Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering

Financial assistance in post-graduate programs

A valid GATE score is essential for obtaining financial assistance during Master’s programs and direct Doctoral programs in Engineering/Technology/Architecture, and Doctoral programs in relevant branches of Science in Institutes supported by the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) or other Government agencies. As per the directives of MHRD, the following procedure is to be adopted for admission to the post-graduate programs (Master’s and Doctoral) with MHRD scholarship/assistant-ship: Depending upon the norms adopted by a specific institute or department of the Institute, a candidate may be admitted directly into a course based on his/her performance in GATE only or based on his/her performance in GATE and an admission test / interview conducted by the department to which he/she has applied and/or the candidate’s academic record. If the candidate is to be selected through test/interview for post-graduate programs, the minimum of 70% weightage is given to the performance in GATE and the remaining 30% weightage can be given to the candidate’s performance in test/interview and/or academic record. The admitting institutes can, however, prescribe a minimum passing percentage of marks in the test/interview. Some colleges/institutes specify GATE qualification as the mandatory requirement even for admission without MHRD scholarship/assistant-ship.

To avail the financial assistance (scholarship), the candidate must first secure admission to a program in these Institutes, by a procedure that could vary from institute to institute. Qualification in GATE is also a minimum requirement to apply for various fellowships awarded by many Government organizations. The criteria for postgraduate admission with scholarship/assistant-ship could be different for different institutions.

In December 2014, the University Grants Commission and Ministry of Human Resources Development announced that the scholarship for GATE-qualified postgraduate students is increased by 55%, from ₹8,000 (US$120) per month to ₹12,400 (US$180) per month.

Eligibility

The following are eligible to take GATE:

Bachelor's degree holders in Engineering/Technology/Architecture (4 years after 10+2/ Post-B.Sc./ Post-Diploma) and those who are in the final year of such programs.

Master's degree holders in any branch of Science/Mathematics/Statistics/Computer Applications or equivalent and those who are in the final year of such programs.

Candidates in the second or higher year of Four-year integrated master's degree programs (Post-B.Sc.) in Engineering/Technology.

Candidates in the fourth or higher year of Five-year integrated master's degree programs or Dual Degree programs in Engineering/Technology.

Candidates with qualifications obtained through examinations conducted by professional societies recognized by UPSC/AICTE (e.g. AMIE by iE(i), AMICE(i) by the institute of Civil Engineers (India)-iCE(i)) as equivalent to B.E./B.Tech.

Those who have completed section A or equivalent of such professional courses are also eligible.

Disciplines, structure, and syllabus

At present, GATE is conducted in the following 23 disciplines. A candidate can select any one of these.

General aptitude questions

Each subject's test contains 10 questions that test the "general aptitude" (language and analytic skills), apart from the core subject of the discipline.

Duration and examination type

The examination is of 3 hours duration, and contains a total of 65 questions worth a maximum of 100 marks. From 2014 onward, the examination for all the papers is carried out in an online Computer Based Test (CBT) mode where the candidates are shown the questions in a random sequence on a computer screen. The questions consist of both multiple choice questions (four answer options out of which the correct one has to be chosen) and numerical answer type questions (answer is a real number, to be entered via an on-screen keypad and computer mouse). Candidates are provided with blank paper sheets for rough work and these have to be returned after the examination. At the end of the 3-hour window, the computer automatically closes the screen from further actions.

Syllabi

Result and test score

GATE results are usually declared about one month after the examinations are over. The results show the total marks scored by a candidate, the GATE score, the all-India rank and the cut off marks for various categories in the candidate's paper. The score is valid for 3 years from the date of announcement of the results. The score cards are issued only to qualified candidates.

Normalized GATE Score (new procedure)

Calculation of "normalized marks" for subjects held in multiple sessions (CE, CS, EC, EE and ME):

From 2014 onward, examination for CE, CS, EC, EE and ME subjects is being held in multiple sessions. Hence, for these subjects, a suitable normalization is applied to take into account any variation in the difficulty levels of the question sets across different sessions. The normalization is done based on the fundamental assumption that "in all multi-session GATE papers, the distribution of abilities of candidates is the same across all the sessions". According to the GATE committee, this assumption is justified since "the number of candidates appearing in multi-session subjects in GATE 2014 is large and the procedure of allocation of session to candidates is random. Further it is also ensured that for the same multi-session subject, the number of candidates allotted in each session is of the same order of magnitude."

