Mechanical Engineering:Prospects, Future andInstitutes in India

Mechanical engineering is one of oldest branch of engineering and this course is available in almost all engineering colleges across India. Mechanical engineering is really a broad field of engineering because of its application. It has application right from manufacturing plants, vehicles, ships, robots, heating and cooling systems, aircrafts, even in medical devices.

During the first year of Mechanical Engineering Degree students learn common engineering methods, mathematics, physics, chemistry and engineering design. From second they are exposed to specialized subjects like mechanics, kinematics, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, materials science, energy…etc. Mechanical Engineering students after graduation will have the knowledge of these engineering concepts and will be ready to use them for industry.

Mechanical Engineering have good prospects in industry as well as higher studies. Mechanical Engineering jobs don’t mean to work in a workshop like a labor. There are plenty of office work and because of vast application of computers in mechanical engineering. All designing and manufacturing process is automated and computerized. Therefore the job profile for mechanical engineering is almost similar to a computer engineer.

Every top university offering engineering courses have mechanical engineering and there is lot of research going on in very specialized fields of Mechanical Engineering. You can see a good amount of requirement for PhD and research students abroad.

Core Companies offering Mechanical Engineering
Jobs: ISRO, DRDO, Indian Railway, ABB, TATA Motors, General Motors, Fiat, Reliance Industries,
Reliance Power Ltd, Asoka Leyland, Mahindra and Mahindra to name few.
Average Salary: 2.5~3.5 Lakh Rupees per annum

Institutes offering Mechanical Engineering Courses:

All IITs
All NITs
Almost All State universities and Private Engineering colleges
All Deemed universities

How many attempts do i need to qualify anyexamination?

After a long long time, I am back to my blog.  Today I am going to write on a topic on which I was
thinking to write for a long time. Now that I have got the time to express my views here, let’s see what I have to see & whether you are going to agree with me or not.
Many people have a ‘big’ question in their mind-
“Can I clear xyz exam in my first attempt?” This ‘xyz’ could be any examination, be it GATE or IES or IAS or CAT etc etc 

A closely related version of this question is – “How many attempts do I require to clear xyz exam?”
I bet at some point or the other, this question might have come to your mind. I know this because it happens to everyone, even me too. But eventually I realized the secret behind the “attempts”  question. I am going to reveal that secret today.. First of all, why are we so much obsessed with attempts?

The first & the obvious reason is that it tells how much years one has saved, preparing for the examination. But, what I think is that this ‘unit’ is faulty, unless you combine with your age. A guy of
24 years age having cleared the exam in 2nd attempt will be in a similar position with a guy in his 25  having cleared in first attempt. Obviously, everyone wants to reach to the top as quickly as possible. The early one starts, the earlier he gets to the position. Moreover, coaching try to commercialize this ‘attempts’ as their marketing strategy. We tend to fall for that strategy, unfortunately. But is this really an important criteria?
Why attempts matter so much?
And most importantly, how can I get out of this ‘attempts’ mindset? To know the answers to these questions, let’s ask ourselves another question- What changes when a guy goes for his next attempt after being unsuccessful in his previous attempt?
When someone goes for a further attempt, according to what I have seen & felt, these changes appear-
(1) Knowledge – Not much change. Say 10-20% only!
(2) Strategy – Changes substantially.
(3) Attitude towards exam- Changes substantially.

This means, an extra attempt does not means extra study. It means change in attitude & strategy. No
doubt, exceptions are always there. Before we proceed further, let’s have a look at 3 types of people into which all of them can be classified. This classification is based on the “learning from the mistakes” attitude. How quickly one adapts to the changes required in his/her strategy, makes him/her stand out of the crowd.
Type 1- These people are extremely smart as they learn from the mistakes of others. They keep on looking for the mistakes that there seniors did in their previous attempts. Then they check whether they lack in that field too & if needed, they improve on that. Many people go to coaching for the same. These people when go for their first attempt, find many loopholes already filled by them. Such people, mostly clear the examinations in 1st or 2nd attempt.

Type 2- These people somewhat lag from type 1 people as they only learn from their own mistakes. They sit for their first attempt without any guards & unfortunately find it too difficult to clear. But subsequently, they start to learn their mistakes in previous attempt & by improving on them, they come with flying colors in 2nd or 3rd attempt. That depends on how quickly one learns from his mistakes after recognizing what were his mistakes.

Type 3- These people don’t learn at all. They  keep on applying for the exams again & again & again without any change in strategy or methodology only to see the same result again & again & again.
So, now we know about the three type of people. The point to ne noted is that the classification is not based on someone’s intelligence. It is based merely on the person’s attitude to learn. The Quickly you learn, the quickly you qualify. But you know, what is the best part? The ‘type’ of the person can be changed. Bring that change is yourself. Talk to seniors, talk to classmates. Talk about their mistakes done in previous attempts. I agree that luck plays a role too, but that role is limited. You should give your best.  Forget about the number of attempts. Only remember one thing- Improvement in strategy & techniques. The difference between a selected & a  not-selected candidate is created during the 3
hours exam only.

Have faith in yourselves, Have faith in your learning  abilities. Be Unconventional.

Why do people fail in GATE/IES- Know the rules ofthe game..

We find many people studying and studying and studying continuously for days, months & even years in some case, without any substantial success in examinations.

On the other hands, there are some people who enjoy every aspect of their life even then they manage to clear the examinations in their first attempt! How does that happen? Where was the difference created?
You may say that the second guy might be a genius, a prodigy having exceptionally good intelligence. Ok, I agree that some will be like that,
but not everyone is like that. What the first type of people are missing is the right approach.
How?

