National Eligibility Test (NET) in Computer Science, conducted by the University Grants Commission, consists of three papers. The areas covered in Paper I are general aptitude and reasoning skills and paper 2 and 3 are subject oriented. A thorough preparation is required to qualify the exam. Reference books are available to prepare well and score good marks for all papers.

Exam pattern

The University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test has recently introduced a new exam pattern. All the questions will be multiple choice objective types. There will be 60 questions in paper 1. Of these candidates are required to attempt only 50 questions. Paper 2 and Paper 3 comprise of fifty and seventy five questions respectively. Candidates are required to answer all questions in these sections. The maximum marks allotted for Paper 1 and Paper 2 is two hundred. Paper 3 will contain questions for a maximum of 150 marks. There is no negative marking in this exam. Candidates are required to score a minimum of 40 % marks in paper 1 and paper 2 so as to clear the cut off. 50 % marks is required to qualify paper 3.

Reference books for UGC NET Computer Science

• UGC University Grants Commission NET/SET for Lectureship Exam Paper I (Compulsory) - As per new syllabus by GKP
• UGC NET/JRF/SLET Teaching & Research Aptitude (General Paper-I) by Lal Jain, K. C. Vashistha
• UGC NET Digest Teaching and Research Aptitude (General Paper - I) by Dr. M. L. Kamlesh
• UGC - JRF & Lectureship Paper I Teaching and Research Aptitude by Dr. M S Ansari
• Discrete Mathematical Structures by Baker
• Computer System Architecture by M.Morris Mano
• Computer Organisation by Karl Hamachar,Zaky
• DBMS by Raghu Rama Krishnan
• Fundamental Of Databse System by Navathe
• Database Concepts by Korth
• Intro To Datastructures  By Trembley
• Fundamentals Of Data structure By A M Padmareddy
• Data communication by Forouzan
• Unix Programming by R.Stevensons
• Theory Of Langauages by Aho Ullman
• System Programming by Jhon J Donovan
• Software Engineering Concepts by Pressman Or Somerville
• Principles Of Compiler Design by Aho Ullman R.Sethi
• Operating System Concepts by A.Galvin
• Neural Network Fundamentals With Graphs ,Algorithms by N.K.Bose ,P.Liang
• Introduction To Algorithms by Coreman
• Fundamental Of Algorithms by Sahani & Others
• Computer Networks by Leon Garcia,Widja
• Computer Graphics C Version by H.Backer
• Comipiler Construction by D M Dhamdhere
• Finite Automata And Languages by Am Padmareddy

Apart from these books, candidates are advised to refer textbooks studied during the Bachelor’s and Master’s programme in Computer Science. Besides this, candidates can also refer journals and websites on related topics for a more comprehensive overview.