As a GATE Aspirant it always seems like a mammoth task to go through all the material required for the Exam according to the syllabus provided by IIT’s and IISc.
Besides working hard what is needed is to work smart. A proper schedule for your studies ensures that you complete the syllabus on time with enough time left in hand for practice. After all the GATE Exam is and objective test of application of concepts. And rote learning will not help.
Here are some useful pointers to help you prepare your own plan.

Make a list:

Make a list of subjects and prioritise them based on the marks allotted to them. Now, create a timetable with distribution of subjects. Note that, if the distribution is not prepared, then you usually end up learning random topics, which may lead to confusion at the end. Starts reading all the chapters and prepare short notes on all important points. In this way, your revision is also complete and these short notes will also be useful for your last-minute revision.

May- mid October:

This is the period when you should focus slightly more on developing your theoretical base (roughly around 65% weightage to theory and 35% to solving questions/practice). GATE exam tests your basics. Hence it is quite essential that your concepts are crystal clear. If you are enrolled in a GATE coaching institute, keep studying thoroughly the subject which is going on in the class along with revision of a subject that’s already been completed (choose a subject for revision, preferably, which you feel you did not understand properly). Keep clearing your doubts with your friends or teachers. For practice, you can solve the material given to you by your coaching institute or some other standard books/question banks. Ensure that around 70-75% of the syllabus gets covered by the end of this period.

Mid October-Mid December:

In this period, more weightage should be given to problem solving. Solve as many questions as you can of the subjects that you’ve already completed, apart from completing the remaining portion of your syllabus. By the end of this period, make sure that your entire syllabus is completed in every sense along with all previous years’ questions of GATE. If time permits, you may also take some part-syllabus tests during this period for practice.

Mid December-January:

This is probably the most crucial period. It should be majorly devoted to taking subject tests & full- syllabus mock tests. Take as many tests as you can. However, taking two subject tests for each subject and around 15 full syllabus tests would be more than sufficient. Try to introspect the kind of mistakes that you are making and make sure you don’t repeat them. Identify your weak areas and try to fill up the gaps.
A week before the exam: In this period you should not stress yourself much. Keep revising your notes & important formulae. You can also go through the important previous years’ questions of GATE. Keep decreasing the number of hours that you study day by day. In the last two days of this period, you can skim through the entire syllabus on a very superficial level keeping yourself relaxed, calm & composed. Finish detailed reading at least one and half month before. Keep one month for revisions and clearing leftover doubts. Solve as many papers and questions banks and quizzes as you can get from any source.

Some key points:

Mainly focus on understanding fundamentals and practicing through good set of problems/quizzes. Make a revision notes for all important topics during preparation , after the preparation of every topics, you must test your skills on that topics by attempting online tests/quizzes and then after participate online discussion forums to clear your doubts.

” Utilize your time till the exam day for preparation of the GATE and enjoy your study.”

Thanks and All The Best

GATE Strategies and planning, Guidance, Practice Tests