Let’s take an example.
I guess that you must have played the game of carom sometime in our life upto now.. Whether you enjoy it or not is not the question here.

Suppose you have a carrom tournament 10 days from now. You go to market, buy a truckload of books about carrom, search on Wikipedia, join carrom groups on facebook, join google groups about carrom etc etc.. You lock yourself in a room with those books & for minimum distraction, you switch off your phone. You discuss with people on the groups & read the books.
Now, you do this continuously for 10 days.
What will happen at the tournament?
Will you win? I doubt you could even win a single match!
So, what was the problem with your approach?

Everyone thought that you were preparing for the tournament very well but you fell directly on your face.
The thing is that- You missed the rule of the game.

In carrom you don’t get points for knowing about the game, but to play the game well. Unless you can show what you know, your knowledge is useless.

Can you see where am I going with this?
To win, you should know the rules first.
In exams like GATE or IES, or most of the examinations of the world, You are judged on the basis of your solutions that you do within a fixed period of time, and that’s all!

You will not be judged on the basis of-

How much have you studied, How many hours have you studied, Whether you joined coachings etc
So, if you are preparing without practicing, you are digging your own grave. In the end, you will think like-“ I always study so much, but I never get to clear the exams.. I have a bad luck..”
Dear friend, bad luck is nothing but your own thinking & deeds.
Moreover, thinking like this, will not fetch you anything but more disappointment.

So, pick up a pen & paper & start practicing if you haven’t started till now. GATE is not  going away, try next year.

Ending this article with this apt chinese proverb-
I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.
All the best :-)
If you feel this article sharable, share it so that you can have more tough competitors in exams.. ;-)

5 Best Mechanical Engineering Books

Mechanical engineering is arguably one of the most competitive fields in the world. Whether you are a mechanical engineer or studying to become one, you will always need reliable and up-to-date sources and references to get by. A good handbook on engineering design, for instance, will save you a lot of time and help you tackle design challenges.

Marks' Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers by E. A. Aballone, T. Baumeister, and A. Saegh is one of the best mechanical engineering books you can find. This book provides comprehensive guide to all aspects of the field and it has been used as one of the standard handbooks for engineers for decades. It has all the important engineering principles and mathematical methods that you will need in a brief yet clear manner. The eleventh edition, which is the latest edition, even covers high technology areas such as biotechnology and nanotechnology.

Without a doubt, every mechanical engineer should have a good design handbook. Shigley's Mechanical Engineering Design by R. Budynas and K. Nisbett has been used as the standard machine design handbook for more than 40 years. The book covers basic concepts of machine design very clearly, so it is no wonder that it is frequently listed as one of the must-have books for mechanical engineering students.


For almost a century, Erik Oberg's Machinery's Handbook has been used as a reference book by mechanical and manufacturing engineers, toolmakers, draftsmen, designers, and machinists. It covers a very wide area, from the basic to the more advanced concepts. The 28thedition features a very user-friendly format and revised material on manufacturing processes, tools and toolmaking, and more.

As a very dynamic field, mechanical engineering has lots of branches, and thermodynamics is one of them. Fundamentals of Thermodynamics by C. Borgnakke and R. E. Sonntag, is one of the most popular books on this topic. This book is ideal for both professionals and students because it provides comprehensive guide to classical thermodynamics. It is packed with examples, homework problems, and illustrations to help students to gain a better understanding of the topic.

Design engineers are expected to have knowledge of materials science. If you want to gain an in-depth knowledge about the properties and behaviors of various materials, then you should definitely read W. D. Callister and D. G. Rethwisch's Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction. The book covers all the major materials that are commonly used in machine manufacturing such as ceramics, metals, and polymers. It also discusses about the relationships that exist between the structural elements of materials and their properties

How to prepare for GATE?

Before the marathon begins, the ‘runner’ puts in months, even years, of effort before he actually runs the race. As the saying goes –get your fundamentals right.
GATE is an exam that tests you on your fundamentals. The questions are generally derivations of the fundamentals. Preparation for GATE is an ongoing process, and is supposed to happen in stages. First get your fundamentals right, and then test yourself on those fundamentals. When you have done this, you should pit yourself with the competition, which means a mock test which would give you a percentile to let you know where you stand amongst competitors. How do you choose which coaching material to go with. This is something that is quite subjective. A coaching material cannot be assessed until you have gone through it. So, you could go by the word of your seniors as to what coaching material they followed to prepare for GATE. Here are some parameters on which you can decide whether you should go for a particular coaching institute, use a particular coaching material, or tests:
1. Material Collection
Syllabus : All the relevant books based on the subject(Divide the books in two groups - (1)Fundamental and basic concepts (2) Problem oriented Some books helpful for pre-requisite knowledge on the subject Some good guide books for Gate Previous questions papers

2. Keep contact with some expert and GATE experienced persons

3. Study - Syllabus and Previous questions papers

4. Start from the first chapter read at least 5 books, it will widen your knowledge(if necessary consult with the books for per-requisite knowledge or with some expert)Note down the probable concepts(definitions, unit, dimension etc.)Note down necessary theories, formula etc Solve problems as maximum as possible(from text books, Guide books etc)Think about various tricks in solving problems(if necessary, note it)Go for series of self tests based on this chapter(take other's help to conduct tests)Continue the self tests until getting a very good score

5. Solve more and more problems, discover more and more new tricks…

6. Follow the same procedure for the rest chapters

7. Finally, go for self tests based on whole syllabus(take other's help to conduct these tests)

8. Well, So...... on the exam day…you will be at your best, who can stop you?

9. Uniqueness in their  Study material provided by the coaching institutes is of little assistance if they are compact copy-paste or rewrite of materials taken from other books. If the reading of such material doesn’t increase interest and enjoyment then they are not worth it. There are plenty of standard books on each subject by good authors, which can make your study enjoyable during preparation.

