GATE
www.thegatecoach.com
Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is an all India examination that primarily tests the comprehensive understanding of various undergraduate subjects in Engineering and Technology. The GATE score of a candidate reflects a relative performance of a candidate. The score is used for admissions to post-graduate engineering programmes (eg. M.E., M.Tech, direct Ph.D.) in Indian higher education institutes with financial assistance provided by MHRD and other Government agencies. The score may also used by Public sector units for employment screening purposes.
www.thegatecoach.com
Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is an all India examination that primarily tests the comprehensive understanding of various undergraduate subjects in Engineering and Technology. The GATE score of a candidate reflects a relative performance of a candidate. The score is used for admissions to post-graduate engineering programmes (eg. M.E., M.Tech, direct Ph.D.) in Indian higher education institutes with financial assistance provided by MHRD and other Government agencies. The score may also used by Public sector units for employment screening purposes.
Financial Assistance
A valid GATE score is essential for obtaining a financial assistance during Masters programmes and in some cases during direct Doctoral programmes in Engineering/Technology/Architechture, and Doctoral programs in relevant branches of Science in an Institution supported by the MHRD or other Government organizations. To avail the financial assistance (scholarship), the candidate must first secure admission to a programme in these Institutes, by a procedure that could be different for each institute. Qualification in GATE is also a minimum requirement to apply for various fellowships awarded by many Government organizations.
However, candidates with a Master’s degree in Engineering/Technology/Architecture may seek admission to relevant Doctoral programmes with scholarship/assistantship without appearing in the GATE examination.
Administration
GATE is administered and conducted jointly by the Indian Institute of Science and seven Indian Institutes of Technology on behalf of the National Coordination Board (NCB) – GATE, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India. The GATE Committee, which comprises of representatives from the administering institutes, is the sole authority for conducting the examination and declaring the results.
GATE is conducted through the constitution of eight zones. The zones and the corresponding
WHAT'S NEW IN GATE 2014?www,thegatecoach.com
The proposal is to have a two tier exam, and following the example of JEE, the two exams will be named as GATE and GATE Advanced (How I wish it were Main Gate and Advanced Gate). The first tier will be during September/October, only online, on multiple days (but each student can give it only once), and conducted with the help of a partner organization with expertise in conducting online exams. The question bank for this test will still be responsibility of the GATE committee. Each exam will be of two-hour duration, and will have only Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs).
The selected candidates in the GATE will only be able to appear for GATE Advanced. It is expected that about 15 percent students will qualify for GATE Advanced. GATE Advanced will be a 3-hour exam, and will only be in the discipline of that exam. No questions on Engineering Maths, Aptitude, etc., which would have been covered in GATE. So this will allow greater coverage of the subject, since the entire 3 hours is focused on the subject.
I have a problem with this two-tier exam. If we can have the first tier for 11 lakhs (or whatever that number becomes in 2014 and beyond), then why not just use the score of the tier 1 for admission, and any other purpose that anyone may use the score for.
The strategy committee has two reasons for not using the GATE score for admission, and insisting on GATE Advanced. (They don't give these reasons in the proposal. They don't even consider the possibility of just changing the current GATE to proposed new GATE. But the proposal has something from which one can guess these two reasons.)
The first reason is that GATE Advanced will be able to cover the syllabus better, by just focusing on the subject test.
The second reason is that it avoids the comparison of multiple tests, since some inequality of the various tests will only impact selection for the GATE Advanced, and that too of the weakest candidates, and all stronger candidates will get exactly the same paper (GATE Advanced) and thus the comparison for admission will be fair.
The first reason is going against the very reason for including aptitude and engineering maths in the GATE paper. These two items were introduced by arguing that they are a good predictor of quality of preparedness of the student for higher education. But now, we are saying that anyone ranked 1 and ranked 1.6 lakh in the GATE are equal for the purpose of admission, which will only be done on the basis of GATE Advanced. This immediately means that people who perform poorly in engineering maths and aptitude portion and do well in the technical questions may get poorer marks in the GATE, but that will not affect their admission at all. And given that selection to GATE Advanced will be at very low scores (similar to GATE qualifying marks currently), these two topics are as good as useless for most students to prepare. Then we might as well make the first paper subject only, and cover the subject well in that paper.
