What is the UGC NET Exam?

The UGC NET Exam is conducted each by NTA to screen eligible candidates for the post of assistant professor and/or Junior Research Fellowship in Indian universities and colleges. After qualifying for the examination, candidates can apply for the said posts in the institutions of their choice. However, their final selection will depend on the selection criteria specified by the respective university/institute.

Detailed Overview of UGC NET Exam 2023

Check important details like application dates, mode of application, exam date, etc., of the UGC NET Exam 2023 from the table below

UGC NET Notification 2023 and Important Events

The UGC NET notification contains all the details about the exam. The candidates can find the following details in the official notification 2023:

Application Process

The candidates will have to apply for the Exam on the official website of NTA. The steps to be followed to apply online for the UGC NET Exam have been given below.

Step 1: Visit the official website of UGC.

Step 2: UGC NET Application Form will be showcased on the screen. 

Step 3: Fill in all the required details (personal and educational details) in the UGC application form carefully without any mistakes.

Step 4: Candidates can then proceed to upload the scanned photograph

Step 5: After the photograph has been attached a message consisting of the application number will be displayed on the screen.

Step 6: After that, the required fee must be paid

Step 7: Once the payment is done, you can take the printout of the Application form 2023 for future reference.

Note: Candidates are also requested to download and install the SANDES application as a secondary channel to receive time-to-time notifications from NTA.

Exam Dates & Schedule

Check out all the important UGC NET exam dates 2023 below.

UGC NET Application Fees

It is really important to know about the UGC NET application fee which is needed to be paid for registering yourself for the examination.

The detailed application fee for different categories is shown below in table-

Eligibility Criteria

The candidates must have a master’s degree with an aggregate of 50%. The candidates who appear for the JRF Exam should not be above the age of 30 years (as of 01.12.2022). The candidates applying for the assistant professor post have no upper age limit. Several age relaxations are offered to candidates which are given in the table below.

Check in-depth details on UGC NET Eligibility criteria here!

Exam Pattern & Syllabus

The Examinations will consist of two papers as said above: 

• Paper I is a compulsory paper that all candidates need to give
• Paper I will consist of 50 questions for 100 marks (2 marks each) with no negative markings.
• Paper II needs to be chosen by the candidates based on his/her specialization. 
• The important subjects which are a part of the Paper 2 are Economics, Political Science, Philosophy, Psychology, History, Commerce, Management, English, etc. The total number of subjects in paper 2 is 82. Paper II will have 100 questions for 200 marks (2 marks each) with no negative marking.

Answer Key

The candidates who are willing to check the answer key can download the same from the official website of NTA or use the direct link given in this article. The candidates can check the steps to download the UGC NET answer key given below. 

Step 1: Visit the official website of UGC NET.

Step 2: Click on the Answer Key option to visit the answer key page.

Step 3: Enter the required credentials (Application number, Date of birth/Password & Security Pin)

Step 4: Click on the submit button after all the details have been entered.

Step 5: The Answer Key along with the question paper and response sheet will be displayed on the screen

Step 6: Candidates can download the answer key for future reference.

Know important features of UGC NET Online Coaching here!

Qualifying Marks & Cut-off

Qualifying marks refer to the minimum marks that must be obtained by a candidate to become eligible to earn a UGC NET certificate for either the JRF or the Assistant Professorship. Different cut-off marks or qualifying marks are released for the different horizontally or vertically reserved categories. The cut-off for the Assistant Professorship is usually lower than the Junior Research Fellowship cut-off. The candidate who has qualified for JRF is inevitably eligible for the Assistant Professorship.

Validity of UGC NET Score

After scoring a valid UGC NET score, that is more than the cutoff or qualifying marks, candidates will be issued with a UGC NET certificate. As per the new NTA and UGC norms, the UGC NET score for the Junior Research Fellowship is three years from the date of issuance of the UGC NET JRF certificate. Whereas, for the Assistant Professorship, the score is valid forever. Hence the candidate’s UGC NET scores will be valid for lifetime in case of Assistant Professorship bur but for JRF, there is a limit of three years.

Exam Centres List

National Testing Agency has not released the list of exam centers for UGC NET 2023 yet. However, it should be noted that UGC NET exam centers in 2023 would be more or less the same, except for the number of test center cities, which may go up or down by a few numbers. UGC NET 2023 exam centres are the venues where the examination is held in June. Candidates will check the UGC NET Test Center list 2023 and understand which cities the exam is held in. Apart from knowing the name of the state, candidates can even understand the UGC NET exam center code, given correspondingly to the name of the city within the list.

Admit Card

The UGC NET Admit Card has been released. The candidates can download their admit cards through the NTA website. The steps to download the admit card have been given below.

Step 1: Visit the official website of NTA.

Step 2: Click on the pop-up on the screen ‘UGC NET Admit Card Released

Step 3: Enter the required credentials (Application Number, Date of Birth & Captcha)

Step 4: Click on the Login button & download the admit card

Step 5: Take a printout of the same for future reference.

Cut-Off 

To know all the important details regarding the Cut-Off marks, read the points mentioned below.

• The UGC NET Cut Off is the minimum number of marks that candidates need to score in order to qualify for the exam
• The cut-off will be released separately for “Assistant Professor “& “Assistant Professor & JRF “.
• The cut-off will depend on criteria such as the number of vacancies, number of test-takers & difficulty level of the paper

Result

The result of the exam is released on the official website. Candidates can check out the UGC NET Result through the steps mentioned below.

Step 1: Click on the direct link mentioned above.

