Subject Books for UGC NET Computer Science

Friends,

I found a comprehensive list of suggested books for preparing different subjects under computer Science. You may check it and even suggest me if you came across better books than I have mentioned here.

S.No.	Book Title	Author
1.	Matrices	AR Vasista
2.	Higher Engineering Maths	BS Grewal
3.	Probability and Statistics	Miller and Freund
4.	Discrete Mathematical Structures	JP Trembly and Manohar
5.	Discrete Maths	Schaum’s Series
6.	Discrete Mathematical Structures	Kolman, Busby and Ross
7.	Graph Theory	Narsingh Deo
8.	Numerical Methods	Golden Series
9.	Numerical Methods	BS Grewal
10.	Numerical Methods	SS Sastry
11.	Numerical Methods	Jain and Iyengar
12.	Discrete Mathematics	Mott, Kandel and Baker
13.	Automata	Ullman and Hopcroft
14.	Introduction to Computer Theory	Daniel Cohen 2nd Edition
15.	Theory of ComputerScience 2nd Edition	Chandrasekaran & Mishra
16.	Design Analysis of Comp. Algorithms	Aho, Hopcroft and Ullman
17.	Computer Algorithms	Horowitz and Sahni
18.	Introduction to Algorithms	Thomas Cormon, Charles Ronald
19.	Switching and Finite Automata Theory	Kohavi
20.	Digital Logic and Computer Design	Morris Mano
21.	Digital Principles and Applications	Leach and Malvino
22.	Computer System Architecture	Mano
23.	Computer Org. and Architecture	William Stallings
24.	Computer Organization	Hamacher, Vranesic &Zaky
25.	Computer Architecture and Organization	Hayes
26.	Programming Languages	Pratt and Zelkewitz
27.	Compilers	Aho, Ullman and Sethi
28.	Principles of Compiler Design	Aho and Ullman
29.	Fundamentals of Data Structures	Horowitz. Sahni
30.	Introduction to DS with Applications	Trembly and Sorenson
31.	Data Structures	Schaum Series
32.	DS and Programming in C	Kruse, Tondo and Leung
33.	C Programming	Venugopal
34.	C Programming Language	Kernighan and Ritchie
35.	System Programming	Donovan
36.	System Programming and OS	Dhamdhere
37.	Operating Systems	Dietel
38.	Operating Systems	William Stallings
39.	Operating Systems	Milan Milenkovic
40.	OS Concepts	Galvin and Silberschatz
41.	Computer Networks	Andrew Tanenbaum
42.	Data Communications	William Stallings
43.	Engg. Approach to Comp. Networks	S Keshav
44.	Introduction to Switching Theory & Logic Design	FJ Hill and Peterson
45.	Database Systems	Korth and Sudhershan
46.	Fundamentals of DBMS	Elmasri, Navathe
47.	An Introduction to DBMS	CJ Date
48.	DBMS 3rd Edition	Ramakrishnan, Gehrke
49.	An Introduction to DBMS	Bipin C Desai
50.	Multiple Choice Questions in Computer Science	Timothy J Williams

Cracking NET: No Instant Recipe but Strategy

Dear Friends!

I have been sharing my views on strategy for succeeding in NET exam on this blog as well as in Facebook groups. Most of times, I am thrown the queries on "Instant Recipe" for success in NET....like:

"Do you have study material for NET exam?"

"How I can prepare in next 2-3 months so that I crack the next exam?"

I start wondering why people look for "Instant Formula" to get success in competitive exams like UGC NET? Perhaps the "successful" formulas used by them in academic exams of their degree made them to think the same way for UGC NET exam also, but sorry, it is not that easy.

Before the pattern of NET examination was changed to 100% objective, Paper-III was subjective. You were supposed to secure just passing marks (40%) in paper III and 50% in total of Paper I and Paper II. It means, there was no criteria of falling in top 15% of eligible candidates. Still, the rate of success in Computer Science was dismally low all over India.

Now, the pattern has been changed and the high ratio of successful candidates is an indicator that cracking NET is far easier now. But, still, there is no "Instant Recipe" for success in NET.