Based on the above, and considering various normalization methods, the committee arrived at the following formula for calculating the normalized marks, for CE, CS, EC, EE and ME subjects:

Normalized mark (︿M_ij) of j^th candidate in i^th session, is given by
︿M_ij = M^g_t - M^g_q/ M_ti - M_iq ( M_ij - M_iq ) + M^g_q
where,

M_ij is the actual marks obtained by the j^th candidate in the i^th session, M^g_t is the average marks of the top 0.1 % candidates in all sessions of that subject, M^g_q is the sum of mean and standard deviation of marks of all candidates in all sessions of that subject, M_ti is the average of marks of top 0.1 % candidates in the i^th session of that subject, M_iq is the sum of mean and standard deviation of marks of all candidates in the i^th session of that subject.

After evaluation of the answers, normalized marks based on the above formula will be calculated using the raw (actual) marks obtained by a candidate in the CE, CS, EC, EE or ME subject. The "score" will be calculated using these normalized marks. For all other subjects (whose tests are conducted in a single session), the actual marks obtained by the candidates will be used in calculating the score.

Calculation of GATE Score for all subjects (single-session and multiple-session):

From GATE 2014 onward (and year 2014-15 of the 2-year validity period of GATE 2013 score), a candidate's GATE score is computed by the following new formula.
S = S q + ( S t − S q ) M − M q M ¯ t − M q
where,

S = Score (normalized) of a candidate, M = Marks obtained by a candidate ("normalized marks" in case of multiple-session subjects CE, CS, EC, EE and ME), M_q = Qualifying marks for general category candidates in that subject (usually 25 or μ + σ, whichever is higher), μ = Average (i.e. arithmetic mean) of marks of all candidates in that subject, σ = Standard deviation of marks of all candidates in that subject, M_t = Average marks of top 0.1 % candidates (for subjects with 10000 or more appeared candidates) or top 10 candidates (for subjects with less than 10000 appeared candidates), S_t = 900 = Score assigned to M_t, S_q = 350 = Score assigned to M_q.

Percentile:

A candidate's percentile denotes the percentage of candidates scoring lower than that particular candidate. It is calculated as:

Percentile = ( 1 - All India rank/ No. of candidates in that subject ) x 100%

Old formula

Till GATE 2012 (and year 2013-14 of the 2-year validity period of GATE 2013 score), the score was calculated using the formula:

GATE score = 10 ( a g + s g m − a S )

where,

m = Marks obtained by the candidate, a = Average of marks of all candidates who appeared in that subject, in that year, with marks less than zero converted to zero, S = Standard deviation of marks of all candidates who appeared in that subject, in that year, with marks less than zero converted to zero, a_g = Global average of marks of all candidates who appeared across all subjects in current and past 5 years (i.e. 2010 to 2013 for GATE 2013), with marks less than zero converted to zero, s_g = Global standard deviation of marks of all candidates who appeared across all subjects in current and past 0 years (i.e. 2010 to 2013 for GATE 2013), with marks less than zero converted to zero.

Qualifying marks

The rules for qualifying marks have varied from year to year. The qualifying marks (out of 100) are different for different subjects as well as categories.

Here μ is the average (i.e., arithmetic mean) of marks of all candidates in the subject (with negative marks converted to zero) and σ is the standard deviation of all marks in that subject.

Usually, the general category's qualifying mark is in the 25 to 50 range.

The Government of India implemented reservations for other backward classes in college admissions and public sector job recruitment in the year 2008. Before that, all OBC candidates were included in the "general" category. There was no separate OBC category then.

Statistics

The following line chart shows the number of candidates registered, appeared, and qualified (total of all subjects).

^* Precise figures unavailable right now.

The following line chart shows the variation of the number of candidates appeared in the 5 subjects with the largest numbers of appeared candidates, since GATE 2010:

^* Precise figures unavailable right now.

Difficulty level

GATE, for long, has been known to test the Engineering basics in a smart way. Complaints of "lengthy" problems have been rare. But the task of mastering an entire course of Engineering (around 30 undergraduate subjects) for a three-hour test, itself gives the test a certain level of toughness. Each year, only around 15% of all appearing candidates qualify. High percentiles (more than 99th percentile, in some cases) are required to get admission in M.Tech. or M.E. degree programs in Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institute of Science, or get shortlisted for job interviews in Indian public sector undertakings.

Admission to post-graduate programs

Unlike undergraduate admissions in India, candidates must apply individually to each institute after the institute has published its M.Tech. notification (usually in the month of March). There is no separate counselling held.

