GATE 2022 examination was conducted by IIT Kharagpur in February 2022. Soumyajeet Chinara secured AIR-2 in MT paper. He is currently a final year M.Tech student in the department of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science at IIT-Bombay. 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 2022 MT Topper Soumyajeet Chinara. Here is an awesome interview with him.
AskMeMetallurgy: Please, accept our heartiest congratulations on your splendid success. First of all, we would like to know about Soumyajeet. Please introduce yourself.
Soumyajeet: Myself Soumyajeet Chinara. I have completed my B-Tech in metallurgical and materials engineering from NIT Warangal in 2018. I worked for some time in Bank of America. Currently i am pursuing my M-Tech 2nd year in material science from IIT BOMBAY.
AskMeMetallurgy: What rank did you get in GATE 2022? What is your GATE score and how many marks did you secure?
Soumyajeet: I secured AIR 2 in gate 2022. My gate score is 929. My marks is 79.33.

AskMeMetallurgy: Is this your first attempt or did you attempt GATE earlier?
Soumyajeet: I have attempted earlier. I got AIR-28 in 2020, AIR-15 in 2021, AIR-2 in 2022.
AskMeMetallurgy: How was the GATE 2022 MT paper?
Soumyajeet: It was a tricky paper. It had questions from all subjects. Aptitude was of good level. MSQ were tricky. Even NAT had some good questions.Overall the level is increasing every year. Now GATE is not formula based like 2019 and previous year. In 2020, we saw a shift in the level of GATE. Your concepts has to be good otherwise it will be difficult to score.
Preparation Strategy
AskMeMetallurgy: when did you start preparation for GATE 2022?
Soumyajeet: I gave 2020 GATE and most of my preparation was done at that time. I did only revision and attempted test series for this year.
AskMeMetallurgy: What is your style of preparation and notes making?
Soumyajeet: I love to understand the concepts and then notes are not of that much importance. Some subjects like extractive where you can make notes.
AskMeMetallurgy: How did you make your rank better and best? What did you learn from your previous attempt?
Soumyajeet: Over the year my rank has improved. I rectified which part is weak then worked on that. We should hear nptel lectures and always try to clear our concepts.This the main thing.
Previous Year Papers
AskMeMetallurgy: What stage of preparation, Aspirants should start to solve previous year papers? What style did you follow for solving these papers?
Soumyajeet: Surely, this gives an idea of what GATE is like. After basic preparation one should start as soon as possible. keep it time dependent like you are giving exam of three hours.
Read also: Fully solved GATE MT previous year question papers
Time Management
AskMeMetallurgy: What was your daily schedule like during preparation?
Soumyajeet: I didn’t follow this year anything except the revision and mock test in the last two months. Most of my preparation was from gate 2020. In 2020, I mostly wake up around 6 am.Go out for walking.Then breakfast and all other needful things, then around 9-10 around I would start listening NPTEL lectures. Mostly I prepared from there.It clears the concept.
AskMeMetallurgy: What was your time management strategy in the real GATE exam?
Soumyajeet: This time I just scrolled the whole paper and solved the questions in easy, medium and tough chronology. I wasted some time in some questions which led to negative marking and lost some marks. My theory revision was weak otherwise I could expect more marks.
Books For GATE MT
AskMeMetallurgy: Which books did you follow for GATE preparation? Pls name some very important must read books for GATE.
Soumyajeet: Standard books should be followed:
- Physical metallurgy- Vijendra singh
- Material science- Calister
- Mechanical metallurgy- Dieter
- Thermodynamics- Gaskell
- Extractive metallurgy by HS Ray
- Iron and steel making by Ahindra Ghosh
- Mass balance from NPTEL Assignments
- Transport phenomena from AK Rajput & NPTEL lectures
- Corrosion- MM Fontana & lectures of V.S Raja IIT Bombay nptel
- Manufacturing- Deiter and NPTEL PPT
- Welding from NPTEL or sindo Kou book NDT from NPTEL
- Remaining part from Dieter
- Mathematics from BS Grewal
Suggestion for Aspirants
AskMeMetallurgy: What is the important topic that should be specially focused by the GATE Aspirants?
Soumyajeet: Now you can’t say this. Gate is not predictable. Prepare everything for good rank. However, your basics of thermodynamics and physical metallurgy should be good.
AskMeMetallurgy: Please suggest some Do’s and Dont’s for the GATE aspirants during preparation.
Soumyajeet: Don’t kill your time studying everything you find. Stick to the syllabus. Only prepare for topics specifically mentioned in the syllabus. And be very thorough with formulas. Have a formula book/short notes with yourself. As soon as you study a topic, refer its past year questions to get some good insights about your preparation. Complete the syllabus of Engineering Mathematics well before. Although the questions are not that difficult but please spend some time on practising maths as well to avoid any scope of silly mistake during the exam. For getting high rank practise as many mock test you can. This is the most important part of preparation.
After GATE?
AskMeMetallurgy: What are you planning for your career after GATE 2022?
Soumyajeet: This is not yet clear. But I would love to join some scientific organization.
AskMeMetallurgy: What is your opinion/feedback about the Askmemetallurgy website?
Soumyajeet: it is a boon for metallurgist. Nice efforts are made. I love it.
Thanks for such an awesome Interview. We wish you an amazing career and a healthy life ahead.
Read More:
Could you please mention for each subject which Professor lectures You followed