What does it take to become a GATE Topper?

Every year, the concerned authorities conduct the GATE examination to provide the best opportunities in the form of pursuing higher studies or securing government PSU jobs at the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). With the aim and hope to secure these promising opportunities, lakhs of students appear for this competitive exam. Intensive exam preparation is required to qualify in this exam. This exam tests the conceptual clarity of the students regarding their respective engineering streams. Some students excel in securing their dream rank. However, some exam aspirants fail to secure a top rank in these competitive exams due to excessive competition and luck factor to a certain extent.

Therefore, if you are aiming to secure a top rank in this competitive exam, you need to understand the points that differentiate the preparation of a successful exam taker from that of an unsuccessful one.

In this blog post, you will learn about the expert-recommended points that will help to excel in such challenging competitive exams.

5 things you must avoid to become a GATE Topper

1. Last-moment preparation:

Leaving the preparation for the last moment leaves students with much less time to cover the required syllabus and attempt well in the exam. Some exam aspirants often say that the GATE exam syllabus often coincides with that studied in the 4 years of engineering college. However, if you want to excel in this exam and score well in this competitive exam, you must prepare, read, and revise well to score a top rank in this exam.

2. Choose what’s best for the exam and not the best for you:

It is much easy to manipulate the brain. This often leads one to manipulate themselves quite easily. However, you need to understand the fact that the GATE 2024 examination requires a significant amount of understanding about choosing the right aspect. To achieve this, you need to ensure that you choose something that works well to score your target rank in this competitive exam.

If you do not understand any topic, do not leave it, instead spend some extra time on it and understand its importance in the examination. Before you know it, you will train yourself to take up challenges and easily understand everything you learn.

3. Don’t be mediocre:

In the case of most individuals, mediocrity teaches you to be satisfied with your present. Well, while preparing for GATE 2024 examination, exam aspirants need to prepare a significant amount of syllabus as specified in the official notification. Later, exam aspirants perform a load of revision sessions and practice papers that you must practice during the critical phase of the exam preparation. In this case, the existing mindset of mediocrity will turn into a hurdle in your preparation and you may end up leaving some subjects from your syllabus.

4. Don’t Procrastinate:

Procrastination or delaying work is a classic mistake that most competitive exam aspirants perform during their preparation tenure. However, the GATE toppers do not let themselves get into such a trap. If you have prepared a timetable, follow it religiously. Avoid the urge to waste your valuable time in any manner. Procrastinating only leads to even more collection of study-oriented tasks. Exam aspirants who later become GATE toppers realize this and know that they will miss the days that they must have prioritized for revision or test series.

5. Preparing due to peer pressure:

It is a common mistake that a wide number of students commit while deciding to commence with GATE exam preparation. For instance, if an exam aspirant in your network turned into a GATE topper, your family members might feel that you must also opt to prepare for this competitive exam. However, you must understand that if you get into the trap of peer pressure, you might experience severe consequences in the later years when you will find difficulties to secure the required marks in the actual exam. Therefore, you must avoid it completely. You must apply and attempt the GATE 2024 examination only if you are serious enough towards cracking this examination. This will help you perform well in this examination.

Now, let us talk about the habits of topper students that will prove highly beneficial during the exam preparation phase. Here are the top 10 aspects that make the toppers unique from a large number of exam aspirants.

1. Toppers know why they do it:

Well, this is one of the unique aspects associated with the GATE toppers. They embrace self-awareness. Usually, toppers know the purpose and intent to apply, prepare, and appear for the respective competitive exams. One of the unique aspects of a GATE topper’s mindset and personality is that they have decent clarity about their goals and plans. Understanding their goals makes it easier for the respective exam aspirants to create the habits of topper students and put efforts in the right direction.

2. Understand your exam well:

Before starting with any exam’s preparation including GATE 2024 examination, you must be thorough with its whereabouts. This includes details about the exam, exam pattern, and the latest syllabus. Along with this, you must also have significant knowledge about the resources and study material required to prepare well for the GATE 2024 examination. Check the official notification as well before you start to put your best efforts towards cracking the competitive exam. This helps them build a strong base for the exam throughout each phase of competitive exam preparation.

