A Corporate Monday, Some C Mistakes, and a Plan for October

Monday was pretty much what you'd expect when you're trying to prepare for GATE while also being a corporate employee. There was studying, commuting, office work, a little frustration, and the usual race against time. Humanity really did invent the 9-to-5 and then decide students should prepare for competitive exams alongside it. Brilliant system.

What I Studied Today

I started the morning with C Programming, but it wasn't exactly a revision session.

On Sunday, I had given a subject-wise test for C Programming, so Monday morning I spent around 1 to 1.5 hours analysing that paper.

I went through the questions and noted down the mistakes I had made. Some of them were genuine mistakes, while some were simply silly or careless mistakes. Those are probably the most annoying ones because the concept is there, but somehow the brain decides to take a short vacation at exactly the wrong moment.

After that, I got ready and left for work.

During my commute, I studied Computer Networks and completed one lecture. The lecture covered the Application of Basic Algorithm and Jacobson's Algorithm. I also solved a few questions related to the topic.

So even though the commute wasn't exactly free time, I managed to turn part of it into GATE preparation.

The Corporate Part of the Day

I reached the office and spent the day there from around 11 AM to 6 PM.

We have a lunch break from around 1:30 to 2:30, and I had planned to use some of that time to glance through my revision notes.

That didn't really happen.

I couldn't get enough time to properly go through them, which is one of those small things that looks completely manageable when you're planning your day and somehow disappears when the actual day starts.

After office, I started my commute back home and eventually reached around 10:30 PM.

By then, I was tired and very sleepy. I had my food and went to sleep rather than trying to force another study session when I clearly didn't have much left in the tank.

Something Outside GATE

There was also something personal that I had been trying to do for several days.

Since Ganesh Chaturthi is going on, I had planned to visit Shri Siddhivinayak Temple. I had actually been planning this for around four or five days, but every time it somehow got postponed or neglected.

I had planned to visit on Monday, but because I left the office late, that didn't happen either.

That was honestly a little frustrating.

I don't have a specific date fixed yet, but I want to make sure I visit in the next couple of days, before Ganpati Visarjan. Some things are not really about productivity or ticking items off a schedule. I just want to make the visit happen.

My Question-Practice Problem

One thing I definitely want to change this week is my question practice.

Last week, my target was basically not achieved at all. The number of questions I solved was zero.

That's not exactly the weekly report I want to keep producing.

So this week, I'm setting a broader target of around 50–100 questions across the subjects I've already completed. Rather than treating it as a daily task, I'll distribute it across the week.

For Tuesday, I'll start by doing roughly five questions from each completed subject.

The goal isn't to create another complicated schedule. It's simply to make sure that solving questions becomes a regular part of my GATE CSE preparation instead of something I keep postponing.

Planning the Remaining Syllabus

Another thing we discussed today was whether I should create a proper lecture-completion schedule.

I think I should.

My current goal is to complete the remaining major syllabus by the end of October, so that November onward can have a much stronger focus on revision, question practice, tests, and mocks.

But I don't want to wait until November 1st to suddenly start taking tests.

I want to keep subject-wise tests and some mocks in the schedule while I'm still completing the syllabus. The point is to maintain the habit of sitting for tests and analysing them rather than allowing that habit to disappear for a couple of months.

We'll make the actual lecture schedule on the upcoming Sunday.

By then, I'll have the number of lectures remaining in each subject, and we can build the schedule around the actual workload instead of guessing.

There are a few areas that I'm deliberately keeping outside this October completion target for now, particularly Aptitude, Engineering Mathematics, and some parts of Discrete Mathematics.

The idea is to first get the remaining major Computer Science subjects into place.

What I Realized Today

Monday wasn't some massive study day.

I worked, commuted, studied a Computer Networks lecture, analysed a C Programming test, solved some questions, failed to revise during lunch, came home late, and went to sleep.

That's the reality of preparing for GATE CSE 2027 while working.

The bigger thing I noticed is that I need a better balance between syllabus completion, question practice, and tests.

I don't want to spend all of October just watching lectures and then suddenly expect myself to become comfortable with questions and mocks in November.

So the plan is becoming clearer:

Complete the remaining syllabus → keep solving questions → keep taking subject-wise tests/mocks → move into heavier revision and mock practice.

For now, Tuesday has one job: start fixing that embarrassing 0-question week from the previous week. 😅

Tomorrow

Tuesday will be focused on question practice.

I'll start working toward the weekly 50–100 question target, beginning with questions from the subjects I've already completed.

And hopefully, somewhere between office, commuting, GATE preparation, and everything else, I'll finally make that Siddhivinayak visit happen too.