10. Collection of quality books in their library: During the process of theory conceptualization and building application capabilities, you need good books, which can really put your brain on exercise. Check out their library!

11. Flexibility in the Coaching Model: What happens when your pace of learning is much faster or slower than the average? Is there any mechanism by which the model can identify exactly where you need help and provide the same? Is it possible in that coaching model to minimize the wastage of your time?

12. Quality of questions discussed: Number of questions discussed is not that important. By discussing and solving 10-15 conceptual questions on each topic you can build a good application capability. On the other hand solving many tricky non-conceptual questions will simply waste your time.

13. Tests and evaluation model: How is the progress of your preparation tested and analyzed? To what extent the feedback helps in identifying the areas for further work? Here I must say that this is the most crucial part of the preparation. This is the area where most of the students fail due to lack of proper test materials which can help them to build in themselves a real-test-like environment and temperament. Once you are able to choose the correct assistance for your GATE journey, it will be an enjoying and thrilling experience.

14. Simulate actual test environment : This is very important. The actual test happens in a classroom, and is timed. When you take up the test, switch off your cell phone, have a timer which times your tests, and avoid taking any breaks. Also, if possible, take up a mock test series which enables you to take the test in a classroom environment..

15. Take up an all India test series which gives you your percentile and All India Rank : This is very important to avoid the “frog in the pond syndrome. Students tend to take it easy if they attain a high score in the tests. However, GATE is an exam in which people are selected on their relative scores. So even if you have scored 95% it does not essentially translate to a percentile of 95. You are competing with the best in India, and to get through GATE you should know where you stand to be among the ‘top few’ selected for the interview.

16. Analyze : Analyzing your test results is a very important part of taking the test. If you do not analyze, the test does not add value. You should minutely analyze and define as to where you could have scored more; analyze your accuracy rates in various topics and maintain a topic wise datasheet which lists your performance topic wise for different test papers..

How to Prepare for GATE by EXPERTS!!!!!!!!!

Preparation for GATE is an ongoing process, and is supposed to happen in stages. First get your fundamentals right, and then test yourself on those fundamentals. When you have done this, you should pit yourself with the competition, which means a mock test which would give you a percentile to let you know where you stand amongst competitors.

How do you choose which coaching material to go with. This is something that is quite subjective. A coaching material cannot be assessed until you have gone through it. So, you could go by the word of your seniors as to what coaching material they followed to prepare for GATE.

Here are some parameters on which you can decide whether you should go for a particular coaching institute, use a particular coaching material, or tests:

1. Uniqueness in their study material: Study material provided by the coaching institutes is of little assistance if they are compact copy-paste or rewrite of materials taken from other books. If the reading of such material doesn’t increase interest and enjoyment then they are not worth it. There are plenty of standard books on each subject by good authors, which can make your study enjoyable during preparation.

2. Collection of quality books in their library: During the process of theory conceptualization and building application capabilities, you need good books, which can really put your brain on exercise. Check out their library!

3. Flexibility in the Coaching Model: What happens when your pace of learning is much faster or slower than the average? Is there any mechanism by which the model can identify exactly where you need help and provide the same? Is it possible in that coaching model to minimize the wastage of your time?

4. Quality of questions discussed: Number of questions discussed is not that important. By discussing and solving 10-15 conceptual questions on each topic you can build a good application capability. On the other hand solving many tricky non-conceptual questions will simply waste your time.

5. Tests and evaluation model: How is the progress of your preparation tested and analyzed? To what extent the feedback helps in identifying the areas for further work? Here I must say that this is the most crucial part of the preparation. This is the area where most of the students fail due to lack of proper test materials which can help them to build in themselves a real-test-like environment and temperament. Once you are able to choose the correct assistance for your GATE journey, it will be an enjoying and thrilling experience.

Here are some things apart from working on your engineering concepts, that you should do for a complete preparation for GATE:

 1. Solve previous years’ GATE papers: Solving previous years’ papers gives you a fair idea of what the actual paper would be like. It also brushes up your basics and exposes your ‘areas of improvement’.

2. Solve test papers: Solve as many test papers as possible. This actually is the best way to keep improving as you prepare for GATE.

3. Analyze : Analyzing your test results is a very important part of taking the test. If you do not analyze, the test does not add value. You should minutely analyze and define as to where you could have scored more; analyze your accuracy rates in various topics and maintain a topic wise datasheet which lists your performance topic wise for different test papers.

4. Simulate actual test environment : This is very important. The actual test happens in a classroom, and is timed. When you take up the test, switch off your cell phone, have a timer which times your tests, and avoid taking any breaks. Also, if possible, take up a mock test series which enables you to take the test in a classroom environment.

Pre-preparation for the GATE preparation

In this post I will try to answer some of the important questions that usually arise in the mind of a GATE aspirant.

PHASE 1: To become familiar with GATE exam.

I think I should start with the very basic question, “What is GATE all about?”

You can get the answer of this question by simply visiting the website of any IIT or IISc. For your reference I am providing one link below. One can go through that.

http://www.gate.iitb.ac.in/gate2k9/index.htm

Please note that this information is about GATE09 only. It may be subjected to change for GATE10. The websites will be updated as form for GATE10 will be available. Generally form is available in the month of October or September end.

