In my third year of college (2nd year was COVID so that left me a lot of time to do GATE preparation fortunately) I appeared for GATE ME 2022 by IIT Kharagpur and secured a rank of 2657. So, in my final year I prepared for GATE ME 2023 along with placements (placed in Research role in CEAT, Halol, Vadodara at 6LPA as Research Engineer) . Here is a guide on how I cracked GATE ME 2023 AIR - 26 and GATE XE AIR - 30.
Do as much problems as possible. It might be tempting to take time to first understand the topics, but trust me, no matter how much you read topics from various books, the best practice to understand a concept, is to solve as many problems as possible. For solving problems, I used these resources and in the same order as noted below:
Bits and Bytes: This will give you a comprehensive idea of the range of possible standard questions from each and every possible topic in each of the subjects. It is a must. (although it contains some errors) This is a good starting point in order to clear the concepts and get accustomed with the possible variations of questions and their varieties. Spend time on this questions. Understand the concepts. Each question offers a new way to think about the concept. Take as much time as need to solve each of these questions.
Solve Exergic Question Bank: For certain important topics, it contains the toughest questions possible, thus clearing in depth knowledge of the important topics in GATE. Take time to solve these, they also offer clarity of concepts on certain topics.
Solve Made Easy Gate Books: This does not contain many problems from each topics, but still are good enough to clear concepts (if any are not cleared even after solving above sources). It is not a must and one can skip this if he/she is thorough with Bits and Bytes and is confident enough on all the important topics.
Previous year questions from ESE prelims (by Made Easy): I solved this to get a good grasp on formulas. This contains questions which are not much relevant to GATE since they are very short and could be solved within a minute and are quite easy. But, still it is important to recall formulas from memory during GATE within very short time. This helps in solving that problem by helping you memorize the formulas through their repeated applications.
Take Test Series, especially Exergic Test series, the ones who are scoring among the top 50 in Exergic Test Series are sure to get a good GATE rank. Other than that, also take Test Series from Made Easy and ACE Academy (This test series are not specifically made keeping GATE exam in mind but are useful to get a different flavor of questions from the standard ones.) Use this to get a flavor of non-regular (ESE Mains level) questions in GATE but do not spend much time since it's not very relevant to GATE but they do help clearing many concepts showing connection between multiple concepts which may help in GATE).
Checkout these videos where I have shared my strategy. I was also featured on my college website for this achievement.
I took Exergic test series, Question bank and Exergic Pro Course for clarifying most of my concepts.
In my third year of college, for Gate preparation, I studied Machine Design and Theory of Machines under Dheeraj Sardana Sir.
Here are my notes which I used for problem solving in GATE along with questions which I found interesting at the end of each notes. Happy Learning!
Along with all this, I also have a 9.08 CGPA in my Bachelors and have also done a Minor in Computer Science and Engineering (8 CGPA) at Nirma University. There is no other alternative to hardwork. It requires dedication and patience. Believe in the process, behind every overnight success is decades of hardwork and dedication. Keep pursuing. Enjoy learning!!
Feel free to reach out to me for further guidance by contacting on one of the below social media platforms. I would be happy to help.