Conducted by one of seven Indian Institutes of Technology in rotation, Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is an annual exam for admission to M.Tech and M.S. programmes in most engineering institutes in India[citation needed]. It is regarded as a benchmark test for engineering graduates in India[citation needed]. This examination is coordinated by a committee, comprising of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and seven Indian Institutes of Technology on behalf of the National Coordinating Board - GATE, Department of Education, Government of India. The pattern and syllabus are usually based on a candidate's B.Tech. or BE syllabus. Minimum eligibility for appearing in this exam is usually a B.Tech, BE, B. Arch. or M.Sc. The exam is usually conducted on second Sunday of February.

Forms are usually available in late September till late October at prominent SBI Branches. The students can appear in GATE under different disciplines according to their M.Tech interests. The discipline specification is done while filling the forms. Apart from the basic engineering disciplines there are XE and XL papers which are general in nature.

• Total of 150 marks, fully objective, with three sections
• Group I: Question Numbers 1 to 20 (20 questions) will carry one mark each.
• Group II: Question numbers 21 to 75 (55 questions) will carry two marks each. Out of this, Q.71 to Q.75 may be common data based questions.
• Group III: Question Numbers 76 to 85 (10 questions) will carry two marks each.

Advantages of GATE Scores

PSU's like BARC, NPCIL, HAL etc. give importance to GATE scores for various job positions in their organizations.

Applying to various institutes

Usually IISc application dates are within 4-5 days of announcement of results. Most institutes do not specify their cutoffs for previous years. So there is a general confusion in terms of which institutes and which specializations to go for.But in the recent years IIT Kharagpur alone in specifying its last year cut-off mark

JEST : Another exam on lines of GATE

JEST stands for Joint Entrance Screening Test, it is the screening test for candidates who wish to do Ph. D. Programme in Physics (including Theoretical and Observational Astronomy, Astrophysics, Physics in Biology, Plasma Physics and Technology, Atmospheric and Space Sciences, Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science) / Mathematics / Theoretical Computer Science. JEST exam is usually held on February-March. Using the JEST results, considered institute will call a limited number of candidates for its further selection procedure depending on its requirements. Traveling allowance will be provided to candidates called for interviews. All selected candidates will receive Research Fellowship from the respective institutions (currently 17 in number).

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