CEED Topper shares Prep Tips

CEED Topper, Ritabrata Chaki shares his prep strategy and how he managed to secure Rank 21 in CEED 2017.

On completing his Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Ritabrata Chaki appeared for CEED 2017. He shares that a total of 4,700 students took CEED 2017 exam and he secured Rank 21 in the Open Category. Having applied for Animation course through Common Entrance Examination for Design (CEED), Ritabrata shares that he was always confident that he would crack CEED exam conducted by IIT Bombay. 

On the personal front Ritabrata revealed that his father is a retired army personnel and his mother is a home maker. He also shared that he is a “guitarist and has worked as a session player for many bands and projects”. Shiksha spoke at lengths with Ritabrata to understand his prep strategy for CEED 2017. Read the interview to know how to formulate a study plan as well as mistakes to avoid while giving CEED exam.

Thank you! I secured 48.6 marks in CEED 2017 Part A, 63 in Part B. My rank is 21, open category.

If you are actually interested in the fields of art and design, CEED Part A is not a big deal. Going through the previous year’s question papers was a lot of help though. For CEED Part B, I practiced life drawings a lot. Especially human figures in different postures and poses. There’s always a question in Part B where they ask you to draw a person or persons performing some task(s) or doing some kind of physical activity. Plus, in the optional question I did the story board. So life drawings helped a lot.

None.

Depends completely on the individual. If you have the knack for it even one month is enough. For some even five years won’t do it. You need fairly decent drawing and sketching skills to score well. That's a good enough indicator for how much time you may need.

I prepared for about a year, but it was mostly drawing and sketching.

Almost exclusively Wikipedia.

I think Visual Aptitude is an important document. There are a lot of them and if you can do them fast then Part A is a child’s play.

Go through previous year’s question papers. They almost never repeat questions but you can infer what they can ask. Eg: if there's a question about Gond art, don’t just look up the answer. Read everything about Gond art that you can find. Then go a step further and read up on all other related tribal art styles (Madhubani, Worli etc.). The goal is not to memorise, but to understand, its history and philosophy and becoming familiar with the art styles so that you can recognise them. The “see also” section of Wikipedia articles is a big help.

The only mistake one can make is preparing for it as if it’s a technical field. Understanding the topics is much more important than merely memorising facts and figures.

For CEED part A, go through the questions quickly and answer the questions you already know the answers to so that you can attempt this section fast. Then attempt the ones that you can do but will take time. Finally if there’s still time, attempt the ones you are not sure about. Though it’s better to just leave the questions unless you’re fairly certain that you are correct. For CEED Part B, you have to be fast at sketching. There’s no other way around it. Don’t bother colouring. A good clear pencil sketch is always preferable to a colourful mess. I didn’t even bring colours to the exam.

As per my experience they don’t expect very logical answers to the questions. Fun creative answers are better. And as mentioned above don’t bother colouring unless you’re a superfast artist. A clean and clear sketch, preferably shaded, is far better.

Finishing it all in time. So don’t just practice sketching. Practice doing it fast.

It’s the only thing I am good at.

I didn’t know what to expect so I didn’t prepare anything. Just tried to be honest and have a decent portfolio.

I only applied to Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay (IDC-IITB) and only in animation. The admission process was pretty standard. Filled the application form, appeared for the written exam and the interview on campus and awaited result.

I was asked about myself, why I want to pursue a course in animation and what I want to do in the future. They went through my portfolio very thoroughly. They didn’t ask much questions about it or commented on anything so it’s hard to read what they were thinking. The interviewers were very amicable though.

Don’t appear in the exam just for the heck of it. Have an end goal in your mind, and you would do much better.