A Tiring Day That Still Ended With 10/11

Thursday started with something that has become an annoying little side quest in my GATE preparation: waking up with a lot of sneezing because of allergic rhinitis.

For a moment, I thought about taking a work-from-home day. But I'm already near the end of the quarter, and I don't have that many WFH days left in my account. So I decided to take my medication and head to the office instead.

And strangely enough, the train journeys ended up becoming my study sessions.

What I Studied Today

While going to the office, I completed one lecture of Computer Networks on the MAC Address chapter. The topic covered Pure ALOHA.

On the way back from the office, I completed another lecture covering Slotted ALOHA, another subtopic under random access protocols.

So even though I couldn't sit down at home and study for a long stretch, I managed to complete two CN lectures simply by using the time I normally spend travelling.

That's one thing I've been trying to get better at during this GATE preparation: using whatever study time is actually available instead of waiting for some mythical two-hour block where everything is perfectly quiet and my brain suddenly decides to cooperate.

The Office Party That Destroyed My Remaining Energy 😭

There was also a party at the office because our team won the Engineering Excellence Expo 2026.

Obviously, that's a good thing. I'm not complaining about celebrating a team achievement.

The problem was that I spent roughly one and a half to two hours standing during the party.

After that, I took the train back and walked from the station to home, which itself takes around 30–40 minutes because I'm trying to complete my 10,000 steps.

By the time I reached home, I was pretty drained.

And unfortunately, I had a Digital Logic Sequential Circuits topic-wise test scheduled.

There were actually two reasons I decided to postpone it.

First, I hadn't properly revised the topic before taking the test. Second, after the entire day, I simply didn't have much energy left.

So I pushed the test to Friday.

And honestly, I didn't feel great about that decision.

Making Up for the Postponed Test

Since postponing the test was bothering me, I decided that I shouldn't just end the day there.

Instead, I started solving the daily questions from my completed subjects.

I solved:

• 4 C Programming questions → 4/4 correct
• 7 Digital Logic questions → 6/7 correct

That gave me a total of 11 questions with 10 correct.

And that actually felt really good.

Not just because of the score, but because of what it represented.

When you solve questions from a subject you've already completed and get most of them right, there's this small feeling of reassurance that the subject isn't disappearing from your brain just because you've moved on to something else.

I've been a little concerned about maintaining my completed subjects while continuing the remaining syllabus. So getting 10 out of 11 today felt like evidence that the approach is working.

The postponed test was still postponed, but at least I didn't let that become an excuse to completely stop studying.

A Small Problem With Time

There was one more thing I probably should have handled better.

I was solving questions and didn't really notice how late it had become.

By the time I stopped, it was around 12:30 a.m., and I finally went to sleep at approximately 12:45 a.m.

So although I was happy with the question practice, staying up that late wasn't exactly ideal.

Apparently, humans continue to require sleep even when they're preparing for an important exam. Very inconvenient design choice.

What I Realized Today

Today's biggest positive wasn't completing a huge amount of study.

It was seeing that even on a tiring office day, I could still fit in meaningful preparation.

Two CN lectures during the train journeys, followed by 11 questions at night, isn't an extraordinary study day. But it's real progress.

And the 10/11 result gave me something I needed: reassurance that the subjects I've already completed are still staying fresh.

At the same time, postponing the Digital Logic test reminded me that there's a difference between simply completing a test because it is scheduled and actually being prepared to analyse it properly.

So Friday has a little unfinished business waiting for me.

Tomorrow

Friday is planned as a WFH day, which should give me more flexibility.

My main goals are:

• Complete two more Computer Networks lectures
• Write short notes for the previous CN lectures, including PCT and UDP
• Continue the pending CN notes
• Solve questions from completed subjects
• Finally take the Sequential Circuits Digital Logic test that I postponed today

Today wasn't perfect.

But it also wasn't a wasted day.

And honestly, at this stage of my GATE CSE 2027 preparation, that's probably a more useful way to judge the day.