. Also, letters of references. These latter modalities can be practical only for a small pool of people.

In the meanwhile, once again, best luck to the GATE committee.

PS: I have no desire to debate any of the points I made. Those are just my opinions.

Ajit
[E&OE]

Dheeraj Sanghi said...

Thanks Ajit. The report of the GATE Strategy Committee says that in 1983, there were "few thousand" students who increased to 55,122 by 1994. The GATE has become insanely competitive (similar to JEE) only in the last few years. In fact, it was such hugely competitive only in CSE (GATE is offered in 21 disciplines) till a couple of years ago, but then the PSUs started demanding GATE score for employment, and since then it has become competitive for many more disciplines. Also, unlike JEE, which leads to admission only in IITs (very few non-IIT seats), GATE leads to MTech admission anywhere in the country. So there are lots of seats for GATE qualified persons, not just 7000.

Ajit R. Jadhav said...

Hi Dheeraj,

Thanks.

The numbers in the Strategy committee report seem questionable.

Speaking from memory, here are the numbers for the early GATEs; they began in 1983. I took the one in 1985, when both the 4- and 5-year BTech batches at IITs appeared. But that fact had little influence at the bottom end or for the percentiles.

Anyway, in the mid-80s, a big and "core" branch like mechanical had about 20,000 to 25,000 candidates appearing. Ditto for civil. Also, for electrical, I would suppose. I therefore off-hand thought that there could be about 1 lakh for all branches put together. And, IITM had about 250 MTech students, off-hand I remember. (I was a Student Affairs Council member, but my memory is unreliably weak.) Therefore, I thought, it could have been 1200 to 1500 "regular" MTech students in all IITs (discounting the sponsored, the Institute-admitted, etc. other categories). Certainly not "few thousands." That could have been in mid-90s, not in mid-80s.

Yes, CSE has always been the most intense, right from '83. One reason: Though CS was a small UG branch, they would admit people from all branches. So, a Mech guy would have to be within the top-most thin bracket among all those 25 k mech guys before possibly getting into CSE. So, it was intense for *him*. As I remember it, immediately after CSE, IE (Industrial Engg.) also would be a top program, closing at 99+ P. Same reason: ready absorption in the IT side of jobs (called EDP back then).

Speaking of the changed times, another difference. I knew of at least 3--4 branch/college toppers at COEP going to IITs; I personally know quite a few of them; could drop the names in private. In contrast, these days, not just COEP but even the better among folks in other, say, "private" colleges (COEP remains the highest cut-off college in MH) are all intent on going to USA, and in fact regularly get into top-10/Ivy League schools. For the "private" college toppers from Pune, not to mention the COEP ones, going to Stanford, GATech, Cornell, Columbia, is now almost a routine.

Just a trend, I was speaking of. It hardly matters, in the sense, I don't think that I would be honestly able to believe that today's IIT MTech students are as a group necessarily worse than today's MS students in the top 20 US schools. Not when it comes to the native talent anyway.

Personally, I am convinced that every test has a finite limit of resolution and that faithful discrimination within most tests already begins to fail at anywhere within the top 5% to 10%. (That's why even sincere and talented folks have a bit of to and fro within themselves over the course of quizzes and mid-sem etc. in any course.) Even very carefully designed tests like GRE, JEE and GATE could easily mix up results for the top 2% candidates, let alone the top 1% ones.

It *is* a stiff problem. I don't pretend to know the solution. Neither is one really necessary.

The purpose behind getting an admission is to get going towards learning something. And the purpose of *that*, in turn, is to do have some preparation to do some good productive work better, and thereby enjoy your life better. As far as I am concerned, the matter ends there.

If only the PSUs are privatized... And, before them, the IITs...

... Anyway, nice talking to you. Have a happy new year. Bye.

Ajit
[E&OE]

Ram Krishna said...

Dear Dheeraj,
A bit of research shows that about 40 Lakh students get graduated every year in Science and Engineering in India. Out of which only 13 lakh appear for GATE. You must make GATE appealing to all the students. Most organizations including private companies, foreign institutions should take GATE as one of the benchmark for taking employees and students.

