GATE Mining Engineering General Aptitude Syllabus

General Aptitude syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for General Aptitude in GATE Mining Engineering, not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Verbal Aptitude

   3 topics

   • Basic English grammar
     • Tenses
     • Articles
     • Adjectives
     • Prepositions
     • Conjunctions
     • Verb-noun agreement
     • Other parts of speech
   • Basic vocabulary
     • Words
     • Idioms
     • Phrases in context
   • Reading and comprehension
     • Narrative sequencing
2. 2

   Quantitative Aptitude

   3 topics

   • Data interpretation
     • Data graphs (bar graphs, pie charts, and other graphs representing the data)
     • 2- and 3-dimensional plots
     • Maps and tables
   • Numerical computation and estimation
     • Ratios
     • Percentages
     • Powers
     • Exponents and logarithms
     • Permutations and combinations
     • Series
   • Mensuration and geometry
     • Elementary statistics and probability
3. 3

   Analytical Aptitude

   1 topic

   • Logic
     • Deduction and induction
     • Analogy
     • Numerical relations and reasoning
4. 4

   Spatial Aptitude

   2 topics

   • Transformation of shapes
     • Translation
     • Rotation
     • Scaling
     • Mirroring
     • Assembling and grouping
   • Paper folding, cutting, and patterns in 2 and 3 dimensions

General Aptitude flashcards for GATE Mining Engineering

22 of 50 cards from the General Aptitude deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. In English grammar, what is a 'tense' and what three basic time frames does it express?

   Tense is the form of a verb that indicates the time of an action or state. The three basic time frames are past, present, and future.

2. Name the four aspects of each English tense and give the present-tense example of each for the verb 'write'.

   Simple (I write), Continuous/Progressive (I am writing), Perfect (I have written), and Perfect Continuous (I have been writing).

3. Which tense is used for habitual or general-truth actions, and what is its key signal in the third person singular?

   The simple present tense. In the third person singular it takes an -s/-es ending (e.g., 'She walks').

4. What is the difference in use between the present perfect ('I have eaten') and the simple past ('I ate')?

   Present perfect links a past action to the present or an unspecified time ('I have eaten' = at some point, relevant now); simple past refers to a completed action at a definite past time ('I ate at 2 pm').

5. What are the three articles in English, and how are they classified?

   'a' and 'an' are indefinite articles; 'the' is the definite article.

6. State the rule for choosing 'a' versus 'an'.

   Use 'a' before a consonant sound and 'an' before a vowel sound. It depends on sound, not spelling (e.g., 'an hour', 'a university').

7. When is the definite article 'the' used rather than an indefinite article?

   'The' is used for specific or previously mentioned nouns, unique things, and when both speaker and listener know the referent (e.g., 'the sun', 'the book I bought').

8. What is an adjective, and what is its basic function in a sentence?

   An adjective is a word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun, giving information such as quality, quantity, size, or color (e.g., 'a tall building').

9. List the three degrees of comparison of adjectives with an example using 'big'.

   Positive (big), Comparative (bigger), and Superlative (biggest). Comparative compares two; superlative compares three or more.

10. How are comparatives and superlatives formed for most longer adjectives (two or more syllables)?

    By adding 'more' for the comparative and 'most' for the superlative (e.g., 'more beautiful', 'most beautiful') rather than -er/-est.

11. What is a preposition, and what relationship does it show?

    A preposition is a word that links a noun/pronoun to other words, showing relationships of place, time, direction, or manner (e.g., 'on', 'in', 'between').

12. State the standard difference between the prepositions 'in', 'on', and 'at' for expressing time.

    'at' for precise times (at 5 pm), 'on' for days and dates (on Monday), and 'in' for longer periods such as months, years, and centuries (in July, in 2020).

13. What is a conjunction, and what are the three main types?

    A conjunction joins words, phrases, or clauses. The three types are coordinating, subordinating, and correlative conjunctions.

14. What do the coordinating conjunctions spell out as the mnemonic FANBOYS?

    For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So.

15. How do correlative conjunctions work, and give two examples.

    Correlative conjunctions work in pairs to join balanced elements. Examples: 'either...or', 'neither...nor', 'not only...but also', 'both...and'.

16. What is subject-verb agreement (verb-noun agreement)?

    It is the rule that a verb must agree in number and person with its subject: a singular subject takes a singular verb, and a plural subject takes a plural verb.

17. In subject-verb agreement, what verb form is required when two singular subjects are joined by 'and' versus joined by 'or'?

    Subjects joined by 'and' take a plural verb ('Tom and Jim are here'); subjects joined by 'or' take a verb agreeing with the nearer subject ('Tom or his friends are here').

18. Which verb form do indefinite pronouns like 'everyone', 'each', and 'nobody' require?

    They are singular and take a singular verb (e.g., 'Everyone is ready', 'Each of the boys was present').

19. List the eight traditional parts of speech in English.

    Noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.

20. What is an adverb, and what four things can it modify?

    An adverb modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a whole sentence, typically telling how, when, where, or to what degree (e.g., 'quickly', 'very').

21. What is an interjection? Give two examples.

    An interjection is a word or phrase expressing sudden emotion or reaction, grammatically independent from the rest of the sentence. Examples: 'Wow!', 'Ouch!'.

22. What is the difference between a common noun and a proper noun?

    A common noun names a general class of person, place, or thing (e.g., 'city') and is not capitalized; a proper noun names a specific one (e.g., 'Delhi') and is always capitalized.

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