The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination is one of the most prestigious and competitive exams in India.

UPSC Syllabus

Aspirants from all corners of the country dream of joining civil services to serve the nation and bring about positive change. However, cracking the UPSC exam requires meticulous preparation and a thorough understanding of the UPSC syllabus.

"They wouldn’t teach you that in prep school so it’s up to me."

These "Better than Revenge" lyrics capture something higher education has picked up on: Taylor Swift songs are their own school of life. The singer-songwriter's ballads are valuable academic tools, especially in an era of evermore online students catching up from years of virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Alexandra Wormley, a PhD student at Arizona State University's department of psychology.

"We can start to reimagine what classrooms are supposed to look like," said Wormley, who will be teaching "Pscyhology of Taylor Swift" this fall.

After seeing Swift's Eras Tour opening night in Glendale, Arizona, this year, Wormley was sitting in her office with students chatting about the show. They started brainstorming what a psychology class that also talked about Swift would be like.

"We wrote up the syllabus that day," she said. "We went through a different album of hers and talked about related psychology topics."

Now the class has a waitlist for the fall semester. The course joins a series of Swiftie courses ranging from literature to social psychology at schools like Ghent University in Belgium, University of Texas at Austin, New York University, Stanford. All of these universities have offered or are currently offering a course focused on Swift’s lyrics, discography, as well as her potential impact.

The phenomena of higher education professors offering pop culture-based courses has existed: How to build a TikTok brand at Duke University mixed FYP with business savvy; #MeToo populated syllabi at Harvard University following the rise of the hashtag in 2017; Georgia students dove into Kendrick Lamar to understand social issues writing; “Beyoncé Feminism, Rihanna Womanism" at UT Austin discussed the origins of Black feminism and myriad "Harry Potter"-themed offerings have offered opportunities in film critique.

Story continues

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But the proliferation of Swiftie courses begs the question why her music is having an academic moment.

Educators know she's hugely popular right now. Swift's mega Era's Tour has garnered millions of dollars and hearts this summer, treating fans across the nation (and soon around the world) to an intimate show that feels more like friendship hug than fan event. Even those who didn't attend the shows felt Swift's effect. And she hints at no sign of slowing down. With her announcement of "1989 (Taylor's Version)" coming this October, people are paying attention to Swift and her community, maybe making it just a little easier to pay attention in class.

Class engagement is a big motivator, Wormley said. Gen Z students currently in higher education lost valuable years of high school and college to the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, enrollment in colleges and universities among young people is tenuous: A 2022 report by the ECMC Group found that more than half of teens are open to something other than four-year college and 2023 data showed they want to challenge how typical four-year programs are designed.

Wormley said these trends have left higher education instructors with a creative assignment: How do they help students catch up academically and socially, while showing them their degrees have real-world value?

Swift's writing helps students make person connections and prompts deeper discussions, said Elly McCausland, assistant professor of English literature at Ghent University. Her course "Literature: Taylor's Version" will be held this fall and intends to make the "archaic" language of Chaucer, Shakespeare and other canonical writers more understandable to her students, many of whom do not speak English as a first language.

"If I can provide a way into those texts, that might support them through that kind of alienation, then that's really important to me," she said.

Swift studies are not about dumbing down the academics, proponents say, but elevating something popular.

"These students are not showing up for a three hour Taylor Swift fan club," Wormley said. "This generation of students has been through so much. And if this is what it takes to get them back in the classroom and get them engaged, then I'm so happy to do this with them."

Wormley is most excited for week three of her class, which will focus on "Fearless," Swift's album about her roots. The record's discussion about growing up, first love and nostalgia for childhood freedom will be a venue for students to learn about social development theories.

"I think it's especially relevant for these students because they're leaving that period of adolescence," she said.

The "Fearless" lesson will discuss family, friendship and new romance in the context of research by Seanna Leath, a professor at Washington University at St. Louis who studies experiences of Black women and girls.

Swift's whiteness is worth addressing in these classes, said McCausland, especially when fields like literature are already so dominated by white creators. She's going to use "Betty," "August" and "Cardigan" from the "Folklore" album as a way to teach the technique of "writing back," a method to tell the untold side of a story the audience has already heard.

"[These three songs] invoke questions of language, power and voice and authority," she said. "Whoever has the language and has the voice has the power. We're using Taylor's songs as a springboard to explore that."

It was Wormley's intention to include work by underrepresented voices in her syllabus, not only to introduce students to diverse academic rockstars but to legitimize that they, too, can find their voice in the field of psychology, she said.

"Part of it is building a classroom environment where students feel comfortable bringing themselves and their background to the space and being like, 'Hey, maybe this is what the academic literature says growing up is like but in my community and my culture, it's actually really different,'" she said. "We're all going to interpret these lyrics different and we're all going to attend to different things … I like to think Taylor would be totally into this."

