UGC NET Syllabus – Topics for all Subjects, Books, Question Papers

NTA (National Testing Agency) has announced the UGC NET 2021 exam for December 2020 cycle, which will commence from 02nd May 2021. UGC NET syllabus 2021 is available on its official website. Held twice a year (June and December) as a national entrance test by NTA, UGC NET accesses the aspirant’s capabilities to get recruited for the posts of:

• JRF (Junior Research Fellowship) and Assistant Professor, or
• Assistant Professor only posts in Indian Universities and Colleges

The NTA UGC NET syllabus is divided into 2 Papers – Paper 1 and Paper 2. Both the tests are conducted in CBT mode (computer-based test/online). A total of 150 questions are asked in the UGC NET examination (including part 1 and part 2) and candidates are required to answer all of them within 3 hours.

Candidates who have applied for the exam must keep themselves armed with the complete details related to UGC NET Syllabus and UGC NET exam pattern. Added to this, those who wish to clear the papers must follow the UGC NET syllabus minutely that Buddy4Study has compiled and put together for easy understanding.

Important Updates

• UGC NET exam for December 2020 cycle will be conducted from 02nd May 2021.
• UGC NET admit cards for exams are notyet announced. Visit the official website to know more about the admit cards.  
• UGC NET exam will be conducted in a single session with no break between Paper 1 and Paper 2.
• NTA will conduct the UGC NET December 2020 session exam from 02nd May to 17th May 2020 (exam dates distributed during this period). 
• UGC NET syllabus has a list of 81 subjects from which candidates can choose one of their preferred subjects.

Read More:  UGC NET Exam Dates – Schedule, Timings, Latest Updates & Highlights

UGC NET Syllabus – Key Highlights

Particulars	Details
Name of Examination	UGC NET (University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test) 2020
Exam Conducting Body	National Testing Agency (NTA)
Exam Level	National
UGC NET Official Website	https://ugcnet.nta.nic.in    https://www.ugcnetonline.in/
Duration of Exam	3 hours or 180 minutes
Examination Mode	CBT/Computer Based Test (Online)
Medium of Exam	The exam will be conducted in 2 languages:   English Hindi
Type of Questions	Objective/Multiple-Choice (MCQ)
Number of Questions	Paper 1 – 50 questions   Paper 2 – 100 questions
Total Marks	Paper 1 – 100 marks   Paper 2 – 200 marks
Marking Scheme	+2 for Every Correct Answer   No negative marking for incorrect answers
Exam Shifts	Shift 1 – 9:00 AM to 12:00 Noon   Shift 2 – 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Mock Test Link	https://nta.ac.in/quiz

UGC NET Syllabus – Paper 1 (General Aptitude) Syllabus

UGC NET Paper 1 is compulsory and common for all candidates. The UGC NET Syllabus for Paper 1 includes 10 units. Each unit comprises 5 questions. Hence, Paper 1 will have a total of 50 questions worth 100 marks.

The 10 units included in Paper 1 of UGC NET are – 

UGC NET Syllabus Paper 1 – Subjects/Units

Teaching Aptitude	Research Aptitude
Comprehension	Communication
Mathematical Reasoning and Aptitude	Logical Reasoning
Data Interpretation	Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
People, Development and Environment	Higher Education System

UGC NET Syllabus – Section-wise Topics (Paper 1)

The main objective of UGC NET Paper 1 is to evaluate the candidates’ teaching and research capabilities. Besides assessing the teaching prowess, it is also a method of checking the awareness level in candidates. 

They are expected to possess and display cognitive abilities. These abilities include analysis, comprehension, understanding the structure of arguments, evaluation, and deductive and inductive reasoning.

To crack the Part 1 exam, candidates can find all the important topics related to each subject/unit covered in the prescribed UGC NET syllabus 2021.

