Candidates seeking admission to the B.Des and M.Des courses at the NIDs will have to appear in a drawing and sketching exam. The NID DAT 2026 (Prelims) exam is expected to be conducted in the first week of January 2026. Here we share tips to master drawing and sketching skills.
Also, when inside the exam center, make sure that you follow NID DAT 2026 exam-day guidelines. The DAT Prelims question paper for the exam will include textual and visual questions. The scores of NID DAT Prelims will be used to shortlist candidates for DAT Mains.
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M.Des DAT Mains (Studio Test) for shortlisted candidates will be conducted starting in the first week of March 2026. B.Des DAT Mains is expected to be conducted in the last week of April 2026.
The National Institute of Design (NID) will conduct the Studio Test for the B. Des program in April 2025. The Studio Test will be conducted offline. Note that B. Des candidates are not required to appear in any interview, unlike the M.Des applicants. Admit cards for the Studio Test will be released a few days in advance.
On the day of the Studio Test, the candidate had to report at the exam center with the admit card and a valid photo id proof. The Studio Test (or that Mains) is the 2nd stage of the two-stage NID that admission process. The final results of NID DAT 2025 is prepared by considering the performance of the candidate in DAT Mains and DAT Prelims.
- Drawing Tips and Tricks for NID DAT 2026
- Tips to Improve Drawing Skills for NID DAT 2026 Exam
- NID DAT 2026 Study Materials for Drawing
- Sample Drawing Questions for NID DAT 2026
- Other Drawing Tips for NID DAT 2026 Examination
- FAQs on NID Entrance Exam
Drawing Tips and Tricks for NID DAT 2026
The Aptitude part will contain questions on Quantitative Aptitude, Logical Reasoning, GK and Current Affairs, and English. While the NID drawing part will have questions related to rendering, sketching, human figures, color schemes, scale, proportion, design solutions, and more. One must have a good presence of mind and long drawing practice to crack this. Check out the below-mentioned tips and tricks to understand the NID entrance exam’s drawing part.
1. Develop Visualization skills
A budding NID 2025 candidate has to work on qualities like creativity, observation, and imagination. Qualities like these can't be developed in an interval of time. So, if you wish to be best at drawing and sketching, it's advisable to start as early as you can.
2. Understand Memory Drawing
Memory drawing is one of the important parts of preparation for the NID DAT test. Most aspiring students can do excellent copy drawing but find it difficult to draw from memory. One can start developing observation skills and lots of practice. Live sketching will also add to refine this part.
3. Practice Technical Drawing
To crack the NID drawing section, an understanding of Technical Drawing is a must. Technical Drawing or Engineering Drawing is not conventional drawing. It includes mandatory drawing topics:
- Perspective Drawing
- Composing 3-Dimensional elements
- Light and Shadow
- Scale and Proportions
The studio test and personal interview for M.Des DAT Mains are conducted on the same and in some cases different days.
For instance, in the previous edition of the NID DAT exam, for the New Media Design program, the studio test was conducted on March 4, 2024. However, the personal interview were conducted between March 4 & 7, 2024.
Therefore the candidate has to consult their DAT Mains admit to confirm their studio test and interview schedule.
For admission to the BDes course, students need to fulfil the minimum eligibility criteria in the first place. Candidates must sit and appear for DAT entrance exam to get admission for BDes course at National Institute of Design, Jorhat . Apart from this, the total tuition fee for the BDes course is INR 4.7 lakh.
For admission to the BDes course, students need to fulfil the minimum eligibility criteria in the first place. Candidates must sit and appear for DAT entrance exam to get admission for BDes course at National Institute of Design, Bhopal . Apart from this, the total tuition fee for the BDes course ranges between INR 1.1 lakh-INR 10.9 lakh.
Also Read:
| NIFT 2026 Quantitative Ability Syllabus, Questions & Preparation Tips | UCEED vs NID - Which is Better? | NID vs NIFT - Differences, Participating colleges, Admission Process, Placement |
4. Drawing Straight Lines
Design students must practice freehand straight lines: verticals, horizontals, and diagonals. Avoid using scales and other drawing accessories. Doing it daily will help to create a balance in drawing and reduce scale dependence. This is one of the important points to remember in the preparation of the NID entrance exam.
5. Knowledge of Figure & Live Drawing
Figure drawings or still-life drawings are practiced by making observations of the physical world. These can be human models, but can also include objects like fruit, vehicles, or items in nature. It helps students to learn perspective, proportions, and shading.
6. Practice without Eraser
Erasing the drawing takes a lot of time, smudges your work, and makes it unfit to render later on. It leaves an adverse impact on the person checking that drawing.
7. Ideas of drawing tools and medium:
Students must have a proper understanding of drawing tools and different mediums. Read out the list to recall the important drawing tools before appearing in NID 2026 DAT:
- Chalk is a powdery drawing tool suitable for blending and shading and works on many surfaces. It's easily transferable among surfaces.
- Charcoal is a crumbly black material made of carbon. It's often sold in sticks or pencils, an excellent tool for shading and blending.
- Colored pencils are wood shells with wax or oil-pigmented centers. They're less likely to smudge but still blend easily.
- Wax crayons add color to drawings in a non-transferable way. These are difficult to use for blending and shading.
