GATE Result Announced, Only 16% Manage to Qualify

GATE2017 Results were declared on March 26 on the examination’s official website gate.iitr.ernet.in.It was earlier declared in an official notice by IIT Roorkee that the results would be announced on March 27, however, they were released a day ahead of schedule.

The exam was conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee- the official organizing body of GATE 2017. It was held in two sessions over two successive weekends i.e. February 4 to February 5, and February 11 and February 12.

A high GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) score in India is the gateway to admission to various post-graduate programs like Master of Engineering, Master of Technology, Doctor of Philosophy in some of the country’s most esteemed higher education institutes. Monetary support towards pursuance of the programs is offered to qualifying students by the MHRD and other government agencies. Also, GATE scores are considered a valid parameter of eligibility by a range of Indian public sector organizations for recruitment of engineers to many entry-level positions. As one of the country’s most popular and most competitive exams, GATE enables qualifying candidates to get access to get employed inPublic Sector Units (PSU) such as NTPC, BHEL, RITES, BSNL, HAL, ONGC, IOL, among others.

Candidates would be able to gauge their performance in the exam by being given access to their score cards between March 27 and May 2016, soon after the release of the GATE Result 2017. In recent times, hundreds of vacancies have been opened by different PSUsinviting successful engineers with eligible GATE scores. One needs to have a reasonably high GATE score to be recruited in the country’s PSUs on the basis of it.

787,148 students had appeared for the exam which was scheduled for multiple dates in February for registered candidates. For every 100 registered candidates, only 85 had appeared for the test and out of that, only 14 managed to make the cut. Throwing a harsh light on the state of the test- takers’ performance, only 129,149 candidates (including all categories) could qualify the exam out of the massive number of 922,167 candidates that had registered for it.

In the light of such discouraging figures, the GATE organizing chairman, Prof G.J. Chakrapani, shared his concerns. “Just 15% to 16% candidates qualifying GATE is not very good, but that’s how it is. Maybe the students are not taught well or maybe they’re just not serious enough about preparing well (for the test). Lots of things count,” he said.

Chakrapani also added that the quality of education imparted at the level of graduation is not ideal and that GATE examiners try their best to ensure that a maximum number of students qualify. To quote him, “Through the way the questions are set – some are difficult and some easy – candidates should be able to qualify easily. Our intention is to qualify an optimum number of students and ensure that at least 50% of the questions are easy, but they are not meeting that level. The qualifying score is also not high, just 25.”

Prof Chakrapani insisted that contrary to popular perception of its insurmountability, GATE is a fairly student-friendly exam, and that the IITs have been consistently trying to ensure that all test- takers can access as much information about the exam as sufficient. As per GATE officials, the paper is always set in a manner that qualifying it is easy. The GATE question paper comprises a blend of tough and easy questions, making GATE a rather balanced exam. However, the puny qualifying rate, i.e.16%, raises concernsregarding both standard of education in India and the falling interest towards it among students.

Candidates need only 25 marks to qualify the exam wherein about 50% questions are set to an easy standard. This fact in particular, makes matters more worrisome.

GATE Qualifiers: What’s Next?

After qualifying GATE, candidates can choose from a variety of options, they can opt to:

• Apply for M.Tech at IIT Gandhinagar, registration ends on April 16
• Apply for PG Admission at IIT Kanpur, registration ends on April 21
• Apply for M.Tech at IIT Bombay, registration ends on April 18
• Apply for M.Tech at IIT Bhubaneshwar, registration ends on April 10.

Overtime, there has been a steady decline in not only the percentage of qualifying students, but also the total number of applications for GATE.

Introduced in 1984, the exam reached its peak in 2013 when 1,200,728 students registered for the test. In 2014, 1,033,625 candidates registered for GATE followed by 971,831 registrations in 2016, and 922,167 registrations in GATE 2017.

Such a demotivating trend could be ascribed to either the rising level of stringency in selection criteria or graduates’ falling interest in higher studies; the latter case being an issue of alarmregarding growth of the country’s programs of higher study such as Doctoral Programs and Research. However, the chairman insists on being optimistic and looking at it as just a phase, after which, the popularity of GATE and higher studies shouldgrow again in the years to come. Chakrapani concluded with a positive assertion, “Technology and scientific innovations make you crave for more knowledge and that’s how you end up doing research.”