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GATE 2024 Toppers: Hailing from Uttar Pradesh, 21-year-old Piyush Kumar improved his Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) rank from 530 in 2023 to AIR 1 this year. His potion to success, he claims, was ensuring that all his concepts are clear.
Kumar is a final year student of BTech CSE from Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya, Haridwar, Uttarakhand. He had been preparing for GATE for the past 15-16 months. When he appeared for GATE 2023, he hadn’t put in as much effort in preparation, so he decided to change his approach towards the exam this year.
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“I sat and looked back at what were the mistakes that I was making last year. I identified my weaknesses and worked harder in those areas. When I practised mock tests, I ensured that I did not miss out on those chapters which seemed difficult to me last year,” he told indianexpress.com.
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As he is a final year student, Kumar had to balance between his full-time college and GATE preparation. He used to wake up around 6 am to start his day with college classes and used to be busy till 4 pm. After returning home, he used to dedicate at least six to seven hours to GATE preparation and sleep after midnight.
To bolster his preparation, he enrolled in GO Classes’ online programme. “My mentors were Sachin Mittal and Deepak Poonia who made sure that all my basics of every concept are clear. Even though I took online classes, I did not feel like I was missing out on anything. Online classes gave me the freedom to learn at my own pace, and most importantly they increased my productivity threefold as it saved my travelling time,” Kumar said.
In addition to clarity on basic concepts, handwritten notes were another thing that helped Piyush bag the top rank in GATE 2024.
Kumar prefers handwritten notes over digital or pre-prepared notes as he feels that it helps him in memorising. “I do not support rote learning, but I do believe that your concepts should be clear. This will happen if you do written practice. When you are make notes by handwriting them, you are concentrating on the concept and what you are writing. During this, your brain will start registering the content and the concepts will become clearer,” he explained.
He also practiced at least 20 mock tests by recreating the GATE exam hall environment, which helped him understand time management and also the marking scheme.
Piyush is the first engineer in his family, and hopes to have a successful career through this MTech degree, which he aims to pursue from IISc Bangalore or IIT Bombay. His father is an advocate and the editor of a local newspaper, and his brother, who is two years older than him, his currently pursuing LLB.
