The National Educational Testing Bureau of University Grants Commission (UGC) conducts National Eligibility Test (NET) to determine eligibility for lectureship and for award of Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) for Indian nationals in order to ensure minimum standards for the entrants in the teaching profession and research. The NET is a very useful method of short-listing the candidates from a pool of applicants.

We will be looking at some tips which will help perform better if not ace it. Before looking at the tips for clearing the UGC NET, you should know the syllabus of the examination. The notion of clearing the examination seems to be hard and candidates believe that the paper is tough. On the contrary, if you think that teaching is a passion rather than a profession that pays well, chances are that you will be able to clear the paper.

Let’s have a look at some tips for preparing for UGC NET Commerce:

Take time

If you are planning to appear for the UGC NET examination, the idea is to spend time on your preparation. It is advised you spend quality time on your preparation and also regular amounts of time. You will be required to be regular on the time that you take out for preparation. Most experts will advice you somewhere between three to six months for preparing for the test.

Familiarize yourself

Over the next some months you should be able to clearly know things for what they are as far as the syllabus for the test is concerned. You should channel your preparation on the topics in the syllabus and thus plan accordingly. If you start your preparation well ahead in time then there will not be any need to skip a topic.

Prioritize

Out of the three sections in the paper, two will be on a topic of your choice while the other is a common paper which is to test you on aptitude and general awareness. While it is necessary for you to score well in the paper from your subjects, remember that if you do not clear the first paper you will not be able to clear the NET as well. So give priority to all three and spend and plan time in preparation accordingly.

Notes

Although this is not the case with only this test, taking and making your own notes will take you a long way. Get into the practice of making your own notes; this will make a huge difference when you will revise.

Past question papers

Try and collect as many past year question papers as you possibly can. These will not only set a bar when you are preparing for the examination but will also assist you during the preparation itself. There is a possibility that you are not able to solve all the questions by yourself, so it is important that you take the help of a mentor, senior, teacher to help you with the questions.

Time if of the essence

You need to be able to practice a lot to be efficient. It is only when you know what question will be solved how will you be able to manage your time, efficiently. Time yourself when you are preparing for the UGC NET. By doing this you will have a fair enough idea of how things are to be done.

Be accurate

There is no fun in being quick if you can’t be accurate. The purpose behind being quick is that you do not miss out on anything you know. Similarly there is grave importance in being quick and accurate as well. So when you are preparing, keep in mind that while you are required to achieve your daily target and study, you are also to keep a check on how accurate your answers are.

In the end keep in mind that your answers will be as confident as you are. While keeping track of reality is of the utmost importance; do not break if you are not able to clear the paper in your first attempt. It has been made difficult for a purpose.

UPDATED NTA UGC NET SYLLABUS FOR COMMERCE 

(SUBJECT CODE – 08)

UGC NET Syllabus for Commerce: National Testing Agency (NTA) has been formed to conduct the UGC NET Exam along with some other competitive exams. After forming NTA, the new pattern of UGC NET Exam has been introduced i.e. Computer Based Test (CBT). For the new pattern of NET Exam, the University Grant Commission (UGC) has also revised the UGC NET Syllabus for all subjects including Paper 1.

New Pattern of UGC NET Exam

The pattern of the exam has been changed from 3 papers (Paper I, II & III) to 2 papers (Paper I & II). Now, there are 50 MCQs in Paper 1 and 100 MCQs in Paper 2. Each question carries 2 marks without any NEGATIVE marking for the wrong answer. There is no break between Paper 1 and Paper 2.

UGC NET Syllabus for Commerce

The UGC NET exam would be computer-based like bank PO, SSC exam. Paper 2 will have 100 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) with each question carrying two (2) marks i.e. 200 marks in total. The objective type questions will include multiple choices, matching type, true/false and assertion-reasoning type etc.

