I applied for winter admission to IIT Delhi in December 2020.
Step 1
I got shortlisted for programming test. There were 5 questions which I had to solve in a time span of 3 hours. I was able to solve 2 out of 5 completely and got selected for next round of interview
Step 2
I was asked to fill a google form with the choice of area in which I want to apply for MS, the names of faculty under which I will be interested in working and their two recent research papers that interests me.
Step 3
My interview was on MS TEAMS and there were around 10 profs in the panel. Some were silent and just observing and 4-5 out of them asked me questions.
First question was the introduction.
Then from the google form that I filled they checked my interest and asked me in what fields I am interested in. I replied with NLP and IR. Then they stated asking me questions from NLP but I just started with NLP and had no answers to their questions. Then they asked me if I had prepared anything for the interview :P. I replied with Information Retrieval.
They then asked me few questions from IR like Precision, Recall, F-score, TF-IDF, etc. I studied IR at IIT Hyderabad and thus also did one course project in IR. I explained them my project on which I was working at that time. Then they started with the questions from DS Algo. They asked me to solve the famous 3 sum problem. I got nervous and could explain till the part of 2 sum only (which I did as part of my ADSA assignment again @IITH) and could not connect that to 3 sum at that time.
I took this interview very lightly as I was already doing MTech from IIT Hyd. and was not at all prepared. Just with the knowledge from my then subjects that I was studying as part of my coursework at Hyd I answered all the questions.
Anyway, I got emails from two professors who wanted to have one more round of interview. I prepared for this one and I again got questions from basic math (Differentiation), Data structures and Information Retrieval. I was able to answer most of them this time.
Result
Got Selected!!! And I am now doing MS in Information Retrieval.
PS: As there were very few experiences from people taking winter admission, so I thought of sharing mine. I also appeared for same interview in June 2020, but could not crack it that time. One of the prof taking my interview remembered me from my last interview as I applied under same research area and with those same professors only. I will keep updating my site with more blogs if I find something new about winter admits in terms of timeline for events like internship and placements.
I completed my B.Tech. from U.I.E.T. Panjab University, Chandigarh. I never heard the name of my college before filling the form for JAC Counselling for PEC University. Coming from not so popular college and with a dream to join IIT I knew only M. Tech. is the solution. My brother and my mother both are from IIT Roorkee and my father is a PhD., this fact always motivated me and simultaneously pressurized me to join masters program. I discovered my interest in core technical subjects of Computer Science though I was never good with their implementation part. Understanding the theoretical concepts was always easy for me but I always failed in solving numerical problems. Same thing happened with me in JEE mains and I repeated that in my Gate 2019 as well.
My Gate 2019 Journey
I decided to appear for gate in my 2nd year only and actually started preparing for it January 2018. I joined a coaching which one of my seniors joined and got AIR 2 in Chandigarh. But later came to know that the faculty here changes every year and I got the new faculty which was fine. Few subjects were really amazing and cleared all my concepts but few needed self study. I referred Standard books for all subjects and prepared good notes. One thing I lacked in my preparation was problem solving. I only solved GATE previous year once till August and that too very casually. One more thing that was lacking in coaching was tests. There were not enough tests and a competitive environment to study.
After August campus placements started in my college and I decided to sit for them. Another mistake that I did in my 2019 attempt, to focus on two things together and not making the best out of any. I sat in around 7-8 companies and gave their aptitude tests, programming tests and interviews and devoted my half attention there till 13th September, when I finally made it to Infosys Ltd. I wasted a lot of time here stressing out and my Gate preparation got neglected a lot by then. After being placed only at the package of 3.5 LPA, I somehow got satisfied and started enjoying my last semester in college, chilling with my friends. Gate prep was some where down in my priority now. I also chose to go for 6 Months internship in Infosys Mysore which started on 14th January, 2019. Joining my internship that too in January was my biggest mistake. I could have prepared well and given test series in December after my semester exams and continued my preparation in January. Well I went to Mysore and only 25 days were left for my exam. I got really busy there with the classes and could only score around 41.33 with a rank more than 5000.
I also appeared in IIIT H exam but could not qualify. I realized that I had no other option but to join my job as dropping was not my thing. I cannot focus for long hours and dropping was a bit risky.
My Gate 2020 journey
So I started my preparation again in June,2019. I was motivated this time. I was not happy with my placement as growth opportunities are very less in Infosys. I got my offer letter for training again and went to Mysore on 5th August, 2019. I took my books along and studied there as well. I had to choose my work location and I chose Chandigarh again. I was alone here this time, no friends and took a PG where I knew no one. I had no time to waste. I made no new friends in Chandigarh and only concentrated on my Gate prep. Luckily the project I got initially had little work and I could even study in my office. Infosys has a library also where one can easily study and no one will judge.
I solved all previous year problems by November end once and completed all my subjects. I realized i was weak in Algorithm, DM, LA and Probability. I prepared for them in December along with revising other subjects and solving previous year question again. I also made short notes like 4-5 pages for each subject and 1-2 pages of formula list for most subjects and pasted that on my wall. I used to revise all that daily and solve previous year (selected not all) during revision. I took two test series one from Made easy and other from Ace Academy. This time I gave like 20 tests and always used to analyse them and write down their mistakes in a notebook.
During January I took leave from my job and gave my 100% only to the my GATE preparation. I deactivated all social media accounts and was in contact with only one friend who was preparing for GATE along with his job. Preparing along with your job needs a lot of self motivation because sometimes one can feel that maybe I can switch job and then I will grow or doing 9-5 job was more easy than preparing all the subjects again and again.
Mistakes that I made in my Gate 2020
According to me my mistake was not forming a group with like minded and motivated Gate Aspirants and as I was not in contact with any of my teacher so problem solving was tough sometimes and finding a solution to the tough questions was not easy. I used to disturb Prashant every time I got stuck…Thanks for helping me with my doubts.
I used YouTube channels like Gate smashers, Gate Lectures by Ravindrababu Ravula, Knowledge Gate, etc. to study in my 2020 attempt. I had no time to study from standard books but I had my notes from last year for reference. This was also a mistake as I lacked in understanding the core concepts and idea behind those concepts. I only knew that this is the formula that I have to apply to solve these type of questions in some subjects like computer networks. I actually used questions to understand the concepts rather than understanding the concept first and then solving questions for practice.
Another mistake was solving fewer full tests and not preparing a good strategy to solve questions. I always solved questions in sequence and did same during the exam. I was not good in handling the exam pressure and got panicked during the last half an hour. I was not able to revise efficiently and solve the remaining problems at that time. One tip to future aspirants try giving more tests and give atleast one CBT if possible.
That’s my GATE journey from 5462 AIR to 616 AIR and I hope those who get stuck at a less paying job feel motivated after reading this and start preparing for GATE and score good marks. GATE needs consistent efforts of revising all the subjects. Its not that tough like JEE. Do solve previous year questions atleast twice before the exam. Anyone with dedication and determination can perform good in GATE.
Shivangi Bithel 