HOW TO PREPARE FOR GATE IN PE

Hello friends,

In general if you start your preparation from JUNE then you will have around 8 months or around 250 days before your exam.

Self Study is best weapon to crack a conceptual exam like GATE. And nowhere will you find a substitute to self study, You have to study things and get basic concept right.

• “You have to learn the rule of GAME and then you have to play it better than anyone else”. Know the syllabus of each Subject in GATE and study according to those topics smartly. Also analyse the past papers of GATE in Petroleum, you will find one major observation that there are three PRIME subjects from where you can expect upto 60% from your technical portion of petroleum- DRILLING, RESERVOIR and PRODUCTION and other subjects are somewhat Associated/ SIDE Subjects . My advice is that you should be focused to complete these three subjects first.

• There is a saying that -“If you Fail to Plan, you Plan to Fail”. You have to make a proper planning of how and when you will be studying each technical subjects, Maths, Aptitude and Gen English and for that you need a proper distribution of time for every subject i.e. TIME TABLE that you should follow faithfully for a good Rank. Paste GATE SYLLABUS AND TIME TABLE in front wall of your desk.
• Set Goals for a week- After making a proper timetable try to make targets for the week, ask yourself- what I am going to do in seven days. ex- Lets us say you set 2 chapter from Tarek Ahmed, 1 Chap from Rabia, 1 chap from exploration and Practice numerical from Math CH-1. Or like- 2 ch from Production, 1 chap from reservoir, 1 chap from Latest trend. Note in these examples I have taken 2 ch from PRIME sub + 1 ch Other PRIME sub+1 ch Associated sub+ Math….. BUT you can design your Goal on your own like- 1 ch PRIME sub+ 2 ch ASSOCIATED + Maths or some other pattern based on your own strengths. Sometimes, you may not be able to achieve all goals by the end of the week but, you will observe that by making written goals you were focused to chase them, your mind was set for the week. You wont be distracted from the vast syllabus of GATE or other subjects throughout the week.

• Remove distractions, FOCUS—. Disconnect yourself from non productive social media platform. Avoid involving in negative conversations with anyone, believe in yourself. Connect with positive people. Read inspirational motivational quotes. You should start this practice before or from the start of June.
• Self motivate Yourself- Find a REASONfor GATE preparation bigger than just getting a Rank, look at your family circumstances or any other motivation; and that reason will give you strength to conquer any goal, without giving up or needing someone to encourage you. You can get external motivation from videos online but its wont be effective in long run.
• NOTE MAKING-In India, Petroleum Engineering students unlike any other Engineering students study every single subject via soft-copies pdfs. Standard books for any subject are not available in Indian market and even if you get it from your library their are various restrictions like you cannot mark anything, and you have to return it on time and that book may not be available in library thereafter. I have seen students in IIT hiding the PE books in library so that they may be able to reissue it on the next day. One cannot deny about shortage of books in libraries also. And it is not advisable to print every single book for your preparation. This is very challenging for PE students as before BTech almost no one has studied from Pdfs. So, here one need to develop a habit of studying from laptop— make bookmarks, use PDF highlighters to highlight important points this will save your time when you revise the subject. Always use Gate Calc for practicing numericals from the start of your preparation.

I suggest while reading a book, first mark important points in pdf itself and once you complete that chapter by highlighting imp points in pdf, then make copy note of subject chapter you have studied from pdf. Keep practicing numerical of the subject parallel to the same subject chapter. You can solve all numerical from different chapters of the same subject in one place separately from theory part that will be helpful to you while you revise all numerical of that subject.

Make detailed subject notes for all subjects based on GATE Syllabus smartly. Make proper subject notes so that at the end you may not require to open book pdf again and again. Complete this before end of october.