New UGC NET Commerce Syllabus (June 2019 onwards):

Unit 1: Business Environment and International Business

• Concepts and elements of business environment: Economic environment- Economic systems, Economic policies (Monetary and fiscal policies); Political environment- Role of government in business; Legal environment- Consumer Protection Act, FEMA; Socio-cultural factors and their influence on business; Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
• Scope and importance of international business; Globalization and its drivers; Modes of entry into international business
• Theories of international trade; Government intervention in international trade; Tariff and non-tariff barriers; India’s foreign trade policy, Foreign direct investment (FDI) and Foreign portfolio investment (FPI); Types of FDI, Costs and benefits of FDI to home and host countries; Trends in FDI; India’s FDI policy
• Balance of payments (BOP): Importance and components of BOP
• Regional Economic Integration: Levels of Regional Economic Integration; Trade creation and diversion effects; Regional Trade Agreements: European Union (EU), ASEAN, SAARC, NAFTA
• International Economic institutions: IMF, World Bank, UNCTAD
• World Trade Organisation (WTO): Functions and objectives of WTO; Agriculture Agreement; GATS; TRIPS; TRIMS

Unit 2: Accounting and Auditing

• Basic accounting principles; concepts and postulates
• Partnership Accounts: Admission, Retirement, Death, Dissolution and Insolvency of partnership firms
• Corporate Accounting: Issue, forfeiture and reissue of shares; Liquidation of companies; Acquisition, merger, amalgamation and reconstruction of companies
• Holding company accounts
• Cost and Management Accounting: Marginal costing and Break-even analysis; Standard costing; Budgetary control; Process costing; Activity Based Costing (ABC); Costing for decision-making; Life cycle costing, Target costing, Kaizen costing and JIT
• Financial Statements Analysis: Ratio analysis; Funds flow Analysis; Cash flow analysis
• Human Resources Accounting; Inflation Accounting; Environmental Accounting
• Indian Accounting Standards and IFRS
• Auditing: Independent financial audit; Vouching; Verification ad valuation of assets and liabilities; Audit of financial statements and audit report; Cost audit
• Recent Trends in Auditing: Management audit; Energy audit; Environment audit; Systems audit; Safety audit

Unit 3: Business Economics

• Meaning and scope of business economics
• Objectives of business firms
• Demand analysis: Law of demand; Elasticity of demand and its measurement; Relationship between AR and MR
• Consumer behavior: Utility analysis; Indifference curve analysis
• Law of Variable Proportions: Law of Returns to Scale, Theory of cost: Short-run and long-run cost curves
• Price determination under different market forms: Perfect competition; Monopolistic competition; Oligopoly- Price leadership model; Monopoly; Price discrimination
• Pricing strategies: Price skimming; Price penetration; Peak load pricing

Unit 4: Business Finance

• Scope and sources of finance; Lease financing
• Cost of capital and time value of money
• Capital structure
• Capital budgeting decisions: Conventional and scientific techniques of capital budgeting analysis
• Working capital management; Dividend decision: Theories and policies
• Risk and return analysis; Asset securitization
• International monetary system
• Foreign exchange market; Exchange rate risk and hedging techniques
• International financial markets and instruments: Euro currency; GDRs; ADRs
• International arbitrage; Multinational capital budgeting

Unit 5: Business Statistics and Research Methods

• Measures of central tendency
• Measures of dispersion
• Measures of skewness
• Correlation and regression of two variables
• Probability: Approaches to probability; Bayes’ theorem
• Probability distributions: Binomial, poisson and normal distributions
• Research: Concept and types; Research designs
• Data: Collection and classification of data
• Sampling and estimation: Concepts; Methods of sampling – probability and non-probability methods; Sampling distribution; Central limit theorem; Standard error; Statistical estimation
• Hypothesis testing: z-test; t-test; ANOVA; Chi–square test; Mann-Whitney test (U-test); Kruskal-Wallis test (H-test); Rank correlation test
• Report writing

Unit 6: Business Management and Human Resource Management

• Principles and functions of management, Organization structure: Formal and informal organizations; Span of control
• Responsibility and authority: Delegation of authority and decentralization
• Motivation and leadership: Concept and theories
• Corporate governance and business ethics
• Human resource management: Concept, role and functions of HRM; Human resource planning; Recruitment and selection; Training and development; Succession planning
• Compensation management: Job evaluation; Incentives and fringe benefits
• Performance appraisal including 360 degree performance appraisal
• Collective bargaining and workers’ participation in management
• Personality: Perception; Attitudes; Emotions; Group dynamics; Power and politics; Conflict and negotiation; Stress management
• Organizational Culture: Organizational development and organizational change