UGC NET Syllabus – Unit/Section-wise Topics in Paper 1

Units	UGC NET Paper 1 – Subjects	Topics
Unit 1	Teaching Aptitude	Evaluation systems: Elements and types of evaluation, evaluation in Choice Based Credit System in higher education, computer-based testing, innovations in evaluation systems Factors affecting teaching related to Teacher, Learner, Support material, Instructional facilities, Learning environment and Institution Learner’s characteristics: Characteristics of adolescent and adult learners (academic, social, emotional and cognitive), individual differences Methods of teaching in institutions of higher learning: Teacher centred vs. learner-centred methods; offline vs. online methods (Swayam, Swayamprabha, MOOCs etc.). Teaching: Concept, objectives, levels of teaching (memory, understanding and reflective), characteristics and basic requirements Teaching support system: Traditional, modern and ICT based
Unit 2	Research Aptitude	Application of ICT in research Methods of research: Experimental, descriptive, historical, qualitative and quantitative methods Research: Meaning, types, and characteristics, positivism and post-positivist approach to research Research ethics Steps of research Thesis and article writing: Format and styles of referencing
Unit 3	Comprehension	A passage of text will be given. Questions to be asked from the passage to be answered
Unit 4	Communication	Barriers to effective communication Communication: Meaning, types and characteristics of communication Mass-media and society Effective communication: Verbal and non-verbal, inter-cultural and group communications, classroom communication
Unit 5	Mathematical Reasoning and Aptitude	Mathematical aptitude (fraction, time & distance, ratio, proportion and percentage, profit and loss, interest and discounting, averages etc.) Number series, letter series, codes and relationships Types of reasoning
Unit 6	Logical Reasoning	Analogies Evaluating and distinguishing deductive and inductive reasoning Indian Logic: Means of knowledge Structure and kinds of Anumana (inference), Vyapti (invariable relation), Hetvabhasa (fallacies of inference) Pramanas: Pratyaksha (Perception), Anumana (Inference), Upamana (Comparison), Shabda (Verbal testimony), Arthapatti (Implication) and Anupalabddhi (Non-apprehension) Understanding the structure of arguments: Argument forms, the structure of categorical propositions, mood and figure, formal and informal fallacies, uses of language, connotations and denotations of terms, a classic square of opposition Venn diagram: Simple and multiple uses for establishing the validity of arguments
Unit 7	Data Interpretation	Data and governance Graphical representation (bar-chart, histograms, pie-chart, table-chart and line-chart) and mapping of data Data interpretation Quantitative and qualitative data Sources, acquisition and classification of data
Unit 8	Information and Communication Technology (ICT)	Digital initiatives in higher education Basics of Internet, Intranet, E-mail, Audio and Video-conferencing ICT and Governance ICT: General abbreviations and terminology
Unit 9	People, Development and Environment	Environmental Protection Act (1986), National Action Plan on Climate Change, International agreements/efforts -Montreal Protocol, Rio Summit, Convention on Biodiversity, Kyoto Protocol, Paris Agreement, International Solar Alliance Development and environment: Millennium development and Sustainable development goals Environmental issues: Local, regional and global; air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, noise pollution, waste (solid, liquid, biomedical, hazardous, electronic), climate change and its socio-economic and political dimensions Human and environment interaction: Anthropogenic activities and their impacts on the environment Natural hazards and disasters: Mitigation strategies Impacts of pollutants on human health Natural and energy resources: Solar, Wind, Soil, Hydro, Geothermal, Biomass, Nuclear and Forests
Unit 10	Higher Education System	Policies, governance, and administration Institutions of higher learning and education in ancient India Value education and environmental education Evolution of higher learning and research in post-independence India Professional, technical and skill-based education. Oriental, conventional and non-conventional learning programmes in India

UGC NET Syllabus – Paper 2 Syllabus (For All Subjects)

NTA UGC NET Paper 2 exam is conducted for a total of 81 subjects. Candidates applying for this exam have the right to choose their preferred subjects for Paper 2 from the UGC NET syllabus. They can select the subject that they may have studied during their post-graduation programme or any subject related to it. 

Buddy4study has arranged the elaborate UGC NET syllabus along with the paper codes and UGC NET syllabus (Paper 2) in pdf format (both Hindi and English) in the table below.