PHASE 2: Preparation.

For a GATE aspirant after getting answer of first question the chunk of questions will arise regarding preparation. Now I am trying to answer all those questions one by one.

1. What is the correct time to start preparation for GATE?

Ideally one should study all the courses thoroughly at the college level. It means that the preparation for GATE starts as soon as one takes admission in the engineering college. But I know this is the ideal thing and only few can do this.

As in beginning no one can decide whether he want to do M.tech or not. This maturity comes in the 2^nd or 3^rd year only, as now one can decide whether he is interested in the technical stuffs or not.

As far as my personal opinion is concerned one should start preparation during the 3^rd year. And one should appear for GATE in the 3^rd year to have a feel about exam, but if one have not prepared well this will be of no worth. So try to complete as many subjects as possible (perfectly) before you appear for the GATE during the 3^rd year. This will help you a lot to find out where you are lacking in preparation, how to manage the paper in 3 hours, what is the effect of negative marking and all such important issues.

2. What is the authentic material for the preparation?

There are many different opinions for the answer of this particular question.

As far as I am concerned I had took lot of pain in the selection of authentic material for preparation. As this is the most important aspect of the preparation.

There are so many misconceptions that the book from GK publication is enough for the preparation or say various materials available from different coaching institutes do the work. Frankly speaking all these materials available in the market are supplements only. They are not at all enough for the perfect preparation for GATE.

The most important material is authentic books for a particular subject. Always prepare any subject from authentic books only.

I had approached to IITs’ professors for this and I had come to know about the various authentic books which probably I had not used during my college. And I had experienced the difference too between books used at our colleges and these books. Some of the books were same too.

I am going to produce a list of books to be used for different subjects of mechanical engineering.

1. Advanced Engineering mathematics by

a. Erwin kreyszig (John wiley & sons publication) (strongly recommended)

b. Dr.B.S.Garewal (Khanna publications) (strongly recommended)

2. Engineering mechanic (statics and dynamics) by

a. Beer and Johnston (the Tata McGraw Hill publications)

b. Prof. P.J.shah
(few but various enough examples - good book)

3. Strength of material by

a. G.H.Ryder (English Language Book society)

4. Theory of machines by

a. Amitabh Ghosh and Ashok kumar mallik ( Affiliated East –West press private Limited)

b. S.S. Rattan ( The Tata McGraw Hill publications)

Both the books are necessary for the preparation.

5. Machine design by

a. R.S.Khurami ( S.Chand & sons publication)

Though this is not the authentic book but for subject it is more than enough for GATE)

6. Vibrations by

a. V.P.singh

7. Fundamentals of thermodynamics by

a. P.K.Nag (The Tata McGraw Hill publications)

b. Van Whylen (John wiley & sons publication)

Both books are strongly recommended and necessary for total preparation.

8. Refrigeration and Air conditioning by

a. R.K.Rajput (thermal science and engineering) (Laxmi publications)

b. http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/

This is the website developed by the IITs. Here you can get web courses for almost all courses. But the psychometric processes described here are too good. Please go through that.

9. Applied thermodynamics

a. R.K.Rajput (thermal science and engineering) (Laxmi publications)

10. Heat and Mass transfer by

a. Yunus A.cengel (The McGraw-Hill companies)

To understand the fundamentals properly I strongly recommend this book

11. Fluid mechanics and machines

a. Dr.R.K.Bansal (Laxmi publications) (strongly recommended)

b. Yunus A.cengel (The McGraw-Hill companies)

To understand the fundamentals properly I strongly recommend this book

12. Manufacturing science by

a. P.N.Rao (volume 2 and 3) (The Tata McGraw Hill publications)

b. Amitabh Ghosh and Ashok kumar mallik ( Affiliated East –West press Private limited)

c. P.C.Sharma

d. S.Kalpakjian (Pearson Education) (very nice book) (fundamentally strong)

All these books are necessary for the complete understanding of the subject manufacturing science.

13. Management science and Operations management

a. Hamdy A.Taha (operations research)( prentice hall of India privet limited)

b. William J. Stevenson ( introduction to management science)(IRWIN pub)

c. B.Mahadevan (Operations management) (Dorling Kindersley (India)Privet limited)

d. J.K.sharma (operations research)

Note. The topic named “Probabilistic Inventory system” is nicely given in the Brilliant tutorials.

To understand the fundamentals properly I strongly recommend this book

Besides this previous 10 to 12 years solved GATE papers are needed.

Mechanical Engineering – Final Year Project Ideas

Benefits of final year project

Your final year project (BE or ME) can help you in the following ways:
1. You can increase your overall percentage by scoring 90 to 95% marks through a good project.
2. An industry-oriented project can add extra weight age to your resume and help you get a good job in the core mechanical industry.
3. A technically good project can give you an added advantage if you are planning for higher studies in US, UK, Germany etc.

Hence, make your final-year project valuable even if it takes a little more time and effort.

Choose the right industry
You can choose one of the following industries for your project:
Aerospace, Automobile, Marine, HVAC, Oil & Gas, Industrial, Turbo-machines, Machine-tools, Appliances etc.

