Prep Tips for NID Entrance Exam 2026

The NID DAT is easily one of the most prestigious and difficult design entrance exams in the country. This means, your typical exam preparation ways may not be enough to crack the exam. So, here we bring some useful and easy tips to ace the NID DAT 2026 exam. Read on.

The NID Design Aptitude Test (DAT) is an entrance exam that a design aspirant needs to clear as a first step for getting admission to NID 2026 participating colleges. Upon successfully qualifying NID DAT 2026 exam, the candidate will be called for a NID Studio Test, followed by a NID personal interview.

Students often have confusion regarding CEED and NID DAT and ask which exam they need to give and this query needs to be clarified. NID does not accept CEED scores or any other Design Aptitude Tests conducted by other design colleges which are all distinct exams. Since they have no connection, the candidate must fill out separate forms for each exam.

Each design school in India has a different philosophy for teaching design, therefore, the entrance tests conducted by each college have a different flavor. One big difference that can be observed is that CEED Entrance Exam focuses on the technical and engineering aspects of design, whereas the NID DAT focuses on how the design is carried out. The NID DAT 2026 exam is expected to be conducted in the first week of January. The NID DAT 2026 application form will be out in the first week of September 2025.

Keeping this outline in mind, let’s see some tips that will help you take the first step towards performing well in NID Entrance Exam 2026 and fulfilling your dream of studying at NID.

Tips to Prepare for NID DAT 2026 Exam

The NID DAT exam will be conducted in two stages. Here we bring you tips to prepare for DAT Prelims. Read on.

1. NID DAT is all about balancing skills: You don’t have to worry if your sketching is bad. NID, in my opinion, sees a balance of skills. The people who secured good DAT scores did not necessarily have awesome sketching skills, but they were able to generate ideas that were out of the box. This does not mean that you don’t need sketching skills, but if your ideas are terrific, NID might overlook minor flaws in your sketches. Just make sure that the sketches you make are up to the point and express what you have in your mind.
2. Prepare for weird questions and show your creativity: Having said about the balance of skills, NID questions are nowhere predictable in their nature! The questions actually show the creativity that you will be taught in college. Some questions test your sketching skills to the limit. Be sure that you have enough practice of sketching weird stuff. For example, practice sketching how a city would appear to you from inside a manhole. All that matters is how creatively you apply yourself in the given situation. Similarly, weird questions can be a golden opportunity for you to showcase your creativity. Therefore, be as creative as you wish when facing such a question.
3. Know the design symbolism and conventions well: For NID, the questions are often left open-ended with no clear insight into what could be a so-called right answer to it. This is just to test whether a candidate can present her/his design well. Make sure that you know the design conventions such as Gestalt principles, meaning of colors, applications of different materials, etc, as well as design symbolism like speech bubbles, zoom-in gestures, graphical symbolism, etc. This will help you understand the question and express your ideas in good depth.
4. Choose your media carefully: NID DAT paper is not suitable for using ‘wet’ media such as sketch pens or watercolors. Therefore, stick to dry media, which includes color pencils, pastels, etc. Media like ball pens and fine liners are preferred by some designers, but use them only if you are quite confident of what you are going to make. Also, during practice sessions, practice only on A4 papers. Sketching on large papers will get you in the habit of drawing with wide strokes which will be detrimental in sketching on smaller papers.
5. Develop your own sketching style: Apparently, most students who secured a seat in NID during the past year had their unique sketching style. This might mean that your score will be higher if you sketch using the style you have developed on your own. It may seem daunting, but developing your style is rather simple. Perhaps all of us copy great designers at some point in time. All you have to do is break free of the mold and try some different types of shading, maybe try using pencils in place of the markers, and use thick and wide strokes of pencil to give your design a dynamic look. There are many such techniques you will discover during your practice session. Make sure you develop one style and practice it till you perfect it.
6. Improve your observation of things and phenomena around you: Sometimes, NID DAT tests your ability to analyze things from users’ perspectives and even asks questions directly related to current affairs. It helps if you are updated with the events in the design world and know which products are rated as good design examples. Reading common design blogs, such as core77, will keep you updated and also show you how to critique design. If you can analyze your own design, your design skills will improve.
7. Plan and sketch, but be fast! One common problem faced by NID aspirants is that the paper is too lengthy. Therefore, always think thoroughly before sketching. A simple solution to the question at hand is often the best one (Occam’s Razor principle). Don’t rush into sketching the final solution. First, estimate the amount of space you will need by blocking the space roughly, that is, what part of the sketch will appear in what area of the answer paper. Then sketch in faint hand to get a sense of proportions and once this is done, rush into sketching. Literally, sketch as fast as you can!

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In a nutshell, if you have great concepts, decent but fast sketching skills, and your own individualistic sketching style, you will score well in NID DAT.

Prasanna Gadkari

 

 

About the Author:

Prasanna Gadkari is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore. Along with a career in Product Design spanning over eight years, Prasanna has mentored hundreds of aspirants to reach their dream of doing a Master in Design (MDes) from IITs, IISc and NID. He runs TeaCupBlog, a place where he and other students share their tips and experiences on a pro bono basis.