GATE is conducted jointly by the Indian Institute of Science and seven Indian Institutes of Technologies at Roorkee, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Chennai (Madras) and Mumbai (Bombay) on behalf of the National Coordination Board – GATE, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India.

GATE scores are also used by several Indian public sector undertakings for recruiting graduate engineers in entry-level positions.

[6] The GATE is used as a requirement for financial assistance (e.g. scholarships) for a number of programs, though criteria differ by admitting institution.

[7][8] The following students are eligible to take GATE:[citation needed] -year integrated master's degree programs (Post-B.Sc.)

There is no age limit criterion defined by the exam conducting authority to appear in GATE.

[9] The paper sections under XE*, XL** and XH*** are defined by some dedicated codes which are mentioned in the following table- (B1 and any 1 of C1 to C6) The examination is of 3 hours duration, and contains a total of 65 questions worth a maximum of 100 marks.

Calculation of "normalized marks" for subjects held in multiple sessions (CE, CS, EC, EE and ME): From 2014 onward, examination for CE, CS, EC, ME and EE subjects is being held in multiple sessions.

Hence, for these subjects, a suitable normalization is applied to take into account any variation in the difficulty levels of the question sets across different sessions.

The normalization is done based on the fundamental assumption that "in all multi-session GATE papers, the distribution of abilities of candidates is the same across all the sessions".

Further it is also ensured that for the same multi-session subject, the number of candidates allotted in each session is of the same order of magnitude."

For all other subjects (whose tests are conducted in a single session), the actual marks obtained by the candidates will be used in calculating the score.

The Government of India implemented reservations for other backward classes in college admissions and public sector job recruitment in the year 2008.

Sources:[14][15] The following line chart shows the number of candidates registered, appeared, and qualified (total of all subjects).

The computer based online exam for 2,02,223 candidates in fifteen papers was conducted in 572 centers spread over 123 cities and towns across the country on 20 January 2013.

The offline exam for 9,98,505 candidates in the remaining six papers was conducted in 992 centers spread over 183 cities and towns across the country on 10 February 2013.

[37] The city of New Delhi has the maximum number of qualified candidates who had mentioned it as their correspondence address.

"Correspondence address City" has a slightly different bearing compared to the "Permanent State".

In terms of the category as declared by the candidates [General, OBC (non-creamy layer), SC, ST and PwD], 85,063 General, 42,287 OBC (non-creamy layer), 17,085 SC, 4,224 ST and 1,035 PwD candidates qualified.

The examination for all the 22 papers was conducted in 8 sessions spread over 2 weekends, starting from 31 January 2015 and ending on 8 February 2015.

[citation needed] Some institutions specify GATE qualification as mandatory even for admission of self-financing students to postgraduate programs.

Top rank holders in some GATE papers are entitled to apply for "Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Fellowship" awarded by CSIR.

Some management institutes like NITIE, Mumbai offer admission to Post Graduate Diploma in Industrial Engineering on the basis of GATE score.

Even within the top institutes, the selection criteria varies widely across departments and programs depending on expertise areas.

[40] Stipend and tenure: The fellowship amount is ₹31,000 (US$360) per month plus HRA (house rent allowance).

In addition, contingency grant of ₹20,000 (US$230) per annum (calculated on pro-rata basis for fraction of a year) is also provided.

On completion of 2 years as JRF - GATE, the fellowship may be upgraded to SRF (Senior Research Fellowship) - GATE and stipend may be increased to ₹35,000 (US$400) per month in the subsequent years, on the basis of assessment of CSIR JRF-NET guidelines.

After the declaration of GATE results, candidates must apply through COAP, as its the only platform from which you can book your seat in post graduate programs in various institutes like the IITs.

Public sector undertakings (PSUs) in India, for long, have had troubles conducting their recruitment processes with more than 100,000 students taking the exams for less than 1000 jobs (a selection rate of less than 1%).

After sensing the exponential rise in the number of engineering graduates in India who wish to get a PSU job, the PSUs have decided that a GATE score shall be the primary criteria for initial shortlisting.

The syllabus for the GATE exam and its preparation remains the same, irrespective of whether one is applying for a job at a PSU or seeking admission for post-graduation in engineering.