M.A Preparation

For M.A. Political Science in JNU entrance exam, there is hardly a repetitive set witnessed in the past. The entrance exam is solely based upon your awareness in the subject and the surroundings. Or, do the following steps:
1. Read two newspapers every day- I would suggest the Hindu and Indian Express. You can read it online or whatever. Read Editorials and Op-Ed properly.
2. Read Frontline every week cover to cover.
3. Start reading fundamental concepts and theories (see point 6).
4: Brush up the Indian political history (India after Gandhi by Ram Guha is a good start).
5: Read Economic and Political Weekly sometimes. Try to see how essays, arguments, data is used. You may not understand some of it, but just read it to see patterns, structures, language. Also, read Seminar Magazine, which is a monthly in-depth magazine published by Seminar Publications, New Delhi especially January issue for past 4-5 years.
6: Get basic textbooks like those, by Andrew Heywood. Ensure that you do concepts, theory, and philosophy.
7: Acquire a copy of Oxford Companion to Politics in India (Students Edition). Read as much as you can. You may not understand all of it, but get going.
8. Visitwww. Jnueeqp. Com, they have old question papers. See the type of questions, the arguments, the types of questions.
9. After lot of reading, take time to sit and write some argumentative essays.
10. For writing answers in the Entrance, you need the following:
Step 1: You need ideas about the concept and the theory. Step 2: You need knowledge about events and the political history of India and the world. Step 3: You need to combine 1 & 2 into coherent structured essays. Learn how to support your arguments and opinions with facts, theories and concepts. All the best.

If you have done UG in English Hons. So, it s much easier for you. But you will have to be very attentive to the previous year entrance questions. The first section is poetry. And you have to analyze its name themes etc. So, it's better that you grab the marks in rhyme scheme, meter, rhetorical tool (simile metaphor etc. ). The other section is include theory answer in which you have to attempt 2 answer but they are time bombs literally. So read novels as much as you can and go through to the history of EL. I recommend Routledge that cover all the topic very briefly and don't forget literary theories as in feminism, post modernism, modernism.
Best of luck.

Important tips and tricks for preparation:
Know the updated syllabus, marking, paper pattern etc. Start with the books of class 11th and 12th NCERT, this will help you with basic concepts and understanding. A reference book called "Intro. To psychology" by Robert Baron is a must. It covers basics as well covers all aspects of psychology. Some of the topics which are covered in Psychology entrance exam are:
-History of Psychology
-Humanistic Psychology
-Child Psychology
-Social Psychology
-Individual Psychology
You can check the previous year papers for psychology entrance and according get the idea of questions expected. You can also give tests to analyse your preparation. Regards.

Books to be read for Entrance Exam:
Following books should be read thoroughly before coming to classes. We can't cover the basics in this course. Our focus would be on applications and problems. We would introduce to maximum types of problems that may appear in the MA Economics Entrance tests.
Microeconomic Theory:
* Hal Varian, Intermediate Microeconomics, 7e
* Rubinfield and Pindyk, Microeconomics
Macroeconomic Theory:
* Dornbusch and Fisher, Macroeconomics, 6e
* Mankiw, Macroeconomics, 6e
Mathematics:
* RGD Allen, Mathematical Analysis for Economics
* AC Chiang, Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics
* Sydsaeter and Hammond, Mathematics for Economic analysis
Statistics
* Nagar and Das, Basic Statistics