How can I prepare for GATE in civil?

Here are some strategies & tips which can be useful during your preparation for GATE in Civil.

Focus on Basics:

• You should work on your concepts and coverage should be good. You can't ignore small subjects like irrigation, hydrology, cpm-pert, even railways geometric design, and airport runway length calculations. 
• Every year, more or less the same type of questions are asked from these subjects and even if you only have a basic understanding of these subjects, you can do good.

Mock-Test:

Give as many full-length mock tests from different institutions like made easy, ace, ies master, and so on. 

• There are many students who do well when they give a single subject paper as they have recently revised those subjects. But they fail to do well in full-length papers. 
• You need to develop the ability to think simultaneously on all the subjects (particularly for civil in which no of the subjects are very high) under pressure and within time.
• There is no point in practicing or developing mastery on one or two subjects as this is a competition and hence every subject has equal importance.

Short Notes:

Many candidates will tell you to make short notes, but they won't tell you what to put in short notes. 

• I know many students who just write all the formulas in their short notes which is a total waste of time. If you only require formulas you can buy a handbook or some other institution handbook which will save your time. 
• Ideally, short-notes should contain concepts that you forget mostly, concepts on which you make most of the mistakes while solving or practicing questions, new concepts that you have encountered while giving test series.

Practice Paper: 

You also need to understand the ideal time to practice questions. 

• You shouldn't practice all the questions immediately after you have completed the subject, you should also keep some reserve questions for later practice (a week or 2-week later). It helps you to show how much you have retained because there is no doubt you will do most of the questions immediately after completing the subject. What's important is how much you have retained in the longer run.
• You should not solve more numbers of similar types of questions rather solve questions of different concepts. This will increase your thinking ability which is the only thing required to clear GATE.

However, you must have faith in yourself and believe that you can crack it. This is not the end of the world even if you won't do that much good. But try and don't give up. As there are many brilliant students who haven't done that good in GATE but still they are at a good place in their career.