Unit 7: Banking and Financial Institutions

• Overview of Indian financial system
• Types of banks: Commercial banks; Regional Rural Banks (RRBs); Foreign banks; Cooperative banks
• Reserve Bank of India: Functions; Role and monetary policy management
• Banking sector reforms in India: Basel norms; Risk management; NPA management
• Financial markets: Money market; Capital market; Government securities market
• Financial Institutions: Development Finance Institutions (DFIs); Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs); Mutual Funds; Pension Funds
• Financial Regulators in India
• Financial sector reforms including financial inclusion
• Digitisation of banking and other financial services: Internet banking; mobile banking; Digital payments systems
• Insurance: Types of insurance- Life and Non-life insurance; Risk classification and management; Factors limiting the insurability of risk; Re-insurance; Regulatory framework of insurance- IRDA and its role

Unit 8: Marketing Management

• Marketing: Concept and approaches; Marketing channels; Marketing mix; Strategic marketing planning; Market segmentation, targeting and positioning
• Product decisions: Concept; Product line; Product mix decisions; Product life cycle; New product development
• Pricing decisions: Factors affecting price determination; Pricing policies and strategies, Promotion decisions: Role of promotion in marketing; Promotion methods – Advertising; Personal selling; Publicity; Sales promotion tools and techniques; Promotion mix
• Distribution decisions: Channels of distribution; Channel management
• Consumer Behaviour; Consumer buying process; factors influencing consumer buying decisions
• Service marketing
• Trends in marketing: Social marketing; Online marketing; Green marketing; Direct marketing; Rural marketing; CRM
• Logistics management

Unit 9: Legal Aspects of Business

• Indian Contract Act, 1872: Elements of a valid contract; Capacity of parties; Free consent; Discharge of a contract; Breach of contract and remedies against breach; Quasi contracts;
• Special contracts: Contracts of indemnity and guarantee; contracts of bailment and pledge; Contracts of agency
• Sale of Goods Act, 1930: Sale and agreement to sell; Doctrine of Caveat Emptor; Rights of unpaid seller and rights of buyer
• Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881: Types of negotiable instruments; Negotiation and assignment; Dishonour and discharge of negotiable instruments
• The Companies Act, 2013: Nature and kinds of companies; Company formation; Management, meetings and winding up of a joint stock company
• Limited Liability Partnership: Structure and procedure of formation of LLP in India
• The Competition Act, 2002: Objectives and main provisions
• The Information Technology Act, 2000: Objectives and main provisions; Cyber crimes and penalties
• The RTI Act, 2005: Objectives and main provisions
• Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) : Patents, trademarks and copyrights; Emerging issues in intellectual property
• Goods and Services Tax (GST): Objectives and main provisions; Benefits of GST; Implementation mechanism; Working of dual GST

Unit 10: Income-tax and Corporate Tax Planning

• Income-tax: Basic concepts; Residential status and tax incidence; Exempted incomes; Agricultural income; Computation of taxable income under various heads; Deductions from Gross total income; Assessment of Individuals; Clubbing of incomes
• International Taxation: Double taxation and its avoidance mechanism; Transfer pricing, Corporate Tax Planning: Concepts and significance of corporate tax planning; Tax avoidance versus tax evasion; Techniques of corporate tax planning; Tax considerations in specific business situations: Make or buy decisions; Own or lease an asset; Retain; Renewal or replacement of asset; Shut down or continue operations
• Deduction and collection of tax at source; Advance payment of tax; E-filing of income-tax returns

UGC NET Cut off Marks JRF & Lec.

Cut Off Marks (%): It is an aggregate percentage of Paper 1 and Paper 2 of the last selected candidate in commerce subject.
The previous years NTA UGC NET Commerce Cut Off Marks (%) for JRF and Assistant Professor (Lectureship) is given below in the table.

Cut off Marks for Assistant Professor
The Cut Off Marks (%) for selected candidates previous years for Assistant Professor (Lectureship) is given below in the table.