GATE, like CAT and unlike GRE, GMAT or Board examinations, is a zero sum game. You need to beat someone else to rise up the ranks. You should always remember the fact that you are adjudged relatively, not absolutely. Hence, your rank obviously depends on how you performed relative to your competitors. It does not really matter whether you got 89 marks out of 150, or 148 marks out of 150. What matters the most is how many people you have beaten and how many people have beaten you.

The following list gives us an indication of the degree of competition that was there in GATE 2004.

As we can see, only 137 applicants out of every 1000 applicants in computer science stream were qualified, and only 4 out of 1000 applicants were admitted in premier institutions like IITs and IISc.