Recommended reference books

The below list gives the names of few reference books upon which Life science exams aspirants can be relied on:

1. Biochemistry

• Lehninger principles of Biochemistry-Nelson and Cox
• This book is the bible of Biochemistry. And biochemistry is the backbone of biotechnology. If you are really thorough with this one book then take my words granted, your next CSIR attempt will clear JRF along with Lectureship in Life sciences. The main topics to study in this book are - Water, Amino acids, Carbohydrate metabolism, Lipid metabolism, Photosynthesis, DNA replication, transcription and translation along with all the inhibitors involved. The topics I mentioned refers to whole chapter in that book. DO NOT just finish the particular process and skip. READ whole chapter I mentioned.
• Biochemistry- Lubert stryer
• This is wonderful reference for all the Nucleic acid metabolism. Apart from learning the biosynthesis and degradation of nucleotides, learn the concerned deficiency diseases. They are very important in this particular topic.
• Biochemistry- Donald Voet and Judith Voet
• Popularly known as Voet and Voet, this book is the ultimate one for the student who bears lot of questions in mind. I bet, you will not be left with any questions once you understand a topic in this book. Read especially the membrane architecture of RBCs, it will take you into another world.

2. Molecular Biology

• Molecular Biology - Robert F Weaver
• I now repent that I did not know about this book in my M.Sc days. All the topics have the experimental explanations which not only explains the topic but also gives the insight as to how did the particular process got discovered. Beautifully designed book for amateur Molecular biologists. Any student who is able to read and understand this book is sure to reach greater heights in Life sciences the near future.
• Molecular Biology - David Friefelder
• Read and understand two chapters of Translation in this book. You will not find this topic so well explained in any other book.
• Molecular Biology - James D Watson
• Beautifully illustrated book with colorful pictures for better understanding. The main topic to study in this book is Lac operon and Tryptophan operons.
• Molecular Cloning (Sambrook/ Maniatis)
• There are three volumes of this book and is an experimental methods book for molecular biology. Molecular biologists worldwide refer its three volumes for their experiments. You need not complete all three volumes. Also you need not know the experimental methods. You just need to read and understand the boxes and information panels in the book. This is very important book and try to read all the information panels in all three volumes.

3. Cell Biology

• Molecular Cell Biology - Bruce Alberts
• This book covers, Cell biology, molecular biology and partly biochemistry as well. Tough to understand but gives all the information at a singe instance.

How much to score?

This is always a big question in front of all "Life Science exams" aspirants. For any life science exam, it always varies and no one knows until the result is out, what is the exact cut off. But, you can always target to score atleast 70% marks of the whole as a thumb rule. The cut off marks also depends on your category. To which category you belong to. Like for ex. for GENERAL student the cut off marks is always high, like 70% of the total marks, for Category-IIIA/B, IIA/B its 60% or something and for SC/ST, physically handicapped its 50% of the total. The figures what I mentioned are not exact, it always differs from each exam of CSIR/DBT etc.

What you should read?

• As I said in my "Few suggestions" post, most of the "Life science exams" syllabus will be covered in the M.Sc/ M.Tech syllabus itself.
• If you are perfect with the topics of your postgraduation course, then you are almost done. If you are a   "Life science exams" aspirant then you need to study the topics in a little detail. This can be achieved if you ask questions like HOW?, WHY? and WHAT? while studying and start looking for answers by yourself (by not depending on others/ neglecting/ postponing). This completely reflects the thirst for knowledge in a student and this thirst is must for each and every "Life science exams" aspirant.
• Always start with what you are interested to read and what your mind takes instantly. Do not force yourself to finish a topic which you can not digest or which your mind can't take at that time. Doing this is just waste of your precious time. Sometimes, you are just not comfortable to study. If so then just don't do it. Do something that you are interested in - relax yourself, watch movies, have fun, etc

Few suggestions

• The primary important thing to any exam aspirant is to have patience, patience to read and understand. Many students just read to finish, without understanding the meaning completely. For example, if you read a sentence then first understand the meaning of each word and then understand the sentence as a whole. DO NOT SKIP the words and DO NOT IGNORE any complicated words. Take the help of a good dictionary (Oxford, Websters etc.). Do not worry if you are taking much time to do it. It always matters how better you understand not how much syllabus you complete.
• When you start reading, start asking questions yourself. The most important questions would be why this happens and how this happens? Also what does ____ mean? After asking such questions yourself, try to find the answers for all of them. You believe me or not, this sense of curiosity will help you a lot in answering many questions in exams.
• Do not always fall behind the syllabus prescribed for CSIR or DBT or GATE exams, I would say never fall behind the syllabus. Just start reading what you like to read, what your mind can take better. Start asking questions in the same topic and get on. Slowly you will gain interest in other topics as well. This really works, just try once.
• Always refer standard references (most of the foreign author books). But few Indian author books have very good collection of knowledge (eg. Biotechnology by BD Singh), but you will find lots of spelling mistakes. You should be careful under such circumstances.
• Usually, the M.Sc/ M.Tech syllabus what we study covers most of the syllabus of CSIR/DBT/ICMR/IISc/TIFR-NCBS ("Life science exams")