UGC NET 2018 will be conducted by Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE)  on behalf of UGC in July 2018. The exam is scheduled to be held on July 8, 2018. The registration process will commence from March 6, 2018, and the last date for applying online is April 5, 2018.

CBSE UGC NET is a national level offline test which determines the eligibility of candidates for the post of JRF and Assistant Professor.

CBSE has notified two important changes for the upcoming exam. According to the notification, the exam pattern and the age limit for JRF have been changed from the previous year. As CBSE has raised the upper age limit for JRF aspirants by 2 years and also the exam pattern has excluded paper 3 from it. Let’s examine both the alterations in detail.

Change in the Age Limit for JRF

CBSE has raised the upper age limit for all the candidates appearing for the post of JRF by two years i.e. the maximum age limit now will be 30 years. Earlier the maximum age limit for JRF applicants was 28 years. However, it has been notified that the relaxations in the age for various categories will be same as earlier. There will be a relaxation of 5 years for OBC, SC/ST, PWD and women candidates. A candidate having research experience will be given a relaxation of 5 years while for those possessing L.L.M. Degree, the relaxation is 3 years. In no case, the relaxation provided is more than 5 years. So, the new age limit for reserved category applicants is now 35 years.

Change in the Exam Pattern

CBSE has also changed the exam pattern for UGC NET 2018. The exam will now have two papers- Paper I &II.

Paper I will comprise 50 multiple choice questions of 100 marks i.e. each question will carry 2 marks. The time duration of the test will be 1 hour. It will consist of general questions to basically determine the teaching or research aptitude of the candidates. The test is mainly designed to check the Reasoning ability, Thinking, Comprehension and General awareness of an examinee.

Paper II will consist of 100 multiple choice questions of 200 marks i.e. each question will carry 2 marks. The time duration of the test will be 2 hours. This test is based on the subject selected by the candidate.

Earlier UGC NET had three papers. So, the third paper has now been scrapped by CBSE for this year’s exam. Earlier the aspirants also had to give the third paper i.e. Paper III of 150 marks which was based on the subject chosen by them. It consisted of 75 multiple choice questions. Other two papers – Paper I & II were of 100 marks and consisted of 50 multiple choice questions each. The time duration for Paper I&II was 1.25 hours each and for Paper III, it was 2.30 hours.

All the aspiring candidates can find the detailed notification regarding the exam on the official CBSE website from February 1, 2018. The major change in the age limit for JRF have given an opportunity to many candidates to appear for the exam and the new exam pattern can also change the level of difficulty for the exam.

These drastic changes have been welcomed by the teaching community. However, they are also demanding to introduce negative marking for the exam so as to increase the level of the exam. All the candidates should prepare themselves in accordance with the new exam pattern to ace the exam.