Strategy and Time management while giving CEED exam

 What is covered in this post

1. Time management during CEED Part A and B
2. Strategy to give your best
3. Tips to avoid nervousness and stay proactive during your exam 

Negative marking for Part A as of 2021

• NAT - No negative marking
• MSQ - 0.2 negative marking (tentative) for the wrong answers. Even if one of the selection goes wrong, then the whole question will be evaluated as wrong.
• MCQ - 0.5 negative marking (tentative) for the wrong answer

Topics covered (mostly) under the sections

• NAT - Numerical, some mathematical, non verbal
• MSQ - Mostly ability, reasoning, image based aptitude,  
• MCQ - Mostly simple and basic image based aptitude that are simple, including design and basic math aptitude, design GA 

Strategy for Part A 

1. First step - I recommend you to start with MCQ. If a particular question is taking too much time then skip that question and move to the next one. Make sure that you are touching all the questions. Mark the option only when you are at least 80% sure of your answer.
2. Second step - Take up NAT part. Again, if any question is appearing difficult then just skip that and move to the next question
3. Third step - Finally come to MSQ part. This part is where most of you might make mistakes - by missing something, or choosing one or more wrong choices. Be careful and answer the question only if you have verified all the given options and are more than 90% sure of the answer. Otherwise you will be unnecessarily loosing the marks in negatives. This discussion is applicable for MCQ as well.

Time management for Part A

1. On an average spend at the max 1.5 to 2 minutes for each question in the beginning, regardless of marks. 
2. Spare at least 10 minutes at the end to recheck your attempted questions and to answer the missed questions.
3. If a questions seem to take more than that then keep skip that for the time being. Note the Q numbers in the rough paper given to you so that while you recheck at the end it will be easy to identify those questions 
4. Make sure that at the end of the exam you have gone through all the questions. This is because there might be some easy and instant answerable questions and you might just miss marking that just because you couldn't get time to even read the questions. So, go through all the questions. 
5. Answer all NAT questions even if you are not confident. Coz NAT part doesn't have negative marking. If you are not sure of the answer, then use some common sense, or your intuition or even some logic to roughly estimate the answer. Make sure you are not missing any NAT.
6. Remember, no need to answer all the questions! No need to give 100% attendance :P In that process you might end up with large negative marking. Answer only those few that you are pretty confident. Save yourself from negative marking by being smart!
7. You better assume attempting MCQ and NAT as top priorities. Be very cautious while attempting MSQ 

Strategy and time management for Part B

1. For all the five (less or more) questions, spend at least 2-5 minutes, at least, to read the question. Read the question very carefully and understand the requirement. Understand what is that they need and what you are supposed to do. Mind the evaluation criteria and plan to attempt only that much as asked. 
2. For sketching question, plan on what to sketch, the view, the objects to be shown etc. 
3. For problem identification, form, visual synthesis and creativity questions, spare time for ideation and imagine and give thought on what to do. Stay cool and relaxed and give initial thinking. If needed list down the keywords or key points (for example the problems, or creative ideas given shapes like a pen etc.) in the rough paper so that you won't miss the idea after some time. 
4. You will have to cover 5 questions in 2 hours. But, for the first sketching question you may spend up to 25-30 minutes. You can plan the remaining time for covering the other four questions. However, don't spend the complete 25-30 minutes initially. Follow step 5 and 6 for sketching. 
5. Keep a time limit of say 15-20 minutes to complete all the important elements of the sketch. By elements I mean the important parts of your sketching - Proportion or relative sizes, perspective, size, shape, clarity, line quality etc. Try to keep these features in mind while you sketch
6. I always recommend you to start with line sketching. Quickly complete the initial basic line sketching by covering all the parts of the given situation requirements. 
7. After sketching take up next questions (whichever you feel is easy, start with that). Again, just like you did for sketching - attempting the outline to give a shape to the answer, quickly answer the question as per the ideation you do at that time (step 3).  
8. After attempting all the question and based on the left over time, start completing the questions in full form by giving details. Do this first for the four questions and after that you can spend the left over time on the sketching.  
9. If completing the sketch (initial line drawing) took whole time, then you may have to skip the detailing step. That's absolutely fine. But make sure that you are at least completing the sketch in terms of line sketching and form. 