Right now you charge Rs 1000 for GATE. If you make it Rs 5000, IITs can earn a valueable money to support high quality research. This will also make IITs much more autonomous than they currently are.

On scalability of the test, you can trade time for space. Make the results valid for 3 years and conduct the exam throughout the year.

Distribute the load to NITs as well. Together with NITs, India has about 25 leading technology institutuions.

Make GATE more valuable for every student appearing for it. Other than the relative rank/percentile, a person should receive a profile on where he stands with respect to others and in the subject itself.

Lastly, GATE should be made appealing for students in south asia.

Thank you
Ram Krishna

Unknown said...

How many government colleges are giving admission in me/mtech on the base of gate (no of seats)???

Unknown said...

How many government colleges are giving admission in me/mtech on the base of gate (no of seats)???

Anonymous said...

your correct ram krishna.
iit,iisc please think logically,"1)Population is increasing every year, and india is the factory of engineers,how can anyone say that applications are increasing.
2)you did psu recruitment through gate,were they not recruiting previously by their own ? why now to include into gate ?
3) free for girls in gate 2013. why not raise in applications. truth is iits & iiscs unable handle exam in old days and now also.
now new idea of online exam is their. " do indian colleges of all cities have necessary infrastruture for computer oriented exams ?" paper format exams were best. iits and iisc conducting online exams because they want to reduce work load of putting a OMR into scanner for result evaluation.

Anonymous said...

your correct ram krishna.
iit,iisc please think logically,
"1)Population is increasing every year, and india is the factory of engineers,how can anyone say that applications are increasing.
2)you did psu recruitment through gate,were they not recruiting previously by their own ? why now to include into gate ?
3) free for girls in gate 2013. why not raise in applications. truth is iits & iiscs unable handle exam in old days and now also.
now new idea of online exam is their. " do indian colleges of all cities have necessary infrastruture for computer oriented exams ?" paper format exams were best. iits and iisc conducting online exams because they want to reduce work load of putting a OMR into scanner for result evaluation.

Navadeep said...

Hello sir,

I'm currently in final year of engineering. I want know whether the above changes are going to be applied for 2014.
If the GATE committee is changing the pattern in to two tier exam then the students should be informed at-least two years before it. Usually GATE notification is released in the month of August or September, if the changes are applied for next year then many of the students will be in a dilemma of what to prepare for either GATE Mains or GATE Advanced, because there will not be sufficient time to prepare for both.
Many students especially who seriously want to crack GATE and want to study in IIT’s or IISc start their preparation early thinking that it is only one exam.The above changes would be a great problem for them.

Thank you in advance.

Dheeraj Sanghi said...

@Navadeep, I have no idea of the status of GATE committee, whether they have decided anything. I would assume that if they were going to have GATE (the first exam) in Sep/Oct, they will announce it within the nex few weeks. I am not particularly concerned about them not giving two years' time for a change. After all, the first exam will select almost 2 lakh students, which is a large number, and the second test remains largely the same from preparation point of view. So, at least to me, the advance notice is not an issue in this case. The new structure itself is a problem. But, as I said, I have no idea of any later deliberations of the GATE committee, whether they have incorporated any changes to the original proposal.

Anonymous said...

Dheeraj Sanghi sir,
1) when gate committee is going to announce about this new pattern of gate 2014 exam do you have any idea About it?

2)what do you think what kind of education system we are going to adapt ,because yesterday (on date 5/02/2013) prime minister manmohan singh said," Improving quality and fostering excellence in our institutions of Higher Education is a critical challenge that we must collectively address. Our Higher Education system is often criticized for being unnecessarily rigid both for the faculty and the students." reference:=http://pmindia.gov.in/speech-details.php?nodeid=1278

3)increase in number of applications due to : PSU's and not allowing FEE to women candidate in 2013. basic rule IIT committee unable to understand in 2013,"if we decrease value of production which is having standard then there will be definitely increase in consumption"

4)what will be impacts of gate 2014,i can predict some of them such as if any candidates unable to crack exam (as gate score based on no.of applicants) private institutions will be increased that will indirectly increase donations.

