Eleven Lectures, Endless Questions, and a Sunday of Sacrifices

Some days of GATE preparation are productive.

Some are exhausting.

And then there are days when you spend almost the entire day studying, take a break because your body refuses to cooperate, return to your desk, and still have more lectures waiting for you.

Day 21 was one of those days.

My target was six lectures of Theory of Computation and five lectures of Database Management Systems. I managed to complete all eleven, but the number of lectures alone doesn't explain how hectic the day actually was.

Let's get into it.

Six TOC Lectures That Felt Like Eight Hours

My primary focus today was completing the first chapter of Theory of Computation.

And as I approached the end of the chapter, the lectures became increasingly question-oriented.

The instructor was discussing and solving questions for most of the remaining portions.

My approach was simple: whenever a question appeared on the screen, I paused the lecture and attempted to solve it independently before looking at the solution.

Sounds like a good strategy, right?

Well, it is. But apparently, it also comes with a hidden subscription fee called TIME.

An ordinary one-hour lecture could easily stretch to almost two hours because I was solving the questions myself.

By the time I completed all six TOC lectures, approximately seven to eight hours had gone into the process.

It was exhausting, but I don't regret spending that time on questions.

Watching an instructor solve a problem and actually solving it yourself are two very different experiences. The second one exposes the gaps in your understanding, which is exactly what I need during GATE preparation.

DBMS: The Regret of Not Making Notes Earlier

After TOC, I continued with my DBMS revision.

I completed five lectures today, including the remaining lectures that I had planned to finish before sleeping.

And honestly, every time I revise DBMS, I regret not preparing proper notes when I originally studied the subject.

I genuinely don't know what I was thinking back then.

Maybe I underestimated how useful notes would be during revision. Whatever the reason, I am now paying for that decision.

So this time, I am doing things differently.

I am revising DBMS from scratch while preparing condensed notes alongside the lectures.

I am also attempting the questions and previous year questions discussed by the instructor instead of simply watching the solutions.

This makes the process considerably slower, but I would rather spend additional time understanding the concepts now than repeatedly struggle with the same gaps during later revision cycles.

Today's revision continued my work on the foundational concepts of relational databases and functional dependencies.

The larger goal is to build a stronger base before moving deeper into normalization and other DBMS topics.

Allergic Rhinitis Decided to Join My Preparation

Unfortunately, my body had its own plans for Sunday.

I was experiencing allergic rhinitis symptoms, including repeated sneezing.

At one point, I had to take an approximately one-hour nap.

It wasn't because I was simply feeling sleepy or wanted to avoid studying. I needed some rest to calm my symptoms and recover enough to continue with the remaining workload.

After the nap, I returned to studying.

It was another reminder that a preparation schedule might look perfect on paper, but real life doesn't always follow the timetable.

Still, I managed to complete the planned lectures.

And considering the circumstances, I am satisfied with that.

The Screen-Time Problem

Another thing I have started noticing is the appearance of dark spots or dark circles below my eyes.

I am sleeping reasonably well, so I suspect that my increased screen time might be contributing to the issue.

With lectures, question-solving, and digital study material occupying so much of my day, avoiding screens completely isn't exactly realistic right now.

I am hoping to take better care of these things as my routine becomes more manageable.

For now, I need to be careful not to treat my health as something that can simply be postponed indefinitely.

There is no point preparing for a better future while completely ignoring the person who is supposed to live it.

A Sunday Plan That Didn't Happen

There was another personal part of today that I want to record.

I had originally planned to meet my girlfriend on Sunday.

But with the workload becoming so hectic, I eventually skipped the meeting.

I am not particularly happy about having to cancel it, but I have made a decision about my current priorities.

For now, GATE preparation comes first.

I don't want to turn this into a long discussion or overanalyse the decision. I simply want to preserve it as part of today's experience because these personal trade-offs are also part of my preparation journey.

Not every sacrifice needs to be presented as some heroic moment.

Sometimes, it is just a decision you make because you have a goal in front of you and limited hours in the day.

Tomorrow: Back to the Office

Monday is an office day, so I have deliberately kept tomorrow's academic workload lighter.

My target is:

• TOC: 1 lecture of NFA (Non-Deterministic Finite Automata).
• DBMS: 5 lectures.

After completing the first chapter of TOC, I will now move further into the next chapter.

I want to maintain the October calendar without constantly changing deadlines.

The larger target remains 31 October for syllabus completion, followed by the revision and mock-test phase.

There is still plenty of work left, but the plan is already in place.

Day 21: Eleven Lectures, One Exhausting Sunday

Looking back, today was hectic.

The TOC questions consumed considerably more time than the lecture durations suggested. DBMS revision continued to demand extra effort because of my earlier decision not to make notes. Allergic rhinitis interrupted my schedule, and I had to put aside a personal plan.

But I still completed all eleven lectures.

I am beginning to understand that GATE preparation isn't always about how quickly I can finish a chapter.

Sometimes, it is about being patient enough to solve the question yourself, even when doing so doubles the time required.

I am hoping that these demanding days will give me better returns when I finally sit for the actual GATE CSE 2027 examination.

For now, that hope is enough to keep me moving.

Day 21 completed.

Tomorrow, it's back to the office, one NFA lecture, and another round of DBMS.

Let's keep going.