Here is a sample post 1>>Good technical knowledge 2>>Good understanding of Basic Concepts 3>>Ability to apply the knowledge and

concepts on variety of problems To Develop 1 and 2 you will need to read and understand reference books, to develop 3 you will need to solve the problems. Now question is from w here to get the problems or the MCQs, the answer is the problems are given at t he back of every chapter in the reference books, you will need to solve those p roblems,may be not all of them. Problems reveal lot of truth and clear our misc onception and false convictions. And GATE has certain property that lot of Ques tions in it are based on concepts that are revealed in certain problems in ref erence books. So its really really important to have a shot at the problems. DISCRETE MATHEMATICS I started my preparation with discrete maths, and I would recommend you also to start with this perticular subject because this is the subject from where Comp uter Science spreads out. Understanding of this subject is very important. I us ed following books: 1>>"Discrete maths and its applications" By Kenneth Rosen This is an excellent book for GATE preps. Lot of problems are given at the end of every chapter plus answers are also given to odd numbered exercises. The exp laination in this book is really very good and "easy to understand". This book is must read for GATE preps. 2>>book by Tremblay and Manohar I recommend you to read this book after you have read Rosen s book. The contents in this book is hard to comprehend. You need to have your basics cleared before you attempt this book. This book is also a "must read". I also have the lectu re notes on discrete maths from some prof at McGuire university the advanced co unting and recurrence relation part is good. ALGORITHMS I recommend to you to read this subject along with Discrete maths or after you have completed discrete maths. I used only one book for this subject and found that to be more than enough for GATE. 1>>"Introduction to Algorithms" By T.H.Cormen et al. This is "THE" book for Algorithms. The Book is simply brilliant, it makes you u nderstand every details of Algorithms. So this book is a must read. Although I did not read the entire thing. Here is the list of chapters that I had read. If you are interested of course you can read the entire book. Chapter 1,2,3,4[excluding 4.4],6,7[excluding 7.3],8,10,11[excluding 11.5],12[ex cluding 12.4],18,22,23,24[excluding 24.4 and 24.5] for NP-Completeness you can read 34 also. In addition to this book I strongly recommend you to see the vide o lectures from MIT. The lectures are given by Lieserson[who BTW is also one of the authors of CLRS] and Erik demaine. The lectures are absolutely brilliant. You may download them from Free Online Course Materials DATASTRUCTURES I did not read this subject exclusively. I mostly participated in discussions i n Algorithms and datastructures communities on orkut . That is i think more tha n enough.

THEORETICAL COMPUTER SCIENCE I initially tried to decipher Ullman s book but I found the content too much for my brain to comprehend. So I switched to "Introduction toComputer Theory" By Da niel Cohen. The contents in this book are lucid. Also solving or atleast attempting the problems in the exercises is a must. But its really great if you could read Ullman. DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS I used Korth and Navathe for this. Initially I read korth because it is lucid a nd then only for normalization i read Navathe. The database design part in kort h is difficult so read this part with utmost concentration and you may require several readings before you begin to understand things. OPERATING SYSTEMS Read this from following books: 1>>Operating System Concepts By Galvin et al. 2>>Stallings Attempt problems in Stallings they are very important especially problems on me mory management and virtual memory. In Galvin the theory on memory management i s excellent. Digital Design Read "Digital Design" By morris mano [period]. COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE Read this from following books 1>>"Computer Architecture" By Morris mano 2>>"Computer Organization" By Zacky,hamacher 3>>"Computer Organization Hardware/Software Interface" By Hennessey and Patterson Read book 1 almost completely then read memory system from book 2 then you can read book 3, I had read only the performance measurement chapter from book 3 as it is not given in any other book and also solve numericals fromexercises t hey are very very important. I recommend you to read this subject after "Digital Design". COMPUTER NETWORKS I had read this subject only from forouzan and had read some chapters from Come r s book. Attempt the exercises from forouzan they are important. C programming You read this from "the C programming language" by kernighan and Ritchie that i s more than enough plus spend some time in actually programming in C that is the best way you can learn C. C++ I dont know C++ much and I did not read anything for C++. Dont be spoiled, you c an read C++ complete reference if you wish to. Compiler Design "People" say Ullman s book is excellent so you can read it from Ullman if you be lieve "People". In the final phase of your preps "try" to solve GATE papers. Th e answers for the GATE papers are not present anywhere but still you should att empt them anyway. This will give youconfidence that you can actually solve GAT E. You can read all the subjects given here you can skip one or two if you dont

have much time But more important thing is to "MASTER"atleast 2 or 3 subjects. Also actively participate in discussions at GATE CS or GATE CS/IT 2009 and Alg orithms and Datastructures community in orkut - that helps alot in patching few loopholes in our concepts and enhancing your problem solving skills. Thats it guys,this much is I think en ough to crack GATE. You can ofcourse Device your own methodsand set of books. Just be confident you can do it! These are few URLs Which I think "might" be helpful 1>>Opencourseware at MIT>>>>OCW