NET preparation takes planning as well as patience. Unless you are born genius and covered all important topics of NET exam with utmost sincerity as a student and started preparing while you were in 1st semester of Masters degree....it definitely takes time to qualify. How much of time? It all depends on 3 factors, which we will discuss at the end.

Previously I posted two articles: One-> Getting success in NET exam, Two-> Securing great marks. In this post, I am sharing some more ideas on planning for your goal to qualify the Exam. Your success depends much on the dedicated execution of these steps.

First:

Select the topics you can study and prepare well for the next NET exam. You better focus on only those subjects you know are important to cover and also, you are confident that you can understand and can study them in short time. One strategy to choose the topics is to select 7-8 old topics, means, the topics you have already studied in your Masters. Additionally, select one or two new topics which you have never studied but are important for NET exam. For example, I had never heard about Theory of Computation (TOC) while doing MCA. The questions from this subject are always asked in paper II and/or paper III. You will need to select around 10 subjects.
For your old subjects, make a list of books you need to study. Follow the standard and famous books.

For the new topics, it would be better either you watch tutorial videos on NPTEL website, Youtube or find a good book for beginners on such topic. In my case, to learn Automata, I started with the book by Ullman. But that was a mistake, since the language of this book is not suitable for beginners. So, I shifted to online Videos and other web-based tutorials.  I later came to know that books on Automata by Peter Linz and Mishra were better for beginners.

For now, in first step, Do not start reading/re-reading books. Do this after following the next step.

Second:

Now, download all previous UGC papers from cbsenet.nic.in as well as ugcnetonline.in. For saving your time, here are the URLs to old question papers:

1. December 2015
2. June 2015

3. December 2014

4. June 2009 to June 2014

Now take printout of all the papers if you prefer to study offline. In my case, I took printout of all question papers and binded all papers in order like an MCQ book. Study the questions of all 3 papers. Try to understand the pattern and the types of questions asked. (Right now, do not focus on solutions to the problems, just develop an understanding on the types of the questions). 

To do this exercise in a planned manner, select any one topic and study questions from that topic only - in all question papers. For example, if you choose to begin with OS, make a list of only OS related questions from previous papers. On average, you will find 5-6 questions on OS from each exam session. It means, you will have more than 60 questions in hand on OS. If you have just began to prepare for NET, it is for sure that you will find that more than 50% questions are challenging. Highlight such questions. Do the same for all other topics. (Right now, we are not focusing on the solutions to the questions, but simply developing understanding of the topics). Solve  the questions as mentioned in third step.

Third:

Now solve the questions (which you selected in previous step) in three ways:

1. Find the topics in the text book, for example Galvin, and read the text. Make notes of important concepts. If you are short of time, simply use highlighter to mark in the book itself (Don't do this in borrowed books :-)

2. If  you could not find useful information in the book, take help of Google to research these questions. You will find Tens of useful links to study.

3. Still, if you fail to find the solution, post your question if forums like Facebook groups you have joined, online blogs related to your topic etc. Someone will definitely post answer to your question in any of the forums.

Remember, solving each challenging question can take time. Sometimes, it may take even 2 hours just to find the right answer and concept behind the asked question. (DO NOT CRAM ANS KEYS GIVEN BY UGC. I too made this mistake. It consumes time but is least helpful.) Why I have asked to do this step? You are not supposed to remember the given answers, but study the concept behind each such question. If you get the concept right, you will find many other questions easy to answer which are based on the same concept. If later you read the same questions or other questions on the concept you learnt, you will realise that you can now understand the problem in a better manner before you covered the topics.

Fourth:

After covering most of previous NET questions, research more on MCQ from other resources (both offline and online). Start solving questions from MCQ book by authors like Timothy Williams and any other you consider as good book. 

You may also use web sites some of which I am listing below:

http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/

http://nptel.ac.in/course.php

http://www.indiabix.com/engineering/

Last thing! There are three factors which will decide the direction of your exam preparation:
#1. (Most Important) Your focus on your goal (means how much serious you are to crack the NET)

#2. Your previous academics, means how much and which subjects you have learnt good by the time you complete your masters.

#3. Your perseverance, means "Never Say Die" spirit even if it is taking longer than you thought to qualify the exam. I stressed on this attitude in one of my previous posts also.

These 3 factors will decide when and how you will succeed.

