Collection of UCEED exam study materials

Link 1: Subjective (Part B) complete collections for UCEED as per new pattern from 2020


This link contains:

1. Collection of SYL blog pages to practice exercise for sketching.  (To help you practice and test your sketch line quality, imagination skill, perspective, proportion and size of your drawing.). 
2. Object practice questions.
3. Human, scenario, room, persepctive practice questions. 
4. Downloadable books to help with basics of sketching, perception and shading techniques
5. Beginner guide to sketching
6. Youtube videos on how to improve human sketching, drawing objects and humans with proper size and proportion

Link 2: Collection of UCEED Main topics

This link contains:

1. Mathematical Geometry ( Types of views, how to visualize solids in all the sides) - orthographic drawings, exercises, transformation of solids, 
2. Basics of solid shapes
3. Observation and visualization skills (tangram puzzles. animation movement, geometric objects and how to work with them, hidden words and images, tesselllations, illusions, objects evolution)
4. General guide on - photography, animation, typography, video/colors, illustration, artistic tools, drawing terms and sculpture, Logos etc.)  
5. Answers to previous papers of CEED (that will help you prepare for UCEED by solving image based and other design aptitude questions)
6. Sample reasoning practice. How to solve reasoning question
7. English comprehension
8. GK on indian culture - State painting and painters, musical instruments etc.) 
9. Something about materials and manufacturing related topics

Link 3: Design Aptitude and Reasoning practice materials collections

This link contains:

1. Free books for mechanical and ability questions
2. Verbal, non-verbal and psychometric practice online links
3. Odd man out series exercises
4. Direction sense tests 
5. Spatial and verbal ability practice exercises
6.  Inference from paragraph
7. Paragraph summary exercises
8. Deductive, Inductive and verbal reasoning, conclusive drawing 
9. Data interpretation
10. Abstract tests, IQ and word/pictogram puzzles

Link 4: Resource update for new syllabus for UCEED 

Refer the topics listed below for UCEED:

1. Guide on font with several online links
2. Typography, visual infography
3. Intro. to mathematical solid shapes
4. Famous paintings, painters, artistic media, art movements etc.
5. Cultural tour of India.
6. Colors 
7. General topics (paper sizes, dances, image formats, drawing terminology, perspective and non perspective works)  

Link 5: Resource collections from NID page for UCEED

Refer only to the topics listed below for CEED:

1. Non-verbal and Image reasoning 
2. Go through the bullet points under the heading "Some facts"
3. List of some famous epics of India
4. List of Indian animators, famous photographers, women designers, renaissance poets
5. List of Indian noble prize and oscar winners
6. Plutchik-wheel of emotions

Link 6: Solutions to previous papers

Study only the topics listed below:

1. UCEED previous papers (from 2015 to this year)
2. UCEED sample practice papers
3. CEED sample practice papers 
4. CEED previous papers solutions (from CEED 2012 to latest) - CEED solutions will help you for CEED Part A preparation as most of the syllabus is same (UCEED is tougher than CEED.

Link 7: Mock tests and sample papers collections

This link contains

1. Mock tests, samples and previous model papers for UCEED.
2. Mock tests, samples and previous model papers for CEED (to be practiced for CEED too).

Link 8: GA on famous designers for all design exams

This link contains: (Topics to be prepared after completing the above topics)

1. Collection of famous logo designers, Indian fashion/textile designers, 
2. Indian famous photographers
3. Some logos
4. Famous painters/paintings
5. Olympic medal winners
6. Prehistoric paintings and more

Complimentary: Discussion on UCEED new pattern from 2020 part B and part A

General guide 

How to prepare and what to practice for UCEED  

Weekly strategy and schedule/time-table for UCEED practice 

List of priority topics for one month UCEED preparation

Check this if your exam is only two or one week ahead - List of priority topics to be covered for sure as available in resource page in the last week of your exam