More: Swifties called announcement of '1989 (Taylor’s Version)' and say they can guess her next three releases

Taylor Swift's Eras Tour book looks: See the beautiful book covers that scream Swift

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Taylor Swift college courses offered at growing list of universities

JEE Main 2024 Session 1 is expected to be conducted in February. JEE Aspirants must note that this date is purely tentative and the officials have not made any official confirmation yet. Check top IIT Engineering colleges, syllabus, how to prepare for exam.

JEE Main 2024: Cracking a competitive examination can be a challenging task. There is no substitute for hard work. Every year, thousands of students appear for the examinations; some fail to get admission to the top engineering colleges in India. Aspirants preparing for JEE Main 2024 may have various queries about how to compete for the exam(particularly if they plan to study at home without coaching). In this article, we will update you with all the important details such as registration dates, syllabus, exam pattern, top colleges, NIRF Rankings, last year’s cut-off, factors that affect cut-off, and tips to follow during the preparation period. Whether you are starting your preparation early or a little later, these suggestions will supply you an advantage over other students. They will help you create a solid foundation in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics.

Has NTA Released JEE Main 2024 Registration Dates?

1. No, National Testing Agency has not announced, JEE Main 2024 Registration Dates. If going by the media reports, JEE Main 2024 Session 1 is expected to be conducted in February. JEE Aspirants must note that this date is purely tentative and the officials have not made any official confirmation yet. Along with the IIT JEE application form, NTA will release the information bulletin on its website – nta.ac.in and jeemain.nta.nic.in. The JEE (Main) – 2023 was conducted in two sessions for admissions in the academic session.
2. This will supply two opportunities to the candidates to Boost their scores in the examination if they are not able to supply their best in one attempt. In the first attempt, the students will get a first-hand experience of taking an examination and will know their mistakes which they can Boost while attempting for the second time. This will reduce the chances of dropping a year and droppers would not have to waste an entire year.

Is NTA Planning to Release Common exam Calendar For This Year?

1. The National Testing Agency is likely to release the common examination calendar for the academic year 2024-25. Last year, NTA released the examination calendar at nta.ac.in. The exam calendar will consist of the name of the examination, dates of examinations, and reserve dates.

JEE Main Cut Off(Last Year)

• General: 88.4121383
• OBC-NCL: 67.0090297
• SC: 43.0820954
• ST: 26.7771328
• GEN-EWS: 63.1114141
• Gen-PwD: 0.0031029

Factors Affecting Cut-Off

• Number of candidates who have appeared for the examination.
• Minimum qualifying score
• Number of candidates who have registered for the examination.

Colleges to Aim 

List Of Top Engineering Colleges As Per NIRF Rankings 2023

• Rank 1: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras
• Rank 2: Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) Delhi
• Rank 3: Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) Bombay
• Rank 4: Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) Kanpur
• Rank 5:Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) Roorkee
• Rank 6: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur
• Rank 7: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati
• Rank 8: National Institute of Technology Hyderabad
• Rank 9: National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli
• Rank 10: Jadavpur University

List Of Top Engineering Colleges As Per NIRF Rankings 2022

• Rank 1: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras
• Rank 2: Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) Delhi
• Rank 3: Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) Bombay
• Rank 4: Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) Kanpur
• Rank 5:Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) Kharagpur
• Rank 6: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee
• Rank 7: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati
• Rank 8: National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli (NIT Trichy)
• Rank 9: Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) Hyderabad
• Rank 10: National Institute of Technology (NIT) Karnataka, Surathkal

JEE Main 2024 Syllabus

The details of the syllabus are given on the website: https://jeemain.nta.nic.in/.

Syllabus for Paper-1 (B.E./B.Tech.)- Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry:

• UNIT 1: SETS, RELATIONS, AND FUNCTIONS: Sets and their representation: Union, intersection, and complement of sets and their algebraic properties; Power set; Relation, Type of relations, equivalence relations, functions; one-one, into and onto functions, the composition of functions.
• UNIT 2: COMPLEX NUMBERS AND QUADRATIC EQUATIONS:
  Complex numbers as ordered pairs of reals, Representation of complex numbers in the form a + ib and their representation in a plane, Argand diagram, algebra of complex number, modulus, and argument (or amplitude) of a complex number, square root of a complex number, triangle inequality, Quadratic equations in real and complex number system and their solutions Relations between roots and co-efficient, nature of roots, the formation of quadratic equations with given roots.
• UNIT3: MATRICES AND DETERMINANTS: Matrices, algebra of matrices, type of matrices, determinants, and matrices of order two and three, properties of determinants, evaluation of determinants, area of triangles using determinants, Adjoint, and evaluation of inverse of a square matrix using determinants and elementary transformations, Test of consistency and solution of simultaneous linear equations in two or three variables using determinants and matrices.
  UNIT 4: PERMUTATIONS AND COMBINATIONS:
  The fundamental principle of counting, permutation as an arrangement and combination as section, Meaning of P (n,r) and C (n,r), simple applications.
• UNIT 5: MATHEMATICAL INDUCTIONS:
  Principle of Mathematical Induction and its simple applications.
• UNIT 6: BINOMIAL THEOREM AND ITS SIMPLE APPLICATIONS:
  Binomial theorem for a positive integral index, general term, and middle term, properties of Binomial coefficients, and simple applications.
• UNIT 7: SEQUENCE AND SERIES:
  Arithmetic and Geometric progressions, insertion of arithmetic, geometric means between two given numbers, Relation between A.M and G.M sum up to n terms of special series; Sn, Sn2, Sn3. Arithmetico-Geometric progression.
• UNIT 8: LIMIT, CONTINUITY, AND DIFFERENTIABILITY:
• UNIT 9: INTEGRAL CALCULAS
• UNIT 10: DIFFRENTIAL EQUATIONS
• UNIT 11: CO-ORDINATE GEOMETRY
• UNIT 12: THREE-DIMENSIONAL GEOMETRY
• UNIT 13: VECTOR ALGEBRA
• UNIT 14: STATISTICS AND PROBABILITY
• UNIT 15: TRIGONOMETRY
• UNIT 16: MATHEMATICAL REASONING