Readers! The only objective of this post is to make you realise that it is better to equip yourself with all necessary Armour for hitting the exam. Give yourself at least 6 months of dedicated preparation. After 6 months, you will be confident on the concepts as well as on how to solve MCQs.

Best of Luck for July 2016 exam!

How to Ensure Great Score In NET Exam?

Hello Friends!

From the analysis of past UGC NET exams of last 3 years, I have found some very useful and interesting insights. I am here sharing my views which may help candidates appearing in forthcoming January 2017 UGC NET exam.

Point #1.

Solve all available previous Question papers of NET exam. They are available to download from the links below:

1. July 2016 

2. December 2015

3. June 2015

4. December 2014

5. June 2009 to June 2014

The best way to solve previous question papers is not just to check the answer keys, but research the aspects related to the right answer choice as well as other choices. For example:

Q. The mode of communication that involves a single source transmitting information to a large number of receivers simultaneously, is called

(A) Group Communication

(B) Mass Communication

(C) Intrapersonal Communication

(D) Interpersonal Communication

The right answer is B here. Now, you must study other terms also. Research about Intrapersonal Communication,  Interpersonal Communication and Group Communication. There definitely are questions where right answer is from any of these 3 terms.

Point #2.

Give very much importance to Paper I. Some candidates think that Paper II and Paper III are more demanding and need more time to prepare. It's true that one needs very good preparation for subject papers, but if you give enough time and attention to paper I, it will prove to be a deciding factor in clearing the exam. Let me tell you how it may work for you:

One must target to score at least 80% in paper I and it is very much easy. I have myself scored 80%+ score thrice.

Why it is important? As you know, only top 15% candidates are declared qualified. Subject-wise cut-off is different, but for all subjects, paper I is common. In my observation, most of candidates fail to score even 50% marks in paper III. If you fall under unreserved category, it becomes very crucial to pass all papers as well as rise above the high cut-off percentage. Further, those candidates who pass all papers, very few candidates score 60% or above in paper III. As I said, if you score around 80% in paper I, you will be on safe side and can hope to score marks near or above the cut-off.

Now, how to plan your efforts to target 80% marks in paper I? You get 60 questions and are required to solve 50 only. There are 10 topics and you will be given 6 questions from each topic. That means, you are supposed to solve only 66% questions (40 correct answers). You must solve all 50 required questions. There is no negative marking, and who knows, some of your guesses also turn out as correct :-) !!! Anyways, if your 10 answers are wrong, you will still get 80% marks. Isn't it good?

Check the list of topics from which you will be asked questions:-

Topic 1. Teaching Aptitude-> Most of the questions are based on common sense and you can prepare this topic very well by solving different MCQs from books and previous NET papers.

Topic 2: Reading Comprehension-> Answers to all 6 questions are hidden in the passage itself. Read the passage at least twice and re-read the lines from which question is asked, and you are done!

Topic 3. Information and Communicating Technology (ICT)-> Being and IT person, these questions are peace of cake for me and people like me. But for others, one must focus on the theory of those topics which are mostly asked in NET. (In a later post, I will post about important topics for computer questions).

Topic 4. Data Interpretation-> This is one of the easiest topic. You are given a tabular data and are asked questions which mostly require little bit of statistical analysis. For example, there is a data of salary figures of 5 different years for different age groups. You are asked to find the age-group which had the higher income than the others for 3 years. To solve this question, find the average of each age group for given 3 years. You then can find the age group.

With a little calculation and concentration, you can get full 12 marks (6x2) for this topic.

Topic 5. Logical Reasoning-> If you have been preparing for different competition exams, then you will find the level of questions very easy here. Otherwise you will need to practice questions on reasoning topics. Example: blood relation, direction, jumbled words, analogies, Venn diagrams, argument & reasoning, types of reasoning. etc. are common topics.

Topic 6. Mathematical Reasoning-> It covers number & letter series, classification etc. This topic too is easy if you solve a lot of practice questions.

Topic 7. Communication: If you are not a student of mass communication like me, then you may follow the approach I follow. I have a habit of reading news paper and find that answers to many questions of communication stem because of this habit. For example, I found answer to questions like "what is grapevine?" "What is yellow journalism?" from the articles I read in newspapers. Rest of questions are asked from class-room communication. Follow tips in Point #1 to handle this topic.

