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I just had a month for GATE preparation after the exhaustive time spent after NET. Hence, I needed to do smart quick study. Well, the 3 and half months preparation had already made me adequately geared up. My basic concepts were cleared. Now I had to focus mainly on chemistry. However, I needed to also focus on basics of microbiology taught in the first year of graduation.
One important point I will tell you is that in the NET, primarily, M.Sc. syllabus for microbiology is essential and then some B.Sc. syllabus. But for GATE, you mainly need to be thorough with the B.Sc. syllabus. M.Sc. syllabus is not included at all. But even if a question or two would’ve appeared from M.Sc. level, I was ready for it. So I planned the study schedule something like this. My exam was in the first week of February 2016. The first 20 days I dedicated to chemistry. The next 6 days were devoted to biochemistry and the following six to microbiology. I was left with another 6 days. So I divided the slot as 2 days per subject for revision and anything else that I might have left out during the first round of study.
Let me also give you an idea about the exam pattern. The first section is general aptitude (compulsory) where they ask you simple maths and mathematical puzzles. There shall be 10 questions in this section, 5 questions of 1 mark each and the next 5, 2 marks each; that makes it 15 marks in total. You need to be clever to tackle these problems and a little bit of practice might help. 10th standard mathematics is all you have to know but practice is very important. It is very easy to miss a few marks due to not being able to recall the methods to solve some mathematical questions (happened with me). The next compulsory section is chemistry. Here you have to solve 5 questions of 1 mark each and the next 10 worth 2 marks each. So this section is of 25 marks. In the third section, you have a choice amongst 5 subjects – biochemistry, microbiology, zoology, botany and food technology. You have to attempt any 2 out of these and each sub-section is worth 30 marks. There will be 10 questions of 1 mark each and another 10 of 2 marks each. This exam is computer-based. No need to panic!!
Chemistry is the only difficult part that we biologists have to face. Most of us face a situation wherein we have forgotten everything that we had studied in chemistry either because the last time we studied was in class 12th or at most till the second year of graduation. I referred to this book below (Arihant Publications)–
This book has previous year question papers. So you get a chance to solve a number of questions pertaining to each subject. Study each chapter well as though you’re studying it for the first time 😛 The situation would actually be something like looking at your notes for the first time 😀 Jokes apart, you can also refer to NCERT books and MCQ books for AIEEE. All the topics are included so you cannot really ignore any topic. However, pay special attention to some of these things:
- Chemical bonding and Molecular structure VSEPR theory – very important, determination of the type of hybridization and the associated shape; calculating bond order, determining whether paramagnetic or diamagnetic based on the bond order; determining bond angle based on the structure of the molecule and the presence of lone pair or an unshared electron; dipole moment.
- Periodic table You must know the trend that each characteristic follows in a periodic table as only then will you be able to answer any twisted questions.
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