"Hard work and Smart work must go hand in hand" says Vivek, GATE Ranker

Vivek Sembium, the student who created sensation by securing All India 6th rank (in CSE,IT domain) in the prestigious Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering(GATE) exam has shared his thoughts with us. Let us hear from the man himself about his success story, as we peep into his thoughts and ideologies...
     
How does it feel being the “All India 6^th Ranker” in GATE?

It feels great. I was expecting a rank below 20, but getting a single digit rank was like a dream coming true for me.

We heard that you secured a rank in top 100 last year. After securing such a good rank, what inspired you to try again this year and try that harder?

I was expecting a rank below 20 last year, but unfortunately got 55^th rank. So, I wrote GATE again to get a better rank.

Who or what do you attribute your success to?

I would like to attribute my success to my parents for supporting me and  to all the teachers who encouraged me.

What do you believe in – SMART WORK or HARD WORK? Why?

HARD WORK always pays off. Just being smart and working smart doesn’t always produce results. Hard work and smart work goes hand in hand for you to be successful.

Now that you have tasted success, how do you define it?

Success or failure is relative. In reality if a person loves doing something, he will keep doing it till he achieves it, no matter how many times he fails. So, If you do something that you love, you will never give up and hence you will make wonders in that work.

We heard that you are just a step away from being placed in MICROSOFT. How do you feel, and what is your future plan if you are placed in MICROSOFT- Would you go for further graduation or get into MS?

MICROSOFT process was great. I am so happy to go through all 5 rounds. I haven’t decided about what to do next. I’ll decide after I get the results.

You have been observing the attitude of students of our college, what do you say about that? Is it in the right path?

Theoretically everything is fine, but practically people couldn’t implement what they learn. I don’t know about other departments but when it comes to CSE and IT solving programming contest problems could improve their practical knowledge.

How do you rank our college when compared to other top colleges competing with MVSR? 

I don’t know much about other colleges, but our college has all the resources that we need, if students could use those resources properly then they can make wonders.

In your view what are the few characteristics that an ideal student must possess?

An ideal student student must have deeper knowledge, which can be grabbed only by having both theoretical and practical knowledge. He shouldn’t just do standard lab experiments but must also try many new things in lab. For CSE and IT students I advice you write a lot of code, make changes, break it, fix it, play with it and have fun with it.

There will be many technologies coming up, what advice do you give to our students, whether   to know about all the technologies or stick to one and excel in it?

There’s no need to run after technologies, many technologies will come and perish overnight. My advice is to solve many programming contest problems which is challenging, these problems will improve your problem solving skills, and once you have acquired it, you can even create a new technology tomorrow that is better suited to your work in an industry.

When there is a lot of craze towards GRE, IELTS, TOEFL, what made you more inclined towards GATE?

Indian universities has equally good faculties, research labs compared to US, UK etc. And you even get scholarship from govt of India, for doing masters in India. So, I chose GATE.

Can you suggest some preparation strategies to perform well in GATE?

To perform well in GATE one must be good in basics, reading text books and solving many new problems and also having a practical knowledge gives an edge over others.

What advice do you give to students who want to crack GATE?

If you love your subjects, work and find it interesting, you already know how to crack GATE. One advice that I want to give is solve all old papers and write mock exams.

Do you feel that MVSR has brought a change in you? If so, In what way did it make a change and what special position do you accredit MVSR in your life?

Yeah. I had a good work life balance in the past 4 years. We had lots of fun in college and at the same time, had lot of time to try something new in college. I will always remember MVSR that way.

Finally, what few words do you want to say before leaving MVSR ?

To students: This is the time to find what you love to do. If you haven’t found it try different things till you find it. This is the time to try all different things.

And to all faculties and friends who were with me I thank all of you for supporting me and also special thanks to MVSREC.