As I have mentioned above, when it comes to cracking the UGC NET exam, the UGC NET previous years’ papers will play one of the most important roles in your UGC NET preparation.  

Furthermore, if we were to select the most important out of the lot, the question paper that came the immediate year before holds the most prominence.

Therefore, I have provided for you below, the links to download the UGC NET Question Papers of December 2020 and June 2021 (Merged cycle): 

Year/Cycle
Subjects & Shifts
Links

December 2020 & June 2021 (Merged Cycle)
Commerce Shift 1
Download PDF

Commerce Shift 2
Download PDF

Management Shift 1
Download PDF

Let me not beat around the bush much and say that to qualify for the NET you must spend a whole lot of time solving UGC NET previous years; question papers. 

And, I say that not just because they helped me clear my UGC NET exams, but because I have seen hundreds of my students crack their own, by practicing on the question papers of past years. 

Moreover, let me tell you, some of the questions that came in my UGC NET paper were the exact ones that I had already solved in the previous years’ question papers earlier. 

So, you can imagine how important past years’ papers are. 

With that said, let me now run through the benefits of solving UGC NET previous years’ question papers. 

Importance of Solving UGC NET Question Papers

In this section, I will highlight the importance of solving previous years’ papers of UGC NET. In a nutshell: They essentially help us understand our weaknesses by making us learn from our mistakes. 

With that said let me list out the key benefits of solving the UGC NET past year papers.

Key Benefits are:

1. Helps understand the Exam Pattern –

Rehearsing Previous Year Papers will assist you with understanding the test design followed by NTA NET.

This not only increases your speed at attempting the exam but also ensures no end-minute jitters for the exam.

2. Helps Prepare for the difficulty level of questions –

Let’s be real, this examination isn’t going to be a joyride for you. So why not squeeze the hell out of the lemons in hand and make as much lemonade as we can.

When you will go through the UGC NET Previous Year Question Papers, you will get acquainted with the difficulty level of the questions asked from the topics and sub-topics of both the Papers, i.e., Paper-I and Paper-II.

3. Develops understanding of the Important topics –

Rehearsing on the UGC NET Previous Year Question Papers will help you in recognising significant topics that are regularly asked in the exams. For your convenience, I have already listed down the important topics from the UGC NET syllabus in one of my other blogs; you may want to check that as well.

In any case, to speed up your exam preparation for 2021 you should concentrate on rehearsing the significant subjects first. This can effectively be done by recognizing them through the Previous Year Question Papers.

4. Identify and balance Strong and Weak areas –

It’s no rocket science to know that we all have our strengths and weaknesses. Rather than being ignorant towards the weaknesses and overconfident about the strengths, why not focus on finding a balance between the two?

While I recommend focusing on both of them, always work a little harder towards topics you’re a little weak in.

Not just from the point of view of the exam but also in general, so that you don’t lack in any skill.

As the exam has no negative marking, try to make your strengths a solid case so that you can absolutely nail the exam.

5. Avoids Panic Attacks –

Come on, admit it, have we all not had those exams where we got so cocky about knowing everything that we took our own time, only to find later that there’s literally no more time left, and we still had 4 or 5 more questions to solve? 

So, what better way to avoid panicking in the exam than taking a version of the exam, before the actual exam, I.e., past years papers. 

Moreover, while practicing on UGC NET Previous Year Papers, my advice to you would be to try attempting the papers from various different sides, for instance once from the back side, once from the front, and once, randomly from the middle. 

Then, pick the pattern which will permit you to ideally use your time and score the maximum marks. 

Additionally, make an effort to not waste any more time on one question than absolutely necessary.

6. Increases Accuracy –

It’s a known fact, the more you rehearse your speech before going on stage, the lesser you’re bound to fumble or make a mistake.

Similarly, the more you rehearse on the UGC NET Previous Year Papers, the more accurate you will be, which in the long run will lead you to secure a high score in the test.

Having said all that, you must be wondering where to find these important previous years’ question paper pdfs.

Don’t worry you don’t have to go anywhere. I will provide you with the solutions here.

Author's Bio: 

Anuj Jindal, the founder, is an ex-manager from SBI, with an M.Com from Delhi School of Economics. He also has a JRF in Commerce & Management and NET in HRM, along with more than 5 years of experience in the field of Education.