UGC NET Syllabus for all Subjects – Paper 2

Subject Code	Subjects	UGC NET Syllabus (Paper-2)- English	UGC NET Syllabus (Paper-2)- Hindi
00	General Paper on Teaching & Research Aptitude (Paper -I)	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
01	Economics / Rural Economics /Cooperation / Demography / Development Planning/ Development Studies / Econometrics/ Applied Economics/Development Eco./Business Economics	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
02	Political Science	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
03	Philosophy	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
04	Psychology	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
05	Sociology	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
06	History	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
07	Anthropology	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
08	Commerce	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
09	Education	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
10	Social Work	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
11	Defence and Strategic Studies	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
12	Home Science	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
14	Public Administration	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
15	Population Studies	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
16	Music	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
17	Management (including Business Administration Management/Marketing/ Marketing Management/Industrial Relations and Personnel Management / Personnel Management/Financial Management/Co-operative Management)	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
31	Linguistics	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
39	French (French Version)	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE (FRENCH)
46	Adult Education/ Continuing Education/ Andragogy/ Non-Formal Education	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
47	Physical Education	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
49	Arab Culture and Islamic Studies	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
50	Indian Culture	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
55	Labour Welfare/Personnel Management/Industrial Relations/ Labour and Social Welfare/Human Resource Management	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
58	Law	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
59	Library and Information Science	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
60	Buddhist, Jain, Gandhian and Peace Studies	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
62	Comparative Study of Religions	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
63	Mass Communication and Journalism	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
65	Performing Art – Dance/Drama/Theatre	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
66	Museology & Conservation	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
67	Archaeology	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
68	Criminology	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
70	Tribal and Regional Language/Literature	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
71	Folk Literature	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
72	Comparative Literature	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
73	Sanskrit traditional subjects (including) Jyotisha/Sidhanta Jyotish/ Navya Vyakarna/ Vyakarna/ Mimansa/ Navya Nyaya/ Sankhya Yoga/ Tulanatmaka Darsan/ Shukla Yajurveda/ Madhav Vedant/ Dharmasasta/ Sahitya/ Puranotihasa /Agama)		CLICK HERE
74	Women Studies	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
79	Visual Art (including Drawing & Painting/Sculpture Graphics/Applied Art/History of Art)	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
80	Geography	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
81	Social Medicine & Community Health	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
82	Forensic Science	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
83	Pali	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
85	Konkani		CLICK HERE
87	Computer Science and Applications	CLICK HERE
88	Electronic Science	CLICK HERE
89	Environmental Sciences	CLICK HERE
90	Politics including International Relations/International Studies including Defence/Strategic Studies, West Asian Studies, South East Asian Studies, African Studies, South Asian Studies, Soviet Studies, American Studies.	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
91	Prakrit	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
92	Human Rights and Duties	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
93	Tourism Administration and Management	CLICK HERE
100	Yoga	CLICK HERE	CLICK HERE
101	Sindhi	CLICK HERE (Arabic)	CLICK HERE

UGC NET Syllabus – PDFs in Regional Language 

Subject Code	Subjects	UGC NET Paper-2 Syllabus – Regional Language
18	Maithili	CLICK HERE
19	Bengali	CLICK HERE
20	Hindi	CLICK HERE
21	Kannada	CLICK HERE
22	Malayalam	CLICK HERE
23	Oriya	CLICK HERE
24	Punjabi	CLICK HERE
25	Sanskrit	CLICK HERE
26	Tamil	CLICK HERE
27	Telugu	CLICK HERE
28	Urdu	CLICK HERE
29	Arabic	CLICK HERE
30	English	CLICK HERE
32	Chinese	CLICK HERE
33	Dogri	CLICK HERE
34	Nepali	CLICK HERE
35	Manipuri	CLICK HERE
36	Assamese	CLICK HERE
37	Gujarati	CLICK HERE
38	Marathi	CLICK HERE
40	Spanish	CLICK HERE
41	Russian	CLICK HERE (English)   Click Here (Russian)
42	Persian	CLICK HERE
43	Rajasthani	CLICK HERE
44	German	CLICK HERE
45	Japanese	CLICK HERE
84	Kashmiri	CLICK HERE
94	Bodo	CLICK HERE
95	Santali	CLICK HERE

UGC NET Exam Pattern

To determine the eligibility of candidates applying for Assistant Professor and Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) or Assistant Professor only posts, UGC NET December 2020 will be conducted in online mode. 

Candidates who register and apply for the UGC NET 2021 exam should go through the exam pattern thoroughly and practice well with the help of online mock tests before attempting the exam. Here are a few key points that they should keep in mind.

1. UGC NET will be conducted in CBT mode 
2. The format of questions asked in the exam will be MCQ (multiple choice questions)
3. All questions will have 4 options
4. Candidates will be able to move between papers as NTA has not imposed any restriction to answer questions as per section numbers
5. There is no negative marking in UGC NET exam
6. The UGC NET exam will be conducted in 3 hours or 180 minutes – 

• Forenoon (Shift 1) – 9:00 AM to 12:00 Noon
• Afternoon (Shift 2) – 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM
• There will be no break time between Paper 1 and Paper 2

UGC NET – Section-wise Distribution of Questions

Apart from UGC NET syllabus, candidates must know about the details of the exam structure, how it will be conducted, distributions of questions and marks, etc. This will help the aspirants prepare strategically for the UGC NET exam.

