8 Best Tips for How to start Preparation of CSIR NET Life Science Exam

How to start preparation of CSIR NET ???

CSIR NET JRF is a prestigious national entrance exam for all candidates those who want to become JRF and aspire to be research scholar in reputed Research institute and universities in India or want to work as an assistant professor and interested in teaching to build the base of India in the field of higher studies.

Hence no wonder only in the field of Life Science about 1 lakh candidates register for an exam and about 80% that is 80,000 students appear for the exam every six months so this number reveals the hardness of competition in the exam (Note: The data given above is of NET JRF Exam Dec 2018). Hence it seems difficult to crack the exam with a vast & large syllabus and high competition without a proper strategy and daily execution of the plan. This article How to start preparation of CSIR NET talks about the same things!

Therefore Biologywala has decided to write this blog after your no. of DMs on Sachin’s Biology Instagram page. So here is the strategy by which you can qualify CSIR NET JRF Life Science Exam.

Before that remember it’s not important to just know How to start preparation of CSIR NET, it is more important to execute the plans and strategy. With this reminder let’s go for the Strategy.

1.Know your battle ground:

The syllabus is the main battleground where you have to fight for your JRF. Complete understanding of the syllabus will make you realize the level of effort the exam need and the deepness it requires. So when you are thinking about attempting CSIR NET JRF Life Science Exam it’s mandatory to get through the syllabus. Download the CSIR NET JRF Life Science Exam syllabus read it carefully (you may feel bore but just do it).

2. Well beginning is half done:

After that pick up the topics that you know already or have studied in your masters and graduate courses if you want to start your preparations these are the best topics to begin your CSIR journey. Make a proper list of these topics and subtopics and assign particular dates for each of them to cover these topics.

Initially try to solve the previous years CSIR NET questions of these topics, especially the topics on which you have more command, when you will do it, you will come to know where exactly you are in the preparation and what CSIR exactly want from you. If you can solve these questions it will boost your confidence and would give you courage for your further preparation.

If you couldn’t able to solve questions then don’t panic or don’t be underconfident as it’s just the starting of your preparation. Go back and read about topics from CSIR point of view (Now you know what is CSIR syllabus is and on which topic they have asked the questions and their deepness level too) once you have done your preparations of that topic, attempt the same questions again now you will able to solve them more efficiently than before.

Ex: If Pratiksha has completed his master’s in BOTANY then she can start her preparation from unit 6: Plant Physiology, and can solve the questions on subtopics like photosystems, photosynthesis, ETC, respiration. As she has completed her master’s from botany then she must have some knowledge about unit 11 and 12 ecologies and evolution respectively. So she can choose these topics too !!! Similarly, you can do it according to your educational background, and this way you can tackle the initial question of how to start preparing for the CSIR NET Life Science Exam.

3. Choose the best:

Once you decided your topics in your comfort zone and completed it, then it’s time to come out of your comfort zone and try some real thing in preparation, but as you already have prepared a few of the CSIR NET syllabus topics so now you will have an idea about how to tackle other topics too!

4. Time to get into real stuff:

Now we know the syllabus of the exam, the toughness level of questions and we also covered our strong topics too! if you ask me How to start preparation of CSIR NET then I will say it’s time to come out of your comfort zone and try some real stuff like :

1. Biochemistry
2. Molecular Biology
3. Cell Biology
4. Ecology
5. Plant Physiology
6. Genetics

These are the core topics for CSIR NET JRF Life Science Exam Preparation. If you want to qualify for the exam then you have to make them your buddies. You have to give them attention like what you give to your best friend and you need to clear each of his doubts as you do for your buddy. Read their syllabus and previous year’s questions (Don’t directly try to solve questions as these questions will be hard for you, just go through them) to understand the questions and important points from these units.

Then find good books for your preparations. Generally, when we talk about CSIR NET JRF Life Science there are two kinds of books that you need :

A. Specialized books for CSIR NET JRF Syllabus only. Which you can buy from amazon Like:

1. Pathfinder
2. Catalyst
3. General Aptitude of Christy Varghese, etc.

B. Reference books for specific chapters. Now don’t buy each book, you can download the free books from the internet. Like

1. The Cell: A Molecular Approach – Geoffrey M. Cooper the cell biology textbook
2. Genetics A Conceptual Approach by Benjamin A. Pierce
3. Download Principles of Genetics by D. Peter Snustad
4. Plant Physiology: Lincoln Taiz and Eduardo Zeiger

Download free PDF books from here.

It’s not important to Just buy or download the books it’s important to read them whenever you feel that you have stuck it into the concept. For that, you need to develop a new habit of reading Reference books. It will help you to qualify CSIR NET JRF Exam for sure., but it will also help you during Ph.D. interviews as you will have complete knowledge of the topic.

Here is the book which will help you to make new habits and replace your old destructive habits with new productive habits.

