Your certificate says Assistant Professor and PhD admission, not JRF. Maybe you scored well and still missed it, and now you are wondering whether to sit the exam again.
Here is what I tell students in this position.
The short answer
First decide whether JRF is worth another year for you. If you go for it, do not restart from zero in a new coaching, because your NET notes already worked.
Revise them in two to three weeks, then add an advanced layer to two or three core subjects and push your Paper 1 score up. And do not put your career on hold while you do it.
Should you chase JRF at all?
I run a coaching business, so the easy thing for me to say would be: prepare again, join my classes, and you will get JRF. As a teacher I would rather be honest with you.
Over the years I have seen many students prepare again and again only for JRF. One student had qualified NET three times and was still trying for JRF, years later.
A NET certificate is already enough for many teaching jobs. I have seen NET-qualified students appointed ad hoc at Delhi University and as assistant professors in other colleges, without a PhD.
So get a job, gain a year of teaching experience, and do not settle for a low salary. Keep improving your API score and start your PhD.
If you also want JRF, prepare alongside, but do not spend years doing only this.
Why I do not want you to spend years preparing only for JRF.
If you go for it, do not start again from zero
After NET I usually tell students not to join a new course straight away. Any coaching will start from the beginning: the Anglo-Saxon age, the Elizabethans, the Victorians.
You already know all that. The notes you used for NET worked for you, because they got you through.
What JRF needs is an advanced layer on top of those notes. Revise them first.
Since you have already cleared NET, that should take 15 to 20 days, not months. Then spend about a month adding new information:
- Take British literature deeper with William J. Long and the Routledge history of English literature.
- Take literary criticism deeper with M.A.R. Habib.
- Cover the two or three subjects you skipped last time.
- Use NPTEL courses and audiobooks for depth, especially on the subjects you find dry.
- Keep going back to the topics in the previous year questions. The more you read around them, the more gaps you will find in your own coverage.
If you missed NET itself by 5 percent or more, that is a different case. You will need much more effort, and guidance makes sense there.
Paper 1 often decides it
The jump from NET to JRF is often hidden in Paper 1. In the last cycle, students who got 35 or more right in Paper 1 were among those who got JRF.
If your Paper 1 score was around 30, start there. My Paper 1 plan for literature students covers what to study first.
Raghvendra got JRF on his third attempt
Raghvendra Pal from Gwalior came to English literature from a computer science degree and a bank job. He did not clear the MP SET on his first try, or NET on his second.
On his third attempt he got JRF, with 65 questions right in Paper 2 and 36 in Paper 1. He is now doing his PhD at Jiwaji University and still runs his own coaching classes.
What he did:
- He kept to one set of notes for Paper 2 and revised them again and again. He did not try to cover 100 percent of the syllabus.
- He built a timeline of British literature in his head, from the Celts and the Romans through the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans, and placed every writer on it.
- He read summaries rather than full texts, then retold them like stories to his own spoken-English students.
- For Paper 1, he aimed for 10 out of 10 in the passages and practised the few maths ideas that DI keeps using.
- In the last 50 to 60 days he made no new notes. He watched lectures and solved PYQs, and for each question he asked why these four options were given.
- He read one newspaper editorial a day.
Raghvendra Pal on how he went from a bank job to JRF (Hindi).
Prepare for JRF if you want it, but move on with your life too. Nobody can take away the skills you build while you work. Nakul Grover
Frequently asked questions
Do I need coaching after qualifying NET to get JRF?
Usually not. Your NET notes already worked.
Revise them, then add depth to two or three core subjects and improve your Paper 1 score.
How long will revision take after qualifying NET?
About 15 to 20 days. Then give around a month to adding new, advanced material.
Should I stop working to prepare for JRF?
No. A NET certificate already opens teaching jobs.
Work, build experience and prepare alongside instead of spending years only on JRF.
More help: the UGC NET English guide and the free topic-wise PYQs.
