HOW TO PREPARE FOR UGC NET IN EDUCATION?

 

When you feel that everything is lost, remember there is someone waiting to hold your hands and make you travel the murky way. Be open for grace. Spread love and light wherever you go.

Dear friends,

When I meet my juniors and some of my friends who have been preparing for this exam for quite a long period of time I get to answer certain questions from them like How did you prepare yourself for the exam? How much time you devoted for your preparation? What were the different books and the study materials that you followed? These are some of the questions which are common for every aspirant preparing for this exam. Believe me friends it was not really a hard nut to crack. All you need is your belief, hard work and confidence in yourself. I was in the final year of my M.Ed (Masters in Education) course when I prepared for this exam. When we have a good strategy we can be sure of cracking this exam. Here in this post I would be sharing my strategy with you all. Hope it would be of some help to you. Inspired by our seniors who had cleared this exam I  thought why not give it a try? I downloaded the syllabus and took a print out of it. Then I started making notes from one of the topics I find quite interesting and relevant which is inclusive education. The syllabus is very vast but if you plan it well and have a good strategy for it it is a cake walk. I had some very good friends, seniors and juniors who kept me motivated throughout this journey. It is very essential that you have some good people around you to motivate you at times. We often say that people are influenced by the company they keep. Be focused on you goal and the rest will take care of yourself. Self belief that you are capable of doing it  and confidence in oneself is the key.

BOOK LIST

Some of the books that I followed include

Paper 1

The best book I feel that works for Paper 1 is NTA UGC TEACHING AND RESEARCH APTITUDE by KVS MADAAN. The book is very useful to have an overall idea about the type of questions to be expected for paper 1.Continous practice and revision  is the mantra that will help you sail through the exam. This is the only book that I used for my paper 1 preparation. There are lots of practice questions given at the end of each sections. You can practice them at ease after throughly going through the topics included in the syllabus.

From my experience during the preparation for the exam I would like to share with you all that this exam requires  is conceptual clarity. We should be very through with the concepts. When I refer to concepts it indicates to certain important topics mentioned in the syllabus which you have to be very through with. All together the syllabus has been divided into ten units. Every unit has certain topics within it.

Some of the books I followed include

L R Grey

Creswell-Pearson publication

SK Mangal-Research

S K Mangal-Psychology and Education Technology

Philosophy and Sociological foundation -G S Mathur(One of my senior suggested this book though I didn't read it)

These are few names of the book that I followed. In a digital age where everything is available online we have to be very careful in our preparation for competitive exams. We should be able to differentiate all that is important for us and that which is not.

For your help, I would  try listing the Units   topic-wise. The UGC NET Education syllabus is divided into several parts.

Educational Studies.

To prepare for this Unit I went through some of the good books of Philosophy available in my RIE BBSR library, the names of which I forgot. You can as well prepare from the internet for this topic.

Growth and Development

I followed the book written by S K Mangal which I feel is quite good to have a strong base that would help you to understand the topics of this unit.

Teacher Education

I didn't followed any standard books as such and depended upon Internet for this topic.

The remaining units preparation was from the Internet. The Units include-

Curriculum Studies 

Research in Education

Pedagogy, Andragogy and Assessment

Technology in/for Education

Educational Management Administration and Leadership and 

Inclusive Education

Here is a sample note of mine prepared for the topic Contribution of Educational Thinkers. Lot of questions do come in the exam from this portion-you need to prepare it very well and remember the books written by them. It is very essential that you are able to relate their works with the aims of education. That is what is needed for this portion.

Contribution of Educational Thinker

Swami Vivekananda

Birth-1883-Calcutta

Father-Narendra Nath Dutta

Contact with Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

Later came to be known as Swami Vivekananda

Established Ram Krishna Mission

in the memory of Guru

preached in Asia, Europe, England and America.

teaching of Vedant

preached gospel of international brotherhood

death-1902

philosophy-to become fearless and through struggle serve humanity

philosophy of education

philosophy of Vedant and  Upanishads

he condemned the education of his time considering it to be bookish and rote memory practice

he suggest an education which develop character, mental powers, intelligence and self confidence and self reliance

focused on practical and experimental education

basic principles of educational philosophy

-only study of books is not education

-knowledge lies hidden in the minds of man. He uncovers and develops it by his own efforts

-concentration is key to all knowledge. For it practice of brahmacharya is essential

-purity of thought speech and deed is self discipline

-provision of technical education for economic  prosperity of the nation

Meaning  of education

-Education is the manifestation of the perfection already reached in a man

Aim of education

1)physical and mental development

Aim

child to stand on own legs

not dependent upon others

physically well developed citizen

2)character development

practice of brahmacharya

development of mental moral and spiritual power leading to purity of thoughts, words and deeds.

