As thousands of aspirants attempt the GATE exam in February, many will gain a foothold in some of India’s most prestigious institutions including the IITs. A test of your science and engineering knowledge, the 23 disciplines of GATE are a corridor to a lucrative and fulfilling career. The first step to achieving a good GATE percentile is determining how the scoring and evaluation is done.
GATE Marking Scheme
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The Importance of General Aptitude
- With 65 questions, the GATE paper is worth a total of 100 marks.
- The General Aptitude section is worth 15 marks and is a constant for all the disciplines.
- This section is made up of 5 questions worth 1 mark each and 5 questions worth 2 marks each.
- The GATE marking scheme for wrong answers for MCQs is the same across all sections, a deduction of 0.33 for wrong 1-mark answers and a deduction of 0.66 for wrong 2-mark answers.
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Engineering Mathematics
For the disciplines with the codes AE, AG, BT, CE, CH, CS, EC, EE, IN, ME, MN, MT, PI, TF and XE, there will be an Engineering Mathematics section worth 15 marks. This section can account for up to 15 marks of your GATE exam score.
For the remaining disciplines, outside of the General Aptitude section, the remaining 55 questions will be worth 85 marks and are based on the subject matter.
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GG, XE & XL
With the disciplines – Geology & Geophysics (GG), Engineering Sciences (XE) and Life Sciences (XL) there are further options in the exam pattern. XL has a compulsory Chemistry section worth 25 marks while for GG, candidates can choose between Geology and Geophysics sections, each containing 30 questions worth 2 marks each.
GATE Rank & Score
Your GATE Rank is the rank you achieve for your branch or discipline and it is an All-India Rank. The GATE Score is calculated out of 1000 whereas the GATE marks are calculated out of 100. The GATE Score formula is based on normalized marks and is listed here:
GATE Score = Sq + (St–Sq) (M–Mq) / (M¯t–Mq)
M | The marks obtained by a candidate (marks for single session papers and the normalized marks for multi-session papers) |
Mq | qualifying marks for general category candidate in the paper |
M¯t | mean of marks of top 0.1% or top 10 (whichever is larger) of the examinees appearing in the paper (for multi-session papers that include all sessions) |
Sq | 350, is the score assigned to Mq |
St | 900, is the score assigned to M¯t |
Normalized Marks for Toppers in the Last 5 Years
To give you an idea of what it takes in the GATE to get into the top engineering colleges for M.Tech, here is a comprehensive table depicting the topper scores across the disciplines for the last 6 years.
Paper Code | Paper | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
AE | Aerospace Engineering | 70 | 64 | 73.33 | 70 | 69.33 | 82 |
AG | Agricultural Engineering | 51.67 | 48.33 | 52 | 57.33 | 63.67 | 45.33 |
AR | Architecture & Planning | 78.67 | 80.67 | 70.67 | 59.33 | 80.67 | 75.67 |
BT | Biotechnology | 79 | 76.67 | 78.67 | 70 | 72.67 | 64.33 |
CE | Civil Engineering | 74.33 | 84 | 80.67 | 86.26 | 91.04 | 87.86 |
CH | Chemical Engineering | 76.33 | 73.33 | 77.67 | 85.33 | 65.67 | 83 |
CS | Computer Science & IT | 94.33 | 90 | 69.33 | 83.39 | 85.85 | 85.95 |
CY | Chemistry | 62.67 | 62.33 | 69.67 | 71.67 | 68 | 77 |
EC | Electronics & Communication Engineering | 91.33 | 67 | 88.67 | 89.86 | 85.02 | 86.27 |
EE | Electrical Engineering | 74 | 70.33 | 90.67 | 81.56 | 75.96 | 88.39 |
EY | Ecology & Evolution | 86.33 | 74 | 89 | |||
GG | Geology & Geophysics | 83.33 | 66.67 | 77 | 81.33 | 76.67 | 81 |
IN | Instrumentation Engineering | 62.67 | 56.67 | 70.33 | 60 | 83.67 | 84.67 |
MA | Mathematics | 63.33 | 61 | 48.33 | 49.67 | 57.67 | 54 |
ME | Mechanical Engineering | 87.67 | 92 | 88.67 | 88.84 | 98.33 | 94.66 |
MN | Mining Engineering | 71 | 66 | 62.33 | 69 | 74.67 | 66.33 |
MT | Metallurgical Engineering | 85 | 84.33 | 71.67 | 94.67 | 94.33 | 73 |
PH | Physics | 91.67 | 80 | 56 | 72.33 | 70.33 | 79 |
PI | Production & Industrial Engineering | 64.67 | 67 | 75 | 67.33 | 60.33 | 78.67 |
TF | Textile Engineering & Fibre Science | 68 | 62 | 62 | 67 | 65 | 59.67 |
XE | Engineering Sciences | 68.67 | 78 | 63.33 | 70.67 | 68.33 | 78.33 |
XL | Life Sciences | 76.67 | 71.67 | 71.67 | 73 | 59 | 58 |
About the GATE Percentile
Your GATE percentile is the percentage of candidates whose scores are lower than yours and this statistic is an indicator of where you stand in the larger picture for your particular discipline. The GATE percentile is not used to evaluate while getting admissions for colleges or looking for a PSU post, with the GATE Score having higher precedent in that regard. The GATE percentile formula is listed here.
{Total No. of Candidates in Subject – Candidate Rank / Total No. of Candidates in Subject – 1}
The Preparation Begins
Keeping in mind the different sections, markings and formulas involved, the GATE evaluation process is a fair and scientific method that will reward those who have done their research and hit the right notes. Take help from the online classes for GATE, if needed for your exam preparations.
Source for Score Formula – (http://www.gate.iisc.ernet.in/?page_id=1054)
Source for Topper Marks – (http://www.gate2016.info/gate-analysis/gate-toppers-marks-highest-score-in-gate/)