Candidates are urged to ensure they meet the prescribed eligibility criteria of GATE 2020, as otherwise they will not be considered for admission. Some of the important eligibility parameters that candidates are most concerned about are related to academic qualification, age limit, and nationality. Find the answers to these doubts below.

Academic Qualification

While there is no minimum pass percentage that has been recommended for appearing in GATE 2020 exam, candidates must, however, meet eligibility criteria related to the qualifying exam which has been explained in the table below.

GATE Eligibility Criteria 2020 – To Qualifying Exam

*Candidates who possess certification from any of the professional societies must ensure that those examinations conducted by the societies are approved by MHRD/ AICTE as equivalent to B.E./ B.Tech./ B.Arch.

Nationality

• Indian nationals are eligible to apply for the exam
• Additionally, candidates from Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Ethiopia and United Arab Emirates (U.A.E) can also apply.

Age limit: There is no age limit for appearing in the exam.

Being a national-level exam that is attempted by more than 10 lakh candidates, the level of competition associated with GATE is very high. Also, the exam in itself possesses many tricky questions meaning success hinges on not only how hard the candidate prepares, but also the how of preparation. Here are some preparation tips the candidate can refer to to give edge to their success efforts.

• Make sure you are familiar with the exam pattern and syllabus. Or else you will get too many surprises on exam day which may be not to your liking
• Get surrounded by reliable study material
• Don’t put yourself under the pump by thinking too far ahead. Stay in the present and focus only on your preparation
• Make a preparation plan and stick to it
• Take notes during study. It will not only keep you focused, but with a little effort you will be able to build a solid and customized reference material. It will also come in very handy in the final days leading to the exam, as you won’t have to go through huge blocks of text.

IIT Delhi will issue the admit card of GATE 2020 in online mode on 03.01.2020. To download admit cards, candidates need to log-in to the GOAPS portal using their enrolment or email id and password. Discrepancies have to be checked by the candidates and if present they will have to get in touch with exam authorities to get it rectified.

On exam day, candidates need to bring an original and valid photo Identity proof along with the admit card; or else they will not be allowed to take the exam.

Step by Step Procedure to Download GATE 2020 Admit Card

Step 1: Go to the official website gate.iitd.ac.in

Step 2: Log-in using enrollment id/ email address and password

Step 3: Upon successful log-in, the admit card will displayed on the screen.

Step 4: Download the admit card and take printouts of the same.

What are the Documents Required (Allowed) for GATE Eaminations

Any one of the below give document is required for GATE examinations along with Admit card.

• Printout of GATE 2020 admit card
• Original and valid ID proof: passport, PAN Card, voter ID, Aadhaar-UID, college ID, employee ID or driving license

What are the Documents allowed with GATE 2020 admit card (Indian Students)

• Aadhaar Card
• Voter ID
• PAN Card
• Passport
• College ID
• Employee ID
• Driving License

What are the Documents allowed for International Candidates

• Valid Passport
• Government Issued ID
• College ID
• Employee ID

The qualifying GATE 2020 cutoff is the minimum marks that a candidate has to score to qualify in the examination. The qualifying cutoff will be subject-specific and will be released alongside the result in March. Please note the qualifying cutoff for GATE 2020 is not the same as the admission cutoff which will be determined by institutes for admission to various M.Tech courses offered by them.

Candidates can refer to the past year cutoff to understand the scores needed to qualify the exam.

GATE Qualifying Cutoff 2019 (Official report)

Interestingly, while IIT Delhi is the exam conducting body, it will not conduct any common counselling for GATE 2020. The candidate instead will have to apply separately for admission to M.Tech courses offered by various institutes based on GATE scores and ranks. In case the candidate wants to take admission in an IIT, he/ she will have to register on COAP, and also apply separately to the specific IIT. All offers made by participating institutes will be uploaded in the COAP portal; registered candidates in turn can accept or reject offers on the portal.

For admission to NITs, counselling is commonly done through CCMT.

What is GATE COAP?

The GATE Common Offer Acceptance (COAP) was started in 2017 by the IITs as a common admission platform for making admission offers to candidates. So, while the candidate still needs to apply to an IIT individually for admission, he/she will only know about any offers by registering on the COAP portal. Also, the acceptance or rejection of offers can be made only through COAP.

Admission to IITs is a two-step process:

1. Apply to an IIT (or IITs): The candidate has to apply to the IIT based on their GATE scores.
2. Register on COAP to view, accept or reject admission offers. Based on the applications received by the IITs, they will make all the offers on COAP portal.

Note: IIT COAP is not an application portal, but instead an admission portal.

CCMT:

Admissions to the postgraduate programmes will be through CCMT which is the Centralized Counselling for M.Tech/ M.Arch/ M.Plan admissions at the NITs, and other GFTIs. Candidates have to fill the application form on CCMT to be conducted by one of the NITs, fill their choices of courses and institutes and after the seat is allotted on the basis of their GATE score, they must complete admission formalities if they accept the seat.