History Syllabus for CUET | How to prepare History for CUET

History for CUET: The history syllabus for CUET has already been released by NTA on its official website. The same has been discussed in detail here, along with some essential preparation tips and strategies. Candidates are advised to go through the history syllabus thoroughly and start preparing for the CUET exam at the earliest to ensure that they don’t fall behind their peers.

History is one of 27 domain-specific subjects offered by CUET under section II. The history syllabus for CUET includes many important chapters like Harappan Archaeology, Political and Economic History, Social histories using the Mahabharata, A history of Buddhism, Religious histories, and Medieval Society. It is one of many popular UG subjects that many students aspire for, and hence the competition expected will be tough. You have to be completely ready for the exam to score well, and that can only be done by adopting the means of thorough preparation.

To begin your preparation, two crucial things to know are exam patterns and the syllabus. That gives you an overview of the exam and helps you to plan better. Before proceeding further, let's take a look at the exam pattern for history (CUET).

The detailed exam pattern is given below:

NTA has officially announced that the history syllabus for CUET will include only the NCERT syllabus from class 12th standard.
There will be one Question Paper which will have 50 questions out of which 40 questions need to be attempted.
The maximum mark is 200, and 1 mark will be deducted for each wrong answer.
Question types will be objective (MCQs) and the duration will be 45 mins.
The exam type will be online, Computer-Based Test (CBT) mode.

The Common University Entrance Test (CUET) is a centralised entrance exam. It aims to give an equal and common opportunity to all the students across the country to get a seat in their desired UG course with one of the reputed universities/colleges in the country. Given the importance of the exam, let's look at a few important details about the exam.

Few important details about the CUET exam:

CUET will be a gateway to 100+ Universities, for UG admissions.
For the first time since its inception, in CUET the medium of instruction will be available in multiple (13 different) languages.
The exam will be conducted online, in Computer Based Test (CBT) mode, and over two shifts (Morning and Afternoon).

History Syllabus for CUET

With very little time remaining for the exam, it's very important that you don’t waste any more time. Get your acts together and start preparing for the exam. Before directly jumping onto your preparational planning and deciding how to prepare history for CUET, it's necessary that you go through the detailed syllabus.

The detailed syllabus is given in the table below:

UNIT	TOPIC	SUB-TOPIC
1.	The Story of the First Cities Harappan Archaeology	Broad overview: Early urban centers. Story of discovery: Harappan civilization. Excerpt: Archaeological report on a major site. Discussion: how it has been utilized by archaeologists/historians.
2.	Political and Economic History: How Inscriptions tell a story	Broad overview: Political and economic history from the Mauryan to the Gupta period. Story of discovery: Inscriptions and the decipherment of the script. Shifts in the understanding of political and economic history. Excerpt: Asokan inscription and Gupta period land grant. Discussion: Interpretation of inscriptions by historians.
3.	Social Histories using the Mahabharata	Broad overview: Issues in social history, including caste, class, kinship, and gender. Story of discovery: Transmission and publications of the Mahabharata. Excerpt: From the Mahabharata, illustrating how it has been used by historians.
4.	A History of Buddhism: Sanchi Stupa	Broad overview: (a) A brief review of religious histories of Vedic religion, Jainism, Vaishnavism, and Saivism. (b) Focus on Buddhism. Story of discovery: Sanchi stupa. Excerpt: Reproduction of sculptures from Sanchi. Discussion: Ways in which sculpture has been interpreted by historians, and other sources for reconstructing the history of Buddhism.
5.	Medieval society through Travellers’ Accounts	Broad Overview: Outline of social and cultural life as they appear in travellers’ accounts. Story of their writings: A discussion of where they travelled, why they travelled, what they wrote, and for whom they wrote. Excerpts: from Alberuni, Ibn Batuta, Bernier. Discussion: What these travel accounts can tell us and how they have been interpreted by historians.
6.	Religious Histories: The Bhakti-Sufi Tradition	Broad Overview: (a) Outline of religious developments during this period. (b) Ideas and practices of the Bhakti-Sufi saints. Story of Transmission: How Bhakti-Sufi compositions have been preserved. Excerpt: Extracts from selected Bhakti Sufi works. Discussion: Ways in which these have been interpreted by historians.
7.	New Architecture: Hampi	Broad Overview: (a)Outline of new buildings during the Vijayanagar period — temples, forts, irrigation facilities. (b)Relationship between architecture and the political system. Story of Discovery: Account of how Hampi was found. Excerpt: Visuals of buildings at Hampi. Discussion: Ways in which historians have analysed and interpreted these structures.
8.	Agrarian Relations: The Ain-i- Akbari	Broad overview: (a) Structure of agrarian relations in the 16th and 17th centuries. (b) Patterns of change over the period. Story of Discovery: Account of the compilation and translation of Ain-i-Akbari. Excerpt: From the Ain-i-Akbari Discussion: Ways in which historians have used the text to reconstruct history.
9.	The Mughal Court: Reconstructing Histories through Chronicles	Broad Overview: (a) Outline of political history c. 15th-17th centuries. (b) Discussion of the Mughal court and politics. Story of Discovery: Account of the production of court chronicles, and their subsequent translation and transmission. Excerpts: from the Akbarnama and Padshahnama. Discussion: Ways in which historians have used the texts to reconstruct political histories.
10.	Colonialism and Rural Society: Evidence from Official Reports	Broad overview: (a) Life of zamindars, peasants, and artisans in the late 18th century. (b) East India Company, revenue settlements, and surveys. (c) Changes over the nineteenth century. Story of official records: An account of why official investigations into rural societies were undertaken and the types of records and reports produced. Excerpts: From Firminger’s Fifth Report, Accounts of Francis Buchanan-Hamilton, and Deccan Riots Report. Discussion: What do the official records tell and do not tell, and how they have been used by historians.
11.	Representations of 1857	Broad Overview: (a) The events of 1857-58. (b) How these events were recorded and narrated. Focus: Lucknow. Excerpts: Pictures of 1857. Extracts from contemporary accounts. Discussion: How the pictures of 1857 shaped British opinion of what had happened.
12.	Colonialism and Indian Towns: Town Plans and Municipal Reports	Broad Overview: The growth of Mumbai, Chennai, hill stations, and cantonments in the 18th and 19th century. Excerpts: Photographs and paintings. Plans of cities. Extract from town plan reports. Focus on Kolkata town planning. Discussion: How the above sources can be used to reconstruct the history of towns. What these sources do not reveal?
13.	Mahatma Gandhi through Contemporary Eyes	Broad Overview: (a) The nationalist movement 1918-48, (b) The nature of Gandhian politics and leadership. Focus: Mahatma Gandhi in 1931. Excerpts: Reports from English and Indian language newspapers and other contemporary writings. Discussion: How newspapers can be a source of history.
14.	Partition through Oral Sources	Broad Overview: (a) The history of the 1940s; (b) Nationalism, Communalism, and Partition. Focus: Punjab and Bengal. Excerpts: Oral testimonies of those who experienced partition. Discussion: Ways in which these have been analysed to reconstruct the history of the event.
15.	The Making of the Constitution	Broad Overview: (a) Independence and the new nation-state. (b) The making of the Constitution. Focus: The Constitutional Assembly debates. Excerpts: From the debates. Discussion: What do such debates reveal and how they can be analyzed.

