Working professionals often face a very common dilemma. That is how to prepare for a tough and exhausting competitive exam like GATE while being in a full time job. A full-time job is a full-time commitment. It requires time, dedication, and focus. Sometimes the job consumes so much of a person’s life that there is barely time for anything else. But if you want to change your future and start working in reputed PSUs or pursue M.Tech from reputed IITs, you have to go that extra mile.

We, at Exergic, appreciate, encourage and applaud candidates who are appearing in competitive exams like GATE while in full-time employment. Hence, we have compiled a list of few points that will help you in your preparation for GATE. Know that you are not the only one struggling.

Although it is tough to juggle a full-time job and simultaneously appear for an exam, it is nowhere impossible. Look around you, there are so many people who do so many things along with their full time job. Some pursue a hobby and make a full fledged business out of it and others, especially women, manage their families while working. So if anything, we should take these people as inspiration and work accordingly!

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Redefine the concept of a “weekend”

Through the years, you have thought of weekends as days where your usual routine takes a different route. You have your time to unwind and take a break. However, this will change while you juggle two things at once. While you work a full-time job, the most amount of time that you’ll get to study would be during the weekends, so you should reintroduce yourself to the concept of weekends, and on those days, you should utilize them to your full capacity.

Those days should lay the foundation for how much you will prepare for the rest of the week. You can start newer concepts on the weekends, strengthen them and leave the rest to revision during the week days or after-work hours.

So, if you are of the mind to reward yourself during the weekend for all the work that you’ve done during the week, then you need to rewire your habits a little bit to achieve your milestones.

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Try squeezing some hours to study during your office hours

This of course doesn’t mean that you significantly drop the quality and quantity of work that you do at your workplace. That is unethical and we definitely don’t condone that. However, try squeezing in some minutes of study here and there during the day if you can. For example, if you commute to your job and back home again, and you get the chance to listen to music around that time, try opting for your revision notes instead. In your coffee breaks, refer to the notes that you’ve made over the weekend and sharpen your familiarity with those concepts, or if your workload is low on one odd day, try attempting a few practice questions here and there during the meantime. Start approaching concepts that are not math heavy (if you are a GATE Mechanical Aspirant) and wouldn’t need a lot of your focus, as distractions are bound to happen at your workplace.

This will curate the cycle for your weekend to weekday preparations and will help you make the best of the time that you have at hand.

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Refrain to take leaves just to prepare

As mentioned earlier, utilize the weekends to the best of your capacity. Try not to take leaves unnecessarily because you might actually need them later on. What if you need several leaves around the time of your GATE exams? Or when you’re going through a severe burn-out and can’t afford to work any longer, or even during a family emergency. Leaves are a valuable asset and you should schedule them accordingly. Have them in store for essential occasions and they'd help you walk through such a testing time of your life and career.

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Surround yourself with people who have the same goals as you

You’re the company you keep, so it becomes your responsibility to surround yourself with people that are on the same wavelength as you, share the same goals and aspirations as you, and most importantly, work as hard as you do, if not more. The reason behind this is that your friends become your biggest motivation and this is true for things as trivial as deciding what bench to sit on during a class, what movie to watch, or deciding what place to go to eat. After all, birds of a feather flock together. If they walk along arbitrary paths, then chances are that you might, too. If they have high aspirations for themselves and work really hard to achieve their goals, chances are that you might too. Keeping friends that are not the most productive would raise the certainty of you to alter from working on your goals.

So you should always keep such company around you that elevates your expectations of yourself and urges you to reach your goals faster.

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Use the shortcomings at your current job to motivate you to work harder

We get it, the work culture at your current company would not be at par. Maybe you’re getting a lot of workload thrown your way and the pay doesn’t necessarily match with that, or you're not happy with the kind of work you’re indulging in, or maybe you’re dealing with a lot of unfairness at play. Whatever your situation might be that is leaving you unsatisfied at your current job, use it as a motivating factor to help you land a better position through your hard work.Qualifying in competitive exams like GATE helps you explore one of the best institutions this country has to offer, so take advantage of your hard work, your goals, and the problems at your current work place and shine with flying colors with your GATE scores.

We do understand that these would be trying times and would require a lot of your strength. However, keep looming forward with a positive mindset and you’ll get there! It’ll just be a while and you’ll be living a life that you envisioned for yourself. It is true that GATE and other competitive exams come with a lot of challenges, but they do bear some wonderful fruits of opportunities all across the country!

We hope these few tips help you accomplish your goals faster, and to a greater degree! We wish you all the best!