5) can you explain regarding recruitment of psu's ? (means is their any circular or government resolution passed in india for starting recruitment through PSU's) ?

Unknown said...

yes prasanna you are correct, but dhiraj sir please tell me is their any circular or government resolution passed in india for starting recruitment of PSU's through GATE ?

Dheeraj Sanghi said...

@Prasanna and @Praful, Everyone has a right to use results of a public exam. PSUs are autonomous and their HR division can take a decision on how they shall recruit as long as the process is consistent with all the laws of the nation. In fact, I welcome PSUs using the exam, since it is forcing everyone to give GATE, and if IITs and IISc can get their act together (or give up GATE to a more competent body) then the results of GATE could become one parameter in figuring out which college provides better quality of education.

Anonymous said...

ok, sir. i respect your reply and thank you for information. but sir please tell me, i am BE cse student want to know only two things and those are :

1)"do i have to study physics,chemistry, geology for my GATE 2014 CSE PAPER?"

if yes then

2)"when gate committee will announce the gate 2014 notifications ?" please reply sir...

Unknown said...

yes sir please answer above two questions please sir many students will be waiting for your reply.

Unknown said...

yes sir please answer to prasanna's questions because, i am also preparing for gate 2014.

Unknown said...

@ prasanna, good questions. please sir answer as soon as possible.sir i am also waiting for your reply.

Unknown said...

Hi sir,
Presntly I am working and planning to quit job for my higher studies(GATE-14).
But,
After going through all these posts and comments, what I understood is PSU recruitment through GATE is a problem? And PSU want to offload their own exams to some other National exam(Presently GATE bcoz its well standardised) so that all PSU's will use same score.


As a kind of suggestions,
I have two suggestions.. I dont know whether they are fully feasible..
1)If anyways they want to conduct 2 exams, let them conduct one for
M.tech/Ph.d selections and one for PSU recruitment(Bcoz..PSU want to use this score)
Let PSU's decide on what kind of syllabus and pattern they want and execute with help of GATE committe as usual.

2) Conduct only one exam wherein the candidate will be given an option(When filling online application) for Masters/Phd, PSU, Both. Now the candidate who's specific and determined to do his masters will write exam appropiate exam, and who wanna write PSU will write vice versa.

Anyways if they are planning for online let them conduct it based on preferences for Masters/PSU/Both and calculate scores and Ranks independently.



Abhi said...

Respected Sir,
As we know that the formula to calculate the GATE score has been changed in 2013, and GATE 2012 score card is valid for 2 years so how would the score of GATE 2012 student be compared with those of GATE 2013 ?

Unknown said...

http://gate.examsavvy.com/2013/01/gate-no-more-an-engineering-test.html

please read comments regarding gate 2014 exam pattern from above link ...

gate 2014 committee please at least take review from students who want to appear for gate 2014 examination.

Gokul V. Mahajan said...

Respected sir, All the information given by you, Is showing maximum chances of GATE 2014 pattern change? If yes then, The preferable changes should be applicable from GATE 2015 or 2016;otherwise student appearing for GATE 2014 will confuse about their preparation and this will injustice with them, I think so.
What do you think please reply?

SANDEEP said...

I have appeared in GATE 2013 CS exam without any preparation or even knowing the syllabus and scored 22.67 marks about near to cut off marks of 25. I got AIR of 17402 and a quite good percentile (remember without preparation) of 92.24 approx. Also i did not made more than 5 guess in exam.

check my score at http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/5535/gatescore.png

What does this means? My stats make it quite clear that there is huge number of applicants go for GATE without any preparation. And it is not tough to just crack GATE if you have learn a little bit.

But this really created a situation for IITS as they got 12,00,728 application for GATE and 9,84,855 students appeared in the exam. And we all know that in India bribe is like tea/coffee of morning and evening. Now think about how they have managed security at the exam centers to keep the results clear from any kind of cheating.