How to prepare History for CUET?

Once you go through these 15 chapters, you will get a detailed idea about every constituent of the syllabus. Now, calculating the time you have, one can easily plan and execute their strategies to ensure success for themselves. It is easier said than done. Going through the syllabus in detail, the next question in line is, how to prepare history for CUET?

This article will help you by giving some important preparation tips and a detailed strategy to help you cope with the workload.

Preparation Tips for History (CUET,2022):

History is fundamentally different from other important subjects, so your approach has to be adaptive. Here, more than conceptual clarity and understanding, the facts, figures, and data are more important. Therefore, as a subject history demands a strong memorizing ability. For some students, this retention ability comes naturally and for others, it can be developed by being methodical and regular through your practice. A few tips and tricks that will help you to memorise and retain the subject knowledge effectively is bullet listed below:

Use sticky notes and make short pointers. This will guide you through your studies.
Highlight the crucial points and important dates. It helps a lot while revising.
Make a chronologically arranged table to remember all the important historical events.
Mind mapping is very crucial and effective if you can do it properly. This helps you to connect one event to another and that assists in remembering easily.
Practice by attempting test papers and taking mock tests.

History for CUET: Preparation Strategy

CUET will be a gateway to 100+ Universities, for UG admissions. The competition is going to be huge, and candidates have to be prepared in every way to crack the exam with a good score. The best is to start preparing early with experienced mentorship. Mentioned below are a few strategies that would save your time as well as prepare you in a better fashion for the exam:

Choose sources wisely

A brief idea of the syllabus will enable you to understand all the important things that you need to go through. But, choosing the source is always a difficult task. NCERT class 12 textbook might come in handy but the problem is with the other secondary sources that you might be using. Using too many or unreliable sources often might be misleading and confusing. Therefore, it is necessary that you keep a check on this aspect and choose the minimum and that too wisely.

Sticking to the strategy & Importance of the timetable

This is high time and you can not afford distraction. A thorough concentration and dedication is the price you should be ready to pay if you want to score well in CUET. Making the strategy is secondary but being able to follow it with regularity is the primary demand. This is where having a timetable is very important. Timetable makes you disciplined and your approach sincere. If you are able to do these two things, the task at hand becomes much easier.

Practice and Revise

Majority of the history syllabus portion will be dealing with facts, figures, and dates. Therefore, it becomes a necessary condition that you practice and revise as many times as possible. With practice only, comes perfection. Making bullet list pointers and maintaining a list of short notes always helps in saving your time while revising. For practice, there is nothing better than appearing for mock tests. Solving practice sample papers is also an alternative though.

Keep calm and take care

Often in a preparation rush, we tend to forget or not care about ourselves. It is very important that you eat and sleep well and take care of your mind and body, during this phase. Don't take unnecessary pressure and create anxiety for yourself. Remember to rest and relax on time and maintain healthy sleeping hours. Without a healthy mind and body, you can't give in your 100% and will always fall short. So, do the necessary and don't overburden yourself. Maintain a healthy study-rest balance.

CUET (Common University Entrance Test) is going to be the biggest exam carnival at the UG level, and the excitement is too high. It is crucial that you hold your nerve and concentrate on what is important. Without a doubt, the competition for the CUET is going to be very high. You have to prepare accordingly, to give yourself the best chance to excel and score well in the CUET exam. You should follow the above-described tips and strategies to make your plan and start your journey. Only by doing this, you can ensure that you remain up to date with everyone and don't lag far behind your peers.

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All the Best!