- Graphite is a metallic gray powder that comes in pencils and sticks. It's often used for line drawing, blending and shading.
- Pastels are sticks of powdered pigment made from oil or water-based materials. They're excellent for blending.
Tips to Improve Drawing Skills for NID DAT 2026 Exam
Here are a few tips that you can use to improve your drawing skills.
1. Work on your observation
The Design Aptitude Test will evaluate the candidate's ability to draw a particular situation from a particular point of view. For instance, you may be given an image, say of a kitchen, and then asked to draw a perspective drawing from the point of view of a person standing at the window.
Now to be able to draw these kinds of images, you need to not only have great creativity, but also perspective and observation skills. You need to train your eyes for various types of situations and practice drawing from various perspectives.
2. Experiment with Different Mediums
If you try out different mediums, your knowledge of the subject is only going to grow.
A few mediums that you may try and their pros and cons are listed below.
| Medium |
Pros |
Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Pencil |
You can edit the sketch over and over again. |
Limited to grayscale |
| Charcoal |
Rich blacks, good for shading |
Messy, can smudge easily |
| Ink |
Bold and permanent |
You can’t easily edit the lines or color without damaging the sketch. |
3. Master Perspectives
You must understand the perspectives.
- One-point perspective
- Two-point perspective
- Three-point perspective
The candidate needs to understand what the different perspectives mean, how they are used, when to use them, etc.
NID DAT 2026 Study Materials for Drawing
There is no prescribed syllabus for NID DAT 2026 drawing test. However, Shiksha has jotted down some books for NID DAT to read and test papers to get an overall idea of drawing questions of NID.
- Rendering in Pen and Ink by Robert W. Gill
- Basic Rendering by Robert W. Gill
- Design Drawing by Francis D.K. Ching
- NID Entrance Exam Question Papers
- Arihant's Ultimate Guide for NIFT/NID/IIFT Entrance Exam by Arihant Publications
Sample Drawing Questions for NID DAT 2026
The DAT Prelims exam will include textual and visual questions. The NID DAT question paper has two sections, with drawing-based questions typically asked in Part II.
Given below are a few sample sketching or design-based questions asked in the DAT Prelims exam. You can download and practice them for free.
- NID DAT 2025 Sample Questions - Download Here
- NID DAT Sample Paper B.Des - Download Here
- NID DAT Sample Paper M.Des - Download Here
Other Drawing Tips for NID DAT 2026 Examination
Some of the other tips for NID DAT 2026 Examination are:
- Practice drawing whatever comes to your imagination, or anything around you.
- Try various forms of drawing, like caricature, photorealism, figure, cartoon, animation, doodling, gestural, technical, etc.
- Draw light outlines instead of rigid ones in the design exams in order to make it look clean.
- Do you own research or draw along with some good online drawing series? It will add to your preparations.
FAQs on NID Entrance Exam
Q. When will the NID DAT 2025 exam be conducted?
A. The NID DAT 2025 entrance exam has two stages - DAT Prelims and DAT Mains. The DAT Prelims will be conducted on Janaury 5, 2025.
Q. What is NID DAT Prelims?
A. NID DAT Prelims is the shortlisting round for NID admissions. NID DAT Prelims comprises a written exam that candidates need to clear in order to be eligible for NID DAT Mains.
Q. What kind of questions are asked in NID Entrance Exam?
A. NID Entrance Eexam consists of two admissions tests – NID DAT Prelims and NID DAT Mains. NID DAT Prelims is a written entrance exam and NID DAT Mains comprises a studio test and interview round. In NID DAT Prelims, candidates are asked both objective- and subjective-type questions.
Q. How much time is needed to prepare for the NID DAT 2025 exam?
A. A candidate would ideally need 6 months to one year to prepare the NID DAT exam. This time frame will allow the candidate to go through each topic in detail and prepare for the exam effectively.
Q. What is the syllabus for NID Entrance Exam 2025?
A. The NID syllabus for DAT Prelims will include questions from topics like Drawing fundamentals, Innovation in design, Theme development, Exercises on imagination, Graphics & pictograms, Principles of composition, Design theory, etc. The syllabus for NID DAT Mains will include topics like Model making, Material manipulation, Audio-visual exercises, Importance of body language, Doodling, Creative thinking and the likes.

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Student Forum
Answered 3 weeks ago
The result for NID DAT Prelims 2026 will be announced on April 07, 2026 around 4 PM.
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 3 weeks ago
The details that cannot be modified in NID DAT 2026 Application window are programs applied, name of the candidate, date of birth, registered mobile number and registered email address.
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 3 weeks ago
NID DAT 2026 Application edit window will open from December 02, 2025 to December 04, 2025.
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 3 weeks ago
The last date to fill the application form for NID DAT 2026 for B.Des and M.Des programme is December 01, 2025.
S
Contributor-Level 10
Registration - 11 Sep '25 - 1 Dec '25
The NID DAT 2026 (Prelims) exam will be conducted in the first week of January 2026. The exam will be conducted in the following 22 cities - Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Dehradun, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Kurukshetra, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi, Thiruvananthapuram, Vijayawada.
The candidate has to select their choice of exam city at the time of filling out the NID DAT 2026 Application form. Note that an exam city may have one or more test centres. The allotment of exam centres will be made considered available seats in respective centres and choice of the candidate.