3)moral and spiritual development

greatness of nation depends upon moral and spiritual development of citizens.

curriculum

foster material welfare

spiritual advancement

spiritual perfection-religion, philosophy, puranic lore, Upanishads, company of saints.

material-language, geography, science, arts etc.

Methods of teaching

ANCIENT SPIRITUAL METHODS OF TEACHING

-Guru and disciple in close association

to control fleeting mental faculties by yoga

to develop the mind by concentration and deep meditation

to gain knowledge through lectures, discussion, self experience and creative activities

to imitate the qualities and character of teacher by intelligent and clear understanding.

lead the child by individual guidance by the teacher.

Place of child

child centered -child is the store and repository of all learning material.

Place of teacher

"Teacher is philosopher, friend and guide helping the educand to go forward in his own way"

Education of masses

focus on mass education

-emphasis

Philosophy

-Idealism, Naturalism and  Pragmatism

-develop moral and spiritual nature of child

real education possible only through  nature

focus on western education of technology ,commerce etc.

-harmonious synthesis of Ancient Indian ideals and modern Western beliefs.

-focus on international brotherhood

nationalism

focus on common education

physical, mental, moral ,spiritual and vocational development of the child.

idealist at heart

spiritual development focus

material prosperity

safety of life

solving problems of fooding and lodging/clothing.

"Arise ,awake and stop not till the goal is achieved."

-Swami Vivekananda

Its not rote learning and memorization of facts that would help in the long run. Rather in recent years we have seen that there is a change in the way questions are being asked in the exam. It is more of understanding and reflective base. Solving Previous Year question paper is very essential. It helps to get an idea about the type of questions that are asked in the exam.

In this regard I would like to thank my institute Regional Institute of Education for providing me with such good books available in our institute library. Starting from the first semester itself our teachers used to emphasize upon us to develop conceptual clarity for clearing this exam. For paper 2 after going through some books on Research, Psychology and Teacher Education I started solving questions from Previous Year Question Papers. It was done for each of the topics.

I cannot suggest you a perfect strategy for this exam but yes definitely you can get some idea as how to go about  in your preparation after going through this blog. I also relied upon the internet for this preparation. There should not be segregated preparation like emphasizing on one particular portion of the syllabus and neglecting the others. Like there can be some students who like Psychology the most and mostly prepare well from that part. Remember friends you need not be an expert in this subject to crack the exam. All you need to do is have a through understanding of the exam pattern and prepare each topic well. The exam is all about checking your application based knowledge of the subject. There is no one best way to crack this exam. Lord Buddha said Apno Depo Bhabo which means be your own light. Believe in yourself that you can and find out the ways that best suit you. It's your journey. With lots and lots of  well wishes to each one of you my heartiest regards. May grace be with you. Feel free to contact. I would be providing my Email Id at the end.

A WORD OF THANKS

As I celebrate my success I would like to thank all my teachers of Tezpur University, Department of Education and the faculty members of Regional Institute of Education, A Constituent Unit of NCERT, New Delhi for their help and guidance by being my guiding light, showering so much love and blessings, without whom this would not have been possible.

My gratitude to my senior Priyanka Di who helped me immensely by providing all her books starting from Research Methodology to Psychology. I am ever grateful dear sister for your cartoon of books before my exam.

My thanks also goes to my family, my parents and my brother who have and always been an immense source of inspiration all these years and my gratitute would remain incomplete without the mention of my teachers from my alma mater St. Mary's High School, my Head Mistress Sister Asha Paul and all the teachers who have made me believe in the immensity of life and our limitations as humans and to all my friends and well-wishers for helping me to make this possible. I would like to sign off with some beautiful lines from a painting which was of two horses on a race from my school building I remember reading every day after assembly as a child which has a profound impact upon my life

Being with a winner makes you a winner.

Here is my email id

priyankakoch43@gmail.com

Keep Learning and if you feel this blog has helped you in some way do share it with your friends.

Thank you!