GATE General Information: Something That Every GATE Aspirant Must Know

I wish i would have written this post long before, because it contains all the basic information about GATE exam. As a part of GATE preparation guide, this must have been the starting post. The good thing is that it came just before exams, therefore I also think most of the students will have good time reading it during their break from their focused preparations. This came to my mind when I was writing about how to make the best use of negative marks scheme for GATE exam.

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General Information about GATE

1. The GATE examination consists of a single paper of 3 hours duration.
2. GATE question paper contains 65 questions except AE and TF.
3. Maximum of marks a student can score in GATE are 100.
4. GATE score is calculated on the scale of 1000 based marks obtained by the candidate.
5. The question paper will consist of only objective questions except AE and TF.
6. For multiple choice type questions, each question will have four choices for the answer.
7. For numerical answer type questions, each question will have a number as the answer.
8. Papers in AE, GG, MN and TF will be carried out Online.
9. There will be negative marking for each wrong answer, except for the numerical answer type questions.
10. Each GATE paper shall have a General Aptitude (GA) component carrying 15 marks.

GATE question paper pattern

1. Q.1 to Q.25 (25 questions) carry one mark each (sub-total 25 marks).
2. Q.26 to Q.55 (30 questions) carry two marks each (sub-total 60 marks).
• Questions Q.48 – Q.51 (2 pairs) are common data questions.
• (Q.52, Q.53) and (Q.54, Q.55) are linked answer questions. The answer to the second question of the linked answer questions depends on the answer to the first question of the pair. (If the first question in the linked pair is wrongly answered or is not attempted, then the answer to the second question in the pair will not be evaluated.)
3. Questions Q.56 – Q.65 belong to General Aptitude (GA).
• Questions Q.56 – Q.60 (5 questions) carry 1 mark each (sub-total 5 marks) and questions.
• Q.61 – Q.65 (5 questions) carry 2 marks each (sub-total 10 marks).

Negative Marking in GATE

1. For Q.1 – Q.25 and Q.56 – Q.60, 1/3 mark will be deducted for each wrong answer.
2. For Q.26 – Q.51 and Q.61 – Q.65, 2/3 mark will be deducted for each wrong answer.
3. (Q.52, Q.53), and (Q.54, Q.55) are questions with linked answers. There will be negative marks only for wrong answer to the first question of the linked answer question pair i.e. for Q.52 and Q.54, 2/3 mark will be deducted for each wrong answer. There is no negative marking for Q.53 and Q.55.

I hope this covered almost everything about GATE exam. If you feel something is missing or you have something to share please drop a comment.

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Wish you all a great luck in GATE preparation and Exam.