GATE PE key terms

Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering, a national Indian examination testing undergraduate-level knowledge in engineering, technology, architecture, science, commerce, arts and humanities for admission to postgraduate programmes and public-sector recruitment.

A normalized numerical mark, valid for a limited period, computed from raw marks using a formula that accounts for session-wise difficulty differences, used for admissions and recruitment shortlisting.

A short alphanumeric label identifying the specific subject paper a candidate attempts, such as a two-letter code for a given engineering discipline or interdisciplinary area.

A compulsory section present in every paper testing verbal ability, quantitative reasoning, data interpretation and analytical/logical reasoning, contributing a fixed share of total marks.

The part of aptitude testing English vocabulary, grammar, sentence completion, synonym/antonym selection and reading comprehension of short passages.

Solving quantitative problems involving ratios, percentages, averages, mixtures, time-speed-distance, interest and basic algebra without a calculator.

Reading values from tables, bar charts, pie charts or line graphs and computing derived quantities such as ratios, growth rates and differences from them.

A question offering four options with exactly one correct answer; marks are awarded for the correct choice and negative marks deducted for a wrong one.

A question requiring the candidate to type a computed numerical value rather than choose an option; no negative marking applies and a specified tolerance is allowed.

A penalty deducted for each incorrect multiple-choice response, applied at a fraction of the question's marks, intended to discourage random guessing.

A statistical procedure that adjusts raw marks across multiple exam sessions so that scores from different sessions, with differing difficulty, become comparable on a common scale.

A relative rank measure showing the percentage of candidates scoring at or below a given score, used alongside the normalized score for reporting performance.

The minimum score threshold, set separately by category, that a candidate must reach for the result to be considered valid for admission or recruitment purposes.

The closing score or rank at which an institution, department or recruiter stops offering seats or shortlisting, determined by competition in that year.

An on-screen calculator provided inside the exam interface for arithmetic; candidates are not permitted to carry physical calculators or programmable devices into the hall.

The computer-based testing screen showing the question, options or answer box, a palette for marking and navigating questions, and a countdown timer.

Determining how the running time or memory of an algorithm grows with input size, usually expressed with asymptotic notation such as big-O, big-Omega and big-Theta.

Mathematical notation describing an upper, lower or tight bound on a function's growth rate as its argument tends to infinity, ignoring constants and lower-order terms.

An equation expressing a sequence or cost function in terms of its own smaller arguments, solved by substitution, recursion trees or the master theorem to obtain closed-form growth.

A situation where a set of processes each hold resources and wait indefinitely for resources held by others, so none can proceed without external intervention.

A synchronization variable with an integer value and atomic wait and signal operations, used to enforce mutual exclusion or to coordinate producer and consumer processes.

The requirement that only one process at a time may execute a critical section that accesses a shared resource, preventing inconsistent or corrupted shared state.

Organizing relational tables to remove redundancy and update anomalies by decomposing them according to functional dependencies into progressively stricter normal forms.

A constraint stating that whenever two rows agree on a set of attributes X they must also agree on attribute set Y, written X determines Y; the basis for key identification and normalization.

A formal query language over relations using operators such as selection, projection, join, union and difference, forming the theoretical basis of SQL query evaluation.

Any linear two-terminal network of sources and resistors can be replaced, at those terminals, by a single voltage source in series with a single equivalent resistance.

Any linear two-terminal network can be replaced by a single current source in parallel with a single equivalent resistance, the dual of the Thevenin equivalent circuit.

In a linear circuit with multiple independent sources, the response in any branch equals the algebraic sum of responses caused by each source acting alone with others deactivated.

A pair of graphs plotting magnitude in decibels and phase in degrees against logarithmic frequency, used to assess gain margin and phase margin of a feedback system.

A stability test that counts encirclements of the critical point by the open-loop frequency response to determine the number of closed-loop poles in the right half-plane.

The ratio of the Laplace transform of a system's output to that of its input, assuming zero initial conditions, characterizing the system's input-output behaviour.

A plot of applied stress against resulting strain for a material, revealing elastic modulus, yield point, ultimate strength, ductility and the onset of necking or fracture.

The stress at which a material begins to deform plastically, often determined by the 0.2 percent offset method when no distinct yield point appears.

The negative ratio of transverse strain to axial strain in a stretched or compressed material, typically between 0 and 0.5 for isotropic solids.

A reversible cycle of two isothermal and two adiabatic processes operating between two reservoirs, giving the maximum possible efficiency for any heat engine between those temperatures.

A state function measuring energy dispersal or disorder; it increases in any spontaneous process of an isolated system and is zero change for reversible adiabatic processes.

The principle that heat cannot flow spontaneously from a colder to a hotter body without work input, implying the impossibility of a perfect heat engine or refrigerator.

Optimizing a linear objective function subject to linear equality and inequality constraints, solved graphically in two variables or by simplex-type methods in general.

An iterative algorithm that moves between vertices of the feasible region, improving the objective each step, until an optimal basic feasible solution is reached.

The association of a primal optimization problem with a companion dual problem whose optimum bounds the primal value, equal under strong duality, and whose variables price the constraints.