GATE EY previous year question papers
Ecology & Evolution · 2014–2026
Free year-wise GATE EY question papers with official answer keys. Solve them under a 3-hour timer to simulate the real exam, then review every wrong answer against the GATE EY syllabus.
Free PDF downloads
We link to established, free sources rather than re-hosting copies. Papers open in a new tab; always cross-check against the official GATE organising institute's site for the current cycle.
How to use these papers
- Finish a subject first, then solve that subject's questions across all years.
- Once the syllabus is covered, switch to full papers under a strict 3-hour timer.
- Log every mistake by cause: concept gap, silly error, or time pressure.
- Re-solve the papers you scored worst on after two weeks.
Frequently asked questions
Does GATE EY include engineering mathematics like other GATE papers?
No. Unlike engineering papers such as CS or ME, EY has no dedicated Engineering Mathematics section. Quantitative content instead appears inside Mathematics & Quantitative Ecology, which is scoped to statistics and modelling tools actually used in ecology: hypothesis testing, regression, and population models such as the Lotka-Volterra equations: not calculus or linear algebra for its own sake.
How is Ecology different from Applied Ecology & Evolution in this syllabus?
Ecology covers the core theory: population growth, species interactions, community structure, ecosystem energy flow and nutrient cycling. Applied Ecology & Evolution takes that theory into real-world problems: biodiversity and conservation, disease ecology and evolution, and global climate change: so questions here tend to be scenario-based rather than pure definition or derivation.
Who actually takes GATE EY, and what is it useful for?
Candidates typically come from B.Sc/M.Sc Life Sciences, Zoology, Botany, Environmental Science and Wildlife Biology backgrounds. A GATE EY score is used for M.Sc/M.Tech and direct PhD admission at institutes such as IISc, and for JRF-linked fellowships, since the syllabus overlaps substantially with CSIR-NET Life Sciences.
Is 11 years of past papers enough to prepare from for GATE EY?
It is a reasonable but not deep pool compared to a decades-old paper like CS or ME. EY has been conducted every year since 2014, so there is a continuous run of past papers to pattern-match question style against, but candidates still need textbook-based problem sets to cover subtopics: especially in Behavioural Ecology and Molecular Evolution: that have not recurred often enough in past papers alone.