GATE EE Previous Year Papers: Topic-Wise Counts from 2024, 2025 and 2026

GATE publishes no official section-wise weightage for Electrical Engineering, so every “weightage table” online is somebody’s count — usually of one year, often unlabelled. We counted all 55 subject questions in each of the three most recent official EE papers (2024, 2025 and 2026), assigning each to one of the ten syllabus sections and taking its type and marks from the official final key. The result shows which sections carry the most marks on average, how wildly single years swing, and which topics came up every time. It covers all ten sections, not just one subject.

Our count of the official EE papers and keys, 2024–2026.

The swings are large. Electric Circuits went from 4 marks in 2025 to 12 in 2026; Signals and Systems fell from 11 marks in 2024 to 4 in 2026. A student who planned 2026 from a 2025 chart would have under-prepared circuits by eight marks. Averages over three papers are steadier and are the better guide to where time pays off — but even they only rank the sections; any one of them can be heavy in 2027. The practical conclusion is to cover every section and weight the top five a little more, not to drop the bottom ones.

Power Systems (9–12 marks) and Power Electronics (9–11) were the steadiest high-mark subjects over the three papers. Electrical Machines sat at 8–9 marks every year — low variance, and a good place for reliable marks. Analog and Digital Electronics, Signals and Systems and Control Systems were each around 9–11 marks in 2024–2025 but lighter in 2026 (7, 4 and 6), while Electric Circuits jumped to 12. Electromagnetic Fields rose from 4 to 6–7 marks, and Measurements stayed the smallest section at 2–5 marks. Sixteen of the 165 questions could reasonably be filed under two sections — a harmonic power-factor question, for example, belongs to both circuits and power electronics — so treat differences of a mark or two as noise.

The brochure fixes Engineering Mathematics at 13 of the 85 subject marks, and our 2024 and 2025 counts match that. In 2026, though, we found about 18 marks of questions that were essentially mathematics — the divergence theorem, classifying an ODE, a skew-symmetric quadratic form, orthogonal matrices, a contour integral, probability and a definite integral. The setters presumably counted some of these under subject sections. Either way, mathematics is the single largest block on the paper and the one where preparation transfers across topics.

The 2026 economic-load-dispatch question (Q58, a two-mark NAT) was awarded marks to all in the final key — but the topic has still appeared in three consecutive papers, and it is a standard, learnable calculation. The same is true of boost and buck converters and state space: a candidate who can do these reliably has a few marks secured before the paper starts.

The papers have moved towards MCQs overall (32 of 85 subject marks in 2024, 55 in 2026 — see our guide on negative marking), and the heavy numerical sections — power systems, machines, power electronics — are where most two-mark NATs appear. For those sections, practise full numerical solutions to the last decimal place; for mathematics, signals and control, practise the quick conceptual MCQs where eliminating one option makes an attempt worthwhile.

The GATE 2027 download page also carries the official EE papers and keys for 2021, 2022 and 2023. They are the same 65-question, 100-mark format; check any topic against the current syllabus before you rely on it, but in our experience of these papers they remain valid practice. They were, however, scored against different fields: the 2023 EE paper, for example, had a topper average (M̄t) of 57.24 and a highest mark of 66, against 75.45 and 92 in 2026. A mark you earn on the 2023 paper is therefore not directly comparable with one earned on the 2026 paper; compare yourself with the official score tables for the year of the paper, or convert with our calculator. Use the older papers for coverage and technique, and the three most recent ones to judge your level.

1. Download the official papers and keys for 2021–2026 from the GATE 2027 download page.
2. Sit the 2026 paper first, in three hours, on a virtual calculator.
3. Mark it with the official key, applying negative marking, and record marks by section using the table above.
4. Compare your section marks with the three-year means: a section where you score well below its mean is where the next weeks should go.
5. Repeat with 2025 and 2024, then the older papers.