I remember that our exam was finished around 15 Jan with practical and after that I left for home. I returned back on 25 jan. So we had around 12 days before the exam so me and my room partner decide to revise the old course of second year. We bought a book of G.K. Publication for GATE. We started to read the old course and do some questions from that book. We also read some of the basic formulas of next semester subjects like microprocessor and signal processing and did some question of that. We had some old question paper in that book so we cover those also.

Though, we had not much time and we were also not very serious, but we had a thought to atleast clear the exam with any score. We gave the exam, and I usually do not do the stupid mistakes like unit conversion, hurriedly misplace decimal etc mistake. That exam was good there is negative marking also. We were not prepared, I attempted around 90 marks out of 150 and my room partner attempted around 110 out of 150.

I had a habit in B-tech, to come out of exam room and forget that and never discussed any paper with anybody. But after GATE, I want to see how much I had solved. We come on room and checked the marks. I got around 71 marks and my room partner got around 62 out of 150. We hope that is not enough for any score but our attempt was good, next year we will prepare and would give the exam.

I got most of the control system questions correct and some of the basics of next semester course which we learnt at last moment did the magic. One more thing, because we mostly studied in Engineering from the standard books, we did not get any problem preparing  GATE. We know for what topic which books is needed. We had a good collection of standard books.

The result of 5^th sem and GATE came on 15 March 2003, the same day we had holi. After holi in afternoon I went to see the results, I got 772 in B-tech, with 90 in control systems and very good external marks. And I also got 95.52 GATE score. Ya I got that, unbelievable but true.  My room partner did not score in GATE.

I did not tell anybody in college of this because I did not think it as an achievement, but one day I was sitting with my class mates and they were telling about someone that he is very intelligent, he knows very good electronics because he got 91 score, I told GATE is not tough exam, I got 95.52. they did not believe until they saw my score card and after few hours everyone in the college, Juniors, Seniors and faculty all know about this………………. After that I thought in my mind that next year I have to score in GATE above 99.5

GATE-2004 –

I was thinking to prepare for GATE after 3^rd year but could not do and in final there were lots of happening events and I organized a inter-college fest in PCCS and completely wasted (that was the most remunerable time but wasted as far as studies are concerned) 7^th semester time. It was very tough to manage the final exams but did that. We were free after exam on 7 Jan. GATE was on 8^th Feb, so we had almost one complete month. So me and my room partner started the preparation in full swing, we used that G.K. Publication book and decided to solve that with the help of standard books. What we used to do were find the topic, read that and solve the question in that G.K. publication book. Many answer were wrong in that book, that helped a lot. We used to discuss those, search the books for the right answers and than correct those. We covered almost every topic. I do not want to leave anything this time.

It was the first time in my life, I want to get something so desperately. I forget days-night and only study in my mind. I was sure that I will make a good score. First time I crossed 12 in night for studies. I and my room partner used to fight a lot on questions, solving those and discussion on topics. What we used to do is that for each topic we saw the last year questions and than see the books from which they have taken. In GATE what happened is generally that For a particular topic a particular book is referred, so we used to discover that book and read the near about headings also, because there are less chances to repeat the question but there are more chanced to ask the related question.

We are near the GATE exam and I was very much prepared for that till 5 feb and some tension is increasing, at that time there were less opportunities for JOB and I do not want to be on road after my engineering. till 5th feb everything was going smooth but still we have not touched the control system , a subject because of that I scored last year. I got the loose motion and some fever on 5 feb and it was very difficult to manage at that time.  I was on liquid diet for next 3 days. Somehow the condition was not bad and I was feeling better at the time of exam. I did that in Ghazibad and most of the AKG people(my room partner pawan studies in Ajay Kumar Garg Engineering colelge and most of the student of his batch knows me) had center as same and they all know about third year score. Only I got that in all people I know from private college. I started the exam, there were 30 questions of 1 mark and 60 of 2 marks. I started from first question and completed around 25 and I felt that some problem arises and I was not able to concentrate and I got some tension.

But I was very confident and doing all the questions which I know, it was tough to sit in exam but I tried to complete. I go back to paper and saw there are many question which are left. I saw there, there were some question of communication which were very tough, it was tough to prove them but I attempted 6 question of these types which I was not 100% sure but t had some logic to put the answer.

When I was coming out from the room, I started to see the question paper and you people will not believe that till I am out of gate of school I know that I have attempted 10 questions wrong even more. I did mistakes like unit conversion, wrong formula and decimal mistake etc. these mistakes I did in my life first time and till I am out I will not secure GATE rank. I was so upset, u can not imagine. Everybody was asking that you must have done some magic in paper but that was not the case, I lost the biggest opportunity of my life.

We went to our room, and I asked my room partner how he did, so he attempted only 95 marks this time and I attempted 120 marks. When we calculated the marks I got

78 marks + 3 questions which we do not know the answer.

And my room partner got 72 marks.       

See my paper analysis, this was very unusual ,

From 30, 1 mark question I attempted 29, all correct.

From 10 control system questions, 7 wrong and in electronics you need to do all 10 correct if u need good score.

From tough questions of Communications I got most of them correct. And the same case with the others.

Now I was sure that I am not going to get more than 95-96 percentile. That was the first time in my life that I had tears in my eyes. Because that is the thing which I was so desperate. I was so broken that could not able to go to the college to next 15 days, because everybody would ask about exam and I would say it was bad and they would not have believe. I was not able to think what I would do and what would happen after engineering. I used   to be a happy person and used to talk a lot but this incident changed my life. Those was the toughest days of my life till the result came.

On the day of result, I was in college in Greater Noida and did not want to see the result. I wasted some time in college here and there and then went to Noida. I lived in ghazibad and did not want to go there. So I came Noida with Akhilesh, my classmate in PCCS and went to his room. He told me to see the result, I told him that I know I might have 95 percentile so I do not want to go, u go and check. He left and come back and start scolding me like anything, I asked him what happen. He told that you told everything false, you got 99.19 gate score, and none from us got anything. I was shocked but it was because 2 out of those 3 questions  which are doubted were correct (I confirmed later). And I scored around 83 marks. That was the moment which changed my life and I did my masters from IIT Roorkee as a topper in communication systems.

SACHIN JAIN   

Author is an IIT postgraduate, He was in the first batch of UPTU and got GATE score 95.52 in 3rd year and also 99.19 in final year.