JEE Main 2024 Syllabus For Physics

• UNIT 1: PHYSICS AND MEASUREMENT
• UNIT 2: KINEMATICS
• UNIT 3: LAWS OF MOTION
• UNIT 4: WORK, ENERGY, AND POWER
• UNIT5: ROTATIONAL MOTION
• UNIT 6: GRAVITATION: The universal law of gravitation. Acceleration due to gravity and its variation with altitude and depth. Kepler’s law of planetary motion. Gravitational potential energy; gravitational potential. Escape velocity, Orbital velocity of a satellite. Geo stationary satellites.
• UNIT 7: PROPERTIES OF SOLIDS AND LIQUIDS: Elastic behaviour, Stress-strain relationship, Hooke’s Law. Young’s modulus, bulk modulus, modulus of rigidity. Pressure due to a fluid column; Pascal’s law and its applications. Viscosity. Stokes’ law. terminal velocity, streamline, and turbulent flow. Reynolds number. Bernoulli’s principle and its applications. Surface energy and surface tension, angle of contact, application of surface tension – drops, bubbles, and capillary rise. Heat, temperature, thermal expansion; specific heat capacity, calorimetry; change of state, latent heat. Heat transfer-conduction, convection, and radiation. Newton’s law of cooling.
  UNIT 8: THERMODYNAMICS: Thermal equilibrium, zeroth law of thermodynamics, the concept of temperature. Heat, work, and internal energy. The first law of thermodynamics. The second law of thermodynamics: reversible and irreversible processes. Carnot engine and its efficiency

JEE Main 2024 Syllabus For Chemistry

• UNIT I: SOME BASIC CONCEPTS IN CHEMISTRY
• UNIT 2: STATES OF MATTER
• UNIT 3: ATOMIC STRUCTURE
• UNIT 4: CHEMICAL BONDING AND MOLECULAR STRUCTURE
• UNIT 5: CHEMICAL THERMODYNAMICS: Fundamentals of thermodynamics: System and surroundings, extensive and intensive properties, state functions, types of processes.

(For more details, refer to JEE Main 2023 Information Bulletin shared on the official website.)

JEE Main 2024 Official Websites

• jeemain.nta.nic.in

• jeemain.nta.nic.in 2024

• nta.ac.in

Strategies To Clear exam In One Go

• Make a Definite Study Timetable: Make a study timetable in such a way that you divide equal time for each subject. Make sure you sincerely stick to your timetable.

• Set You Goal For Every Day: Divide the subjects you have to cover.

• Check/Know the Syllabus of JEE Main: Before starting the preparation for the examination, it is extremely important for aspiring students to know and understand the syllabus in detail. Understanding the JEE Main 2024 syllabus will help the student to prepare well.

• Change in Habits – Meditate And Exercise/Healthy Lifestyle: It is rightly said that Health is wealth therefore students preparing for the entrance test should not compromise their health. They should meditate and exercise regularly. Medication can Boost your concentration and exercise will keep you healthy. To avoid distractions, try to reduce the usage of social media.

• Revision of Topics: While preparing for the exams, it is important to revise all subjects daily. As all chapters and subjects are important, hence it is best to divide your time equally for all subjects/ subjects instead of focusing only on a couple of them. For any exam, revision acts as an important key factor.

• Mock Test/Solve Previous Year’s question paper: Solve previous year’s question papers. Practicing mock tests acts as a great source of revision. This helps students Boost their preparation levels. Solving question papers regularly can help you analyze your preparation. You will be able to identify your mistakes and weak areas.

• Be Calm And Composed: With just a few months left for the entrance examination, it is essential for the students to stay calm and composed. All national-level entrance exams have always had a ring of anxiety and nervousness on students. It is important that students get the right amount of sleep before the exam. Depriving oneself of sleep can result in fatigue and a high-stress level with a drop in concentration level.

NOTE: Please keep a note that the dates mentioned in this article are tentative, therefore, eligible JEE candidates are advised to keep an eye on the official website of NTA, nta.ac.in, jeemain.nta.nic.in for all the latest updates regarding JEE Main 2024.