This page lists LitGram’s free study guides, quizzes and solved papers for RPSC First Grade English (School Lecturer), RPSC Second Grade and UGC NET English, arranged by literary period. Each link opens a guide or an MCQ set with reasons for the answers.
How to use this page for RPSC First Grade English
Pick the period you know least. Read its guides first, then take the quiz or MCQ set for the same period. Come back here and tick off the next period.
Check what your paper covers in the official RPSC syllabus (PDF) before you plan. Syllabus changes are announced by the Commission, so check the PDF date.
UGC NET English sets its syllabus by period and genre, not by named texts. Use the same period order below, and add the literary theory section.
Old and Middle English
Start here if the early periods feel thin. These pages cover the poets and texts that most often appear in the first questions of the paper.
Renaissance, Shakespeare and metaphysical poetry
This group carries many marks in both exams. Read the Donne guides together, then test yourself with the 50 metaphysical poetry MCQs.
Restoration and eighteenth century
These pages cover Dryden, Gray, Johnson and Swift. The elegy quiz also tests the form across later periods.
| Guide | Type |
|---|---|
| Alexander’s Feast by John Dryden | Guide |
| Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray | Guide |
| Elegies quiz | Quiz |
| Dr Samuel Johnson: life and works | Guide |
| Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift | Guide |
Romantic poetry
Learn who wrote which ode first. Examiners often mix up Keats and Shelley titles in the options.
Victorian poetry
Tennyson and Browning lead this period. Pair each poem guide with the quiz before you move on.
Modern and postmodern literature
The Waste Land has one quiz for each of its five parts. Do them in order, then read the guide on the modernist use of myth.
Indian writing in English
RPSC First Grade and Second Grade papers both test Indian writers. The Second Grade author pages give the works and themes in short tables.
Literary theory for UGC NET
Each theory has one page with its key terms and thinkers. Learn the thinker and the book together, because UGC NET matching questions pair them.
| Guide | Type |
|---|---|
| Structuralism | Guide |
| Post-structuralism | Guide |
| Marxist criticism | Guide |
| Psychoanalytic criticism | Guide |
| Reader-response criticism | Guide |
| New historicism and cultural materialism | Guide |
| Postcolonial theory | Guide |
| Feminist literary theory | Guide |
| Narratology | Guide |
| Mikhail Bakhtin | Guide |
| Hermeneutics and phenomenology | Guide |
| Ecocriticism | Guide |
Language, phonetics and literary terms
RPSC First Grade includes a language section. These pages cover sounds, transcription and the terms that appear in every paper.
| Guide | Type |
|---|---|
| The 20 vowel sounds of English | Guide |
| The 24 consonant sounds of English | Guide |
| Phonetic transcription for RPSC | Guide |
| Varieties of language | Guide |
| Creole language | Guide |
| 15 literary terms for RPSC | Revision |
| Major literary periods | Revision |
| Famous lines from poems: cheat sheet | Revision |
Solved papers and previous-year questions
Use a solved paper only after you have covered most periods. Time yourself, then read the reason for every answer you got wrong.
| Guide | Type |
|---|---|
| RSET English, September 2026: 100 solved MCQs | Solved paper |
| SET English previous-year questions with short explanations | PYQs |
The RPSC First Grade English Literature book
Mukesh K. Sharma’s book RPSC First Grade English Literature covers the literature part of the paper period by period, with MCQs, explanations and solved previous-year questions.
Who writes these guides
The guides are written by Mukesh K. Sharma (M.A., B.Ed., M.Phil., NET, SET). He teaches English as a Lecturer with the Government of Rajasthan, and is a Fulbright award winner for international teachers (USA). New guides are added to this page when they are published.
[…] cheat sheet covers all major prescribed poets. For deeper study, the full RPSC First Grade English literature guide on LitGram walks through each poem systematically. Each poem also has a dedicated Smart […]
[…] 20 are vowel sounds (12 pure vowels/monophthongs and 8 diphthongs). For competitive exams like RPSC RPSC First Grade English, Second Grade English, and UGC NET Paper 2, mastering these 24 consonant symbols, their place of […]