CEED Preparation Tips 2026: Section-wise Strategy, Topper Tips, Best Books, Study Material

The CEED 2026 exam will be held on Jan 18, 2026. So, aspiring candidates can start preparing for the exam.

1. Focus on the following resources to prepare for CEED:
2. Make sure that you get the best books to prepare the CEED.
3. If the study material is good, they will contain few to no errors, will cover the entire syllabus, contain practice problems, etc.
4. Solve sample and previous year’s question and sample papers
5. Take mock tests.
6. When studying make it a point to take notes. These notes will help you jot down all the important points.
7. Do timely revision. 

Since CEED is a general aptitude test, you can benefit greatly by practicing previous year question papers. Also, after practicing the papers, it is highly important to analyse your strong and weak areas for the exam and then work on them accordingly. 

But that being said, you can’t prepare for the CEED only on the strength of solving the sample papers. You need to read the text books to learn the concepts, understand the various dynamic. Note that unless your theoretical knowledge is sound, you won’t be able to feel truly confident. 

Some of the important topics to prepare for CEED 2026 include

• Design Concepts
• Product Designing
• Logical Reasoning
• Colour Theory, Color Schemes and color Compositions
• Scale and Proportion
• Poster, Logo, Character designing
• Basics of Drawing - Lines and Shapes
• Anatomy, Proportions and Divisions
• Sketching
• How to Develop Characters
• Basic and advanced Human Drawings
• Story Illustrations

These topics are important because they either carry more weighatge or have a greeter chance of being asked in the entrance exam.

To improve your English language skills, you should

• Develop a habit of reading English newspapers daily. 
• Learn 20 new words daily
• Solve reading comprehension passage
• Read synonyms, antonyms, idioms, etc.
• Watch animated movies or English movies with subtitles.

You can start solving sample papers for CEED very early on in your exam preparation. For instance, you can do the exercise after completing a chapter. All you have to do is find the relevant questions in the sample papers and start solving. As you move on in your CEED 2026 exam preparation, you the sample papers will be more useful. In fact, as you complete the syllabus, you can attempt the complete sample paper.

By solving the sample papers you can improve your problem-solving and time-management skills. Also, you can solve sample papers right up to the exam-day. 

Sketching part of CEED will include representation in the form of geometric figures like lines, squares, and triangles, outline drawing, detailing, and shading. Practice outline drawing, representation, detailing and shading. Also work on shapes, proportion, line quality.

Candidates should solve around 30-40 sample papers and question papers before the CEED Exam. Try to solve one sample paper or question paper daily in the last month of preparation.

IIT Bombay is exam conducting body for CEED 2026. The institute, however, doesn’t prescribed any study material for the exam. 

So, in a bid to help the candidate, we bring you a list of recommended books for CEED 2026 after consulting previous years’ CEED question papers. The names suggested by toppers and experts have also been taken into account when compiling this list.

While textbooks should be the primary resource for CEED exam preparation, there are other resources candidates may use. Candidates can use YouTube has many educational and preparation videos that the candidate can refer to.

To identify the quality and genuineness (or correctness) of the data, you can go through the video reviews. In some cases, the review section may be hidden. In that case, you better stay away, as it is difficult to determine the quality of the content.

Also, refer to instructors or educators with a large number of followers or subscribers.

The instinct in such a case will be to give a few more attempts. You can also try a few attempts. But after that move on to the next topic. Also, don’t spend too much time on one simple topic. Leave out a few difficult topics now and study them later if you have time left.

Since CEED is a general aptitude test, you can benefit greatly by practicing previous year question papers. Also, after practicing the papers, it is highly important to analyse your strong and weak areas for the exam and then work on them accordingly. 

But that being said, you can’t prepare for the CEED only on the strength of solving the sample papers. You need to read the text books to learn the concepts, understand the various dynamic. Note that unless your theoretical knowledge is sound, you won’t be able to feel truly confident. 

Some experts suggest that you skip your GA preparation for now. Instead, you can start preparing for the section 45 days or so before the exam. The logic is, GA is more about theory than anything else. So, even if you must the subject now, you will have to do thorough revision closer to the exam to remember all the points. 

Also, you need not bother about the interview now. That part will be important only after the results are declared. 

The CEED 2026 applications are open now, from October 1, 2025. The application has to be filled online at ceed.iitb.ac.in.

The candidate can apply with both regular and late fees.

All the details pertaining to the CEED 2026 application form have been updated on the admission portals, including the information brochure. The candidate needs to carefully go through the brochure to check their eligibility. Note that information entered by the candidate at the time of submitting their application form will be verified at the time of counseling. Any candidate who doesn’t meet the criteria will be disqualified.