GATE Civil Engineering General Aptitude Syllabus

In vocabulary questions, what is a synonym versus an antonym?

A synonym is a word with the same or nearly the same meaning ('big'/'large'). An antonym is a word with the opposite meaning ('big'/'small').

What is the difference between a homophone and a homonym?

Homophones sound alike but differ in spelling/meaning ('their'/'there'/'they're'). Homonyms share spelling and pronunciation but have different meanings ('bank' of a river vs. a 'bank' for money).

In reading comprehension, what is the difference between the 'main idea' and a 'supporting detail'?

The main idea is the central point the passage conveys; supporting details are facts, examples, or reasons that explain or back up the main idea.

What is an inference question in reading comprehension?

It asks for a conclusion not stated explicitly but logically implied by the text, drawn from evidence the author provides.

In narrative (sentence) sequencing problems, what clues help order jumbled sentences correctly?

Identify the opening sentence (introduces the topic, no pronoun reference), then use connectors, pronoun/antecedent links, chronological time words, and cause-effect signals to chain the rest logically.

What is data interpretation in aptitude testing?

It is the process of analyzing data presented in tables, graphs, or charts and applying arithmetic operations (percentages, ratios, averages) to answer questions about that data.

For what kind of data is a bar graph best suited, and what does the length of each bar represent?

A bar graph compares discrete categories; the length (or height) of each bar is proportional to the value it represents, allowing easy visual comparison across categories.

What does a pie chart represent, and what angle corresponds to the whole?

A pie chart shows parts of a whole as proportional sectors of a circle. The whole equals $360^{\circ}$, so each category's angle $= \frac{\text{category value}}{\text{total}} \times 360^{\circ}$.

In a pie chart, what percentage of the total does a sector with a central angle of $90^{\circ}$ represent?

$\frac{90}{360} \times 100\% = 25\%$.

What is a line graph best used to display?

A line graph displays trends in data over a continuous interval, typically time, by connecting plotted data points; the slope indicates the rate and direction of change.

What is a histogram, and how does it differ from a bar graph?

A histogram shows the frequency distribution of continuous data using adjacent bars with no gaps over class intervals, whereas a bar graph compares discrete categories with gaps between bars.

How do you compute the percentage change between an old value and a new value?

$\text{Percentage change} = \frac{\text{New} - \text{Old}}{\text{Old}} \times 100\%$; a positive result is an increase and a negative result is a decrease.

What is the formula for the arithmetic mean (average) of $n$ data values?

$\bar{x} = \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^{n} x_{i} = \frac{x_1 + x_2 + \cdots + x_n}{n}$.

Define the median and the mode of a data set.

The median is the middle value when data are arranged in order (the average of the two middle values if $n$ is even). The mode is the value that occurs most frequently.

If a quantity grows from 200 to 250, what is the percentage increase?

$\frac{250 - 200}{200} \times 100\% = \frac{50}{200} \times 100\% = 25\%$.

How is a ratio converted to a percentage in data interpretation?

Express the ratio as a fraction and multiply by 100; for a part-to-whole ratio $\frac{a}{b}$, the percentage is $\frac{a}{b} \times 100\%$.

What does a 2-dimensional scatter plot show, and what is correlation?

A 2-D scatter plot displays paired $(x, y)$ values as points to reveal the relationship between two variables. Correlation measures how strongly they move together: positive (both rise), negative (one rises as the other falls), or none.

What additional information does a 3-dimensional plot convey compared with a 2-D plot?

A 3-D plot adds a third axis ($z$), so each point is $(x, y, z)$, allowing visualization of how a dependent variable depends on two independent variables simultaneously.

In a 2-D coordinate plot, how do you compute the distance between points $(x_1, y_1)$ and $(x_2, y_2)$?

$d = \sqrt{(x_2 - x_1)^{2} + (y_2 - y_1)^{2}}$ (the Euclidean distance from the Pythagorean theorem).

What is the slope of the straight line joining $(x_1, y_1)$ and $(x_2, y_2)$, and what does it indicate on a graph?

$m = \frac{y_2 - y_1}{x_2 - x_1}$. It indicates the rate of change of $y$ with respect to $x$; positive means rising, negative means falling, zero means horizontal.

What is map scale, and how is a numerical (representative fraction) scale interpreted?

Map scale is the ratio of map distance to actual ground distance. A representative fraction such as $1:50{,}000$ means 1 unit on the map equals 50,000 of the same units on the ground.

On a map with scale $1:25{,}000$, what real ground distance does $4\text{ cm}$ represent?

$4 \text{ cm} \times 25{,}000 = 100{,}000 \text{ cm} = 1000 \text{ m} = 1 \text{ km}$.

When reading a data table, how do you find a value at the intersection of a given row and column?

Locate the relevant row label and column heading; the cell where they intersect holds the required value. Row totals and column totals at the margins give subtotals for analysis.

What does a stacked bar graph show that a simple bar graph does not?

A stacked bar graph divides each bar into segments, showing both the total for each category and the contribution of each sub-component to that total.

In percentage problems, how do you find a value when given its percentage and the whole?

$\text{Part} = \frac{\text{Percentage}}{100} \times \text{Whole}$; for example, $20\%$ of 350 is $\frac{20}{100} \times 350 = 70$.

What is the formula for average speed over a journey?

$\text{Average speed} = \frac{\text{Total distance}}{\text{Total time}}$, not the arithmetic mean of the individual speeds.

In an English sentence, what is the difference between the active and passive voice?

In active voice the subject performs the action ('The engineer designed the bridge'). In passive voice the subject receives the action ('The bridge was designed by the engineer'): object + be + past participle.

What is a misplaced modifier, and why should it be avoided?

A misplaced modifier is a word/phrase positioned so it appears to modify the wrong element, causing ambiguity, e.g., 'Running fast, the bridge came into view.' It should be placed next to the word it actually describes.

What is the difference between 'fewer' and 'less' in standard usage?

'Fewer' is used with countable plural nouns ('fewer beams'); 'less' is used with uncountable/mass nouns ('less concrete').

When two quantities are in the ratio $3:5$ and their total is 320, what is each quantity?

Total parts $= 3 + 5 = 8$; one part $= \frac{320}{8} = 40$. So the quantities are $3 \times 40 = 120$ and $5 \times 40 = 200$.