What is (UGC NET)?
The University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test (UGC NET) is a national-level exam used to choose applicants for Assistant Professor or both JRF and Assistant Professor positions in Indian institutions and colleges. NET was administered by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on behalf of the University Grants Commission (UGC) till June 2018. However, the National Testing Agency (NTA) began administering the UGC NET exam in December 2018.
The exam is computer-based and consists of 2 papers- Paper 1- General(same for everyone) and Paper 2 ( your subject choice).
WHO CAN APPLY?
- Candidates securing at least 55% marks in their Master’s Degree or equivalent from recognized universities in the particular subject.
- You can apply for your UGC-NET exam during your Master’s first year. You are only supposed to fill the end year for your degree.
- Candidates who are pursuing their Master’s degree or are waiting for their result or whose qualifying examinations have been delayed can apply for the test.
- However, such candidates will be admitted provisionally and will be considered for award of JRF or recruitment as Assistant Professor only when they will pass their Master’s Degree with at least 55% marks (50% marks for reserved category).
- Such candidates will also have to complete their Master’s degree within two years from the date of the UGC NET 2021 Result with the required percentage of marks, failing which they will be treated as disqualified.
- Candidates with a Ph.D. degrees whose Master’s level examination was completed before September 19, 1991 (irrespective of the date of declaration of result) will be eligible for a relaxation of 5% in aggregate marks (i.e.from 55% to 50%) for appearing in UGC NET 2021.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ASSISTANT PROFESSOR(NET) AND JRF
UGC-NET and JRF are same exams. They are not different. The only difference is that you need more percentage to clear JRF as compared to NET on the same paper. Top 6% of students who clear the exam qualify for JRF.
After qualifying NET, you are eligible to apply for the posts of Assistant Professor/Lecturer in any college or University across India. If you qualify for JRF, you get monthly stipend (25,000/-) from the government for your Ph.D research. If you clear JRF, your NET is automatically cleared. You can also apply for assistant professor jobs. The only difference is that in NET, you don’t get the stipend for research.
AGE LIMIT AND NUMBER OF ATTEMPTS
There is no age limit for applying for the NET exam if you are applying for assistant professor only. For JRF, the candidate can be a maximum of 30 years.
There is no limit to the number of times you can attempt the UGC NET exam for assistant professor posting. But for JRF, you can attempt only three times.
UGC-NET Paper Pattern
SYLLABUS – PAPER 1 (Same for all subjects)
PSYCHOLOGY
Unit 1: Emergence of Psychology
Unit 2: Research Methodology and Statistics
Unit 3: Psychological Testing
Unit 4: Biological Basis of Behavior
Unit 5: Attention, Perception, Learning, Memory and Forgetting Methods
Unit 6: Thinking, Intelligence and Creativity
Unit 7: Personality, Motivation, emotion, stress and coping
Unit 8: Social Psychology
Unit 9: Human Development and Interventions
Unit 10: Emerging Areas
HOW TO PREPARE
- Study your own college notes and clear basic concepts. Take help of youtube channels and books like Baron, Ciccareli
- Make a Schedule and stick to it.
- Don’t avoid any topic because all questions are objective and NET / JRF Psychology Exam touches every part of Syllabus.
- Practice as many questions, mock papers, previous year papers as you can.
- Syllabus of the NET Psychology is very vast, you need to be thorough with the syllabus and a systematic approach should be adopted in order to cover each and every topic.
- Time Management is very important. Develop Time management skills in yourself. Divide your study time in three different sections. Study all concepts, make notes, revise and practice questions.
- Last but not least, Believe in yourself.