NTA UGC NET 2021 Paper 1 Section-wise Distribution of Questions

Units	UGC NET Paper 1 – Subjects	Number of Questions	Marks Allotted
Unit 1	Teaching Aptitude	5	10
Unit 2	Research Aptitude	5	10
Unit 3	Comprehension	5	10
Unit 4	Communication	5	10
Unit 5	Mathematical Reasoning and Aptitude	5	10
Unit 6	Logical Reasoning	5	10
Unit 7	Data Interpretation	5	10
Unit 8	Information and Communication Technology (ICT)	5	10
Unit 9	People, Development and Environment	5	10
Unit 10	Higher Education System	5	10
	Total	50	100

NTA UGC NET 2021 Paper 2 Distribution of Questions

Paper 2	Type of Questions	Number of Questions	Marks Allotted per Question	Total Marks
Selected Subject from the 81 Subjects	Objective or Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQ)	100	2	200

UGC NET Syllabus – Recommended Books

Questions asked in the UGC NET examination are quite tough compared to other national level exams. To tackle this, candidates need to prepare well from the topics highlighted above to score well in the upcoming UGC NET exam.

To get a better grip on various UGC NET syllabus and subjects, candidates can find several expert-recommended books and online study resources in the tables below.

Books	Publisher	Author
NTA-UGC-NET (Paper-I) Exam Guide: with Previous Years’ (Solved) Papers	Ramesh Publishing House	Dr. M S Ansari & RPH Editorial Board
UGC NET/ SET Paper 1	McGraw Hill Education	–
CBSE UGC NET/SET/JRF – Paper 1: Teaching and Research Aptitude	Pearson Education	KVS Madaan
UGC NET/ JRF/ SLET General Paper-1 Teaching & Research Aptitude	Arihant Publication	Arihant Express
Trueman’s UGC NET/ SLET General Paper I	Danika Publishing Company	M. Gagan (Author), Sajit Kumar

UGC NET Syllabus – Previous Years’ Question Papers and Study Material

As an effective method of preparation, candidates must attempt various mock tests apart from following the UGC NET syllabus. Also, they should solve sample question papers to raise their chances of scoring well in the UGC NET exam 2021. Candidates will find a list of sample question papers in the below table with which they can prepare better for the upcoming UGC NET exam 2021.

UGC NET Solved Question Paper (2012 – 2019)

UGC NET Solved Question Paper 1 (2019)	UGC NET Solved Question Paper 1 (December 2018)	UGC NET Solved Question Paper 1 (July 2018)
UGC NET Solved Question Paper 1 (November 2017)	UGC NET Solved Question Paper 1 (January 2017)	UGC NET Solved Question Paper 1 (June 2016)
UGC NET Solved Question Paper 1 (August 2016)	UGC NET Solved Question Paper 1 (December 2015)	UGC NET Solved Question Paper 1 (June 2015)
UGC NET Solved Question Paper 1 (December 2014)	UGC NET Solved Question Paper 1 (June 2014)	UGC NET Solved Question Paper 1 (December 2013)
UGC NET Solved Question Paper 1 (June 2013)	UGC NET Solved Question Paper 1 (December 2012)	UGC NET Solved Question Paper 1 (June 2012)

 

UGC NET Online Mock Test – CLICK HERE   UGC NET Study Material – Click Here

UGC NET Syllabus – FAQs

How many questions will be asked in the UGC NET exam 2021?

A total of 150 questions will be asked in the UGC NET Paper 1 and 100 questions in the UGC NET Paper 2.

What are the different sections of UGC NET syllabus?

UGC NET exam consists of subjects divided into 10 units (paper 1). These include Teaching Aptitude, Research Aptitude, Comprehension, Communication, Mathematical Reasoning and Aptitude, Logical Reasoning, Data Interpretation, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), People, Development and Environment, and Higher Education System.

For Paper 2, candidates require choosing any 1 subject amongst the 81 subjects highlighted in the article above.

Is there any negative marking scheme in the UGC NET exam?

No. There is no negative marking for any wrong or unattempted answer. Hence, candidates can attempt all the questions without worrying about negative marking.

Is it useful to solve sample papers or previous years' question papers?

UGC NET previous years' question papers, online mock tests and study materials help candidates to get a better idea about the types of questions asked in the exam and prepare well for it.

Will broad questions be asked in the UGC NET exam?

No. UGC NET exam includes only MCQ-type or multiple-choice questions.