GATE preparation
A study tracker built for GATE preparation
GATE is one three-hour paper, and only 15 of its 100 marks are shared with any other candidate - General Aptitude is the only section common to all 30 papers. The other 85 is your own branch. That makes a single "hours studied" number close to useless, and a per-bucket split the only thing worth tracking.
GATE at a glance
| Format | One 3-hour computer-based paper, 65 questions, 100 marks |
|---|---|
| Common to all 30 papers | General Aptitude only - 10 questions, 15 marks |
| Marking | -1/3 on a 1-mark MCQ, -2/3 on a 2-mark MCQ; no negative marking on MSQ or NAT |
| Score validity | Three years from the date results are announced |
Three buckets, weighted very differently
For most papers the 100 marks split three ways: General Aptitude 15, Engineering Mathematics 13, and your core subject 72. Those are not three equal things to revise, and treating them as one undifferentiated syllabus is how Engineering Mathematics ends up under-prepared - it is 13% of the paper and it is nobody's favourite chapter.
Twelve of the 30 papers carry no Engineering Mathematics section at all - AR, CY, DA, EY, GE, GG, MA, PH, ST, XH, XL and RA - and there the core subject is worth 85 instead of 72. Which bucket structure applies to you depends entirely on your paper code.
Karma Yogi lets you define those buckets as your own subjects, so time and accuracy are logged against each one separately and the split is visible rather than assumed.
Negative marking applies to only one of the three question types
GATE asks MCQs, MSQs (multiple-select) and NATs (numerical answer type). A wrong MCQ costs you 1/3 or 2/3 of a mark depending on its weight. A wrong MSQ or NAT costs you nothing - and MSQ carries no partial credit either, so it is all or nothing with no downside for attempting.
That means the correct guessing strategy is different for different questions inside the same paper, which is unusual. Tracking accuracy as one overall number hides it. Logging attempts and correct answers per section lets you see whether your MCQ accuracy is high enough to justify the attempts you are making.
A three-year score, so the horizon is longer than one cycle
A GATE scorecard is valid for three years from the date results are announced, and it is read by M.Tech and direct-PhD admissions, by scholarship committees, and by public sector recruiters. One sitting therefore feeds several application cycles.
The official material is explicit that qualifying guarantees nothing on its own - roughly nine to ten lakh candidates register each year and seven and a half to eight lakh appear. A study log that survives across cycles is more useful here than in an exam you sit once and forget.
If you are sitting two papers, they are two syllabi
GATE allows a second paper from a published table of permitted combinations, chosen on the same application form. Candidates who do this are preparing two full syllabi at once, and the only shared part is the 15 marks of General Aptitude.
Because subjects in Karma Yogi are yours to define, a two-paper candidate can carry both cores as separate subjects and watch the time split between them - which is the decision that actually matters when the exam is weeks away.
GATE study tracker: common questions
- Is this GATE study tracker free?
- Yes. Unlimited subjects, sessions and mock logs, with no payment and no coaching package attached.
- How many papers does GATE have?
- Thirty test papers. You sit one, or optionally two from a published table of permitted combinations, on a single application form.
- How is the GATE paper structured?
- One three-hour computer-based paper, 65 questions, 100 marks. General Aptitude is 10 questions for 15 marks and is common to every paper; most papers then carry Engineering Mathematics for 13 marks and the core subject for 72.
- Does GATE have negative marking?
- On MCQs only. A wrong 1-mark MCQ costs 1/3 of a mark and a wrong 2-mark MCQ costs 2/3. MSQ and NAT questions carry no negative marking - and MSQ has no partial marking either, so a partly correct answer scores zero rather than something.
- Which GATE papers have no Engineering Mathematics?
- Twelve of them: AR, CY, DA, EY, GE, GG, MA, PH, ST, XH, XL and RA. On those the core subject is worth 85 marks instead of 72, with General Aptitude still at 15.
- How long is a GATE score valid?
- Three years from the date the results are announced. It is used for M.Tech and direct-PhD admission, for scholarships, and by public sector recruiters, though qualifying on its own guarantees none of those.
- Can I track two GATE papers at once?
- Yes. Subjects are yours to define, so you can carry both cores as separate subjects plus a shared General Aptitude subject, and see how your time is actually splitting between them.
- Does it work for exams other than GATE?
- Yes. Nothing is hardcoded to one exam - your subjects define it. Presets exist for CAT, JEE, NEET, GRE, GMAT, XAT, UPSC, NMAT, BANK PO and IELTS, and any other exam can be typed in.
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