The second reason is an admission of incompetence. We are admitting that even after having an experience of more than 50 years of conducting competitive exams, we have no clue as to how do we scientifically compare the two tests. This admission of incompetence is not a problem by itself. After all, we are primarily experts in science or engineering and not in subjects such as testing. But what is amazing to me is that while we admit our incompetence, we do not wish to seek expert help. Surely, there must be people in this country who understand these issues. And if there are no experts in testing in India, can we not seek consultancy from people elsewhere in the world. After all, everyone faces the same problem in such testing. GRE faces the same problem, just to give an example.
The simple logic would dictate that if you are having two tests than you should test different things in those two tests. And this was the problem in the JEE debate also (and the compromise that we have all accepted for JEE for 2013). If one has to do two tier tests, the first test should be just aptitude and engineering maths. Everyone should be allowed to give the second test, with the expectation that most universities and PSUs and other users of the score will require a minimum score in the aptitude and engineering maths. This would automatically reduce the number of students for the second test drastically, since everyone will first give aptitude and if get poor score will not find any good reason to waste more good money. But even if lot of students sit for the second test, it does not matter, since that too will be online and on multiple days.
WHAT'S NEW IN GATE 2014?www,thegatecoach.com
The proposal is to have a two tier exam, and following the example of JEE, the two exams will be named as GATE and GATE Advanced (How I wish it were Main Gate and Advanced Gate). The first tier will be during September/October, only online, on multiple days (but each student can give it only once), and conducted with the help of a partner organization with expertise in conducting online exams. The question bank for this test will still be responsibility of the GATE committee. Each exam will be of two-hour duration, and will have only Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs).
The selected candidates in the GATE will only be able to appear for GATE Advanced. It is expected that about 15 percent students will qualify for GATE Advanced. GATE Advanced will be a 3-hour exam, and will only be in the discipline of that exam. No questions on Engineering Maths, Aptitude, etc., which would have been covered in GATE. So this will allow greater coverage of the subject, since the entire 3 hours is focused on the subject.
I have a problem with this two-tier exam. If we can have the first tier for 11 lakhs (or whatever that number becomes in 2014 and beyond), then why not just use the score of the tier 1 for admission, and any other purpose that anyone may use the score for.
The strategy committee has two reasons for not using the GATE score for admission, and insisting on GATE Advanced. (They don't give these reasons in the proposal. They don't even consider the possibility of just changing the current GATE to proposed new GATE. But the proposal has something from which one can guess these two reasons.)
The first reason is that GATE Advanced will be able to cover the syllabus better, by just focusing on the subject test.
The second reason is that it avoids the comparison of multiple tests, since some inequality of the various tests will only impact selection for the GATE Advanced, and that too of the weakest candidates, and all stronger candidates will get exactly the same paper (GATE Advanced) and thus the comparison for admission will be fair.
The first reason is going against the very reason for including aptitude and engineering maths in the GATE paper. These two items were introduced by arguing that they are a good predictor of quality of preparedness of the student for higher education. But now, we are saying that anyone ranked 1 and ranked 1.6 lakh in the GATE are equal for the purpose of admission, which will only be done on the basis of GATE Advanced. This immediately means that people who perform poorly in engineering maths and aptitude portion and do well in the technical questions may get poorer marks in the GATE, but that will not affect their admission at all. And given that selection to GATE Advanced will be at very low scores (similar to GATE qualifying marks currently), these two topics are as good as useless for most students to prepare. Then we might as well make the first paper subject only, and cover the subject well in that paper.
The second reason is an admission of incompetence. We are admitting that even after having an experience of more than 50 years of conducting competitive exams, we have no clue as to how do we scientifically compare the two tests. This admission of incompetence is not a problem by itself. After all, we are primarily experts in science or engineering and not in subjects such as testing. But what is amazing to me is that while we admit our incompetence, we do not wish to seek expert help. Surely, there must be people in this country who understand these issues. And if there are no experts in testing in India, can we not seek consultancy from people elsewhere in the world. After all, everyone faces the same problem in such testing. GRE faces the same problem, just to give an example.
The simple logic would dictate that if you are having two tests than you should test different things in those two tests. And this was the problem in the JEE debate also (and the compromise that we have all accepted for JEE for 2013). If one has to do two tier tests, the first test should be just aptitude and engineering maths. Everyone should be allowed to give the second test, with the expectation that most universities and PSUs and other users of the score will require a minimum score in the aptitude and engineering maths. This would automatically reduce the number of students for the second test drastically, since everyone will first give aptitude and if get poor score will not find any good reason to waste more good money. But even if lot of students sit for the second test, it does not matter, since that too will be online and on multiple days.
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