I am in my B.Tech final year at NIT Jalandhar, in Electronics and Communication branch. It all started in 2015, at the time when I wrote boards, JEE Mains, JEE Advanced. Back then, I was preparing for JEE Advanced and had nothing in my mind except that. I was a good student, always scored well in mocks, my teachers and my parents had high expectations form me.

In month of march 2015, I had my boards, which I never took so seriously. Anyhow, the board exams went by and then came the first step towards my dream on 4th April 2015. While walking into examination hall, many things were going inside my head, adrenaline was at full rush. Sine I never scored below 250 in mocks, I was expecting the same to happen in the final paper as well. Now, one and a half hour into the exam, I realized that situations are not as planned, I started becoming uncomfortable and panic struck me. From there conditions started going out of my hand, I starting messing up. By the end of 3 hours, I was sure I was nowhere near my target. Latter evening as the answer keys by various coaching institutes were uploaded, I crosschecked my paper with them. I didn’t calculate the exact scores, but I figured out I was barely crossing 200 mark.

This episode was a major blow to my confidence. I became reluctant to open my books. I didn’t attended coaching for a month after that. I was afraid of telling my marks to anyone. I didn’t even wanted to write JEE Advanced that year. Somehow, I gave the exam as my father insisted. Although, I secured a four digit rank in it, I was sure I was not going to get any thing of my choice with that rank. I wanted to take a drop. But again on my father’s advice, I took admission in NITJ ECE branch, which I guess was a wiser decision than taking a drop (at least in my case).

Now in college, the first year passed by very quickly. I didn’t do much in my first year,it was mostly utilized in getting out of the shock of not getting into IIT. As I moved into my second year, my core subjects started. I started developing a liking towards them. I found them really interesting. There was a major transformation in the way we perceive technology. The gadgets we used in daily life, we started understanding the science behind that. I was enjoying this transformation. I started studying and enjoying the concepts.

Then I realized that YES!!!! I have one more chance to fulfill my dream of becoming an IITian. And this time with a purpose of really understanding technology and become a contributor to its growth. And that’s how my preparation of GATE exam started. I started learning concepts from scratch. NPTEL videos and standard books were a great help. For whole of my second year, my focus was on hardening my concepts and relating them with the end technology. In this span of time, I never tried to solve questions, never had a look on the GATE syllabus, never tried any of the previous year questions. I just relished the taste of knowledge. This journey was intellectually satisfying. I was really amazed with the application of mathematics that the Electrical science has. This kind of study really brought a mathematical maturity in me.

In my third year I shifted the gear. Now, I started giving stress on problem solving. At that time I came to know about the Kanodia publication. There was a very positive response by the previous GATE toppers regarding this book. So, I started solving questions from this book. It was the result of an in depth study of concepts in second year that I was very comfortable with the kind of questions in it. I finished approximately 60 – 70 % of it by my end of third year.

In the summer vacation of my third year, I joined crash course in ACE Engineering Academy. This proved out to be a very good decision. If you are already thorough with the concepts, such a course really helps in filtering out the actual syllabus that is required for GATE. It lasted for 2 months.

As I came in my final year, in first month i.e. August, I shifted my focus on getting a placement in order to avoid the obvious pressure that one faces at this crucial time. As a result of rigorous preparation, I was able to get a placement in a core company by the end of August. From then, there was a straight and smooth road to my goal. I joined the test series of Made easy, ACE and IES Master gave 15 – 20 days to each subject by revising notes and solving previous year questions on them, finished first round of revision by mid December. After that, one subject each day. Wrote one to two subject wise tests of a particular subjects daily (ACE has a plenty of good quality subject wise tests). Analysed the performance in each of them, bookmarked the questions in which I committed mistake or took much time. After every cycle of complete course revision, I gave one full syllabus mock tests. In first two I obtained in line of 60’s. In latter ones never below 70. In last ten days, I went through each and every bookmarked questions in the test series of both Madeeasy and ACE.

Now on 9th February 2019, the big day. I could clearly remember the day I was walking into the exam hall of JEE Mains. And I could clearly see the difference (in a positive sense) in confidence level, amount of pressure faced and maturity. This time, I had no thoughts of what will be the par score, where will I get an admission in masters. Only thing that was in my mind was that I have to enjoy the next 3 hours and god will certainly reward me with what I deserve. Never ever in those 3 hours I lost my calm and composure. By the end, I managed to solve 56 questions. I was happy. Now as the answer keys and response sheet were released , I used the Madeeasy rank predictor tool to check my score and rank. A score of 80.67 and an estimated AIR of 11–12 flashed on the screen. OH GOD!!!! What a satisfying feeling that was. I was really satisfied with the way I directed my preparation and executed it in the exam.

This journey has brought a lot of transformations in me. It initiated a never ending hunger of knowledge in me. Now, I am confident that I will be able justify the tag of IITian that I would get two years from now. I will try my best to make contribution to the ever growing technology.

Thanks for reading ????