Choose the right type
You can choose one of the following types:

a. Experimental Projects:
a.i. This type of projects need good lab-facilities and hi-tech instruments for measuring your experimental set-up accurately. Only IITs and IISc have such facilities. Students from Tier II and private colleges try their best but mostly end-up in cooking-up the results or change the project at the last moment due to non-availability of the above facilities.

a.ii. Also it involves more time and cost for setting up the project for those students who are already tightly scheduled with final-exams or campus interviews.

a.iii. This type is feasible for those who don’t have such constraints.

b. Design Projects:
a.i. CAE Projects – Stress analysis, dynamic analysis etc. of aero, auto or mechanical systems can be done through these projects. New design, Improving performance, optimization can be accomplished. FEM based software like ANSYS, NASTRAN, RADIOSS, HYPERMESH etc. can be used.

a.ii. CFD Projects – Flow analysis, Thermal analysis, Aerodynamics improvement are the typical projects. This uses software like FLUENT, STAR-CCM+ are used for CFD analysis.

a.iii. Flexibility and accuracy are the major advantages in this type of projects.
a.iv. However it needs some additional training

Job Opportunities

Interviewers give more weight age for good projects.
CAE or CFD projects in Aerospace and automobile systems have more job opportunities in India, US, Europe and Japan. At the same time HVAC, Oil & Gas, Marine have good opportunities in Gulf.
Choose a RELEVANT project. Go ahead and choose the right project using the above factors. All the best….

Some Project Titles.

1. CFD projects in Automobile Industry
2. Design Optimization of Diesel Engine Manifold using CFD Simulations
3. Improving the mileage of a passenger car through aerodynamics re-design using CFD Techniques
4. CFD projects in Aerospace Industry
5. Prediction and minimization of drag on an aircraft wing using CFD Analysis
6. Design of aircraft safety systems using CFD analysis
7. CAE project in Automobile Industry
8. Design optimization of chassis of a truck using CAE analysis
9. Redesign of a suspension system for passenger car using CAE analysis
10. CAE project in Aerospace Industry
11. Design optimization of nose-cone frame of an aircraft using CAE analysis
12. Performance optimization of wing-box of an aircraft using CAE analysis

More projects…

http://www.techzilon.com/aps.html

The choice of the industry can be based on your interest or based on future job-opportunities.

Study Abroad: All You Need To Know

By Inspire and Ignite

I received a message from my brother asking for guidance on GRE or GATE. I asked him to choose GRE, take coaching and stay serious till he crack it. He was bit surprised and asked me you write so much on GATE and when it comes to me you are recommending to go abroad for higher studies.

I asked him to read my post on GATE or GRE: Which one to choose, to understand me better. I kept trying to go to good university abroad right from MS till PhD. I could not pursue it or ignored that option due to lack to guidance and knowledge about how to pursue father, especially for PhD. I don’t regret the decisions I made and feel that it was really best for me that I completed all my education back in India. After living outside India for almost a decade and spending good time working with top university professors in the world I felt its important to share Study abroad in detail.

In this post I will share what all you need to know to go to study aboard, things one much consider even before applying GRE exam, what will make your journey a successful one.

Affordability
Going abroad for studies is not free, we need to fulfill few requirements and pay some fees and other costs (may be you will get them back in couple months). These costs include, coaching classes for GRE and TOFEL, running for recommendation letters, official transcripts of your degree, applications fees, flight charges and minimum living expenses would cost you minimum 3~4 Lakh Indian Rupees.

There are two ways to get this money, one is from family if they can afford it, second is to take education loan. Ironically education loan is more expensive than personal loan in India. I will discuss how to deal this money issues in coming posts under study abroad category.

Make Own Living
Some universities give fee exemption and a little scholarship every month for student survival. If you get admission with full fee waiver and scholarship then consider yourself as one of the lucky chap. Otherwise, you must be willing to study and doing some kind of job to pay your bills (room rent, food and other stuff). For me it was hard to imagine making living and studying as I am average student need more time to complete my assignment and actually learn the subjects. Studying and making my living was totally out of question for me.

GRE, TOFEL and IELTS Exams
As we are not native English speakers and most of us are rural backgrounds with little or no exposure to English as it must be there, we face huge difficulty while preparing for these exams. On the same time as our strength in math will help us to compensate this.

All these exams and their coaching is expensive.

Good University Admission
If you are not from IITs or some top school in India, cracking to top universities in US, Canada, Australia and UK is very difficult. If you are not from a good university landing in a part time job (for living in case of no monthly scholarship) or a permanent job would be damn difficult. With the visa getting expired you will feel more insecure and troubled.

Remember you are not going anywhere less than middle tire universities to have a great career. Otherwise better stay in India and nail it down to IITs and then go abroad for job. Dont compare going to US for MS with IITs.

There are ways you can still knock the doors of top engineering schools without a Bachelors degree from IITs or top universities in India. I will share this in coming posts.

Open For Non-English Speaking Nations
If we move toward developed non English speaking nation, all conditions will be relaxed and opportunities will increase. But one same, do keep in mind that you learn the language of the nation you are going, to make best use of your time.

In many countries, this will fetch your free tuition, and a monthly scholarship to take care of your expenses. If you are too weak in English and have issues with GRE then try this option. While trying to go non-English speaking countries make sure you have the list of top university and you apply in top 10.

I see great teaching faculty in many universities. A great teacher will make sure you learn the subject that eventually help you land a wonderful career.

Hope this will help you have an idea about what it takes to go abroad for studies. I will be writing few more posts related study abroad its advantages and disadvantages, common mistakes and issues. To get all the updates do subscribe to InI, likes us on FB and follow in Google plus.

