How to Prepare for GATE 2025 Exam? - Check Preparation Tips, Strategy & Guide

The aptitude section in the GATE 2025 is equally important than other technical subjects. The section carries 15 marks, and aspirants must have a systematic approach to prepare for the GATE general aptitude section. Here are some strategic tips one can implement while revising or preparing for the GATE 2025 aptitude section. 

• Refer only to standard books for preparation. Some good books include "Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Exams by R.S Aggarwal" and "A Modern Approach to Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning" by R.S Aggarwal. 
• Practice test paper questions daily (at least one to two hours) to keep the frequency of attempting the questions and improve time management.
• Make notes of the formulas for quick revision. 

GATE is a highly competitive exam, and preparation should focus on what's required from candidates to qualify for it. GATE question papers provide a deep conceptual understanding of the chosen subject. To achieve a good GATE 2025 score, candidates must be thorough with conceptual knowledge, have a good command over numerical questions, and have a decisive, rational mind. Candidates must understand deep knowledge and practice, which are vital in acing the GATE exam.

Candidates can use the following tips to formulate a pragmatic and result-oriented preparation strategy:

• Ideal Preparation strategy
• Preparation tips
• Smart tips
• Dos & Don'ts

Candidates must understand there is no ideal preparation strategy for the GATE exam. Each candidate must design their prep strategy based on their requirements and areas where they lack. However, the ideal time to start preparing for the exam is right from the academic session. To achieve an outstanding rank in the GATE, it is important to be thorough with fundamental concepts. Here are some tips which can help you formulate your ultimate preparation strategy.

Get acquainted with the terrain 

The first and foremost thing that candidates must do is dive into the details of the GATE exam. Candidates must read thoroughly about everything: GATE eligibility criteria, GATE syllabus, GATE exam pattern, GATE subject question papers, preparation time, resources... Candidates must decide about the subject they will pick in the GATE exam and the effort they can put into the preparation. 

Candidates must familiarize themselves with the details of the GATE exam before filling out the application form. Having a holistic view of the exam always helps in preparation. 

Candidates must know the eligibility criteria, the application process, and, most importantly, the syllabus of the chosen paper. 

Candidates must analyse their syllabus thoroughly. There are three parts to the GATE 2025 paper: 

• General aptitude 
• Engineering Mathematics 
• Specific subject. 

Candidates must understand each part thoroughly, and understanding each part section-wise will be crucial for scoring well in the examination. Candidates should also prioritize the section at their convenience. 

"A person who knows the terrain always finds it easier to walk through the maze." 

Pick the resources wisely  

GATE aspirants must choose their resources with utmost carefulness. Candidates must take advice from faculty, GATE-qualified candidates, and seniors to pick the best resources. Candidates often struggle to find the right guidance, books, or practice materials, which hampers their preparation. This is the reason candidates must be very careful while choosing the resources, whether coaching institutes, books, or tests.  

Candidates must not pick unlimited resources, keeping resources limited and practicing them frequently will fetch better results. 

"Someone trying to cut down trees with a blunt axe struggles similarly when you pick bad resources during preparation it becomes difficult to score well."

Study road map 

• Start early 

Candidates must start preparing for the exam as early as possible. They must understand that the GATE exam has no fixed preparation time. The more time they prepare, the better they will perform. Develop a comprehensive study plan covering all the GATE syllabus topics. Candidates should start early to have a more oversized time frame for preparation. 

• Start small  

Candidates should make an end-to-end study road map to understand the whole picture better, including when and how they will cover the syllabus. The study road map must be based on realistic deadlines based on individual chapters. Candidates should follow a pyramidical approach, dividing bigger sections into smaller units, Units into smaller chapters, and Chapters into smaller topics. 

Focus on day-to-day coverage of topics. Candidates can use paper chits to write smaller goals for every day as a reminder to finish them at the end of the day. Another easier and more effective trick to get the concepts stuck to your memory is following the mnemonics memory technique. This works great for formulas and terms that are hard to remember. 

• Plan your day  

Candidates must understand their coordination with body and mind. Mostly, when candidates wake up, sleep, study, etc., at random hours of the day, their mind finds it difficult to understand the pattern of their activities, leading to sleepiness, laziness, and dizziness throughout the day. This hampers preparation efficiency in more harmful ways than we normally think.  

So, it is very important to have a broad schedule of activities throughout the day to help your mind stay active and attentive during study hours. Also, having some time for physical exercise, yoga, and meditation will help you achieve goals faster and with much better efficacy.   

Do Your Self-Assessment and Evaluation

Self-evaluation is considered one of the most underrated aspects, especially while preparing for the GATE. Doing a self-assessment can help candidates analyse their performance level. It will also help candidates identify their strengths and weaknesses. Keeping a daily track of mistakes and improvements can help a lot while studying for the GATE. 

Candidates must know that preparation is a long journey, and a systematic approach to preparing for the exam makes it easier. Candidates must understand that practice, revision, and tests play an immense role in getting a good GATE score. Here are some important preparation tips for candidates.

Practice: The Pillar of Preparation

GATE is a highly competitive exam. On average, only 15-20% of students qualify. In GATE 2024, only about 129000 students qualified out of more than 650000 students. Out of these 129000 Candidates, only about 20000 students got admission to the top institutes such as IITs, NITs, and IIITs. 

Candidates must understand that only a good command of concepts won’t fetch them the desired result, so they must practice as many questions as possible. Practising more questions, including PYQs, will open candidates to various ideas and options to tackle conceptual and numerical problems. Candidates must practice enough questions to at least get familiar with each type of question that can be asked from the topics and understand the weightage of topics in a chapter. 

