My Birthday Gift Was 2.67/25 in Algorithms

Day 53 of my GATE CSE 2027 preparation was also my birthday.

Naturally, I expected cake, wishes, and perhaps a reasonably peaceful day.

Instead, I received 2.67 out of 25 in an Algorithms topic-wise test.

So yes, Algorithms decided to give me a tight slap as a birthday present. Very thoughtful. 🎂👋

The day was actually productive before the test. I continued Group Theory, cleared a pending notes task, and practised Theory of Computation questions.

Then came the Algorithms test.

And things went downhill rather efficiently.

Continuing Group Theory

I started the day by continuing Group Theory Lecture 2.

I haven't completed the lecture yet, and I'm currently studying groups and their properties. Group Theory is taking time, which I expected to some extent because Discrete Mathematics is not a subject I want to rush through just to satisfy a timetable.

One good thing from today was that I completed the previously pending Group Theory Lecture 1 notes.

That was important because I didn't want another notes backlog to quietly build up in the background while I continued watching more lectures. I've already experienced how pending notes can become their own separate problem.

For now, my plan is simple: finish Lecture 2 properly and then prepare its notes.

TOC Practice Before Everything Went Wrong

I was also thankful that I had already done some Theory of Computation work earlier.

I practised approximately 10–15 questions from the Regular Expressions chapter.

This turned out to be fortunate because the rest of my planned study schedule was affected after the Algorithms test.

At least the day wasn't completely swallowed by one bad exam.

That is something I'm slowly learning during GATE preparation: sometimes one event can ruin your mood, but it doesn't have to erase everything productive you did before it.

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Algorithms Topic Wise Test 1: The Birthday Slap

The major event of the day was:

GO Classes CS Test Series | Algorithms | Topic Wise Test 1

My score was:

View my Algorithms Topic Wise Test 1 result →

It was bad.

There isn't much point in decorating that result with motivational wallpaper.

The test was bad, and it shook me.

I went through the questions, and there were only a couple that I felt capable of solving properly. The remaining questions contained concepts, terminology, approaches, and variations that felt unfamiliar to me.

After roughly 25 minutes, I was already mentally giving up on the test.

That was probably the most frustrating part.

I wasn't simply making silly mistakes on concepts I knew well.

For many questions, I genuinely felt that I didn't understand what was being asked.

I Knew Divide and Conquer, But Apparently Not Enough

The strange thing is that Divide and Conquer wasn't completely new to me.

I knew the basic idea.

I was also clear about recurrence relations.

My notes included things such as:

• Merge Sort time complexity
• Quick Sort time complexity
• The Minimum-Maximum comparisons problem

So before the test, I had some confidence that I had at least covered the topic.

The test proved that my preparation was far too shallow.

I had essentially reduced a larger topic into a small collection of formulas and standard results.

That works until the question asks something slightly different.

Then suddenly the formulas are sitting there in the notes looking decorative.

The Quick Sort Partition Problem

One area where I particularly struggled was understanding questions involving partition methods in Quick Sort.

I knew the standard idea of Quick Sort and its time complexity.

But when the test started using different methods, terminology, and question patterns, I realised that my understanding wasn't strong enough to comfortably work through them.

This was the actual gap.

I had memorised outcomes without spending enough time understanding the process.

That's an important distinction.

Knowing:

Quick Sort has a certain time complexity

is not the same as understanding:

How does partitioning actually work, what are the variations, and how do those variations affect a question?

The test exposed that difference rather aggressively.

My Notes Were Too Trimmed Down

I think I now understand one mistake I made during my previous preparation.

I trimmed my Divide and Conquer notes down too much.

I focused on formulas and final results rather than keeping enough explanation of the actual concepts and techniques.

For quick revision, short notes are useful.

But short notes only work when there is already a strong conceptual foundation underneath them.

You cannot build a house, throw away half the foundation, and then call the remaining bricks a revision strategy.

Apparently, the same applies to Algorithms. Humanity continues to learn.

What I Actually Need to Do

The solution is fairly clear.

I need to revisit the Divide and Conquer lectures.

Not because I have forgotten recurrence relations. I'm comfortable with those.

I need to revisit the actual topic and understand:

• the techniques used in Divide and Conquer,
• how the algorithms work,
• Quick Sort partitioning,
• different variations and approaches,
• and the terminology that can appear in questions.

This time, I want to make proper notes, not just a compressed list of formulas for Quick Sort, Merge Sort, and the Minimum-Maximum problem.

The problem is timing.

November is already tightly scheduled with:

• revision,
• Discrete Mathematics,
• other subjects,
• and regular topic-wise tests.

So I'm not planning to suddenly stop everything and redesign the entire month around Divide and Conquer.

Instead, I'll keep it as an important conceptual revision pending and revisit it whenever I can create a suitable free slot.

That seems more practical than pretending my schedule has unlimited empty hours. Sadly, the calendar remains stubbornly limited to 24 hours per day.

The Test Affected the Rest of the Day

One planned task for the day was a DBMS warm-up.

I didn't get to it.

After the Algorithms test went so badly, it genuinely shook me and affected the rest of my planned schedule.

This is one of those moments where preparation looks very neat on paper but becomes much messier in real life.

A schedule might say:

Finish Test → Analyse → Revise DBMS

But the schedule doesn't include a column called:

"What happens if the test emotionally punches you in the face?"

Perhaps future planners should consider adding one.

Still, I was thankful that I had already completed some TOC practice earlier in the day. Without that, Day 53 would have felt much worse.

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What 2.67/25 Actually Taught Me

I'm not going to pretend that the score didn't bother me.

It did.

But after thinking about it, the result gave me a useful diagnosis.

My problem wasn't simply:

"I am bad at Algorithms."

That would be lazy analysis.

The actual problem was more specific:

My Divide and Conquer preparation was incomplete and too focused on formulas rather than understanding the actual techniques.

That is something I can fix.

The test also reminded me that topic-wise tests are useful precisely because they expose these gaps.

Sometimes the score is good and confirms your preparation.

Sometimes the score is 2.67/25 on your birthday and confirms that a particular topic needs to be revisited immediately.

Both outcomes contain information.

One is simply less pleasant to receive with birthday wishes. 🎂😭

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Today's Small Win

Despite the test:

• I completed my pending Group Theory Lecture 1 notes.
• I continued Group Theory Lecture 2.
• I practised approximately 10–15 Regular Expression questions from TOC.
• Most importantly, I understood why the Algorithms test went badly.

That last point matters to me.

A bad score without analysis is just disappointment.

A bad score with a clear reason becomes a task.

And tasks can be fixed.

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Tomorrow

The immediate plan is to continue the November schedule while keeping the following pending:

• Complete Group Theory Lecture 2.
• Prepare notes for Lecture 2.
• Find a suitable free slot to revisit Divide and Conquer properly.
• Rebuild my understanding beyond formulas and time complexities.
• Eventually return to DBMS revision, which was postponed today.

Day 53 definitely wasn't the birthday study day I would have designed for myself.

But it was honest.

I made progress in Group Theory and TOC, discovered a serious gap in Algorithms, and got a very memorable reminder that short notes only work when the underlying concepts are already strong.

And somewhere in my GATE CSE 2027 journey, I'll probably remember this day and laugh.

Just not at the moment.

At the moment, Algorithms is still grounded for giving me 2.67/25 as a birthday gift. 🎂📚😭