Design Entrance Exam

As per the 2016 entrance exam schedule of NIFT, for Bachelor of Design (B.Des) aspirants, the selection rounds are divided into 3 parts.
1.General Ability Test (GAT): 120 mins
There will be approximately 150 questions which will be based on Quantitative Ability, Communication Ability, English Comprehension, GK etc. Basically, typical entrance exam questions which test your knowledge, the presence of mind, calculative ability, English grammar & class 10th maths etc.
2.Creative Ability Test (CAT): 120 mins
This is where your creativity comes into play. Questions can be about perspective, like draw a water bottle from an ants point of view. Here all you skills like geometry, visualisation, perspective & creativity come into play. There can be questions about making logos or designing posters or even mascots based on the given topic. So now the trick is to make something relate-able to the given client, which represents the cause/company etc but at the same time, it should not be common(or a done concept which is cliche). Eg: if the topic is female feticide, your poster should have an impactful element(a strong conceptual detail) & that 1 innovative concept will make your work stand apart.
3.Situation Test:
In this round, the candidates are given a bag of materials like paper, cardboard, pins, roped, colours, clay etc. The question will be to make something (say a handbag or a lamp) using what you have. The idea is to test your hands on material usage skills. How well you use the given objects to make something unique.
Creativity is the most important aspect in NIFT entrance. You either have it or you dont. But of course, creative skills can be developed & giving it a proper direction is most important. Many students clear the exam without any coaching. But yes, coaching gives you enough practice & guidance to sharpen your skills. Asking an NIFTian to help you in preparation might also be sufficient. SILICA is a good one if you want to take classes.

- Be Creative
Obviously. This cannot be taught in any coaching classes or books or whatever, Think out of the box.Think of all the crazy ideas even though they might be silly(humour is also an added advantage sometimes)
- Speed Sketching
Practice speed sketching cause there are a lot of questions and you have less time to think and execute.Practice practice practice, stretch you won't break your wrist while speed draw sketched your limits. Ask your friend to give a random topic and you sketch it as fast as you can.
- Choose drawing overwriting
Although some questions do give you an option to write your answer or illustrate I'd suggest you sketch down your answers as this will have an advantage over written answers.
- Current Affairs
Even though there was only one question (4 sub-questions) last year that tested your GK, you don't want to lose marks on such things so go through all the current affairs for the past one-two years.
- Coloring is an added value
Some questions compulsorily require colours and you can't bypass that but for questions that don't really need any colours, adding them would be an advantage, But I suggest you keep the colouring part for those questions during the last few minutes when you're done answering everything.
Im an engineer and I didn't go for any art or coaching classes so I'm not sure what they'll teach you.3-4 months of practice is enough but it totally depends on your skills, check out NID preparation blogs, NID PG 2015 or CEED 2015 Facebook groups, anthere's alsa NID Alumni site (National Institute Of Design integrated Alumni Network And students) where seniors can help you.

Below mentioned are the tips and tricks to crack NIFT or any of the design college entrance exams:
1. If your sketching skills are average, the questions are framed to judge a candidate's creativity, imagination, visualization skills, general awareness, etc. So, developing these skills are equally important.
2. Focus over your creativity during your exam preparations.
3. With the creativity, the speed equally matters. If you are creative, but unable to cope up with the time limit, you will miss the questions. So, it is better to practice keeping in mind the speed and accuracy.
4. You can go through previous years entrance exam question papers. This will help you to get an idea about the types of questions asked in the exam.
All the best.