Revise frequently

Candidates forget 70-80% of the details within a week. So, candidates must revise their already-covered topics in frequent time intervals to get the most out of them. Preparing handwritten notes with an abundance of flow chart diagrams and bullet points covering necessary details such as formulae, values of co-efficient, concepts, and graphs can make the revision process more lucid and quicker.   

Frequent revisions help candidates remember concepts and perform better during the GATE exam with a better problem-solving approach.

Time management 

There are two factors in time management: how quickly you can solve problems and how you utilise your productive time.

Candidates must understand that candidates get about 3 minutes for each question, and GATE questions are found to be very calculative in time. Candidate are advised to make a habit of quick calculations and regular practice for a better grasp of numeric solutions.

Candidates must understand they must make the most of their productive time. They should be careful of wasting precious time on other factors, such as regularly occurring unplanned events that break the flow and excessive social media usage that also hampers attention.

Practising Mock Tests

Candidates often get confused about “when should I start attempting mock tests?” this leads them to delay their Mock practice sessions; moreover, their practice gets fewer days or months. GATE conducting authorities have activated the mock test links so aspirants can understand the exam format. Candidates must start solving suitable types of mock tests as soon as they finish the related sections. Candidates should initially focus on chapter tests unless they have finished a section at least should attempt a sectional mock test.

Candidates know this fact very well that they must practice full-length mock tests and PYQs, but the real question is, “What is the right time to start taking full-length tests?”. Well once a candidate has covered 50-60% of the total syllabus, he/she must start attempting full-length mock tests. Candidates should take a mock test, self-evaluate their performance, and emphasize fixing the mistakes next time they attend the tests. Repeating this process once they are halfway ahead in their preparation gives them a better understanding of their preparation level, which is vital for their success in the GATE examination. 

Regularly attempting mocks makes us revise all the previously studied topics in one go and boosts scores as well.

Healthy Routine

Candidates often forget to understand the role of health during preparation days. They need to be in good medical condition that requires a proper sleep cycle, a healthy and timely diet, and regular exercise, such as yoga, jogging, etc. Sound sleep is important for the proper functioning of the brain and also helps in retaining the things studied. GATE is a rationally tough exam that sometimes creates stress in candidates. Physical fitness helps the mind remain stress-free and active throughout the day.

Candidates can use these smart tips inclusively to make their preparation better:

• Have weekly, daily, and monthly goals: Make very pragmatic smaller goals based on present circumstances which you can complete before the deadline.  This helps you in getting more productive in the same time frame and more practical towards your goal.
• Make handwritten notes: Candidates must make handwritten notes in the short version of each topic. Candidates can revise with handwritten notes way faster and be precise in terms of important information.
• Micro & figural notes: The human mind follows the "picture superiority effect," where pictures and images are more likely to be remembered than words or sounds. Candidates must frequently include flow charts and diagrams in their handwritten notes, which helps with visualisation and better memorization.
• Practice solving questions using the GATE virtual calculator: The GATE scientific calculator is quite complicated. Therefore, candidates are advised to start practising using GATE virtual calculator to solve problems efficiently. 
• Have discussion: Candidates can use discussion as a very useful tool, Discussion among similar group peers helps in doubt solution, revision and new perspectives of understanding and memorizing the same concepts.

GATE is a highly competitive examination and can be challenging if you are under-prepared. However, GATE can be easy if you are polished with the concepts and formulas. Besides that, a proper in-depth revision is also necessary to achieve good scores on the exam. Revision is the most essential phase in the preparation stage. Keep at least 2 to 2.5 months (75 days) for sincere revision. Here are some smart revision tips that can help candidates in GATE 2025 preparation -

December

• Keep a target of solving at least 5 to 6 mock test papers in December. 
• After solving a sample paper, make a note of the questions that were difficult to solve. This will help you analyse your errors while attempting a question.
• Keep a gap of two days between the mock tests so you can revise them.
• Following this strategy can help you finish 8 to 10 mock tests easily
• Dedicate at least 12 hours a day to level up your preparation

January

• Utilise the last month solely to practice and analyse GATE question papers
• Try solving at least 10 to 12 mock tests and sample papers and understand the solving techniques
• Revise each subject from the notes you've prepared
• Solve GATE previous year's question paper 
• Fill out application forms for different PSUs

Bonus Tips

• Never quit, even if you are not able to finish any topic
• Keep in mind that you have to solve medium-level questions in the exam
• Avoid going in-depth; instead, try to understand the required technique to solve the problem faster
• Don't focus on the results. Practice and work harder
• While attempting the exam, try to solve the easy and medium-level questions first. If time is left, try attempting the hard-level questions.

GATE is not only the gateway for admission to master’s and direct doctoral programmes in Engineering /Technology/Architecture/Science but also to engineering jobs in Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). In the last few years, the exam has witnessed a significant rise in the number of PSUs accepting the GATE score for recruitment. From 7 to 10 PSUs initially, to around 70–80 PSUs accepting the GATE score for recruitment today.

In addition, foreign universities also accept the GATE 2025 exam score for admission to their research-based programmes. These universities include the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, the Technical University of Munich, Germany, and RWTH Aachen University, Germany.

From the above, it can be easily concluded that GATE is a very important exam, and a good score can help candidates have a good future. Candidates can follow the given tips to score good marks in the exam.

All The Best!!!

Also Read:

• GATE Two-Month Revision Strategy for Two Months

Check Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) related to GATE 2024 preparation.