Dear Reader,

I am planning to post my progress towards GATE preparation in this blog.I will make notes in this blog as I prepare, which might be useful to fellow students.Feel free to follow my blog and post commeents, suggestions and queries. Syllabus and useful links appear below blogs.Follow my blog to get regular updates about my posts. Go through blog archive(right hand side of blog) to access earlier posts. You can email me to minupradeep@hotmail.com, if you need more preparation material, older question papers etc.

don't miss this post

http://gateprep-architecture.blogspot.in/2013/11/formulals-conversions-and-data-required.html

update: I qualified GATE 2014 with a score of 892 and all india rank 6....

If anyone of you want to contribute to/update the blog, kindly write to my email minupradeep@hotmail.com. I will add your contributions with proper credits

Also, if my blog has helped any of you clear GATE, do let me know, I would like to publish your names, scores, ranks, contact info etc. , so that future aspirants may contact you and be inspired from you

Sunday, October 5, 2014

How to crack GATE

If you prepare smartly, cracking GATE is no big deal. Solve as much question papers as you can. Study portions  based on previous question papers. This worked brilliantly for me. 
Most questions in GATE are very basic. Your understanding of the concepts is what they test. 
I started preparation right after i applied for the exam. Started solving old question papers. The first 2 paper took me two whole months. By the time they were finished, most of the portions were covered. the next set of papers went quickly. I have collected most material from the internet in the blog, and it will save you some time. Keep a note of all formulae and conversions. You don't have to be a math wizard,  just have to know basic math. Try searching for topics on youtube, videos are a quick way to learn
They will mostly ask pritzker prize winning architects. So go through the pritzker prize website. Also go through the tall buildings. Those are some things missed out in the blog. 
You can use some elimination techniques with caution for answers you know partly. Do not attempt answers you do not know at all if there is negative marking. Numerical entry questions do not have negative marking, so try to attempt them all (do conform if rules are changed)
for eg 
Q.43 Match the features in Group I with their architectural periods in Group II
Group I Group II
P. Caryatids               1. Roman
Q. Hypocaust             2. Gothic
R. Pylons                     3. Greek
S. Lofty Pinnacles      4. Egyptian
                                     5. Romanesque
(A) P-1, Q-5, R-4, S-2 (B) P-5, Q-1, R-3, S-2
(C) P-3, Q-2, R-5, S-4 (D) P-3, Q-1, R-4, S-2

I knew that pylons are egyptian, there are 2 options with R4, a and d. 
I was not sure if caryatids are greek P3 or roman P4..., option a has p3 and option d has p4
usually  correct matches appear in more than one option, you can see p3 repeats here, so i went with option d, and it turned out to be correct.  

Good Luck

Friday, January 24, 2014

Tall Buildings

One Trade Centre(formerly freedom tower by daniel libeskind) New York- Architect David Childs(som)
104 storey(+5 basement floors)
pinnacle height 541m
roof   417m
current rank -4
OneWorldTradeCenter.jpgformer                                                                                                                                             freedom tower

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Books and Authors

Amos Rapoport     On the Cultural origin of Settlements

Andreas Falludi         Planning Theory

Arthur B Gallion        The Urban Pattern

Ayn Rand                The Fountainhead

Christopher Alexander  A Pattern language:Towns, Buildings and Construction
                                    The Timeless way of Building
                                    A New Theory of Urban Design
                                    The Nature of Order

Ebenezer Howard   Garden Cities of tomorrow

Edmund Bawn       Design of Cities

E. F. Schumacher  Small is beautiful (human scale)

Francis D K Ching  Form, Space and Order

Ian McHarg             Design with Nature pioneered concept of ecological planning

Jane Jacob              The death and life of great American cities

Kevin Lynch            The Image of a City
                               What time is this Place?
                               Site Planning
                               Good City Form
                               The view from the Road
                               City Sense an City design

Leo Jacobson & Ved Prakash    Urbanization and National Development

Paul D Spreiregen   Urban Design: Architecture of Towns an Cities

Sigfried Giedion     Space, Time and Architecture