HOW UGC SETS THE PAPER : FACTS OR CONCEPTS?

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HOW UGC NTA SETS THE PAPER

FACTS OR CONCEPTS?


Many students are texting me and asking if they should clear their concepts only and not focus on facts and figures or should they just cover the facts and not pay much attention to the conceptual clarity. I tell them: it's beyond that

Since 2012, there was a major shift in the paper pattern by UGC. They started asking questions from areas that weren't covered in the traditional MA courses or their textbooks. The main reason for that was to reduce the number of students who qualify for the exam. 

What is UGC NET exam? 

Exam from examiners perspective is not just testing the learning and skill set of students but is also a  process of eliminating as many students as they can. This is the primary reason why UGC NTA is spending a lot of its resources on the psychometric and statistical training of their core paper setting team. They recruit a lot of Statisticians and Psychometricians with the primary goal to increase the difficulty of the paper along with setting other statistical norms. 

Facts or Concepts?

Normally, a paper setter can ask any typical question from any topic to test your knowledge but this exam is not just a test of your knowledge but of your confidence and analytical abilities. Paper consists of questions based on both facts+analytical as well as conceptual. Facts and concepts are equally important. They won't just ask you questions about a topic that you have mastered but they want to test your analytical power and how you can handle a twisted question. The trend has changed over the years and now it's not just facts or concepts but something beyond that: Pattern Recognition and Analytical Reasoning. Yes, these are the things they test now.

  One simple example:


This physiological response model was first formulated by William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson, in their 1966 book Human Sexual Response. Now, I am sure many students who studied this cycle might have thought that examiner would ask a question like what's Plateau Stage? Or what's resolution stage? But obviously, psychometrics is never going to allow you asking in such a pattern. Rather than asking a conceptual question, they asked a question which is based on remembering the pattern and not just the theory. 
Another example which is my favorite pattern

Now everyone might have studied Biological basis of Hearing but no one bothered to remember the pattern. And this is where psychometrics puts your analytical abilities to test. No one can teach you these things but you have to keep things in your mind while preparing for the exam. So while solving paper kindly look carefully at all the options and find the most appropriate ones. 

Here is a typical example of a tricky conceptual question:

Here only those who ticked the B option will get marks although other options look correct too.

Before 2014, UGC asked patterns based on the age of Psychologists (ordering in chronological order). But since then they have included this pattern recognition in almost everything. 

How to recognise Patterns?

One simple solution is Revision. The more you revise a thing, the easier it will get for you to identify such patters, but revising alone won't do the job. You will have to be mindful every time you read anything besides being objective and critical. 


I will be writing more about the pattern recognition and development of analytical abilities to help you guys. Share it with your friends. Also, SET 2 of Notes will be released on the 4th of September. 


Drop your queries & feedback at psyguide@pm.me 

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