So as I can see that if I have got AIR 17402 then the AIR of the students who have cracked the GATE CS exam will be around 15000(6.7% approx of total) and it means that if IIT propose a simple screening as mentioned by Dheeraj sir and get 15% of applicant then it will not be a problem in reality because it will still keep applicants without any preparation. So in all if they did not prepared then they were not going to crack the GATE. And if they really want to crack GATE then they can simply do their normal preparation and they will easily clear the screening and get ahead to GATE Advance.

And an answer for those who are thinking about physics, chemistry etc. inclusion in the screening. Just forget about it; as it is obvious that they are following JEE way of screening to short the number of students in the Gate Advance not to make the exam tough. also Neither it is mentioned nor it make any sense of inclusion of subject which are not in your qualifying degree. Just think about it JEE is for 12th science stream students, so it is obvious that they include PCM in syllabus of JEE because these are the subjects in 12th science stream. In our case we do not have these subjects so if the screening is going to happen then that will be consists of subjects of our qualifying degree. So do not afraid about it and do whatever you were going to do if there was no screening.

Cheers

Sandeep
[ IGNOU Back Bencher ;) ]

Gjaya said...

My question is , How iit's and psu can make selection simultanously... Like a candidate having rank in top 500. who has applied for both any IIT and no. of psu. till he not decides which option he will finally opt , a seat will be engaged and in such cases iit's will have to go for 3rd-4th or many more rounds for there vacant seats.

Gjaya said...

Will iit's have to go for number of selection rounds due to PSU's as a candidate who firstly get a seat in IIT and then in a PSU if leaves IIT, This situation will be commmon to almost TOP 1000 Rankers? Then how will IIT manage?

Dheeraj Sanghi said...

I have no further information on GATE 2014, whether the proposed changes will come in to effect from 2014 (unlikely, since I would assume that announcement would have been made by now if there is going to be a 2-stage process), will it happen from 2015, or will it not happen at all, and what specific changes will happen. Of course, if I hear about anything, I will write about it.

I see nothing wrong with PSUs or anyone else using results of GATE score.

The problem that Gjaya has pointed out is not just due to PSUs, but due to existence of multiple universities. People apply to multiple places and get selected at multiple places, and block seats. The solution lies in first, giving more time to everyone for completing multiple rounds of processes. As I have been saying for UG admissions also, the admission process (that is, the first exam) must start a year before the joining date. If you cramp everything in a couple of months, it will lead to the problems of this type. So GATE should be given in 6th or 7th semester, and not 8th semester.

Second, there should be an incentive for students to take early decision. The admission process in this country has become seriously stressful since the Government of India decided that 100% of the fee has to be refunded even if the student withdraws one day before the semester begins. This has led to actually more students losing more money, since the admissions have been pushed into the semester.

Third, the Indian Institutions have to learn to make more offers than the number of seats based on past experience. (We do that at IIT Kanpur, and we have never gone beyond the sanctioned strength in the final numbers who accept the offers.)

venkatesh said...

Government today announced its intention to conduct the national level tests such as NET and GATE under a centralised body.

It intends to discuss the proposal at the forthcoming Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) meet on April 2 before placing it in the Union Cabinet for approval.

Announcing the plans, HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju said the "national testing agency would be responsible for setting up question papers, preparing a databank and conducting the test".

He, however, made it clear that joining the body would not be binding and only those who choose to can join in.

The body could start functioning as early as next year conducting NET and GATE to begin with, Higher Education secretary Ashok Thakur said, adding NET exam, for example, can be held multiple times once the computarised system is in place.

"Overall, there is an unanimity on the proposal and we have held discussions with the management of CBSE, GATE and testing agencies like Prometric", he said.

He also talked about the setting up of a special purpose vehicle to implement the proposal.

Unknown said...

sir if the changes you have mentioned happens in gate 2014 then how will they compare the scores of 2013 and 2014?

