GATE 2020 MT (Metallurgy) Topper Interview Vipul Bohara AIR-7

GATE 2020 examination was conducted by IIT Delhi in February 2020. Vipul Bohara  secured AIR-7 in MT paper. He has completed B-Tech in Material Science & Metallurgical Engineering from National Institute Of Technology, Raipur. This was his second attempt. Achieving Top rank in the GATE examination is no small feat and needed much of hard work and preparation strategy. The future Aspirants can take much of learning from GATE 2020 MT Topper Vipul Bohara. Here is an awesome interview with him.

AskMeMetallurgy- Achieving Top rank in the GATE examination is no small feat; accept our heartiest congratulations on your splendid success.

Vipul Bohara- Thank you so much

AskMeMetallurgy- What is your name and Where have you done your engineering from?

Vipul Bohara- I am Vipul Bohara. I completed my graduation (B. Tech) from NIT Raipur in Metallurgical Engineering, in the year 2018.

AskMeMetallurgy- What rank did you get in GATE 2020? What is your GATE score and how many marks did you secure?

Vipul Bohara- I secured AIR 7 in GATE 2020. My GATE score is 886/1000 and my marks are 79/100.

AskMeMetallurgy- Is this your first attempt or did you attempt GATE earlier?

Vipul Bohara- No, This was my second attempt. My first casual attempt was GATE 2018. In the year 2018, I joined JSW Steel through campus placements. It was only after my resignation from JSW in the year 2019 when I seriously started preparing for GATE 2020.

AskMeMetallurgy- When did you start preparation for GATE 2020?

Vipul Bohara- I started my preparation 8 months before GATE 2020. But it was not before the last 6 months before GATE when I achieved a good efficiency in my study.

AskMeMetallurgy- How was the GATE 2020 MT paper?

Vipul Bohara- Some questions were tricky. Level of this paper was in between 2017 and 2018 but difficult than 2019.

AskMeMetallurgy- Have you taken any coaching or Online Mock Tests? How did it help?

Vipul Bohara- No, I neither took any coaching nor any test series. I solved gate previous year papers of the last 20 years and used papers of 2010 to 2019 as mock tests.

AskMeMetallurgy- Which books did you follow for GATE preparation? Please name some very important must read books for GATE.

Vipul Bohara- Metallurgy students, take my word for it, do not need lots of sources to study well. Metallurgy aspirants should just have confidence in themselves and their strategy. For most of the topics, including all major topics, one should stick to standard course books and NPTEL video lectures and NPTEL study materials. This much would allow not only to crack this exam but also to secure a single digit AIR. Below mentioned are some useful standard books and sources-

1. Thermodynamics: David R Gaskell / Ahindra Ghosh
2. Rate Process: A.K Mohanty
3. Corrosion : Mars G.Fontana – For detail study
4. William D. Callister- Sufficient to cover basics
5. Mechanical Metallurgy: George E Dieter- for almost all topics
6. Vijendra singh- for defects in crystals and elements of dislocation theory
7. Physical Metallurgy: Vijendra singh- for majority of topics of Physical Metallurgy
8. William D. Callister / V Raghavan- For material Science
9. Extractive Metallurgy (Non Ferrous): H S Ray and NPTEL
10. Iron and Steel Making: R.H Tupkary / A. ghosh
11. Manufacturing Process: George E Dieter- Metal Forming
12. P N Rao- Metal joining and Foundry
13. O.P.Khanna – Foundry Engineering
14. Mathematics: BS Grewal

These are some famous standard books which are very sought after among all metallurgy GATE aspirants. It is completely up to you from which book to cover your syllabus.

NOTE: These books contain vast information on any topic that you might want to study, so always keep in mind that your aim is to crack the exam not to complete a PhD in that subject. Be focused on covering the syllabus that you think is relevant.

AskMeMetallurgy- What is your style of preparation and notes making?

Vipul Bohara- Usually I do not make complete notes. I highlight the important lines and formulas in the original source only from where I read them (like books and PDFs). This saves my time. But I do make short notes of all important topics at the time of my first or second revision of the related topic. Making short notes at the time of revision is very efficient and helpful strategy because it lets me know the topics which I often forget. Also, when I try to make notes at the very first time of reading a topic then I usually end up adding not so important things in the notes and consequently increase the size of notes unnecessarily.

For the GATE exam specifically, I only focused on the topics which were covered in GATE papers of last 20 years. Mostly I studied from standard books and NPTEL videos. I also used my college notes and my friends’ notes (only of those friends who were serious about GATE and made their notes from reliable and standard sources).

AskMeMetallurgy- What is the important topic that should be specially focused by the GATE Aspirants?

Vipul Bohara- Importance of a topic can be decided by the ratio “(Average marks covered by that topic in previous years)/(Time required to cover that topic properly)”

I categorised importance of the topics based on previous years questions.

It would be a lot better if all aspirants analyse the whole syllabus and previous year questions by themselves because it will help them in building confidence in their strategy. I also suggest that aspirants should solve as many numericals as possible because the pattern for Gate exam has changed since 2016 and more number of numericals and concept based questions have started coming in the exam.

AskMeMetallurgy- Can you elaborate your daily timetable (When will you wake up, study, sleep etc) .

Vipul Bohara- On a normal day, I would take at least 8 hours of sleep. I studied, on average, 8 hours a day for the last 6 months before GATE 2020. I made a time table to study in the sets of 2-3 hours continuously.

The timing of going to bed and waking up changes with the time. When GATE 2020 exam was not near, I used to go to bed late at night. But when the admit cards of GATE were released and I came to know that my exam was in morning, then I started shifting my sleeping habits 20-30 minutes early daily. Because of this strategy, a night before GATE 2020, I managed to sleep at 9:30 PM and had 7 hours of nice sleep.

AskMeMetallurgy- What is your opinion/feedback about the askmemetallurgy website & Free Meta job/ Internship alert over WhatsApp?

Vipul Bohara- Any platform which provides accurate and relevant information is always helpful. In this sense AskMeMetallurgy is really helpful. In fact, in this harsh time where COVID-19 Pandemic is affecting the whole country severely, we all should contribute to our ecosystem of education to sustain it. I also have decided to contribute by sharing my preparation strategies with GATE aspirants. Aspirants can also contact me on my WhatsApp no 9460880616. I will try to respond to their questions in my free time.

Thanks, Vipul Bohara for such an awesome Interview. We wish you an amazing career and a healthy life ahead.