Tips to Crack UGC NET Exam

The National Eligibility Test (NET) is a national level exam conducted by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for post graduate students who wish do a  Ph.D or for those who wish to pursue a University level teaching profession. The NET exam is conducted for candidates of various subjects for instance, a Humanities, Social Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Home Science, Forensic Science, Computer Science and Applications, Electronic Science, Languages students so on and so forth. After qualifying for the NET exam, these candidates become eligible for posts such as Lectureship, Junior Research Fellowship, Senior Research Fellowship, Subject wise CSIR-NET, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (SPM) Fellowship, etc.

The NET exam consists of 3 sections namely 2 objective sections and 1 descriptive section. Paper I and Paper II are Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) while Paper III is a descriptive one. Paper I is common to all subject candidates that assess the applicants on 4 broad parameters such as Teaching or Research Aptitude, Reasoning Ability, Divergent Thinking and General Awareness.

Paper II & III will be separate for each subject candidates. Paper II is designed to evaluate the basic knowledge of the candidate in the opted subject.  And Paper III will assess the applicant’s ability on their aptitude to reason & hold an argument on the subject matter, to examine ones ability to dwell on the point at an optimal level, to analyze the ability to understand and express the fact and to check the critical thinking and skill to formulate the concepts.

With the  exam round the corner most Ph. D. and teaching aspirants tend to look for tips and tricks to crack the NET Exam. Like any other entrance even this exam is highly competitive; hence, a thorough preparation is required if one wishes to clear the test with good scores. Keeping in mind the need of the hour there are several tips that can assist students in their NET Exam preparation.

Paper I

Consists of 60 questions of 2 marks each with the total marks allotted being 100. However, the candidates need only, answer 50 questions but within the time duration of 75 minutes. The question in this section comprises of  Teaching and Research Aptitude, Quantitative Reasoning, General Aptitude, Elementary basics of Computer Science, General Science, General Knowledge and Current Affairs.

Paper II

This section is separate for candidates as it is based on their chosen subject. It comprises of 50 questions of 2 marks each, the duration is 75 minutes. The questions will comprise of the core subject that the candidate has selected. The objective of this section is to judge the basic knowledge of the candidate in the subject. Hence the questions will cover the entire portion of the subject choice.

Paper III

This section comprises of questions that are based on the subject choice of the candidates; hence, it is subject specific. This section consists of 2 essays of 20 marks each, 3 analytical/ evaluative questions of 15 marks each, 9 definitional/ short answer type questions of 10 marks each and 5 text-based questions of 5 marks each. In total, the candidate has to answer 19 questions of 200 marks within 150 minutes. The questions are designed to test the candidate’s aptitude to reason & hold an argument on the subject matter, to examine ones ability to dwell on the point at an optimal level, to analyze the ability to understand and express the fact and to check the critical thinking and skill to formulate the concepts. Therefore the nature of the questions will be based on these aspects. Hence a thorough knowledge of the chosen subject is important.

Improve your General Knowledge

In order to improve your general awareness you need to watch news  channels and visit news websites that give you inputs on the current affairs of the country. Aside from this you also need to watch the Discovery channel, National Geographic etc. to improve your General Knowledge.   

Subject wise tips 

• Note Making and Note Taking

While attending classes you need to make a note of only the important points but focus more on listening to what is being taught. While studying making notes helps a great deal. When making notes you can either use stick – ons or prepare notes in the text itself. It is preferable to make notes or place stick ons beside the topic studied. After reading a paragraph make a note of all the points discussed.

• Highlighting important points

Some students prefer to underline important points in pencil while others prefer to use highlighting markers for the points that seem important to them.

• List out the Points

Apart from highlighting the points you can also list out the points that you feel or think are important on a separate piece of paper or in your study notes.

• Prepare Drawings or Diagrams

If possible prepare drawings that highlight the main points discussed in the topic. Once you have listed out the points you can even form a hierarchy based on the important points. For topics that discuss a process of things it is preferable to create a diagram that shows the different processes, if there isn’t one. Nevertheless it is preferable to refer to the diagrams that are there in the text itself. This works best for subjects that have diagrams to be remembered such as Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Geography.

• Flow Charts

Applicants can also use flow charts to highlight the various processes involved. Ensure that you learn these diagrams as a simple picture can give a fair explanation of the topic thus it helps in remembering the material better.

• Prepare Charts

For subjects like Mathematics, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Physics and Chemistry that have formulas or chemical compositions to remember preparing charts is the best way to remember such material. But if one wishes to remember formulas preparing a chart with the formulas that you need to remember will save time when you have to revise the formulas alone.

• Repetition

Several psychological studies that were conducted highlighted the fact that repetition is the best and the only way to learn and memorise the matter that needs to be remembered well.  By revising the matter on a regular basis it ensures that the topic is learnt and remembered. Thus enabling students to recall the learnt matter when needed.

• Practice

For subjects that require Arithmetic calculations like Mathematics, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Physics and Chemistry the best way to prepare is to practice, practice  and then practice some more. But before you solve question papers it is preferable to finish and master the problems given in the reference book. You can also practice solving problems from question papers. Therefore, “Practice as if you are the worst, perform as if you are the best” – Jaspher Kantuna.

No matter which subject you have opted for it is important for applicants to have a thorough knowledge of your chosen subject nonetheless. Therefore, since the portion is vast it is preferable to follow the tips mentioned above to ensure that you learn the matter well and to ease your last-minute preparation. If you are looking for more tips to improve your memory you can visit our website www.careerfutura.com or if you are seeking for more information about the  entrance then you can visit our sister website www.way2k.com.