The author is totally unreliable(and his English is bad too...), he is also trying to get through GATE like you people, and he wrote this FAQ cause he was really disappointed by the way those yahoo groups work.... every new aspirant asks the same set of questions all over again (nobody can patiently answer those questions on a repeated basis), this FAQ is one step to reduce those questions.

Cool, I didn't know my FAQ could do that..., well this FAQ was written to give people some insight about GATE, these are not specification to be followed exactly..., grow up dude!!!, I'll call this my disclaimer.

Simple, send him a mail at thegatefaq@yahoo.com, he usually sleeps all time, but when he wakes up he might read your mail.

Author: Hey party ppl any mistakes, any additions, any suggestions, any comments, any (*&@(*&#*#!^), or any other kind of information to be passed on, please feel free to send in your mail, please include any of the following words in the mail subject - QUESTION:, ANSWER:, PRAISE:, COMMENT:, SUGGESTION:, MISTAKE:, INFO:, INFORMATION:, MISC: - followed by the actual subject. If you are sending gate related information to me make sure that you include your name and place in it, I would like to add it in the contributors section...

Examples: Subject: "SUGGESTION: Stop writing this FAQ!!!", Subject: "PRAISE: Your English sucks..."

Actually there is no official website for GATE, each year one of the IITs or IISc conducts the GATE so they host the details on their website, other institutes usually mirror the contents. But general gate information or the previous year's gate brochure is available at all times in most IITs or IISc websites. (See below for the URLs)

Please search for the gate links from the main pages listed below...

Yes, there are many, it is recommended to visit the the conducting institute's website and get the details

Most times the dates follow the some standard rules..., like GATE is conducted every second Sunday of February.

I shall specify the important dates as listed on the GATE 2003 brochure, this should give you some idea

THE EXAMINATION DATE WILL NOT BE CHANGED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES DATE: FEBRUARY 08, 2004 (SUNDAY) TIME: 9.30 A.M. to 12.30 P.M.

Every year one of the the IITs or IISc conduct GATE, this institute takes care about all GATE related functions from setting up the paper to renting examination halls, this institute is called the "conducting institute" for that year.

This information is published in most popular newspapers

Wrong question, nobody will give you an answer, we can only recommend a list of books, well the choosing part is left to you.

No harm to extend your knowledge, but do keep an eye on time. Most successful GATE'ians tell textbooks were more than sufficient, if used properly.

Nothing as such, but I would advise you ppl to read the last year's GATE brochure in detail. You will get a lot of information in that.

Well this is a very sensitive issue, it is generally a recommended option to get these materials, because it helps cover any new additions or information required for GATE. We people made up a group and shared the materials. Hope those tuition fellas don't read this part of the document.

GATE CSE 2004 syllabus is not yet released, usually there are no changes in content, so I it a good idea to stick on to the previous year's GATE Syllabus.

GATE 2003 - CS - COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

See the table of GATE-2003 statics

Percentile (P) = (No. of Students below you) / (No. of Students)

P = ( N - R ) / N

e.g. 100th rank, P = ( 37797 - 100 ) / ( 37797 ) = 99.73

Thanks to sunny narola for contributing this valuable piece of information...

sunny: "I suggest u take one book at a time and get to the next after you are through with the previous."

Computer Hardware includes Digital Logic, Number representation and Computer Arithmetic, and Computer Organization. It is hard to classify the books for each one of the above mentioned three subjects, instead I will try to list the books which are most commonly used

Sets, Relations, Functions, Groups, Lattice, Boolean algebra, Induction, Recurrence relations

Regular languages and finite Automata, Context free languages and Push-down Automata, Recursively enumerable sets and Turing machines, Un-decidability

Asymptotic analysis (best, worst, average case) of time and space, Upper and lower bounds on the complexity of specific problems, NP-completeness.

Data structures: Notion of abstract data types, Stack, Queue, List, Set, String, Tree, Binary search tree, Heap, Graph

Programming Methodology: C programming, Program control (iteration, recursion, Functions), Scope, Binding, Parameter passing, Elementary concepts of Object oriented, Functional and Logic Programming

Algorithms for problem solving: Tree and graph traversals, Connected components, Spanning trees, Shortest paths Hashing, Sorting, Searching

Design techniques (Greedy, Dynamic Programming, Divide-and-conquer)

Data structure by Horowitz, Sahani. Rigorous preparation for this is a must as good amount of questions will be asked on this. If you get some time (and if book is available) read algorithms by Rivest, Coreman. This is really good (and tough) book. Some other basic book will also do. Try to read from different books. You will find something new in each of them

Lexical analysis, Parsing, Syntax directed translation, Runtime environment, Code generation, Linking (static and dynamic)

Relational model (ER-model, relational algebra, tuple calculus), Database design (integrity constraints, normal forms), Query languages (SQL), File structures (sequential files, indexing, B+ trees), Transactions and concurrency control

ISO/OSI stack, sliding window protocol, LAN Technologies (Ethernet, Token ring), TCP/UDP, IP, Basic concepts of switches, gateways, and routers.

Classical concepts (concurrency, synchronization, deadlock), Processes, threads and Inter-process communication, CPU scheduling, Memory management, File systems, I/O systems, Protection and security.

Silberschatz & Galvin, coupled with OS concepts by Dhamdere should be more than enough

I suggest OS by Galvin. Don't read Unix as it is not needed. But if you read, it may be helpful in future (e.g. in interviews)

I would recommend you to talk to at least 3 people to get a more accurate answer, a first year MTech student, a second year MTech student, and lastly a person who just finished his MTech. (Please let me know, I will add the information here...)

(*) - Possible ranks till where it may go down. The ranks provided here are pure guess work and have been kept on the higher side, that is the actual admissions are expected to close at a higher rank than stated here. But its reasonable to apply if you have this kind of rank.

Some tips regarding GATE Applying

(Please double check this content..., Someone had posted this on one of the groups long back)

BITS Pilani take both semester admissions and they are not of much difference.

There is no compulsion that you should be BITS graduate to appear in second sem/first sem.

Any one having bachelor's can apply, there is a written test conducted for that in which Questions from your graduation discipline are asked.

M.E (CS): You have to be Bachelor's in computer science

M.E (SS Software Systems): People who don't have Bachelor's in computer science can go for this.

There are difference of course structure but for job wise I don't find very much of a difference.

For more about information, see BITS brochure.

Website: http://www.bits-pilani.ac.in

The list is small but, I'm sure it will grow...