GATE Marks VS Rank 2025 – Learn How to Calculate Your GATE Score
The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is conducted nationwide to select engineering graduates for prestigious public sector jobs apart from Masters programs for top IITs, NITs, and IISc, Bangalore. Around 5 to 6 lakh candidates appear in the GATE exam every year across different streams of engineering, out of which only 90,000 (approx.) cleared the qualifying cutoff for this exam. With only 18% of candidates able to do that, one can see that GATE is one of the most competitive exams conducted in the country. But just getting the qualifying GATE marks isn’t enough; candidates also need to be mindful of their overall GATE score and GATE rank. The differences between the three can become confusing for aspirants. In this blog, we’ll cover the entire debate between GATE marks vs rank as well as GATE score vs rank.
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GATE 2025 marks vs rank
How is the GATE rank of a candidate calculated?
In the GATE exam, the rank of a candidate depends on the following factors, i.e.,
- Difficulty level of the examination
- GATE cut-off marks
- Average marks secured by all the candidates
- Average marks secured by top 10 candidates
- Marks secured by the candidate
With regards to the difficulty level, if more number of questions are framed from hard to very hard level, the average marks secured by the top 10 candidates and the average marks secured by all the candidates will decrease. In this case, even lesser marks can result in a better rank. On the other hand, if more questions are framed from moderate to hard level, then average marks secured by top 10 candidates and average marks secured by all the candidates will be higher. In this case, the candidate has to secure good marks to get a better rank.
How is the GATE score of a candidate calculated?
The GATE score will be generated using the formula below from the GATE marks secured by the candidate out of 100.
GATE Score = Sq+ St–Sq( M-Mq)( Mt–Mq)
Where,
- M: marks obtained by the candidate (actual marks for single-session papers and normalised marks for multi-session papers)
- Mq: is the qualifying marks for general category candidates in the paper
- M̅t: is the mean of marks of the top 0.1% or top 10 (whichever is larger) of the candidates who appeared in the paper (in case of multi-session papers including all sessions)
- Sq: 350 is the score assigned to Mq
- St: 900 is the score assigned to M̅t
In the GATE score formula, Mq is usually 25 marks (out of 100) or (μ+σ), larger. Here, μ is the mean, and σ is the standard deviation of all the candidates who appeared in the paper.
The GATE Committee can decide the qualifying mark/score for each GATE paper. If any claim or dispute arises with respect to GATE, the Courts and Tribunals in Madras alone shall have the exclusive jurisdiction to entertain and settle any such dispute or claim.
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Here, we have considered the average data for the last 5 years.
Paper-wise and category-wise qualifying GATE marks and qualifying GATE scores
| Streams | Qualifying marks | Qualifying Gate Score | Candidates Appeared | Candidates Qualified | ||||
| Gen | Gen – EWS/
OBC-NCL |
SC/
ST/ PwD |
Gen | Gen – EWS/
OBC-NCL |
SC/
ST/ PwD |
|||
| CE | 27 | 24 | 18 | 350 | 318 | 244 | 90000 | 16200 |
| CS | 33 | 29 | 22 | 350 | 313 | 227 | 80000 | 14400 |
| ECE | 29 | 27 | 20 | 350 | 313 | 226 | 60000 | 10800 |
| EE | 25 | 23 | 17 | 350 | 307 | 207 | 60000 | 9000 |
| ME | 28 | 26 | 19 | 350 | 317 | 242 | 70000 | 12600 |
Paper-wise range of GATE marks (Out of 100) of appeared candidates for the GATE 2023 exam
| Paper Code | ≤ 0 | 0<M≤10 | 10<M≤20 | 20<M≤30 | 30<M≤40 | 40<M≤50 | 50<M≤60 | 60<M≤70 | 70<M≤80 | 80<M≤90 | 90<M≤100 |
| CE | 2693 | 30104 | 29942 | 11907 | 4806 | 2229 | 1063 | 369 | 69 | 5 | 0 |
| CS | 1356 | 14797 | 27091 | 18895 | 8315 | 3184 | 1353 | 495 | 150 | 40 | 3 |
| EC | 1360 | 13270 | 16199 | 8318 | 3705 | 1905 | 833 | 204 | 37 | 2 | 0 |
| EE | 3595 | 26932 | 17179 | 5283 | 1682 | 512 | 97 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ME | 2062 | 21068 | 23281 | 9416 | 3913 | 2178 | 1119 | 375 | 65 | 11 | 1 |
Starting and ending GATE score vs rank for qualified candidates
| Papers | S=(1000-901) | S=(900-801) | S=(800-701) | S=(700-601) | S=(600-501) | S=(500-401) | S=(400-301) | S=(300-201) | |||||||||
| Starting Rank | Ending Rank | Starting Rank | Ending Rank | Starting Rank | Ending Rank | Starting Rank | Ending Rank | Starting Rank | Ending Rank | Starting Rank | Ending Rank | Starting Rank | Ending Rank | Starting Rank | Ending Rank | ||
| CE | 1 | 29 | 30 | 214 | 219 | 762 | 778 | 1869 | 1904 | 3930 | 3971 | 7825 | 7956 | 16156 | 16391 | 24722 | |
| CS | 1 | 34 | 38 | 135 | 139 | 448 | 460 | 1210 | 1267 | 2986 | 3067 | 6923 | 7138 | 15938 | 16457 | 28510 | |
| EC | 1 | 16 | 17 | 78 | 81 | 322 | 337 | 1028 | 1077 | 2450 | 2528 | 4879 | 5022 | 9172 | 9431 | 15005 | |
| EE | 1 | 19 | 21 | 78 | 82 | 239 | 257 | 622 | 648 | 1417 | 1471 | 2946 | 3069 | 5682 | 5908 | 11360 | |
| ME | 1 | 23 | 24 | 114 | 119 | 489 | 510 | 1481 | 1521 | 3345 | 3425 | 6183 | 6327 | 11869 | 12208 | 18637 | |
To sum up, the discussion about GATE marks vs rank boils down to personal choices. Some aim for good scores, which helps them get into a good college for higher education, while others focus on securing top ranks to secure a PSU job. Success lies in finding the right balance of available time and targeted marks, emphasising both subject knowledge and effective exam strategies.
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