Some institutions specify GATE qualification as mandatory even for admission of self-financing students to postgraduate programs. GATE qualified candidates are also eligible for the award of Junior Research Fellowship in CSIR Laboratories and CSIR sponsored projects. Top rank holders in some GATE papers are entitled to apply for "Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Fellowship" awarded by CSIR. Some government organizations prescribe GATE qualification as a requirement for applying to the post of a Scientist/Engineer.

In recent years, various academicians have recognized GATE as being one of the toughest exams in its category. Some non-Indian universities like the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and some technical universities in Germany also identify GATE score as a parameter for judging the quality of the candidates for admission into their Masters and Ph.D. programs.

Some management institutes like NITIE, Mumbai offer admission to Post Graduate Diploma in Industrial Engineering on the basis of GATE score.

Most Indian institutes do not specify cut-off marks for previous years. So there is a general confusion in terms of selecting institutes and specializations. But in the recent years IIT Kharagpur and IIT Guwahati have been specifying last year cut-off mark list. Indian Institute of Technology Delhi has a very detailed website on Post Graduate (PG) activities and admissions where students can find the relevant information on cut-off marks etc. Typically the Indian Institute of Science and Indian Institutes of Technology are the most selective followed by National Institutes of Technology and others. Also there are some state universities in India, whose standards and facilities are very much comparable to top IITs and NITs. Some of them are PEC University of Technology (Chandigarh), Bengal Engineering and Science University (recently converted to IIEST), Jadavpur University, Delhi Technological University, Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Andhra University College of Engineering, Osmania University etc. Even within the top institutes, the selection criteria varies widely across departments and programs depending on expertise areas. The Directorate of Technical Education of Maharashtra state has also started conducting CAP round from the year 2013 for GATE and non-GATE candidates in all institutes in Maharashtra that offer M.E./M.Tech. programs.

CSIR's JRF - GATE fellowship

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) introduced the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) - GATE scheme in 2002 to allow GATE-qualified engineering graduates and GPAT-qualified pharmaceutical graduates to pursue research through suitable Ph.D. programs at CSIR laboratories.

Stipend and tenure:

The fellowship amount is ₹25,000 (US$370) per month plus HRA (house rent allowance). In addition, contingency grant of ₹20,000 (US$300) per annum (calculated on pro-rata basis for fraction of a year) is also provided. On completion of 2 years as JRF - GATE, the fellowship may be upgraded to SRF (Senior Research Fellowship) - GATE and stipend may be increased to ₹28,000 (US$420) per month in the subsequent years, on the basis of assessment of CSIR JRF-NET guidelines.

The total duration of the fellowship is 5 years, within which the candidate is expected to complete the Ph.D. degree.

Recruitment

Public sector undertakings (PSUs) in India, for long, have had troubles conducting their recruitment processes with more than 100,000 students taking the exams for less than 1000 jobs (a selection rate of less than 1%). After sensing the exponential rise in the number of engineering graduates in India who wish to get a PSU job, the PSUs have decided that a GATE score shall be the primary criteria for initial shortlisting. This change was the primary cause for the rapid increase in applicants for GATE 2012.

Indian Oil Corporation was the first PSU which successfully tested out this system and was followed two years later by National Thermal Power Corporation, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Bharat Electronics & PowerGrid Corporation of India.

Usually these companies release their recruitment notifications right after GATE notification, indicating that candidates have to take GATE to be considered for a job in their organizations.

Latest list of companies (GATE 2015)

As of now, 36 public sector undertakings have signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the GATE 2015 organizing committee, for using GATE 2015 score as a screening tool for recruiting engineers at entry level positions.

[The numbers of posts mentioned are the total numbers. Of these, usually around half are reserved for candidates of scheduled castes (SCs), scheduled tribes (STs), other backward classes (OBCs) (non-creamy layer), and persons with disabilities, as per norms of the Government of India.]

The syllabus for the GATE exam and its preparation remains the same, irrespective of whether one is applying for a job at a PSU or seeking admission for post graduation in engineering.

Year and Organizing Institute

Each year's GATE is organised by any one of 8 institutes: IISc and 7 IITs. The overall co-ordination and responsibility of conducting GATE lies with this institute, which is designated as the Organizing Institute (OI) for GATE of that year. GATE coaching institutes often make speculations regarding the topics to focus upon depending upon the institute that is the OI of that year.