Priority topics from resource page for 3 days UCEED preparation

Last minute tips and time management for UCEED exam

What to do if you get less ranks in Design exams or if you couldn't get design seat at all

Complementary -  (PDF) List of Scholarships and exam-based-scholarships for school and college students

Videos to help you

What to start? and How to solve design aptitude, non-verbal, and Ability questions with examples

PART 1

PART 16

Maths Basics for non-math background design aspirants

How to count no. of faces on solids

UCEED exam - what section to attempt during exam

UCEED resource for General topics

Briefly overview these EA topics 

1. Environmental design in Wiki 
2. Eco Design on wiki  
3. List of Environmental issues
4. Indian Environmental Impact Laws  
5. Social Sustainability 

Wiki guide on Sustainable design

Basic values of Sustainable Design

An article on Alternative thinking

Eco-friendly products

Eco products official directory - (just give a overview in free) (not imp)

Some basic mechanical principles

Working principles

home appliances working with explanations (not imp)


Below, I've included topics that are less important to UCEED. Give them a overview only if you have completed the remaining syllabus/resources and if you are left with time.

General Knowledge

• List of logos - here>>
• Animation Terms and related techniques

Environmental GA and Sustainability study

A very good article on Environmental issues in Design and Technology

D'Source - Design for sustainability  

Effect of human activities on environment

Envi GA slide - 1

Envi GA slide - 2

Learn the basics and terms of 'Design for the environment' - with general practices, products, regulations, best practices etc by goinng through this wiki page

Leisure time study - Design for social impact

Environmental awareness presentation

Additional Materials

• A list of famous Indian authors - here
• All about Prime ministers of India - here
• A very good list of Indian Bank Logo's - here
• Past to present logo evolution for some famous brands - here

Facial Expression of emotions

Source: darkspeeds work on devianart

Plutchik-Wheel of emotions

UCEED forum/discussion page with FAQ's

Like Stuff You Look blog on Facebook page to get connected with latest posts.

UCEED one month practice topics - Quick List

(Updated with new strategy from 2021)

A very quick list of topics useful for one month UCEED preparation.  

Before that I will answer the question that might be troubling you - 'Is one month sufficient?'. 

The straight answer is 'YES'

Just use the available time properly and stop deliberating on the questions

'what marks should I get?', 

'How may questions should I attempt?'

and more....

 

Download PDF - complete UCEED links in SYL blog (updated)

Priority list of topics for UCEED one month preparation

1) 

Sketching - If you have been practicing from a while then continue with the flow. If you are just starting then start by solving 2020 previous paper (or the most recent one)....Coz first you should understand the sketch questions type being asked. Once you understood, start practicing more such questions. I've already listed many practice questions and you can use them or you can use use any the questions from any other sources that you have. 

Part B Practice questions 

Check the below video on sketching Level required (sufficient) for UCEED

(This will clarify, guide as well as prevent you from doing wrong practices since time is precious!) 

 

2) 

Next comes Part A practice, Following topics (that deals with visualization/imagination) are recommended first

Geometrical views, 

Projections, 

Solid manipulations, 

Visualization of solids (practice these very quickly)

Basically any type of questions dealing with images, solids etc., including the puzzles kind are recommended

How to Solve Design Aptitude, non verbal, and ability questions with clear explanation

3)

Mensuration (medium level) - topics that need the basic maths (trust me, no need to go for detailed mathematics, very very basics formulaes are sufficient. I've already covered them in this video. It will hardly take a few hours to memorize them.) Keep practicing this on daily basis by spending say 15-20 mins every day until u feel u are able to solve problems related to mensuration. 

This includes problems on (mostly the below are sufficient) 

Pythagoras theorem

Basic level - Area, volume,

Triangles,

Circles.

