GATE Examination Structure

GATE Examination Papers                                              GATE Examination Type

A candidate can apply for only ONE of the 21 papers listed in the table given below. In the tables given below, the columns titled 'Paper Title' and 'Title of the Section' provide links to the appropriate syllabus.

The choice of the appropriate paper is the responsibility of the candidate. Some guidelines in this respect are suggested below.

The candidate is expected to appear in a paper appropriate to the discipline of his/her qualifying degree. The candidate is, however, free to choose any paper according to his/her admission plan, keeping in mind the eligibility criteria of the institutions in which he/she wishes to seek admission.

Requests for change of GATE Examination paper after the submission of Application Form will not be considered.

GATE Examination Papers

XE (Engineering Sciences) and XL (Life Sciences) papers are of general nature and will comprise of the sections listed below. A candidate appearing in XE or XL paper will be required to answer three sections apart from the General Aptitude (GA) questions. Section A is compulsory in XE paper and Section H is compulsory in XL paper. The candidate can choose any two out of the remaining sections listed against the respective papers, at the time of examination.

GATE Examination Type

The GATE examination consists of a single paper of 3 hours duration which contains 65 questions carrying a maximum of 100 marks. The question paper will consist of only objective questions. In all papers other than AE, AG, AR, GG, MN and TF, all the questions are of multiple choice type. In AE, AG, AR, GG, MN and TF papers, the question paper will consist of questions of multiple choice type and also some questions of numerical answer type. For multiple choice type questions, each question will have four choices for the answer. For numerical answer type questions, each question will have a number as the answer. Click here to view the pattern of question papers. The examination for the papers with codes AE, AG, AR, GG, MN and TF will be carried out ONLINE using computers where the candidates will be required to enter the answer for each question using mouse. For all other papers, the candidates will have to mark the correct choice on an Optical Response Sheet (ORS) by darkening the appropriate bubble against each question. There will be negative marking for each wrong answer, except for the numerical answer type questions.

Each GATE paper shall have a General Aptitude (GA) component carrying 15 marks.