Unknown said...

are the changes being made or not for gate 2014????

Mrinalya said...

Dear Sir

I passed out of BE 11 years ago. I have a lucrative career in IT. Due to personal reasons, I was unable to follow my passion in science.. Would it be too late to appear for GATE 2014 with an aim of Mtech in IISC? Are there such aged people at all in MTech class? I really want to pursue a career in science and research..... I am worried that i would have lost touch with the subject as well in all these years.. anyway i think I will give it a shot in 2014 and see..

Thanks for your response.

Unknown said...

Hello Sir,
what is the status of the proposed changes?As the Gate organising committee hasnt said anything officially can we assume that the GATE pattern would be same for atleast more year?

Mandar said...

I am not an expert on this subject but reading all the discussions above, I think that there won't be any drastic changes in GATE 2014 pattern. If it would be, we would've known by now. So no need to worry, just sincerely continue your preparations for GATE as before. That's my strategy.

Unknown said...

Disclaimer:I respect the IITs as much as any other person in India.I respect their initiative of putting the video lectures online.Some like Prof Shanthi Pavan of IIT Madras and his colleagues put their classroom lectures online.I can only say that those lectures are magical.

But I don't consider IITs as a Place of Godly Immortal Superhumans to be revered .So that helps me take an unbiased(hopefully) stand



Why do the IITs have to make things so unnecessarily complicated?

I'm no expert on GATE but i would like to point out a few flaws:

1.Selections on the basis of WHAT YOU KNOW rather than WILL YOU LEARN?

I think the thought process of people conducting such exams are too narrow minded.
If someone is insanely motivated,he/she will somehow figure out how to learn it.Ability and eagerness to learn should be tested rather than what someone has already grasped.
The thought process and motivation levels are more important than knowledge.

So the goal should be to find out those insanely motivated individuals.


2.Making it more EXCLUSIVE.

I really don't understand what these people will gain by making the admissions so exclusive and elusive.

Points put forward by Prof. Milind Sohoni of IIT Bombay give a good picture of why GATE is a failure.
Here's the article:

www.cse.iitb.ac.in/~sohoni/RD.pdf‎

3.Subsidy

I think there should be need based & merit based subsidy rather than SUBSIDY FOR ALL,which translated to 'Increase the number of Non-Sponsored Seats'. This way number of seats and funding can be increased.


4.Someone in the comments mentioned IQ tests.Typically IITian and a pseudo elitist point of view.I would mention here studies conducted by Dr Edward De Bono.

5.Instead of a bunch of engineers make a mess,some psychologists must be involved to figure out a way to better judge people on a large scale.
___________________________________
To validate my points I would like to put before you the views of some people who've been in the IITs and have done their higher studies in MIT,Stanford etc.

http://www.quora.com/Indian-Institutes-of-Technology/What-do-IITs-lack-which-universities-like-MIT-Stanford-Harvard-Cornell-or-CMU-have

Unknown said...

Add On to the IQ Test suggestion:Dr Richard Feynman was tested as having an IQ of 125(considered average).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman#Education

That shows the reliability of IQ Tests.

Suraj S Kumar said...

The Organizing Institute for
GATE 2014 is IIT Kharagpur. For GATE 2014, the examinations for all the papers will be
conducted in computer based Online Examination mode in multiple sessions spread over the
period from 1st February 2014 to 9
th March 2014. In the computer based Online Examination,
the candidates will be required to answer the questions that appear on a computer connected to
a server on a Local Area Network (LAN). Answers would be recorded at a server that also
keeps track of the time for the examination.

Suraj S Kumar said...

According to the tender notice for the gate 2014, the exam will be computer based for all the papers http://iitkgp.ac.in/tenders/gate_online.pdf

The Organizing Institute for
GATE 2014 is IIT Kharagpur. For GATE 2014, the examinations for all the papers will be
conducted in computer based Online Examination mode in multiple sessions spread over the
period from 1st February 2014 to 9
th March 2014. In the computer based Online Examination,
the candidates will be required to answer the questions that appear on a computer connected to
a server on a Local Area Network (LAN). Answers would be recorded at a server that also
keeps track of the time for the examination.

