It is a matter of great pride, that one of our college students achieved an AIR-18 in GATE examination, one of the most competitive exams of the country in which almost 8 lakhs students appear every year. She has obtained a gate score of 917 in Electronics and Communication branch.

The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is an examination that primarily tests the comprehensive understanding of various undergraduate subjects in engineering and science for admission into the Master’s Program and Job in Public Sector Companies. GATE is conducted jointly by the Indian Institute of Science and seven Indian Institutes of Technologies at Roorkee, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Chennai (Madras), and Bombay on behalf of the National Coordination Board – GATE, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India.

Er. Riya Choradiya, from ECE Branch, achieved this amazing feat within the final year of Engineering. We talked with her about the various aspects of GATE preparation and put it in the form of questions that would be very helpful for GATE aspirants.

Question :Tell us about your family and their reaction to such extraordinary results.

Ans: I have a family of seven. It includes my grandparents, my parents, an elder sister, and a younger brother. My father is a businessman. He has an Electronics shop which is also one of the reasons for my interest in the ECE branch. I have a very strong bond with my father. My mother is a happy housemaker. From my childhood, she has always taken my academics seriously. On the day of the result declaration, they were the happiest persons on the earth. Although being in a hostel, I couldn’t meet them but I can feel the emotions they had in their voice. It was really an overwhelming environment at that time. It is their belief and blessings that made my dream come true.

Question: Tell us about your native place and about your schooling.

Ans: My native place is in kankroli , Rajsamand. I love my hometown. I did my schooling in Rajsamand itself from Lakshmipat Singhania School. As I love studying, I often used to be the topper of my class. In 10th standard, I obtained 9.8 CGPA and decided to take PCM stream with the ambition of joining an IIT. I secured 92.2% in the 12th CBSE board. I dropped a year after 12^th and prepare for IIT JEE but couldn’t make it to the IITs and ended up with MBM Engineering College in ECE branch. 

Question: How did you decide that you’d rather be preparing for higher education than the placements?

Ans: Earlier I was learning to code to prepare for placements in an IT Company. But when I delved deep into my branch, I felt interested in Electronics and decided that I will go into core electronics only, so I opted for higher studies.

Question: When did you start preparing for GATE and according to you what is the ideal time?

Ans: I started preparing at the end of 2nd year, but I would recommend students that if they are clear about preparing for GATE, then they should start preparing from the beginning of 2nd year itself so that they would have ample time to build strong concepts with the help of standard books or NPTEL lectures and keep a track of the topics covered and yet to be covered to avoid missing of any topic. But if one starts his/her preparation in the 5th semester, then also they can crack the exam with flying colors provided they have solved a lot of questions and have good command on concepts and previous year’s questions.

Question: Did you take any coaching or prepared on your own?

Ans: Although I didn’t go to any offline institute, but I purchased an online course from Gate Academy and then used it to do self-paced learning. While watching their lectures,I prepared my own notes, gave a lot of mock tests and practice papers.

Question: How much time should a student devote for the studies for GATE preparation?

Ans: If one starts early, then approximately 3-4 hours of daily studies will work. Later when the exam is near, aspirants should start giving more time to practice rather than just learning.

Question : What is similarity between college syllabus and GATE syllabus?

Ans: Every subject of GATE is there in Engineering also. If a student studies one, he will surely excel in the other too.

Question: How should GATE aspirants prepare in the current remote situations?

Ans: There are many resources to prepare for GATE, I would suggest some from my opinion- # Online Youtube Lectures of many reputed institutes.

# Free special classes of Unacademy give you the platform to interact with teachers.

# Various authentic telegram groups can be used to solve your problems.

Question: What was your motivation for such spectacular results?

Ans: Four things motivated me :

# I prepared for the GATE at home during COVID times. My family constantly supported me during the whole journey of the GATE. Their positivity and belief in me were my biggest motivation.

# Also my younger brother, Tushar secured AIR 16 in CA Foundation, from his achievement I realized that getting a rank is not a big task. If you sincerely put your efforts in the right direction, you can achieve any milestone.

# Deep interest in my branch, and I knew it’s the best way to pursue it.

# My friends Bhumika and Ronak always keep me reminding of my goal. They stood as my pillars and never let my motivation down.

Question: How important is revision for aspirants? Please guide us how to revise effectively.

Ans: It is one of the most important parts of your preparation. If you just keep on studying without revising, you will find it’s of no use. So my suggestions on revision tips-

# While doing new chapters, you can give tests of the previous chapters, which will help you revise it and at the same time do an analysis of your mistakes.

# Discuss with your friends (the method, which I used most).

# Shorten your notes gradually during subsequent revisions. 

Question: Many juniors are looking up to you for inspiration now. What is your advice to them?

Ans: My dear juniors, never ever give up. With regular study and practice, you can definitely crack it. I myself got very poor marks in early mock tests before the exams, but I didn’t let my motivation down, kept improving myself and the result is in front of you. Give a lot of practice papers and mock tests; it will make you familiar with the exam. Stay cool and stay with like-minded people. Keeping yourself mentally strong and getting overall kind of emotions during the preparation and while writing the paper is the most important.

Question: What is your future plan now ?

Ans: In my early stage of preparation joining PSU was my dream but during my preparation, I found the subject quite interesting and so I decided to do M Tech in “Integrated and Circuit System” at IIT Delhi. There are a lot of opportunities in M Tech, especially for EC and CS graduates. Although I have applied in the PSUs like NTPC, PGCIL, etc. but most probably I won’t be taking up the offers and will go for M Tech.

Question : What is your favourite hobby in your free time?

Ans: In my leisure time I like to chit-chat with my friends, watch reality shows on television and love to listen music.

Question: According to you, what’s the best thing about MBM ?

Ans: It was a nice 4-year life at MBM. Although almost 2 years went by in Covid, the initial 2 years in MBM were the best time period of my life. I had a very good time with my friends in Jodhpur.  The memories of celebrating birthdays, exploring Jodhpur, bunking classes, and every memory attached to MBM are very special. Also a twinning arrangement of MBM with Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Tamil Nadu gave me the opportunity to do my summer internship in CIT. I went for a research internship in the Communication and signal processing domain and also published a paper. We used to work for 5 days in the lab and on weekends, we were free to explore the places nearby us. There I improved my time management skills and realized that you can enjoy and work simultaneously. Many seniors of mine performed extraordinarily. They are very supportive and always ready to guide you. Professors are too helping. MBM makes you a self-dependent person. The burden of academics here was quite less, due to which I was able to devote my time to prepare. You all people have to maintain the glory of MBM. MBM will be the foundation of your precious successful life.

I got an on-campus placement in Airtel for the position of Young Trainee Leader. I would like to thank MBM placement cell for this opportunity.

We wish Er.Riya Chordia a great and successful career a ahead.

This Interview was conducted by Samit Sanghvi. He is first year engineering student in Information Technology at MBM Engineering College, Jodhpur. He loves to explore various fields like IoT, Space Science etc and also at the same time trying to improve his soft skills.