Wish you all a great luck ahead

How To Prepare For GATE: Nikhil Krishnan (AIR 4) GATE 2011 (part-2)

I usually hit bed around midnight, it was 1.30AM in the morning I was awake and don’t know how to spend time. I was waiting for 2.30AM to start interview with Nikhil. He gave time at 11PM IST, and I live 4hr ahead of Indian time. I didn’t ask Nikhil to reschedule or change time because his interview was soooo much important for every single student that I cannot even thought for second to reschedule it.
After talking to him for more than hour and a half I realized that it really worth talking to him. There were several network and sound issues, but we both enjoyed the talk and tried to make it as useful and beneficial as possible.
We hope these efforts will help many students, but what makes us happier is your own contribution to your future. If you listen to us and rock your future we are successful in spending our nights, overcoming timing and geographical barriers and giving such an effort in spite of heavily hectic schedules. All these efforts are just to ask you to give your best.
Without writing any other thing, let me share what Nikhil is talking about in second part.

1. Many Publishers for GATE study material, how to choose best and deal with rest?
2. NPTEL and other online video lectures, how much time do one need to spend with them?
3. How to prepare for GATE in short time, tips for student started preparing from now?
4. When to start solving questions, after each chapter or after completing whole subject?
5. How to prepare for aptitude and general mathematics?
6. What was your biggest mistake in GATE preparation?
7. How to prepare for GATE in 3 to 4 months?

Here we go with the video, just get back and relax and listen to whole interview. Do spare us for sound quality and network issues in between. 

This was Nikhil, answered few basic questions for students all across the nation. Do share it with your friends, book mark it and listen to again and again during your preparation, this will definitely motivate you to prepare for the best.
We had lots of issues with network and sound quality but I tried to present best possible sound after processing it, please spare us for that. Do like it on youtube, I don’t know how does it matter everyone is just asking to give a thums up and I asked too.
The next part of the interview is exclusively about how manage 3hr of GATE exam time. How to exploit best practices to rip off the best results from your preparation. The tips given would definitely help every single student preparing for paper based entrence exams, whether it GATE, JEE, JAM, AIEEE or any other entrance exam.

How to manage time for gate preparation?

by All about Education

Time management is a real trick for achieving any goal in life. GATE is no exception. Recently, I have been receiving many emails and questions regarding time management for GATE exam. The questioners are either having full time job or students of final or pre final year.

The answer is not easy, and every great thing is not easy in life. If someone has a full job or college to attend they need a give an extra effort by managing their time tightly. For managing time first one need to find where is the time that they can use. I have few points to share with you all regarding time management.

• Check daily routine and write down these activities on a paper with hours. Don’t need to be very hard and strict about timing, don’t need to mention exact hour and minutes of the activity.
• Once we have a list of activities we do in a day we also have a good idea of what we are doing in a day.
• Figure out activities we are doing for fun and can be compromised for certain time.
• Make use of this time for GATE preparations.

When I was student I noticed that usually I spend time in traveling and with friends without doing any productive work. My college was 13 KM away from home and used to take about 30 minutes to reach there.

The first thing I did was started using public transportation. And second thing was to go little early. By which I can get a seat in bus to go to college and I spend that travel time either for reading, revising or taking rest in bus.

I was a student so I used that early hours to sit in library and prepared GATE and other exams. And another thing I did was to leave college very late may be at library closing time. I tried to make best use of library. When I finished my B.Tech, everyone knows where I am, if I am not in class. To make it great we need to sacrifice and need cut some of the thing which we love. Every time we make a hard decision by knowing what are we are doing, it will benefit us in long run. The hard work always pays us, one or the other day, in one or the other day.

The common distracters for students are

1. Travel long distance driving our own vehicles on regular basis.
2. TV serials
3. Too much unproductive time wasting friends
4. Too much sleeping
5. Spending too much in markets
6. Watching movies almost every weekend, watching them from bed till return to bed.

These are few common time consumers in life. If we manage them properly we can do many things miraculously on time. 

The last point is to be very consistent in our preparation. It’s not a one day job it’s a consistent effort achieve big result. 

GATE is big opportunity for student who didn’t have a chance to prove, because of image issue with lectures in B.Tech. They have a golden opportunity to prove. GATE is totally an open competition and you may beat the best student of your college with consistent efforts. 

 

Your friends may tease for your change, please don’t worry about them much. They will also cherish your great achievements in future and feel great to associate themselves with you. Hard work with consistency will take you there.

How to start preparing for GATE?

By All about Education

Once you are decided to take up GATE exam and read important information related to it, you are ready to go ahead with preparation. I have few suggestions for students who are serious about cracking GATE exam.

I divided the whole process of preparation in few steps and every individual student who aced the GATE will follow these in one or the other way. These are just simple guidelines but the most important thing is your dedication and determination. If you read these steps and appreciate them but don’t follow them then these are of no use. Therefore, I recommend every student to be very sincere and give a good try. The steps are as follows.

• Buy or get a copy of previous year question papers if possible with solutions. Having a hard copy is very important and we are going to refer it again and again during whole preparation.
• Refer to syllabus and analyze the number of questions asked in each subject. As all subjects don’t have equal marks, few subjects are preferred over others. I mean few subject may have more questions asked in exam than others. I don’t have this subject break up for GATE. If you have done this exercise, please share with us to share with many other students and also we can have a discussion over its validity.
• Make a priority list of subjects based on marks or preference given it in previous exams. Marks distribution of subject will help you prioritize and allocate preparation time to different subjects. If distribution is not prepared we usually end up in a random preparation and finally will have tough time dealing with important subjects. Just for example, in GATE CS and IT paper, around 15~20% is from Mathematics, and then Programming and Data Structures, Theory of computation, OS and digital logic.
• Allocate realistic time for each subject. And read it all, as there is huge to cover and it’s easy to ask few marks question from anywhere in a subject.
• Finish through reading of a chapter of subject, make short notes of important points, this will help you at last moment to revise what you have read.
• Once finish a chapter, go back to GATE Question papers and solve the problems from that chapter. These days there lots of question banks available in market for GATE do buy one and practice. Also to try to get Test Series from other friends. Solve all of them. This will help you to assess yourself for level of understanding of the chapter you read. Use a single note book for question answer solution because you may refer it while revising.
• Finish detailed reading at least one and half month before. Keep one month for revisions and clearing leftover doubts. Have a look of question you solved during preparation for GATE and remember how you solved them.
• Keep last 15 days for fast practice and revision. Solve as many papers and question banks as you can get from any source.
• Keep documents related to GATE like, acknowledgment of application, like hall tickets, application number and other details, in a safe place. Give it to mom or someone responsible, who can give that back to you when you need them. This is to avoid last minute tension for obvious things.

