Aug 06, 2007 05:04 PM
37016 Views
I am sharing my experiences with Brilliant Tutorials during my preparation for GATE 2003 and 2004. I had appeared for GATE(Computer Science) twice - in 2003 for the sake of practise, and in 2004 for the real examination. And for my preparation - I had used Brilliant's study material. Besides reviewing their study material, I am also using this review to share my personal experience, which may come a bit handy for students who are preparing for GATE.
The first and foremost thing which came as a real shock was - they do not conduct any tests at all, as opposed to their courses for IIT-JEE preparations! Maybe there are not too many takers for their postal courses for GATE - I don't know! They just send you study material set-after-set, and not-to-forget the notification for GATE forms, and examination dates.
Their postal course is of just 1 year duration. So, my strong advice to all those who are really serious about clearing GATE(CS) with a high score, is to start preparing in the 3rd year(of BTech/BE) itself. Also, they do not conduct any tests for GATE - so the best strategy would be - prepare for 1 year in your 3rd year itself, and then do appear for GATE. Yes, I repeat - do appear for GATE in your 3rd year itself, this is the best way to judge yourself rather than taking any "simulated" or "the real like" practise tests.
As per my knowledge of the engineering syllabus followed in most of the engineering colleges of India covers 80%-90% of the GATE syllabus by the end of 3rd year. So, it is always a safe bet to do a net-practise in your 3rd year, analyze your weaknesses, and then attempt GATE in your final year again. The best thing about GATE is - the scores are valid for 2 years, and there is absolutely nothing like averaging or supercedence of scores, if you appear for this exam multiple times.
If you really work hard, you can end up getting a very high score in your 3rd year, and then there might be no need at all to retry in your final year.
Now, coming to Brilliant's material - their dispatch of materials was always timely. At least in my case, I never faced any unexpected delays. The best part is - you get all material together at one place. GATE is fully objective type of examination(as per the data available at the time of writing this review).
Brilliant provides a brief summary of the topics alongwith hundreds of objective type problems in each set. The next set invariably contains the solutions - they provide necessary explanations for the answer whenever needed. There are occasional misprints in typing of answers - not quite so uncommon in case of multiple choice answers - but I found hardly 2% answers wrong, that too in their final practise set(containing 1500+ problems). Their accuracy is very high, and hence reliable.
As per my experience, I have occasionally browsed through several GATE preparation guides available in market, but found them just pathetic.
You can also ask their academic section for explanation to solution of any relevant problem, and they DO reply back - however it may take upto 3 weeks!
In my case, I had enrolled with them around June of 2002. Their course dispatch starts from March, so I was bombarded with the first 3 sets within 50 days or so. After that, they used to send the course material every 30 days or so.
Their study material was in perfect synchronization with the courses being taught in my college during the 3rd year, and that greatly helped me to achieve good marks in my college examinations too. Not only this, the diligent practising of their objective type problems came very handy during the placement seasons too. I had a job offer at hand in my very first attempt at the placement season of my college, and hence was free from all worries for my preparation for GATE 2004.
The topics covered really well by their material were -
Digital logic and Microprocessors
Compilers
Finite State machines
C/C+
Mathematics(Permutations and Combinations, Algebra, sequences and series)
Algorithmic complexity, and data structures
The above topics were the core essentials of the syllabus in my time, and used to cover around 80% of the syllabus.
Towards the end of the course, they sent a practise booklet containing 1500+ objective type problems, and that was really helpful for me - in terms of helping me building my timing.
And yes, the standard of their problems in their sets was really at par with the actual problems asked in the GATE examination.
I cleared GATE 2003 easily, but my rank was not at all sufficient to guarantee an MTech interview call from any IITs. But, the best thing was - I came to know of all my weaknesses, and prepared again using the same old material(the GATE syllabus does not change unusually much over a period of 1 year). And this time, I cleared GATE 2004 with a good score.
In a nutshell, I would like to say that you have to put in a lot of effort from your end too, if you are really serious about GATE. Besides preparing from Brilliant's(or any other coaching center's) material, you have to focus really hard on your studies, in particular for the first 2 years of your engineering. You need to utilise this material properly, in sync with the syllabus followed at your college - and if you can do that - then clearing GATE is no big deal at all.
However, Brilliant's material is a bit overpriced in my opinion. If they could include tests(conducted in real exam environment just like they do for IIT-JEE), that would be really great. Overall, Brilliant rockks!
Just in case, the readers are curious about my performance at GATE - here are my scores
GATE 2003 - AIR 990 with 97.31 percentile
GATE 2004 - AIR 153 with 99.55 percentile. Through this score, I got calls for MTech admission interviews from IITs at Delhi, Kanpur, KGP, Mumbai and Chennai(these were the only ones to whom I had applied). I got selected by IIT Delhi, completed my MTech(CS) from there in 2006, and currently working at one of the best software companies - the one I always dreamed to work for (I won't name the company as I want to protect my privacy on the web :-)