3. Have a Plan:

A wise expert once said – ‘A goal without a plan is only a wish’. A well-distinguished plan differentiates a topper from other folks (exam aspirants), thus increasing the chances to bring yourself within the respective year’s success rate. This is applicable in the case of both short-term and long-term plans in the case of the GATE 2024 examination. The short-term plan helps to take decisions about the activities that one can complete in a short span – usually days to weeks.

On the other hand, the long-term goals will help you to decide the duration that you must commit to each phase of exam preparation. The long-term preparation involves different stages, especially if you want to become a GATE topper. This includes starting with studying the syllabus, syllabus completion, and solving the previous years’ papers with the required impact. This phase includes the start to finish that takes you to the desired heights of success. To make a plan, it is extremely necessary to divide the entire syllabus into further sections. Therefore, one must plan their exam preparation topic-wise, instead of subject-wise exam preparation to carve your way towards becoming a GATE topper.

Most experts and toppers believe that if you are preparing for engineering competitive exams and you fail to plan, you will ultimately plan to fail. Therefore, you must prioritize to plan your exam preparation in the best possible manner. In addition, you must work towards creating mental notes while preparing for your GATE 2024 examination. This will help you to perform fruitful revision consistently and secure the best results in the actual exams.

4. Learn from Your Mistakes:

Like any average exam aspirant, most toppers fail at least once before cracking this competitive exam. Toppers are not just the ones who cracked the exam in the first go. Instead, most GATE toppers chose to not give up and try once again. They decide to learn from their mistakes and not let any failure bring them down. Such attitude creates toppers. Therefore, not giving up early is one of the key habits of topper students that one must address to turn themselves into a GATE topper. Most toppers believe that they can take control of their preparation phase and not worry about the consequences. This helps them maintain their confidence level to an appreciable extent. Therefore, if you want to become a topper, you must choose to learn from your mistakes and turn the preparation journey into a purposeful one.

Therefore, never let the marks scored in the test series or some practice paper negatively influence your confidence levels. Rather take it as a learning. You will surely not make the same mistakes in the exam. Therefore, allow yourself to make all the mistakes before the GATE examination, so that you commit the least possible mistakes in the actual papers.

5. Start beforehand:

Instead of waiting for the last-minute exam preparation, the toppers are the early birds who start their preparation beforehand. They dedicate themselves to the thorough GATE 2024 examination to secure the best in this competitive exam. Experts highly recommend exam aspirants start preparation beforehand, so that you do not have to leave any significant part of the exam preparation due to the time shortage. You have enough time to complete your full syllabus, giving due regard to the aptitude part of this exam. The key to every topper’s success is early and timely commencement of exam preparation. An early head start gives a complete edge to an aspirant’s preparation and turns him into a GATE topper.

6. Time Management:

Time Management is a great technique that everyone must learn from the toppers including GATE toppers. They have a fair idea about when to take a break, study, revise, and sleep. Management in your lifestyle makes your body accustomed to the particular format. This way, you become more efficient at your current study-oriented activities. Instead of wasting time thinking about what you have to do next, you must learn the art of time management well. You can fill in the small gaps between your studies with a beneficial activity such as reading newspapers.

Put the best efforts to create a clear picture of the time that you will utilize for the thorough exam preparation. This can be month to weeks. Keeping track of all the activities that you perform during the day from the time you get up until you go to sleep. In addition to this, it will also help you avoid unproductive activities and balance the studies schedule efficiently.

7. Smart Reading:

This is one of the key mantras found in the list of habits of GATE toppers. The market is flooded with books on each subject and topic. Therefore, reading a wide range of study materials will create further confusion with the concepts. Proper guidance is required to make sure you are reading limited but quality material. This will contribute to building a strong conceptual base for the GATE 2024 examination.

If you have not joined any coaching institute, you can take the online/live, classroom/offline, or distance learning course of any institute. This will help you prepare the basics well to land your dream PSU jobs. The R&D experts who prepare the coaching materials go through all the books to provide the students with the required and relevant study materials for the GATE exam.

