Toppers Mantra – Tips from NET JRF Avinash Kumar: Take marathon classes on YouTube, understand difficult topics through ChatGPT

My name is Avinash Kumar and I am currently working as a Public Relations Officer in THDC. I gave NET JRF in 2022 and cleared the exam in the first attempt. I got 204 marks. After qualifying JRF, I took admission for PhD in University of Hyderabad. After that I joined THDC as a PR Executive, which is a PSU of the Ministry of Power of the Government of India. Here also my selection was done on the basis of JRF score.

I was in 8th class when I started ‘Apna Bihar’
I have been associated with mass communication since childhood. Perhaps since the time when I did not even know what journalism was. I am from a small village in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar. From the beginning, I used to see that there were a lot of negative things about Bihar. There was no platform where one could find good things about Bihar, where one could know some positive things about Bihar. Then I thought of creating a platform on social media where one could find positive things about Bihar. Then I started ‘Apna Bihar’. I was in 8th class then.

I had dreams of engineering but studied mass communication
I did my 11th and 12th from science stream. Like everyone else, my dream was to become an engineer. I started preparing for IIT JEE. Meanwhile, I felt that I am a natural communicator so mass communication would be a better option. At the same time, Delhi University started a five-year integrated program. I gave the exam and got selected. I studied there for five years.

Cleared JRF in the first attempt
After my masters, I cleared NET JRF in the first attempt. Then I came to the University of Hyderabad to do PhD. During this time, recruitment for PR executive came out in THDC. In that, candidates are shortlisted on the basis of NET-JRF score and then they are interviewed. I liked the profile etc. I applied and got selected. Currently, I am working as a PR executive in THDC India.

I started formal preparation after my Masters. But if you look at the syllabus of UGC NET, it is a combined syllabus of Bachelors and Masters. I was good in academics. Whatever I studied at that time, its major portion was also in the syllabus of UGC NET. You people have studied so much in college that you must have known the basics. Those people already know about communication theory, development communication etc.

Do structured preparation for UGC NET
You should have a structured preparation for UGC NET. First of all, download the syllabus. How much to study is subjective. For any competitive exam, what not to study is more important than what to study. This is also different for everyone because the topic that I find easy may not be easy for everyone.

Practice as much as you can and design your preparation accordingly. Keep solving previous year question papers and sample papers. This will help you in two things – firstly, you will know what kind of questions are asked. Second, you will know how deeply you need to study each topic. Many questions are repeated, so you will remember some questions by default.

Apart from this, after solving the paper, do analyze it. You can attend marathon classes topic by topic from YouTube channels. If you have any problem in a topic or you are unable to understand it, you can watch it in marathon classes on YouTube.

You can understand topics from ChatGPT

If you are having trouble understanding a topic, you can understand it through ChatGPT. Ask ChatGPT directly the question that is confusing you. People do not consider Wikipedia a reliable source. However, I think that 95% of the information on Wikipedia is correct. The information that is in the public domain is correct on Wikipedia.

Video lectures will be useful for difficult topics
Indian Logic in Paper 1 is a bit difficult. It has a lot of Sanskrit concepts. For this, videos will be more useful than books. Data Interpretation i.e. Maths and Reasoning part seems difficult. Many children who do not have a Maths background are afraid of this topic. There is only one solution to this – practice. By doing a long calculation in this, you can answer many questions.

Research Aptitude and Research Methodology, questions from this will come in both Paper 1 and 2 and this is a very important topic. For this you can study from C R Kothari’s book. Paper 1 is quite scoring, the more you score in Paper 1, the easier it will be for you to answer Paper 2.