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Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering

INTRODUCION

The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is an all-India examination that primarily tests the comprehensive understanding of various undergraduate subjects in engineering and science. GATE is conducted jointly by the Indian Institute of Science and seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Madras and IIT Roorkee) on behalf of the National Coordination Board – GATE, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), Government of India.

The GATE score of a candidate reflects the relative performance level of a candidate. The score is used for admissions to various post-graduate programs (e.g. Master of Engineering, Master of Technology, Doctor of Philosophy) in Indian higher education institutes, with financial assistance provided by MHRD and other government agencies. Recently, GATE scores are also being used by several Indian public sector undertakings (i.e., government-owned companies) for recruiting graduate engineers in entry-level positions. It is one of the most competitive examinations in India.

GATE MORE DETAILS

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% weight age 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.^[1]

Eligibility to take GATE

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.

GATE disciplines and structure

At present, GATE is conducted in the following 22 disciplines. A candidate can select any one of these.

GATE Paper	Code	GATE Paper	Code
Aerospace Engineering	AE	Geology and Geophysics	GG
Agricultural Engineering	AG	Instrumentation Engineering	IN
Architecture and Planning	AR	Mathematics	MA
Biotechnology	BT	Mechanical Engineering	ME
Civil Engineering	CE	Mining Engineering	MN
Chemical Engineering	CH	Metallurgical Engineering	MT
Computer Science and Information Technology	CS	Physics	PH
Chemistry	CY	Production and Industrial Engineering	PI
Electronics and Communication Engineering	EC	Textile Engineering and Fiber Science	TF
Electrical Engineering	EE	Engineering Sciences	XE^*
Ecology and Evolution	EY	Life Sciences	XL^**

^* Engineering Sciences (XE) Paper Sections (A and any 2 of B to G)	Code	^** Life Sciences (XL) Paper Sections (H and any 2 of I to M)	Code
Engineering Mathematics (Compulsory)	A	Chemistry (Compulsory)	H
Fluid Mechanics	B	Biochemistry	I
Materials Science	C	Botany	J
Solid Mechanics	D	Microbiology	K
Thermodynamics	E	Zoology	L
Polymer Science and Engineering	F	Food Technology	M
Food Technology	G

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 GATE examination consists of a single test of 3-hour duration that contains a total of 65 questions, worth a maximum of 100 marks. The questions consist of both multiple choice questions (MCQs) and numerical answer type questions. Numerical answer type questions^[9] does not contain any options for the answers, the candidate has to solve the numerical and write the answer in the spec given.

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 candidates are required to either select the answer (for multiple-choice question type) or enter the answer for numerical answer type question using a mouse on a virtual keyboard (keyboard of the computer is disabled). 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.

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 to only the qualified candidates.

Normalized GATE Score (new procedure)

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

Graph showing the linear relationship between "actual marks" and "normalized marks" of a candidate, in a multiple-session subject (CE, EE, ME, EE or CE) of GATE.
M^g_t = average marks of top 0.1 % of the candidates in all sessions of that subject.
M^g_q = mean + standard deviation, of marks of all candidates in all sessions of that subject.
M_ti = average marks of top 0.1 % of candidates in the i^th session of that subject.
M_iq = mean + standard deviation, of marks of candidates in the i^thsession of that subject.

In 2014, 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 % of the 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 % of candidates in the i^th session of that subject,

M_iq is the sum of mean and standard deviation of marks of 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 (both single-session and multiple-session):

Graph showing the linear relationship between marks and score in GATE.
M_q = Qualifying marks for general category candidates.
M_t = Average marks of top 0.1 % or top 10 (whichever is higher) candidates.
S_q = 350.
S_t = 900.
Note: In case of multiple-session subjects (EC, CS, ME, EE and CE), "marks" considered are the "normalized marks".

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.^[10]

S = S_q + (S_t - S_q) \frac {M - M_q}{\overline{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 % or top 10 (whichever is higher) candidates in that subject,

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[edit]

Till GATE 2012 (and year 2013-14 of the 2-year validity period of GATE 2013 score), the score was calculated using the formula:^[11]

GATE score =

10 (a_g + s_g\frac{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 3 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 3 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.

Category	Qualifying mark (out of 100)
General (GN)	25 or μ + σ, whichever is higher.
Other backward classes (OBC)	90% of general category's qualifying mark.
Scheduled castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST)	2/3 (i.e., 66.67%) of general category's qualifying mark.

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 (non-creamy layer) 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 total number of candidates appearing in GATE (across all subjects) increased till 2013. In 2014, it decreased slightly.

Total number of candidates appearing in GATE
Year	Number of candidates appearing
2014	889,156
2013	984,855
2012	686,614
2011	553,000
2010	414,000
2009	230,000
2008	180,000

Year	Total number of candidates appearing	Reference(s)
2014	889,156	^[12]
2013	984,855	^[13]
2012	686,614	^[14]
2011	Approximately 553,000 ^*
2010	Approximately 414,000 ^*
2009	Approximately 230,000 ^*	^[15]
2008	Approximately 170,000 to 180,000 ^*	^[15]^[16]

^* Precise figures unavailable right now.

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

Electronics and Communication Engineering (EC)

Computer Science and Information Technology (CS)

Mechanical Engineering (ME)

Electrical Engineering (EE)

Civil Engineering (CE)

All other subjects

ATE APTITUDE TEST IN ENGINEERING)

PHYSICAL SCIENCE

Friday 19 September 2014