Check the video on Basic Mathematics formulas sufficient for Design exams

A snap from the video showing the basic formulas sufficient from mathematics

4)

Mechanical Ability, Spatial ability,

5)

Image Aptitude, 

Pictogram puzzles, 

Inference from pictures

Animation movement

6)

Pattern recognition from images

7)

Image observation (like identifying similar patterns in a set of patterns)

8)

Paper cuts

9) Reading/Paragraph comprehension (Very little - don't spend much time on this if you have already done some practice or if this is handy to you, but remember this topic is important for UCEED exam!)

And finally

10) GK/GA on 

Color theory

Authors

Art and print media

Designers

Painters/Artists

Culture

Photography

Animation study

Famous personalities

Top award-winners/leaders etc

The first nine in the list above......you can start immediately, and skip the design GA initially. In the last week before the exam (or if you can cover up the above topics quickly, then....two weeks before the exam) 

Or, if you feel that you need more time for sketching and the aptitude part of Part A then it is safe to skip some topics of GA. That's because not many questions are seen in UCCED papers related to GK and/or design GA. 

Also, don't forget to attempt previous papers (including CEED, NID papers) so as to keep a track of the time that you consume for answering the papers as well as keep yourself in pace with the time-bound answering.

If you complete the above list, you can check - Weekly timetable/strategy for UCEED preparation, for more topics, that I shared two months ago. 

And finally

List of priority topics to be covered for sure as available in resource page in the last week of your exam

I hope you will be utilizing your available time effectively.

All the best,

Bhanu. 

    

Strategy (weekly time table) for UCEED preparation

Hello all, 

Glad to write for you again. In this post I will be covering two strategic ways of setting weekly time table for your smooth preparation to UCEED exam. Please note that there is no universal strategy applicable for everyone. Strategy and preparation level varies form person to person based on their existing abilities (proficiency in a field), how much time to spend everyday, their status (completely dedicated or partially preparing and also aiming for other exams), their ease of understanding/grasping topics, their ability skills and so on. Some students need plenty of time, while others needs hardly few days to prepare. There are cases where student go unprepared and got top AIRs! So, it all depends on personal capabilities, but this timetable will be helping those whom need guidance or a systematic approach of preparation.

Having a reference time table might give you some idea of what topics to be studied, how much time to be spent for the topics, how length they are, your status/level for that topic and most importantly it will help as a check list to ensure that you don't miss any topic being unprepared. 

The first strategy/time-table is for those whom are already good at observation/ ability skills/ mathematics etc but not that proficient in GK. The second strategy is for those whom also need practice on mathematics/image-based observation questions, visualization question etc, and also slightly lacking in GK (I believe only very very few are gifted with GA/GK on designers etc - So, I include GA topics for both category students).

Kind note: You might be the best judge to know your abilities, shortfalls and the need for topic improvements, so adjust the given time table accordingly and go on your phase, that best suits you. Below timetable might only act as a reference :)

Since most of you can have access to aptitude and reasoning books, cost of which is comparatively less than any NID/UCEED/CEED books, I, therefore, list out the topics from those books.  I will list out the topics with their ranking in brackets. A very high rank (high being 5) means you are advised to prepare to the full for that topics, and a very low rating (low being 1), means you are advised not to spend much time on that and any rating in between means you are advised to give importance accordingly (time).

Verbal Reasoning topics

• Syllogism (3)
• Logical Sequence of Words (2)
• Blood Relation Test (1)
• Series Completion (1)
• Cause and Effect (3)
• Dice, Venn Diagrams (3)
• Cube and Cuboid (2)
• Analogy (2)
• Seating Arrangement (3)
• Character Puzzles (3)
• Direction Sense Test (5) 
• Arithmetic Reasoning (3)
• calendar (1)
• Data sufficiency (3)

Non-Verbal Reasoning topics

• Series (4)
• Analogy (5)
• Classification (4)
• Analytical Reasoning (5)
• Mirror Images & Water Images (2)
• Embedded Images (2)
• Pattern Completion  (5)
• Figure Matrix (3)
• Paper Folding (5)
• Paper Cutting (5)
• Rule Detection (5)
• Grouping of Images (4)
• Shape Construction (4)
• Image Analysis (5)
• Cubes and Dice (5)

Quantitative Aptitude topics - Pipes and Cisterns, Area, Volume & Surface areas, Boats & Streams, Time & Work, profits and losses, pie chart and data interpretation etc.

Note: As of 2017, and based on previous papers, quantitative aptitude questions are very very less. UCEED is more of reasoning and design aptitude kind. Anyway, I've given the above topics list, which you may consider brushing them (going quickly) rather than going deep.

STRATEGY - 1

Level : above average at Mathematics/Image-based visualization, observation Ques. 

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Month : September

• 1st week - Paragraph comprehension, verbal reasoning,
• 2nd week -  Mathematical aptitude, image based aptitude ques that improves observation/visualization and imagination skills
• 3rd week - Perspective study, vanishing point concepts, GK on latest products, non- verbal reasoning 
• 4th week - GK on authors, print/color media study, mechanism and everyday usage things working, basic concept behind that, non-verbal reasoning
• 5th week - Paragraph and reading comprehension, English (sentance corrections, fillups etc), ability tests, CEED/UCEED Mock-test/previous paper test

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Month : October

• 1st week - practice/test on ability tests, IQ ques, reading and paragraph comprehension, GA on art history, renaissance, India culture, non-verbal practice
• 2nd week - India culture, logical arrangement of words, illusions, mechanism and everyday usage things working, basic concept behind that, pattern analysis, CEED/UCEED Mock-test/previous paper test
• 3rd week - comprehension revision, Architecture (some part), mechanism and everyday usage things working, basic concept behind that, pattern analysis, 
• 4th week - GK on painters/paintings, designers, famous persons, facial expressions, Mathematical aptitude, image based aptitude ques that improve observation/visualization and imagination skills, CEED/UCEED Mock-test/previous paper test

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Month : November

• 1st week - ability tests (identifying pattern in a given set), verbal reasoning, math aptitude, solid geometry/projections, CEED/UCEED Mock-test/previous paper test, GK on India culture, 
• 2nd week - Solid/image manipulation, geometry etc, GK on materials, typography, font, 
• 3rd week - latest products, authors, architecture, video/media, animation, CEED/UCEED Mock-test/previous paper test
• 4th week - Solid/image manipulation, geometry etc, non verbal revision, GK on colors, Architecture, famous personalities, CEED/UCEED Mock-test/previous paper test

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Month : December

• 1st week - GK on art media, colors, designers, data interpretation, environmental awareness, Aptitude, CEED/UCEED Mock-test/previous paper test
• 2nd week - English verbals, meanings, synonyms and antonyms, math and image aptitude revision and practice, ability practice, (non verbal) - pictogram puzzles, color schemes practice, CEED/UCEED Mock-test/previous paper test
• 3rd week - Paragraph comprehension revision, GK on photography, animation, signs/symbols,  Mathematical aptitude, image based aptitude ques that improve observation/visualization and imagination skills, CEED/UCEED Mock-test/previous paper test
• 4th week - Reasoning revision, GK on font, typography, logos, famous persons, CEED/UCEED Mock-test/previous paper test 

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Month : January

• 1st week - revision on painters/paintings, designers, famous persons, India culture, art history, revision on Perspective study, environment study (just an overview), English vocabulary, solving some questions on image-based ability/aptitude/analysis problems, Mock tests or previous year papers (as many as possible)
• 2nd week - revision on animation terms, colors, solid geometry, design aptitude, painters/paintings, designers, famous persons, India culture, art history, renaissance, Mock test or previous year paper practice (as many as possible) 

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STRATEGY - 2

Level : Below average at Mathematics/Image-based visualization, observation Ques. 

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Month : September

• 1st week - Basics/introduction to solids, types of solids, basic formulas/concepts related to geometry and mensuration.
• 2nd week -   Basics of solids, projections, types of projections, types of views (front view, top view and side views). Understanding manipulations, review of mensuration problems, geometry formulas etc
• 3rd week - Perspective study, vanishing point concepts, GK on latest products, Mathematical aptitude, exercise problems on geometry views (front, top .....) projections, CEED/UCEED previous paper practice/test (to get an idea of pattern and type of questions) , non-verbal reasoning 
• 4th week - GK on authors, print/color media study, mechanism and everyday usage things working, basic concept behind that, exercise problems on geometry views (front, top .....) projections,
• 5th week - Paragraph and reading comprehension, ability tests, CEED/UCEED Mock-test/previous paper test, non verbal reasoning

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Month : October

• 1st week - practice/test on ability tests, IQ ques, reading and paragraph comprehension, GA on art history, renaissance, India culture, exercise problems on counting no. of faces, patterns, color pattern analysis etc, mensuration/quantitative-aptitude problems exercise, verbal reasoning
• 2nd week - India culture, logical arrangement of words, illusions, mechanism and everyday usage things working, basic concept behind that, pattern analysis, paragraph comprehension, CEED/UCEED Mock-test/previous paper test, image based aptitude ques that improves observation/visualization and imagination skills
• 3rd week - comprehension revision, Architecture (some part), mechanism and everyday usage things working, basic concept behind that, pattern analysis, few hours practice on aptitude revision, tessellations, folding/unfolding of solids, (non-verbal raesoning)
• 4th week - GK on painters/paintings, designers, famous persons, facial expressions, Mathematical aptitude, image based aptitude ques that improves observation/visualization and imagination skills, CEED/UCEED Mock-test/previous paper test

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Month : November

• 1st week - ability tests (identifying pattern in a given set), verbal reasoning, math aptitude, solid geometry/projections, shape manipulations, tessellations, syllogism, analogy etc (non verbal), CEED/UCEED/NID Mock-test/previous paper test, GK on India culture, 
• 2nd week - Solid/image manipulation, geometry etc, mechanical and spatial ability GK on materials, typography, font, paragraph comprehension, every day products and their mechanism
• 3rd week - latest products, authors, architecture, video/media, animation, CEED/UCEED/NID Mock-test/previous paper test, mechanical and spatial ability revision
• 4th week - Solid/image manipulation, geometry etc, GK on colors, Architecture, CEED/UCEED/NID Mock-test/previous paper test

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Month : December

• 1st week - revision on ability tests, analogy, surface counting type ques, GK on art media, designers, data interpretation, environmental awareness, Aptitude, CEED/UCEED Mock-test/previous paper test, 
• 2nd week - English verbals, meanings, synonyms and antonyms, math and image aptitude revision and practice, ability practice, pictogram puzzles, color schemes practice, CEED/UCEED Mock-test/previous paper test
• 3rd week - Paragraph comprehension revision, GK on photography, animation, signs/symbols,  Mathematical aptitude, image based aptitude ques that improves observation/visualization and imagination skills, CEED/UCEED Mock-test/previous paper test
• 4th week - Reasoning revision, GK on font, typography, logos, famous persons, CEED/UCEED Mock-test/previous paper test 

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Month : January

• 1st week - revision on painters/paintings, designers, famous persons, India culture, art history, revision on Perspective study, vanishing point concepts, environment study (just an overview), English vocabulary, solving some questions on image-based ability/aptitude/analysis problems, Mock tests or previous year papers (as many as possible)
• 2nd week - revision on animation terms, solid geometry, design aptitude, painters/paintings, designers, eevryday product and their mechanism, famous persons, India culture, art history, renaissance, Mock test or previous year paper practice (as many as possible) 

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Fastness is very imp in UCEED because most UCEED questions are usually lengthier and also tougher than CEED. So, intense practice is required to attain fastness and hence good score by avoiding negative marking (due to mistakes by hurrying due to time constraint). Practicing previous papers or sample tests will help you in monitoring the phase as well as help you with fast practice.

If you feel like some topics are uncovered in the above weekly plan, please do comment here so that others would also know. 


All the best for your start :)