Is it good to prepare for the GATE and the IES simultaneously?

If you are preparing for IES then you can also simultaneously prepare for GATE as well with just a little extra effort. The syllabus of IES is quite vast as compared to the GATE syllabus. If your primary goal is to crack IES, concentrate more on the IES and study for GATE parallelly. If you are more interested in GATE, you need to make some extra effort.

However, if you are equally interested in both you can follow the strategy given below for preparation.

IES Preparation: 

• Read class notes and solve the workbook regularly. 
• Make short notes for each subject containing formulas, facts, and the new concepts you learned while reading.
• Solve previous year’s questions for IES and GATE. Note down the important questions you come across. During revision, go through the short notes you made and the questions too. 
• Give online and offline mock tests regularly. 

GATE Preparation:

If you follow a smart study plan you can complete the GATE preparation in just one and a half months. The syllabus for GATE is just like a subset of the IES syllabus. Both of them have several topics in common.

You can follow this strategy to crack the exam:

• One month before GATE, thoroughly read all the class notes.
• Solve previous year’s question paper as much as possible.
• Take as many mock tests as you can.
• 10-12 days before the exam, revise the short notes daily.

You can prepare for IES for the whole year and do the major chunk of preparation for GATE in the last 1-2 months. One of my friends followed this pattern for his preparation and was successful. But you don’t have to follow this plan blindly, you can make up your own strategy too.