• ONLINE TESTS-Now start memorizing formulas, revising subjects from the notebook of each subjects at least once and of Reservoir, Drilling, Production atleast 3 times. You should memorize formulas from notebook till the 15th of Nov. Now from here you can start giving Sectional Tests of each subject. Complete each sectional tests before the start of December. Note: as soon as you complete one subject you can give online test then also. Analyse those tests. See your mistakes. If you are committing silly mistakes that means more numerical practice is required from your end. If you are confident enough then give PREVIOUS YEAR GATE paper test online that will give you an idea of how the actual questions will come in GATE and you can also give one full tests also in this month itself that will give you confidence.

Do not get demotivated by the results in online tests. You are giving these tests just to access yourself to improve yourself for the future. The rank of Online tests does not make your actual Rank in Gate and you can learn from your mistakes and You still have Dec and Jan with you.

• SHORT NOTES & Formula Sheet- Till now you have made subject notebooks and you have also revised the subjects and given sectional tests, Now once again revise all major subjects seriously. You can modify your time table based on your weaknesses . Know your weakness and strengths. From 1st to 15 Dec Try to strengthen your week points and all you have to do is practice as much numerical as you can and give some time for theory revision and making very short handy A4 sheet notes of all subjects from your previously made notebooks, These short A4 notes should only contain most important bullet point and mind map of the chapters and not whole theory. Also, Make separate formula A4 sheet for All subjects and keep them in one place. Now these short notes and formula sheets will be very helpful to you for revising whole syllabus quickly before you give full length Test.
• From 15 Dec to 15 Jan complete all Full length tests. You can give tests by skipping one or two days in between. In between those days try to analyse your mistakes in Full test that you gave and revise the syllabus from short notes and formula sheet and get ready for Full test next day. You will gain CONFIDENCE in this way.
• 15 Jan to 25 Jan Modify your time table in such a manner that you give time and make a balance in Math+Apti and Technical and during this period Just revise and practice as much numerical as you can and develop a habit of practicing writing formula you learnt on daily basis.

After 25th Jan, 1 week from now you will be having your GATE exam.

• Revision + Time management is most important now. Refer to notebooks of subject if required.
• Revise all subjects from short notes and Revise all formulas daily from formula sheet
• Give atleast 1 hour to math and half hour to aptitude daily and Only use gate calc for calculations.
• Analyse your mistakes at the test series questions again. Stay faithful to yourself
• DO NOT study anything new now.
• Drink a lot of water.
• Take atleast 6 hour of sleep daily(use alarm clock)
• Believe in hard work that you have done during preparation. Believe in blessing of family and friends
• Stay positive and motivated
• Do check your exam center 1 day before exam

ON D-Day of GATE

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• Reach 1 Hour before reporting time
• Do not hurry in exam center.
• Read questions carefully, always Check the unit of final answer,
• Solve question clearly in the answering pad that will be helpful during rechecking of attempted questions.
• Be attentive avoid mistakes on question language like when rounding off asked, false statement asked, percentage value asked etc....
• Always think and apply SIMPLE basic approach to new questions.
• MCQ- Go with the most appropriate choice by eliminating other in MCQ
• MATCHING- Try to always attempt MATCH the column question, you can take risk here in these when you know one or two choices.
• NUMERIC Q- Never leave NUMERIC value question. If u r unable to get answer enter the value that we encounter widely for that parameter, there is no negative marking here.
• Your GATE paper will be solved within 2 to 2:30 hours.
• Now revise and recheck your answer sheet and questions that you have attempted and
• Then after that if you still have some time left, go to the questions that you have left and try to rethink by basic approach. DO not unnecessarily attempt too many questions when you have no clue about choices.

Getting good Rank in GATE requires, Hard work, Patience and Perseverance and You should Believe in Yourself!

Remember “Harder the battle sweeter the victory”

Always be a dark horse. Work hard in silence, let your success be your noise.

Hope this will be helpful to you all to ACE GATE exam and to get into your dream company.

All the best

PS: For books, notes, study material and free guidance Join API- Ace Petroleum Engineering

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