STUFF you had been searching for...

Hola homo-sapiens! Hope you're doing GrATE today :D
So, most of you, am sure if you have managed to open and read this post, must have been searching for the questions that follow up:

Where to study from?

This question is too important to be answered, and even i could not find the BEST answer even till 2nd February'18 (My exam was on 3rd Feb'18). So, here what i want to say is, whatever material you have finish it and then move on to searching for more else you would be wasting your time in finding more questions and books and other stuff to study from while you haven't actually done with what you already had.

I am sure, the next question that must be popping up in your mind would be, what all i referred?
I had joined Made Easy classroom course (for me those 8-9 hours, apart from travelling time, were more of a reminder to the battle i had stepped into) and I followed the material in order as first register notes second workbook simultaneously (as soon as a topic finished, this reminds me of days when i had to solve workbooks while travelling in metro) then previous years and at last test series (Made Easy and ACE)
ALERT- Follow your own strategy, don't search for someone else's plan!!! But, YES the stuff i mentioned was more than enough to crack even under 100 rank. (So, if you have similar stuff covering similar questions and topics, it is enough.)

Standard Books to be followed?

This is another thing that had been bothering me since months. I used to ask my seniors again and again- "I am from three tier college and did not study from standard books in my initial years so doubt on my basic concepts built so far, Is it still possible to crack GATE with decent rank?" and even though they answered what actually happened, i always thought- "They were saying just for the sake of my confidence." I will not deny the fact that i had read some standard books for the subjects, that were included in my semester curriculum, just after i had made up my mind for GATE. 

But then, What i had read from those books hardly made a difference and books i read were- Ullman (Compiler Design), Cormen (Algorithms), Kenneth Rossen (Discrette Maths) and Galvin (Operating Systems, only book that i actually read well and complete).

If someone is dedicated enough to read these knowledgeable books, I would not at all want to discourage you from doing so, then here are some-
Database- Navathe

Engineering Maths- BS Grewal

Data Structure- Tanenbaum

Networking- Forouzan (Highly Recommended, if you want to study Comp N/w well)

Digital Logic & Comp Architecture- Morris Mano
Theory Of Computation- Peter Linz

Ps. It would be great to hear from readers, for the questions they have unanswered. Drop your views be it appreciation or criticism in the comments. Heartiest thank you to all the readers for your valuable time :)

CHAPTER To Be DONE before you step in the battle

"Never settle for anything less than that you know you deserve"

You know each one of us possesses a great store of creativity and potential to do miracles. The only problem to solve is to resolve the mystery of how to discover this hidden energy.

So, Here the first question that comes is what you think of your own potential and if you have realized the reasons for the path you have chosen. Decide why you want to crack it, only for the job point of view or for the Masters. Check out the cut offs for the goals you have set be it the IOCL, ONGC, BARC, IITB/D/K/M/Khg, IISc, NITs, IIITs, etc

I aimed for GATE 2018 Unit digit rank or at least under 100 rank and landed up achieving AIR ! % & ('coz this is not that important, and not that tough to decode either), which (according to people) is a great achievement. Again, achievement differs from person to person. Well, for me this was not that big of a success but the respect i was offered whenever people congratulated was more of what i desired for.

Coming back... Aim for the highest, because you're on a highly parabolic curve and landing on the highest peak you see has a less probability but not the least of course. Once you have decided where to focus everything else will not be really an issue. With this i meant, if you have left your job or taken leaves (then the worries related to no source of income, bad performance, etc.) , if you're in final year then on campus placements, projects and exams. People are so worried for these secondary things that they forgot they had aimed for something too above all this.

For fourth year students, preparing along with their studies, must go through this one-

You need to decide in the very starting, if you get an on-campus job will you really go for it or are you really keen for after GATE opportunities waiting. " If you have already have had a backup plan, you have then given up half way your parabolic journey." Once you step in the battle, Either don't plan to settle the greed for GrATE after getting placed on campus or be too focused for GATE that you hardly see any placement/exams/internship worries. Project work or research paper is that you must work upon as you will be interviewed for top colleges later if planning for masters.

Disclaimer: I know this chapter might not answer what you really wanted but believe me it is more important than the answers you are really searching for. 

PS: I did not really feel like achieving something to be able to guide about BUT recently i have been contacted by many students asking for preparation guidelines and even after wishing to tell all of them every bit of they want to know it becomes impractical to write and send same messages again and again. 

PPS: I will keep posting with time about things that are necessary to know. PLEASE comment below your questions so that it becomes easy for me to cover the queries in upcoming posts.