I hope these points will help many of to take a start off. Please don’t waste time and take a start. The one who start early and work consistently reach early and hope see IITs for M.Tech. GATE is a simple exam just needs constant effort to crack it. Don’t worry about competition by number of candidates appearing for GATE, make highest marks as your competition.

Don’t forget to subscribe by email to get updates in email and also do not hesitate to become a fan on face book or drop a comment.

Wish you all a wonderful luck…

M.Tech or MBA, which is better to choose?

By All About Education

This is one of the most common questions among final year engineering students. And the answer to this is not simple and just or no. There is not point comparing M.Tech Vs MBA or so, because both the courses are different and have different jobs and placements scope.

Answer to M.Tech or MBA truly depends on few factors such as where are doing engineering, what do you know and think about MBA job prospects, what do you want to do in long term and how any of these degrees help you to achieve this. I will try to mention my situation and decision when I was in engineering final year and had similar question in mind.

To start, I did B.Tech, M.Tech and PhD in computer science all in a row without taking a break and now want to do MBA. As mentioned in above paragraph these decisions depend on number of factors.

I was an average student in a private college and used to spend good amount to time in college library where they had subscription for some IEEE magazines and few general IT magazines. IEEE general magazines had last few pages of advertisement for professor jobs in different universities, average salary was around $60000 a year, which was around 25 lakh Indian rupees a year.

Apart from monitory benefit I also had in mind the social status of professor job, contribution to society and motivation to learn. Another reason was my dad’s respect to educated people compare to rich people. Rich were treated as normal people and students who scored good or achieved something great were always praised and remembered again and again.

At that time I know the only minimum condition for professor job and that was PhD in computer science, therefore I kept chasing it. But I never know the other conditions for that job such as publication, number of Phd, Research experience, Editorial memberships and conference organizing experience along with excellent teaching performance are just few to mention.

I did not opted for MBA after my B.Tech because most of MBA’s were from BSc. B.Com background. At that time with the name MBA I can only understand that if you are lucky enough you can get seat in some sate state universities. And I saw most of the MBAs working as either medical representatives or direct sales executives. With this vision of MBA it was clearly not my choice.

Wherever I went after B.Tech, I decided to learn more things there along with avoiding mistakes, which I did in past. The most important among them was making high scores. I had first class in B.Tech, I decided to make it distinction or university rank in M.Tech. I chased it again and gave tough competition, made maximum as my competition rather than some student. Good time started and I became one of the recognized ones and very independent. Good performance boosted confidence and I decided to move for PhD.

To cut the story short, I was very successful and happy with my decision. May be I made great decisions every time and reached to a place where I dreamed to go. Got PhD and joined as assistant professor in an institute of national importance. Then decided to see the software industry and resigned from professor job and join Samsung in Korea.

One day I was attending a lecture for new employees in Samsung and the presenter was from Harvard business school. He is a Swiss national and may be 5 year older than me but a vice president of strategy in Samsung. I met him during tea break and then we met many times in company. This made me think what a good MBA can do. MBA is not about just selling something. Its really about managing.

I decided to go for MBA, weird for many people and beyond imagination that MBA after PhD. But still I have a plan for it and I know an MBA form great school can do it. My view for MBA changed now, because I know what MBA’s does I feel confidant for that position and I m chasing it again.

To summarize, you should feel confidant about your future for the course you are opting for. This makes your work hard for it and you grow happy with that. I was confidant about M.Tech after B.Tech and thought that course will make me reach safe position, now I feel that with an MBA from Stanford or Harvard I will grow faster and server better.

What after B.Tech?

 By All About education

Another common question usually struck in an engineering student is what after Engineering. In this post I tired to figure out what are best possible options you can choose and are not exceptions. In other words well known and common options that you can choose after B.Tech.

Hunting a Job:
If one feel that is been to heavy to study for four years and want to start making money, then start early hunt for job. Make a profile in all job sites and social job networking sites like LinkedIn. Give it a big try and attend all walk-ins and apply all the places where you find suitable. Be prepared to travel a lot in the search from Bangalore to Pune, Pune to Dehi, Delhi to noida anywhere. Don’t miss any advertisement for fresher and don’t give up. Refer to Engineering future, scope and prospects for core companies offering jobs in special domain. 

M.Tech or MS:
If you think you need to improve or need a higher degree to feel secure or gain higher positions at right time, you should look at all possible ways to crack GATE and think about M.Tech. If you are interested in having a foreign exposure and think your family can help and support you, then start preparing for GRE, TOFEL and start looking for universities that are suitable for that.

MBA Lets change the domain:
We study Engineering for four years and at the end we are almost clear about our decision of joining some engineering stream and our career in that. By the end we know whether we can stay in the same domain, stream, or field of engineering and improve or it is kind of wasting our time if we remain in the same engineering field and you decide to change your area of study. MBA is a very good alternative, but make sure you are going to a right place for MBA. 

