GATE 2015: Tips to prepare for Engineering Mathematics

By Ankit Goyal

Engineering Mathematics, as a subject, is very much relevant to the GATE exam as the weight-age given to this subject has been consistent over the years in comparison to other subjects. Every year you can find the weight-age of this subject to be 8 to 10 marks.

Engineering Mathematics is a subject that has a very wide course as this course during the college days is covered in 4 to 5 semesters and to prepare it completely at one time is overwhelming. So the key to prepare for such subjects is to keep short notes handy with you or maybe you can have a sort of Formula Sheet so that you can look up to a concept whenever you need it. 

• Linear Algebra

While preparing for Linear Algebra, focus must be on Eigenvalue Problems and also the Matrix algebra as almost every-time there will be a question from either of these two topics. One must also remember the properties of eigenvalues like the relation between eigenvalues of two matrices which are inverse of each other and other similar properties.No need to get involved in the basis vectors and span of basis vectors to form an n-dimensional space as those concepts are absolutely unnecessary for GATE.

• Calculus

For single variable calculus there are not many problems except the maxima and minima problems and the most important topic is vector calculus involving Gradient, Divergence and Curl and Vector Integral Theorems (Green's, Gauss's and Stokes Theorem) as there are lot many properties of each concept and you must remember all those to solve the problems faster like divergence of curl is always zero, believe me that these properties do come-in handy in the exam.

• Differential Equations

There are not many concepts in the differential equations as you can always check the solution by satisfying each option in the differential equation given in the problem statement but at the same time do remembersome special differential equations like Bernoulli's Equation and Euler Differential Equation.

• Complex Functions

It is smallest topic among all topics from Engineering Mathematics and the only important concepts are Cauchy-Riemann Equations for Analytic Functions and Residue Method of Integration and  rest of the topics are not necessary for GATE.

• Probability and Statistics

The general problems involving Probability can be prepped up by practice and there is no need to study much about them but you can always remember Baye's Theorem, more focus should be on Random Variables like Poisson's Distribution and other distributions. Statistics is also very important and you must remember mean,median and mode concepts as well as coefficient of co-relation, so do make short notes for each of these concepts

• Numerical Methods

Two things are important in this section one is the equation solving by methods like Newton-Raphson and Bisection Method and other is the Numerical Integration technique by methods like Trapezoidal Rule and Simpson's rule so do mug up the formulas for each of these methods and make good use of Calculator like you can form equations in form of answer of previous step so that recursion becomes faster and more accurate.

So basically the key to tackle such a large subject is to narrow down the course content to the most relevant topics and cut-out the unnecessary topics otherwise your workload will increase but not your performance.

About the author:

Ankit completed his B.Tech from IIT Indore in Electrical Engineering in 2013. He appeared for GATE-2013 during his final year and acquired an All India Rank(AIR) 8. He again took the exam in 2014 and emerged as a topper with an AIR-1. Ankit was also a gold medalist in his batch. Currently, he is working at Qualcomm India Private Limited, Bangalore.