Give wings to your dream

Today, I am going to share my thoughts and experience related to Gate Preparation, hoping that it will be beneficial for those who are preparing for the same and chasing their dream.

I completed my B.Tech from Punjabi University Patiala. At that time, I had a mindset that the persons, who are studying in good colleges like THAPAR, PEC, NIT’s, IIT’s are brilliant and extra-ordinary. It is very difficult to get into these colleges. This thinking always deters me from achieving something big. But one of my friends from THAPAR always inspired me and used to mooted this issue that if anyone else can do this, then why can’t you ?? This rekindled the HOPE again in me :) :) After getting placed in INFOSYS, I was skeptical that Was it the aim that I wanted to achieve in my life? And started thinking about higher education. So it is my serious advice for all those students, whose thinking is the same as I had, here nothing matters more than your “HARDWORK”. Just give your best and everything else will be yours :) :)

Until the last year of B.Tech, I was not much conscious about the GATE. I started preparing for GATE on my own. But the issue was that my concepts were not clear and I studied 3–4 subjects only. I was not much confident at that time and appeared for GATE 2012. The result was out and I was too :P :P But my mind was prepared for it.

So, By that time I strongly realized that I need guidance and coaching. So, I made a thought of joining MADE EASY DELHI. After joining class, I felt that my concepts were seriously very weak. So, I noticed that I need a lot of practice and hard work to improve and sharpen my concepts. During the initial months of my coaching, I was not that serious and I did not care about my preparation until I scored very less in the class test. After that, I got to know about my level of preparation and then I started really working hard. I made a schedule according to the subjects. I used to read standard books of related subjects and solved the back exercise. I collected questions of CSE from last year's GATE papers and practiced those questions. This helped a lot and I joined MADE EASY and GATE FORUM test series. Videos from NPTEL site is also a good source for learning. Slowly-2, I gained confidence and Started dreaming for IIT. At the end of JAN, I revised all the subjects and my performance was quite good in Test Series.
Finally, the day came, although this time I was confident, nervousness overcame this, an assorted feeling. I appeared for GATE 2013. This time paper was tough as compared to previous papers. I did my best but in the haste did some silly mistakes also :( :( After the paper, I was sad because I knew I could do better than this.

Finally, the most awaited day came 15 MARCH. The result was out and this time I was in :) :) I was satisfied by scoring 339 AIR. Thanks to Almighty for his benign gaze on me. But I was expecting rank within 200. Still, I was satisfied with my toil now :) :)

After that, I got a call from IISC for Computational Science and Engineering. But this course is much inclined towards Maths. It is not a cup of tea for those who are not interested in Mathematics. I did not appear for the written test. After that, I got call from IIT KANPUR for an interview. I reached Kanpur a day before the written test. The syllabus for the test was the same as that of the GATE. Aptitude, Probability, ALGO, and TOC was in high quantity. I attempted near about 35 questions out of 40. This time, I was satisfied with my performance. They shortlisted 110 students for the interview and I was among one of them.

The interview was on the next day. There were 2 professors in the interview panel. One of them asked me about my favorite subjects. I replied TOC and ALGO. Then he asked about PUNJABI UNIVERSITY. I replied.

They asked the following questions :

• Implement the Indian Number System with the help of automata. — I drew the FA on the board. He seemed to be not happy with it, he asked me “Do you know about the regular language?” I said “Yes”. After that, he asked me to write the regular grammer or regular expression. After thinking for a while I explained it on the board. This time he was satisfied with my answer to some extent. Then he asked some questions related to TM, Semi-Infinite TM and 2–3 more. I answered all.
• Implement queue with the help of stack. — This was a cakewalk for me :) I explained it and its complexities on the board. He told another professor to ask a question but he said no need.

Finally, my Interview was over. After 5–6 days I got an mail that I was selected for M.Tech in CSE in IITK. I was on the ninth cloud on that day and finally, my DREAM come true :) :)

With Regards,
KAMNA