Unknown said...

Below are some of key points as per the tender notice released by IIT Kharagpur dated June 9, 2013 ::

1. GATE 2014 is being organized by IIT Kharagpur.

2. The examinations for all the papers will be conducted in computer based Online Examination mode in multiple sessions spread over the period from 1st February 2014 to 9th March 2014.

3. The Online Examination is proposed to be conducted in 12 sessions on 6 days (1st, 2nd, 15th, 16th February, 2014 and 1st and 2nd March 2014) with extra buffer sessions, if needed.

4. All examinations will be conducted on Saturdays and Sundays. Time-slots decided are 9 AM to 12 noon and 2 PM to 5 PM. (i.g., GATE 2014 duration will be 3 hours.)

5. There'll be only one paper per branch. No two-tier exam.

6. The structure for all papers in GATE 2014 will be similar to the papers for which the examination was conducted in ONLINE mode in GATE 2013.

7. Different types of Questions:
* Normal multiple-choice type questions
* Common data type questions (4 questions; 8 marks)
* Linked answer type questions (4 questions; 8 marks)
* Numerical answer type questions (about 15-20 marks)

8. Different Sections:
* Section 1: 25 questions; 25 marks
* Section 2: 30 questions; 60 marks (Includes Common-data & Linked que)
* GA Section 1: 5 questions; 5 marks
* GA Section 2: 5 questions; 10 marks

9. Mock tests will be conducted during 25th to 29th of January 2014 using old question papers loaded on the respective zonal websites of GATE 2014.

10. The Online Examination Test Software features:
* Keyboard should be disabled.
* Use of a virtual keypad.
* The candidate cannot exit the exam at any point of time during the entire duration of the test.

Reference: http://iitkgp.ac.in/tenders/gate_online.pdf
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Official notification for GATE 2014 will be out sometime in the mid of September 2013. But, as of now, we can interpret some conclusions.
Take some time to realize that there is nothing to worry about these changes and I would rather say the changes are for the good.
Here is why ::

1. The duration of GATE examination and the paper format remains almost the same as of previous years.

2. The numerical answer questions will summarily wipe out candidates who tend to have less knowledge, but fluke more and get lucky.

3. No more filling up bubbles with pen, thereby saving a lot of precious time during the examination. This is same for everybody, but I would put it this way: Nobody gets screwed due to bubble filling mistakes, so you also don't get screwd!

4. A computer-based examination spread over multiple sessions (at least for branches with huge no. of candidates like CS, EC, etc.) cannot be difficult or very difficult since it will impose enormous complexity during normalization of the test scores from different days. So, GATE 2014 is expected to be either easy or of average difficulty level, and therefore you can expect some pretty high scores in GATE 2014 by those who answer numerical answer type questions carefully.
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Stick to the basics.
Practice a lot.
Solve a lot of numericals.
Enjoy...

Cheers!!

leeeeee said...

respected sir,
i am ARUN, foreign national (age 23) having PIO (Person of indian origin)
I did my schooling and B.E in india only aand have been residing in INDIA for pat 20 years.
Am i eligible to do m.tech in IITs through GATE exam.
Please help me. I have been preparing For GATE for 2 years.

Unknown said...

sir will you please let me know that the GATE committe is planning to bring the change of two tier system from 2015 or not

Unknown said...

please let me know that the GATE committe is planning to bring the change of two tier system from 2015 or not

Unknown said...

Sir,
Please tell us what should be the order of subjects (i.e. which subject first and so on ...)
to be studied for GATE CSE.

Following is the link to official GATE CSE syllabus:
http://www.gate.iitg.ac.in/Syllabi/CS_Computer-Science-and-Information-Technology.pdf

Please also guide about how and what to study for GATE CSE. More specifically, I want to know the source from where can we solve hard level (but relevant as well) problems apart from GATE CSE archives?