Topic 8. Research Aptitude-> This topic cover research methodologies, types, steps to research, research ethics.

Topic 9. People and Environment-> I find this particular topic a bit tough. It may not apply to you if you have good understanding of it. Since your target is to score 40 questions and if you are short of time, then you should decide to leave one particular topic; it might be "People and Environment" on any other. If you need to study this topic, focus more on questions on natural hazards, pollution agents and gases.

Topic 10. Higher Education System : Governance Polity And Administration-> To cover this topic, gather facts from different education related websites of different governing bodies like NCTE, AICTE, UGC.AC.IN, MHRD etc. But before that, analyse the type of questions from previous papers and accordingly target your fact finding.

Since one cannot be expert in all topics, it is wise to leave one or two topics you find hard and focus only on 8-9 topics you can study. 

Point # 3

Have faith in your abilities. It does not matter if you are appearing for the exam for the first time or it is tenth time. If you doubt yourself, you will doubt your answer and get confused while solving the questions. Since there is not much of time to think, you must make yourself mentally prepared also before exam day. In a later post, we will discuss about mental preparation. Here, I will make only one point-stay confident, focused and relaxed.

Point #4

Don't waste time and energy on tough questions: There need to be a strategy before you start solving your papers. While attempting the questions, sometimes, we try to solve every question. Since there is no negative marking, you may not like to leave any question unanswered. But at the same time, it does not mean that you devote good amount of time to every question. Make it a rule to first answer only those questions for which you know the answer well. Then, devote the rest of time for other questions.

Point #5

Don't forget to carry your wrist watch with you. Since you will not be allowed to carry your mobile, you should carry a wrist watch with you to check the available time. I hear many a times that candidates failed to answer all questions (especially in paper I and paper II) because of no time left.

I hope this post will help you to score well and clear the NET exam. Best of luck!!

UGC NET/SET Exam: Some Ideas for success

Friends,

I want to share some of my ideas on NET/SET preparation. I have done MCA and qualified UGC NET exam twice and SET(H.P.)-2013 exam.

The very first time I appeared in NET exam simply to know the pattern of the exam and I didn't prepare much. At that time, exam had subjective pattern. I was able to clear Paper I and Paper II but I could not clear paper III. Still, I was very happy that I cleared first 2 papers. Then, I appeared again, then again. In total 5 of my efforts, I was not able to clear Paper III. In my 4th and 5th attempt, pattern of the paper had become totally objective. Still, I was not able to clear paper III.

I had started losing my faith in myself and I decided to opt out of Dec' 13 NET Exam and preferred to sit in another exam on the same date. I believed that the same story will get repeated. But one good thing I did was that before Dec' 13 exam, Himachal Pradesh Public Service commission had announced SET/SLET exam for the state universities/colleges. I applied for the exam and had appeared in the exam on November 17, 2013. The result of the exam was announced on  March 14, 2014 and I was declared qualified! WOW!!

The success in SET gave me much needed high and faith in myself. The point here is, we throw seeds on the land without bothering about which seed will bore fruits and when. Our efforts in one direction may show result somewhere else. The time I devoted in preparation of NET helped me to crack SET exam. Further, the success in SET exam enthused me and started preparing in a more determined manner. SET is limited in scope and a bit easier than NET. But success in this exam rekindled my faith in myself that NET too is not far and can be cracked with some more planning.

And the result was that I was able to qualify December 2014 exam. For the first time, I Cracked the "hard NUT" called UGC NET.

If one is failing 3 or more times in NET, it is quite possible that one will get disappointed and will lose one's confidence. To uplift one's spirits, focusing on some other exam/objective (for time being) of your chosen career will help you to forget the stress you might have been facing due to rejection in NET. You may choose to focus on some other competition exams for computer teacher/lecturers like CTET, SET, KV schools exams etc. whichever is announced in the time frame. Believe me, these exams can be cracked more easily than NET.

Your sole objective may be NET only, but if you succeed in other exams I have mentioned, it will lift your morale and will give birth to an enthusiastic mindset which is very crucial for cracking exams like NET.

PLEASE post your ideas (If whatever I have mentioned is right or wrong)..