8. Understand more and memorize less:

Most students preparing for the GATE 2024 examination believe in the power of memorizing and putting it down during the actual competitive exam. While this may have worked during certain school tests, the GATE examination is an altogether different ball game. Memorizing concepts and problem-solving methods will not take you a long way, especially if you want to crack the competitive exam with top rank. As an exam aspirant, you must understand that engineering competitive exams do not prefer questions repetition. Do it the GATE topper way and understand more than you memorize to perform well in the exam.

9. Stay Motivated:

At times, staying motivated and believing in yourself during the entire preparation phase sometimes gets tough. However, it is extremely important to stay motivated to become a GATE topper. Working hard is important, but the true soul of a topper’s preparation is self-belief. This is one of the best habits of GATE toppers. You must build the confidence level and tell yourself that you possess the qualities and willpower required to become a topper in the GATE 2024 examination. Repeat this every day until you succeed. Such self-motivation is always a mood booster, which will help you get through the storm.

10. Healthy Body and Mind:

While the above points relate to how you must prepare to become a GATE topper in the GATE 2024 examination, it is important to understand that a healthy body and mind can perform miracles to reap the best results in the examination. Therefore, you need to make sure you consume healthy meals (on most days) and stay away from any kind of worries. You must also take regular breaks and intervals to refresh your mind from time to time. Do not let yourself get bogged down due to intensive exam preparation. In your leisure time, you can go out with friends, read a good book, or prioritize quality sleep.

The preparation phase is a challenging one that might get tough at times. Dealing with them effectively is one of the promising habits of topper students. For your body to stay healthy make sure you perform routine physical exercises. This includes yoga, running, walking, or any other form of physical activities as per your choice and comfort. The physical movement of the body will help keep your body healthy and your mind fresh. This will reflect completely on your studies and actual exam results.

Now, let us dive into the most commonly asked questions associated with excelling in the GATE competitive exam.

FAQs:

1. How to become a topper?

Ans. Most competitive exam aspirants dream to become a topper, but only a handful achieve it successfully. Firstly, you need to build the right mindset and dedicate a significant number of months/years to each subject present in the syllabus. Start preparing notes. Continue this exercise throughout the course of preparation. Avoid discouraging and underestimating yourself. If possible, search for a mentor who has experienced similar stages of life. Implement these steps and you will see yourself turning into a GATE topper soon.

2. How many hours do toppers study?

Ans. Some GATE toppers study for 6-7 hours every day, whereas several toppers have specified that they study for 10-12 hours most days during the preparation tenure. However, you must remember that several other factors determine the transformation of an average student into a GATE topper. Therefore, if you want to secure a promising opportunity with PSU jobs or pursue higher studies at the premier institutes such as IITs, you must channelize your efforts in the right direction.

3. How do I crack a PSU job?

Ans. You can easily crack PSU jobs with excellent performance in the GATE examination and interview round in the later recruitment stages.

4. What is the salary of the GATE toppers?

Ans. The salary of the GATE toppers ranges between Rs. 9 Lakhs to Rs. 32 Lakhs per year (subject to change). The candidates selected at the PSUs via GATE scores receive several facilities such as DA, HRA, and other beneficial facilities.

5. What is the duration for which the GATE rank is valid?

Ans. The GATE rank is valid for the duration of 3 years from the time of issuance.

6. Where can I directly learn from the GATE 2023 toppers?

Ans. We at MADE EASY have come up with the GATE 2023 toppers talk for different eligible engineering streams. You can refer to the GATE 2023 toppers talk sessions to learn the unique points directly from the toppers.

Thus, most exam aspirants aim to become GATE toppers. However, they fail to understand how toppers study, revise, and perform differently. Well, several toppers have specified the above-mentioned points and tips in their toppers’ talk sessions with our experts. While these points might look easy and simple to read, you may face some discomfort at the early stage. As you become acquainted with the study routine, you will inherit it in the required manner. Eventually, you will come out as one of the winners aka toppers in the GATE 2024 examination.

We hope this blog post offers you certain beneficial guidance that will act as a stepping-stone towards excellence.

We wish you excel in the GATE examination with your desired ranks and scores.

Feel free to write to us in case of any queries.

Keep reading, learning, and growing!

Dear Aspirants,

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