Atomic Habits

5. Break it and make it:

Now you

• have understood the syllabus,
• you have read and tried the previous years questions,
• you know the depth of questions,
• you have chosen your topics for preparations,
• you have got your study material,
• downloaded the free books from biologywala.com. Now the real stuff begins here.

How to study? What should be the Plan?

for that remember the Rule that Britishers has taught us:

Break It and Make It!!!

Break your all topics into Small targets. Make a plan for 6 months, Break it into 5 parts (6th month is only for revisions and mock tests. No new thing you should do here). Again break the plan into Weeks. Have a checklist for an entire week. It should be in your pocket, on your table, or onboard. It should be in front of you for 24 hours.

You may feel like what it will do? or you may remove it after someday due to your fear and anxiety (because you couldn’t able to complete your targets daily and weekly, so it may frustrate you). But believe me, don’t take it off! Go through the pain, once you face it you will be able to get over it and it will act as the trigger point for you.

So prepare your MONTHLY, WEEKLY, AND DAILY targets and chase them like you are in the WAR (Remember that there will be few days when you won’t able to complete your targets. But still, stick with your plan if you consistently miss your targets then make it more realistic and based upon your capacity. But it should be a little more for you as it will force you to prepare more intensely).

Have weekly and monthly check for your work, if you think you can reduce or increase it after a certain period then do it. But don’t change the schedule of your study plan steak to it.

6. Consistency is the key:

Once started your studies according to the plan, being consistent at CSIR NET preparation strategy would be THE ONLY THING which you need. Do not allow anyone to distract you. A researcher shows that once you got distracted then will take 23 minutes and 15 seconds for an average man to attend the same level of focus and fluency in work. So it’s important to stay focus on your goal. For that you can use this technique:

“Divide your work plan into 25 minutes of small task or topic. Complete your small task in 25 minutes then take 5 minutes break. And then start your second Small task if you feel that you can extend the time then you can but 25 minutes it’s a recommended one. After every 25 minutes of study take a break of 4-5 minutes (don’t get out of your study zone you can relax there itself). Once completed 3 small targets then take a break of 30 minutes.” It will complete your one Pomodoro Cycle, people call this technique as Pomodoro technique.

If you want to know more about it then watch this video:

{Pomodoro Technique: To remove distraction.} Subscribe to this channel, It will help you to keep motivated and Strengthen your work ETHICS #hum-Jeetenge !!!

Once you completed your daily or weekly target give yourself a reward of thing which makes you happy. It could be anything chocolate, a call to someone or a short visit to somewhere, anything.

Try to cover all the sections in your routine study. Which will help you to have rhythm in your studies. Eventually will increase your confidence level.

7.Question is the answer:

CSIR NET JRF is an objective type of exam, where you have to focus on conceptual things and not just on remembering only data and facts it mostly required in Part B (Remember CSIR has computers, hard drives, and servers to store data that they need is a functional and analytical brain of Homo sapiens). So be clear with the concept and try to remember necessary facts and the data too. In most of the questions of part ‘C’, they provide you the hints try to catch them, and even ignore them as sometimes they will miss guide you.

8. Real time practice:

CSIR Don’t care about your hard work or struggle or even intelligence and knowledge if you don’t represent it in the way they want. And the only way to show that you deserve that JRF AWARD is by choosing the right answer in that 180 minutes.

To do so you need to look after 3 things!

1. Fix strategy or pattern to solve the question paper.
2. Excellent time management during the exam.
3. Management of stress and panic attack. (Don’t ignore it, It may waste your prestigious 6 month of life).

There are many students out there who have sufficient knowledge of life science but they couldn’t able to qualify for the exam because of these 3 factors. Then what is the solution for it??

The solution is simple Real-time practice of question paper or mock tests. As many tests, you will solve it will tell you your strengths and weaknesses. On which you can work and overcome on all these 3 IMPEDIMENTS which is not allowing you to cross that 120 marks in CSIR NET JRF Exam.

Believe me, nothing in life hurts more than REGRET You must be regretting today so many attempts and opportunities that you have missed in the past. You would have been so much more Knowledgeable, confident, polished, happy today had you wasted the opportunities that you missed earlier on in your life.

So, now you know all the things How to start preparation for the CSIR NET Exam. But it’s not important What you know but it’s more important than what you do with what you know. You may have started your preparation or you are about to start it remember one thing:

The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are!!!

This is it for today see you in the next article!!! Till then “Padhate Rehna aur Shanti me Kranti Karate Rahena” !!!

Take the 1st step of your CSIR NET JRF Life Science preparation journey by attempting one of these 5 quizzes:

1. Ecology Test 1
2. Biochemistry Test 1
3. Plant Physiology Test 1
4. Molecular Biology Test 1
5. Developmental biology Test 1

If you want daily notes and updates about exams on your mobile, you can join SACHIN’S BIOLOGY on Instagram or Facebook and directly Talk to the founder of Sachin’sBiology and Author of biologywala.com Mr.Sachin Chavan M.Sc. NET JRF (AIR 21) GATE MH-SET!