Dear Tithi

I would start with saying that your seniors and your teachers at NISER School of Biological Sciences (SBS) are the best people to guide you here.

Besides that, given that MSc at NISER SBS is an integrated degree, developing critical thinking abilities is pertinent to excel. You can read some basic books to develop your basics (if you need some work there). There would be some suggested readings for your course given by NISER, you can explore them. Also, you can use portals like Jstor, Science Direct, etc. and read some research papers which interest you or relevant to the project you are working on.

A combination of these all will help you give the right start to your studies. Remember that as much it is about choosing the right material to study, it is as much about just beginning the process.

To generate interest in the subject, you may explore the following suggestions as given by other students: Time, Love and Money by Jonathan Weiner (for molecular biology), Virolution by Frank Ryan, A life decoded by Craig Venter (by godfather of synthetic biology), Bad Pharma/Bad Science by Ben Goldacre (which a student suggest that should be a compulsory reading for all medical researchers), etc.

Finally, if you are looking to ask particular problems or exact study books, you can also ask your question by clicking on the orange "Ask a Question" button on this website- AskQuestions to Experts@EntranceCorner . Here the subject experts will answer your preparation related questions and individual technical queries.

Hope it will help.

All the best!