Step 2: Enter the required credentials (Application number, Password/date of birth & Security Pin)

Step 3: Click on the submit button and download the result

Step 4: Take a printout for future reference

Step 5: Alternatively, you can log on to the official website and repeat the above procedure.

UGC NET Reservation Policy

The exam is a national-level exam that is conducted twice a year. Many students from all fields and categories attempt this exam. UGC NET applies a reservation policy in universities and institutions at the central level as per the Government of India reservation policy. As per this reservation policy, candidates from different categories will be eligible for the following per cent of reservations for seats at various Central Universities:

Note- Candidates can check out the official notification for more detailed information regarding the reservation policy of the UGC NET exam. 

UGC NET Selection Process 2023

The UGC NET is a qualifying exam for candidates willing to apply for Assistant Professor and JRF posts in Government Universities and Institutes. The selection process for the appointment of the NET-qualified candidates to these posts will be decided by the respective institution. However, to qualify for the NET exam candidates must keep in mind the following:

• The candidates from the general category should score 40% in aggregate (in both papers) and the candidates from other categories need to secure at least 35% in aggregate in order to qualify for the post of Assistant Professor & JRF 
• 6% of the total candidates who appeared will be qualified for the post of assistant professor.
• The number of candidates qualified or rejected is decided based on the formula developed by UGC which can be understood by the example given below-

UGC NET 2023: Exam Dates

Check out all the important UGC NET exam dates for June 2023 Cycle below:

UGC NET Exam City Intimation 2023

The candidates can check the exam city allotted to them for the Exam by following the steps mentioned below:

• Visit the official website of UGC NET.
• Click on the ‘Advance City Intimation for UGC-’ link present on the screen.
• Fill in your application number, date of birth and security pin to access it.
• Check your exam city.
• Take a printout of the same for future usage.

UGC NET 2023: Exam Analysis

The Phase 1 Exam had a moderate difficulty level. The Phase 2 exam will be concocted for 82 subjects. The candidates can check the exam analysis for each shift once the exam has been conducted. The Exam Analysis will cover several sections such as the weightage of each topic, good attempts and the difficulty level of the exam. The candidates can check the UGC NET Exam Analysis for the previous year.

NTA UGC NET 2023: How to Download E-Certificate?

The candidates can easily get a copy of their Certificate online. They can go through the steps mentioned below if they want to download the UGC NET E- Certificate 2023

Step 1 – Visit the official website of UGC NET.

Step 2 – The candidate has to fill out the application number and date of birth to access the document.

Step 3 – Candidates will be able to download the e-certificate for the UGC NET exam 2023.

New UGC Regulations for PhD Admissions

The University Grants Commission notified the Regulations, 2022 on 7th November 2022. Following are some highlights of these regulations:

• These regulations will replace the UGC (Minimum Standards and Procedure for Awards of M.Phil. /PhD Degree) Regulations, 2016
• As, per the new regulations, candidates with 4 years of Undergraduate degree (minimum CGPA of 7.5) can enrol for admission to PhD courses.

For more details on these rules visit the UGC website.

UGC NET Exam: Study Material

The candidates can access the UGC NET Study Material which is available on the our website and application. The candidates will highly benefit from this. Referring to the study material will help the candidates in scoring high marks in the exam. The study material covers all the important portions of the Exam.

Notes for UGC NET Exam

Notes play a crucial role in shaping one’s preparation for the UGC NET exam. The candidates must prepare good, brief and comprehensive notes so that they can revise the humongous syllabus later and the notes must be all- inclusive that is made using two to three reference materials to ensure that nothing is left. We provides expert-curated UGC NET notes that cover the entire syllabus in limited number of pages which later helps in effective revision.

Enroll in Online Coaching

Aspirants wishing to appear in the upcoming cycle of UGC NET exam, must figure out at earlier point of time, that whether they should opt for coaching or not. If candidate feels confident that he/she can cover the syllabus on his/her own, then no need of coaching is there. But if candidates are facing difficulty in any phase of preparation, then it is advisable to join a coaching and work upon their shortcomings to ensure selection in upcoming UGC NET exam. Our collaboration with the leading UGC NET coaching and faculty members has launched UGC NET that will cover the whole syllabus of UGC NET for all the subjects and will prepare candidates to perform best of their abilities in the UGC NET exam.

Important topics

Important topics are the topics of the UGC NET syllabus that have the highest probability of recurring in the UGC NET exam. In order to identify these important topics, candidates must analyse the ten to fifteen years previous year papers of UGC NET. After going through these papers superficially, you will be able to make an idea regarding which topics are important and which are not. Our experts have curated a list of important topics for each subject of UGC NET. Candidates can visit the official website to get hold of the UGC NET important topics.

Important Questions

There are specific topics in the UGC NET syllabus which are asked in high weightage by the UGC NET paper setter. In this smart world, along with hard work it is very important to do smart study. Candidates can get an idea of these topics through past year papers. After noting down these UGC NET important questions, candidates must practice as many questions as possible based on those important UGC NET topics.

UGC NET Exam: Question Papers

UGC NET Question Papers 2023 will be provided to the candidates after the official release of the answer key. In the meantime, the candidates can go through the UGC NET Previous Year Papers which will help the candidates understand the exam pattern, question type and weightage of each section. Solving these question papers will help the candidates in improving their preparation for the Exam.

NTA UGC NET: Books

A plethora of books is available for the preparation for this exam. The candidates can prefer any of these books depending upon the content they are comfortable with. However, we have recommended some of the most popular UGC NTA NET books used widely by aspirants. It is however advisable to have a trial version/library copy of these books first before purchasing. The candidates can buy later if they find the language comfortable. For the complete list of books for various key subjects, you can get the list here: