JNU allows you to enroll in any liberal arts course if you pass the entrance exam, regardless of your background. Around 2000 people apply for 30 M.A. English seats, and then there are reservations, so competition is fierce. Because you will be competing against people with English Hons backgrounds, you will need to become acquainted with the history and movements of English Literature. It is about replicating the language and comprehending the concept.

• Begin with a comprehensive history of English literature. Begin with Chaucer but don't spend too much time on him or the early Elizabethan period.

• Read as many Shakespearean plays as you can and try to grasp what he is saying about how his works are relevant in terms of literary merit and philosophy.

• Continue on to Renaissance, studying it not only as an English literary movement but also as a philosophical concept of humanism and its aesthetics. 

• Then go to the Jacobean period and Milton, and read what you can without wasting too much time. Examine the age of reason and the 18th century in a similar, albeit more detailed, manner. 

• Continue on to Romanticism and read as much as you can of Keats, Shelly, Coleridge, and others, as well as the history of the movement. 

• Apart from reading the history, you should look at the Victorian era and read some Tennyson and a Dickens novel or two.

• Remember that as you approach modernism, postmodernism, and postcolonialism, your scrutiny of them should increase because the emphasis at JNU is on what is relevant, and postcolonial theories are very important in this context. You should be able to analyze a Shakespearean play from a postcolonial perspective.

• A knowledge of English history after 1400 would also be beneficial. Then read some American literature. Spend some time reading Indian English Literature, and don't stop at the 1980s.

• Essentially go to and read poetry at random. Read black American, Australian, and Indian poets, and you might get a read poem or an easier one. Write about how you feel about a specific piece of poetry to practice interpretation.

• When it comes to books, simply read any good book that covers the history of EL from ancient times to the present.

• Last but not least, be thorough with literary terms, history, and theory, at least on a factual level if not in detail.

The emphasis at JNU is always on how you can represent an idea in an original way while also possessing your own mind. Try to write to develop a love of the language, appreciate the works, and express yourself. Many questions are posed with the intention of eliciting your personal opinion on them. you should be interested in related topics such as politics and history.