 

Tips to stay calm, cool, and free from nervousness

• Whether you are prepared or not, your positive mindset and your attitude matters. This is going to help you stay cool, smart, and active so that with these mindset you will be able to answer even the difficult and the answerable questions! 
• Attitude matters - Be with the attitude: 'It's ok even if I don't clear the exam. I will have alternate options.' Having this mindset will help you stay calm, and avoid the fear for missing the high ranks. Whether you are prepared or not, your positive mindset is what helps you a lot. So stay with this attitude and give the exam assuming that it's just your job to give it. 
• While you are waiting to enter the exam hall in the morning of the exam day, listen to some good and motivating music using headphones.
• Or, While you are waiting to enter the exam hall, see if you can play some mind games. Your mind should be kept busy and free.....far from the thought and fear of the exam. With free mind you will be able to give your best!
• Or, make new friends at the hall before the exam (or even spend time with your own friends who are present there) so that you can discuss with them on general stuff like where they prepared, what's their future plans, any new colleges they have identified for design, what are their college recommendations etc. 

Further tips

• Though you answer Part B in the answer book given to you, you need to tick appropriate box on the computer screen to indicate that you have answered the same. If you don't your answer might not get evaluated! So be very careful in this.
• Be confident. That is the only tool/armor you have. Even if you prepared in full form but if you are not confident and positive, you might not be doing your best. It is absolutely ok to be half prepared or even unprepared but confident fully!
• Sleep well before the day of exam. Don't end up sleeping early in the morning during the exam :P 
• Don't rush to revise before exam, at least relax yourselves before two hours, by compromising yourself that you have covered everything. Remember the pattern has diverse topics, so it's never complete! Likewise you are never unprepared! you might have observed that on the spot solving questions are well asked in CEED. So, you are already well prepared :)
• Mind the time during exam. Time management is very important. Questions like reading comprehension, aptitude etc. are time consuming but the good part is we can be more sure about the answers. GA questions are time savers - only if you are aware or heard about that; otherwise be careful in answering them!
• Don't get fooled by complex looking image questions. They look difficult to solve but in actual they are quite similar like we solve normal geometric questions. Just try them!

Finally

1. Carry all those things that are listed to be carried to exam hall - including 
2. admit card, 
3. ID proofs, 
4. pencil, 
5. pen etc. 
6. Art media like colors, pads, papers etc. 
7. Papers will be provided to you for rough works.

That's it, I hope we both (me and SYL) helped you in some form :P

Remember, The Attitude!

All the best,

Your bro,
Bhanu. 

NID-DAT Subjective Practice questions (PG)

Here is a set of practice questions that I prepared for your NID-DAT Subjective (PG) practice after I analysed some previous papers. Please practice only which you feel relevant to your preparation. I will update this page with more example soon. If you have any specific requirement on subjective questions type, drop in the comment and let me know or if you feel some other topic could be added, feel free to update me. Note that some of the questions have been taken from this blog's BDes subjective post.

Downloadable PDF - A complete list of SYL links for NID-DAT exam (sitemap) 

Note - To save this posts images to your PC or mobile phone for your practice, click on the image and try saving them.

1. Complete the drawings

Part of the images will be given to you. Complete the remaining part with pencil/pen. Also, draw the background. No need to give details, line drawing should be enough but give importance to size, proportion, 

(Sorry for the blog name (watermark) on the images. I came to know that some coaching centres are just copying this blog's content as it is, and so I had to do this) 

Q1. Complete the scene of an ice cream parlour front, with a set of chairs and tables and also illustrate the ice cream shop. Draw a couple sitting on chairs relishing ice cream.

Q2. Complete the scene of a grandmother with her grandson sitting on a chair in a park feeding birds. Also, draw squirrels in the scene.

Q3. Complete the scene of a living room with windows, tables, racks etc. Draw a kid on the floor playing with his/her toys, and a music player on top of the table.

Q4. Complete the scene with a bunch of kids being outdoor and about to relish their food as part of their picnic. Show birds and animals in the scene and also cloud with sun and some trees.

Q5. Complete the scene of a living room with sofa, chairs, tv AC and wall mountings. Also, draw a vacuum cleaner lying on the floor

2. Story Framing and Writing Exercises

a. Part of the story will be given. Complete the story in not more than 7 lines and illustrate them in 5 frames

1. There lived a mise under a tree, above which a crow .........
2. One day, I went to playground along with my cousin ......
3. A golden swan which used to be pride once visited a pond where .........
4.  Long ago, snakes don't have a home until one day a snake saw ants ..........
5. Once upon a time, an elephant king used to rule the forest when .......
6. Once, a miser trader .......

b. Frame stories using the following set of words, don't exceed 7 lines 

1. Iron box, doll, shirt, table
2. Tiffen box, stove, wall clock, mother, cat
3. grandma, shoes, car horn, TV
4. Ants, Laptop, cookies, Sleep
5. Water bottle, monkey, window grills, fridge
6. Doctor, sweets, salt, grandma, 
7. Bulb, plant, carpet, glass jar

If possible illustrate one frame of the story for the above,  (pick any scene of your choice from the chosen story), which you've written. 


c. Story narration for a given image

You will be given a scenario based on which you need to narrate a story in not more than 10 lines. This exercise will help you in enhancing your story framing and scene analysis skills. The first two questions appeared in CEED previous papers and the third example was taken from the internet.

Q1.  The illustration above is an artist’s impression of an incident in a club house. Narrate the incident in your own words, based on your creative imagination. Limit your description to less than 250 words.

Solution to the above scenario with tips on how to deal with such questions in this post

Q2. Check the below messy picture and write a story related to the situation depicted in not less than 200 words.

Solution to the above scenario with some tips 

Q3. Check the below scenario and narrate a story

3. Situation analysis questions

1. A monkey got into a mall somehow and wants to get out without anyone’s notice. A 10-year-old boy helps him - state at least three problems/challenges faced by him in helping the monkey. Also, suggest solutions to the problems identified.
2. A self-aware intelligent robot was lost in a forest and its battery was draining, state at least three challenges the robot will face and also suggest some solutions to the identified problems
3. An alien was lost from its ship which got landed on the outskirts of your city and you decided to help it reach its ship. State at least three challenges/problems that you might encounter will take it to the ship safely. State also the transport you prefers to use and also give solutions
4. A turtle somehow got into the city and is now in a lane filled with Non-veg shops, state the challenges it needs to face in order to cross and also reach the sea at the outskirts. Also, state solutions to that problems.
5. A mosquito was inside a hall and it wants to get out. But the whole windows and doors were protected with mosquito catchers and repellants. State three challenges on how he can escape from the room. Also, give the solutions to the mosquito

4. Drawing/sketching exercises

A. General Drawing questions

1. Draw a teen (only upper half portion sufficient) sipping coffee/tea and/or eating ice cream 
2. Draw the scene of a school-boy studying a book, intensively, with no power but only candlelight in the room, being seated on the floor
3. Draw the scene of yourself sitting on your rooms sofa and taking selfie
4. Draw the scene of a mother, feeding her 2 year child with a milk bottle
5. Draw the scene of a grandfather narrating a story from a book to his grand-daughter of 9-12 years old during bedtime. Show the excited state of the grand-daughter.
6. Draw a creature, upper half human and lower half a tree trunk with some branches, watering itself. 
7. Assume you are sitting in front of a laptop or a desktop PC adjacent to a wall, draw how your eyes see the scene
8. Draw different facial emotions of a human (boy or girl) - only face/portrait is sufficient. Maintain the same person in all the scenes
9. Draw the scene of an artist making art in his/her living room.
10. Draw the scene of a manager in his office room, in front of a system (Computer) with files piled on his desk.
11. Draw the scenario of two kids competing for one another on video game
12. raw the scene of a room with at least one person, dating back to early 40's, 1940-1950 time. The very look of the image should give the perception that the scene dates back to 40's
13. Draw a gadget tab (iPad or big sized mobile phone) showing that video was running on the screen. No background, only the gadget and the view of the video
14. Draw a villager preparing chappatis/rotis, sitting on the floor, rolling the dough while a pan/tava with a chappatis on top of a natural made mud stove, burning using wood/twigs. 
15. Illustrate the last scene of the thirsty crow-pebbles story, the scene of crow drinking water while it had already dropped some pebbles up to the half of the jar.
16. There was a power cut. Draw the scene of your father fanning you, while you're fast asleep at the comfort of the fanning. Your father being happy at that moment.
17. Draw yourself with head over phones on, enjoying the music like anything
18. Draw yourself in a superhero costume 
19. Draw yourself sitting on a sofa exhibiting ur happiness in watching the winning match on TV

B. Same-Scale drawing sample questions (just line drawing sufficient, no need of details)

• Draw a bolt-nut (used for bolting, consider 1cm diameter of the bolt) and a pencil alongside in correct proportion
• Draw a laptop and a pressure cooker in correct proportion, alongside
• Draw a cat and a 5-year boy in, correct size
• Draw a mobile phone and a big sized Ant next to it, in correct proportion.
• Draw an elephant, a tiger and a monkey

C. Different-Scale drawing sample questions (just line drawing sufficient, no need of details) 

• Draw a rat, thrice its usual size and a human (25+)  in his original size. 
• Roughly draw a crow of 4 times its usual size, sitting above a bicycle.
• Draw a 10 years cheerful girl, holding the tail of a real tiger which is of the size of a rat. Illustrate as if the girl is holding the tail in air

D. Human or Object sketching exercises

1. Draw a portrait of a pretty girl with curly hairs, cheering up, with appropriate details in the background.
2. Draw a 6 years kid weeping on his/her study table with some books. Show appropriate details including the background.
3. Draw a 2-3 years child, just learnt to walk using the support of the adjacent wall. Show appropriate details including the background.
4. Draw a portrait of a cheerful farmer with a turban and moustache, holding a plough. Show appropriate details including the background.
5. Draw a girl kid (6-10 years old) with a puppy in her hand.
6. Draw the sketch of a basket of vegetables on top of a table, visible in the dimness of a candle-light. Show appropriate details, shades etc. 

E. Choose two Homonym of your choice and draw them. 

Note: Homonym is a word that is spelt the same or sounds the same as another word but is different in meaning.

Ex: 

(pray, prey), 

(sell ,cell)

this page has a very long list of Homonym

1. Draw the two meanings of the word "Spring" and write a one-line explanation for the sketch.
2. Draw the two meanings of the word "tire" and write a one-line explanation for the sketch.
3. Draw the two meanings of the word "desert" and write a one-line explanation for the sketch.

5. Poster making exercise

(you may use colours, rulers or other media)

1. Population reduction - a theme poster that shows the downside of population growth. Give appropriate title and caption
2. Make a poster for avoiding food wastage showing at least one kid in hungry or starving mode
3. Create a poster advertisement to promote 'Swachh Bharat' campaign, showing at least a kid involved in the activity, 
4. Make a poster for bringing awareness of digital India. Include the key elements like e-payments, govt. apps, digishala, govt. digital services, prevention of corruption, reduction of documents, hence papers, fast services/processes, 
5. Your college is organising a cultural festival, make a poster showing the details of events or diff. kind of cultural.
6. Create a poster advertising men to join Indian armed forces for a minimum of one year. Use Indian flag, Indian emblem, a Soldier. Use the form of them (texture, pattern, outline etc) 
7. Design a poster to bring awareness about education focused on the rural parts of India. Illustrate visually the benefits 

Hope above practice questions helps you. All the best :)

NID DAT Subjective sample practice questions (B.Des)

Hi there,

In this post, I've covered some sample questions that might be useful for your subjective practice. This is in specific to BDes paper and according to 2017 official sample paper available in NID official website. Please note that the questions are purely based on my analysis and have been shared with the intention that some of them might actually turn useful for your practice. Please also note that some of the questions may not fit well to the exam.  

Downloadable PDF - A complete list of SYL links for NID-DAT exam (sitemap) 

1. Drawing exercises of scenarios

1. Draw the scene of a school-boy studying a book, intensively, with no power but only candle light in the room, being seated on the floor
2. Draw the scene of yourself sitting on your rooms sofa and taking selfie
3. Draw the scene of a mother, feeding her 2 year child with a milk bottle
4. Draw the scene of a grandfather narrating a story from a book to his grand-daughter of 9-12 years old during bedtime. Show the excited state of the grand-daughter.
5. Draw a creature, upper half human and lower half a tree trunk with some branches, watering itself. 
6. Assume you are sitting in front of a laptop or a desktop PC adjacent to a wall, draw how your eyes see the scene
7. Draw different facial emotions of a human (boy or girl) - only face/portrait is sufficient. