How should I prepare for GATE for chemical engineering?

First of all good it's that you've made up your mind to give the GATE exam. The most important point in the exam is get into the fundamentals of Chemical Engineering and Engineering Mathematics. Some important points to follow for an effective study schedule can be: 1. Prepare 3 hours a day (I suggest 2 hours Chemical + 1 hour Math). 6 months is good time to prepare for the exam. 2. Never ignore the math section or keep it to the end for preparation. You can go in hand in hand. 3. Make a plan for 6 months (last month solve all the previous years papers, you've papers from 1990 in Chemical Engineering) 4. Stick to the GATE syllabus. Take 4-5 weeks to prepare a topic. Refer 2 textbooks and solve previous year's GATE questions in the section before passing to the next section. This will make you reinforce concepts once you've studied. 5. Make notes (formulas, dimensionless numbers etc.) every section you study, will come handy in the while revision. 6. For Chemical Technology, look into previous year's papers. You can't remember all the process parameters for the industries. Note: Go through previous year's papers. You'll gain much from them rather from the textbooks (GATE point of view)

I wrote GATE in 2014 and secure AIR 1. I shared my experience and suggestion in an interview with jagranjosh. I am sharing the same suggestion here too. First of all make a clear understanding about GATE exam. GATE exam is online and the questions asked are objective type. There are two types of questions: multiple choice and numerical answer type. There are 3 sections.1) Chemical Engineering(70%)2) Aptitude (15%)3) Engineering Mathematics (15%)The aptitude problems are based on basic math and English skills and are very easy. They do not require much preparation. The course for the Mathematics portion is vast but the questions asked are relatively easy. It would be better to cover all the topics as it is high scoring portion. Most questions are short and based on direct application of formulae. The most important part is chemical engineering. This section is comparatively difficult and requires sincere effort.My strategy was to first concentrate on developing concepts rather than going for solving numerical straightaway. I never tried to mug up the formulae. If any concept was not clear, I used different sources till that concept become very clear to me. I found that making notes is very useful; it helps in sorting out the important formulae and concepts. It increases concentration and clarity in study since in notes making process you have to think what to include in the note and what not. It is also useful for quick revision before tests as the syllabus is vast and revising from books is not convenient.I tried to cover all the topics. Selective study is not useful for GATE, since you cannot predict which topic may have a substantial number of questions in the paper. In the last 2 months I solved previous years question papers of GATE as it gives an understanding of the question pattern and covers all important concepts asked in GATE examination. I kept the last week before the exam for revising the formulae and the basic concepts.useful study material/ reference books for GATEI used text books and Video lectures to build up concepts. For most of the subjects I used more than one book. Since one book does not covers all topics of that subject. So it is necessary to go through more than one book. My strategy was to take one book as the main book and the topics which were not covered in that book were supplemented by other books. I am giving details of all books and video lectures below. Process Calculations -Himmelblau and GATE subjective questions of 1990-2000. Thermodynamics- K.V.Narayanan (supplemented byNPTEL Prof S.K.Som IIT Kharagpur; selected lecture which is in the syllabus of chemical Engg).(Though in my opinion “Smith J.M., Van Ness H.C. and Abbott M.M.,” is a better book for Thermodynamics.) Fluid mechanics- NPTEL Dr. V. Shankar IIT Kanpur(supplemented by Cengel, Cimbala and Fox, McDonald's ) Mechanical Operation-Mccabe, Smith and Harriott (supplemented by Narayanan C.M. and Bhattacharya B.C ) Heat transfer- Binay.K.Dutta Mass transfer- Geankoplis, NPTELProf. Nishith Verma IIT Kanpur (supplemented by Treybal) Transport phenomena-NPTEL Prof V.Kumarnan IISC Bangalore (first 9 lecture is most important) Chemical Reaction Engg- Fogler and Octave Levenspiel (Both books are necessary as some portions are given in Levenspiel while other portions are available in Fogler) , RTD theory and Catalysis fromNPTEL Prof. Jayant M Modak IISc Bangalore. Process dynamics and control-Coughanowr and LeBlanc (supplemented by Stephanopoulos and Seborg, Edgar) Plant design and Economics- Peters M. S. and Timmerhaus K. D., Chemical Technology- Dryden’s Outlines of Chemical Technology and many other books to cover the syllabus Mathematics-B.S. Grewal (supplemented by Denis Auroux MIT video lecture on Multivariable calculus) For practice I solved previous year’s papers. I think if anyone has solved previous 12-15 years papers with in-depth understanding of all concepts then he will be certainly able to crack GATE with very good rank. For solving previous year questions you have to refer 3 sources. http://unitoperation.com , Arihant's chapterwise solution and M subbu. No one source is error free . That's why one has to go all three sources.Here is the link of that interview. http://www.jagranjosh.com/articles/gate-topper-2014-chemical-engineering-sandeep-kumar-shares-his-success-story-1397544848-1

For chemical engineering Second year onwards give importance to following subjects, 1.Chemical process calculations 2. Fluid mechanics 3. Mechanical Operations 4. Heat Transfer 5.Mass Transfer 6.Thermodynamics 7. Chemical Reaction engineering 8. Chemical Process Industries 9. Process Instrumentation and dynamic control engineering 10. Maths 1,2,3,4

Please read the following answer for general suggestions.

Hello Mr. 2nd year engineering student. GATE is an exam where your fundamentals are tested in your core exam along with your aptitude and engineering mathematics. This score of 100 will decide your future if you study in a college with very less placement or want to pursue higher studies. So, maybe you are thinking it is great to know all about so important of an exam so early that I can prepare it very well.But unlike IAS or JEE, GATE syllabus is finite. Questions come from previous year GATE question papers, standard books for subjects and sometimes yeah examiner figure out new ways to test your knowledge.In my opinion, One year prep for GATE is more than enough if you have a sound core background. I will suggest you to go for standard books for each subjects which are -1. Mathematics - Higher Engineering mathematics by B. S. Grewal 2. Process Calculation - Chemical Process Principles Part-I by Hougen and Watson 3. Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics - I - Engineering thermodynamics by cengel and boles 4. Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics - II - Introduction to chemical engineering thermodynamics by smith 5. Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer - unit operations of chemical engineering by mccabe and smith 6. Mass Transfer - mass transfer operations by Treybal 7. Chemical Reaction Engineering - Chemical Reaction Engineering by levenspiel 8. Instrumentation and process control - Process System analysis and Control by coughanowr 9. Chemical Technology - Outlines of Chemical Technology by Dryden 10. Plant Economics and Design - Plant Design and Economics for Chemical Engineers by Timmerhausand most important part is just go for one source per subject. Dont get confused by going for multiple sources per subject. Be focused and try to clear your concepts as the subjects come down your path to study in the semesters.And if you ask me this question, after third year, I will give you full schedule. Till then, enjoy college life and college will take care of you.All the best!If you like my answer and would like to interact with me, please like my page -http://fb.com/chemicalgate