Research:
If you think you have patience and motivation for studying for several years ahead and work for a cool and successful career you should consider doing PhD after B.Tech, many IITs take admissions to PhD even right after B.Tech. This may take on the average 4 to 6 years to complete but will definitely make you a strong player in real life and make you confident.

Start Your Own
The exceptions can be to Start a company, be an entrepreneur and explore your world. If you have some hobby can make it a profession and make earning from that, for example paining, writing, singing, music and photography and many other hobbies. But be careful about these options they involve more risk and more gains.

What if I don’t get any of these?

This is really an important question to be answered. I feel the alternatives are join some value added courses and in some good institutes like CDAC and others that offer great value and job opportunities, as these require a good amount of money I never tried it. Rather I prefer to join a teaching job for several months use college library to maxim level prepare for interviews or GATE or GRE and get ready to jump to above fields I mentioned above. But I will sincerely be working towards my students too.

Wish everyone a great luck and ask you chase your dream with confidence. If don’t feel confident please go ahead and do something that makes confident.

Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education

The Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education can be summarized as:

1. Encouraging student-faculty contact

2. Encouraging cooperation among students

3. Encouraging active learning

4. Giving prompt feedback

5. Emphasizing time on task

6. Communicating high expectations

7. Respecting diverse talents and ways of learning

How to study fluid mechanics and mathematics?

How to study fluid mechanics and mathematics?

From my side, I will add this.  Fluid mechanics is a subject that you will be using in your career long after you have passed AeSI, so I suggest that spend maximum time in understanding the concepts . Relate them to your life and make them spring out of the text book . Source sink, fluid dynamics, viscosity, Reynolds's number are the core pillars of further studies. So while learning understand them well, use your imagination to connect them to your life. Study with question answer style for maximum retention.

While reading the material, write down small quiz questions on the topic you are reading. They will
be used to revise the concepts latter. My tuition teacher used this approach. While going through  the topics he made us write down trivial questions like what is source? Give examples of sink? What is the most viscous materials you have seen? etc. That time we felt, the questions were waste of time, but latter I realized how useful they were for revising the concepts.

For every study session. Spend ten minutes revising what you have already studied. If you have formed those small questions then use them to jog your memory. This ten minutes jogging session not only reinforces the previous studied material but help you begin the next session with a  positive momentum.

This three concepts can be applied to mathematics and the other subjects. Just remember, that if you can setup a simple process for your study and follow it consistently, that is more than sufficient to help you tackle any subject that AeSI throws at you.

Good luck!!
If you have some specific tip, do chip in and comment!!

Syllabus for RRB JE/SE

The written section will consists of the following
sections.
1. Aptitude Test
2. Technical Test.

SYLLABUS:
General Awareness
General Intelligence
General English.
Reasoning Ability
Arithmetic Ability
Technical Ability(Applied post subjects)
The syllabus of the technical Ability section is of the
Degree/Diploma Level subjects.
The detailed syllabus is as follows:-

General Awareness
Acronyms
Books and Authors
Current Events
Famous Personalities
Geography of India
Honours and Awards
Important Dates
Sports

General Intelligence
Analogies
Coding and Decoding
Comparison of Ranks
Direction Sense Test
Logical Sequence of Words
Number Series
Odd man out series
Series Completion

General English
Antonyms
Comprehension
Meanings
Relationship between words
Sentence Correction
Synonyms

Arithmetic Ability
Angles and sides of various shapes
Computation of decimals
Computation of Fractions
Computation of whole numbers
LCM and HCF
Percentage
Probability
Relationship between numbers
Square root and Cube root
Volume and Surface Area
Reasoning Ability
Analyzing Arguments
Blood Relation Test
Cause and Effect
Making Judgments
Puzzles
Seating Arrangement
Statement and Assumption
Statement and Conclusion

Technical Ability
Applied Physics
Applications of Light
Applications of Sound
D.C. Circuits
Electromagnetism
Electrostatics
Expansion of Solids
Force and Motion
Heat Transfer
Rotational and Simple Harmonic Motions
Temperature and Its Measurement
Units and Dimensions
Waves
Work, Power and Energy
Applied Mechanics
Centre of Gravity
Friction
Laws of Forces
Laws of Motion
Moments
Simple Machines
Basic Electronics
Basic Logic Gates
FET*construction, working and
applications
Regulated Power Supply
Semiconductor Diodes
Semiconductor Physics
Single Stage Transistor Amplifier
Transistor Biasing and Stabilization
Transistors
Electronic Devices and Circuits
Feedback in Amplifiers
Multistage Transistor Amplifier
Sinusoidal Oscillators
Transistor Audio Power Amplifier
Tuned*Voltage Amplifiers
Wave *Shaping And Switching Circuits
Electrical Power
Carrier Communication
Distribution System
Earthing
Faults
Over Voltage protection
Power Factor
Protection Devices
Protection Scheme
Substations
Switchgear System
Transmission Systems
Various Types of Tariffs
Electrical Science
AC Theory
Battery
DC Circuits
Electromagnetic Induction
Magnetism and Electromagnetism
Polyphase System
Power Electronics
Applications of SCRs and Triacs
Basic Power Control Devices
Commutation of SCRs
Introduction to Digital Electronics
Introduction to Integrated Circuits,
Operational Amplifiers
SCR specifications
SCR triggering mechanisms
Series and parallel configuration of SCRs
Working principle of a full wave, single
phase, SCR controlled rectifier for
resistive and inductive loads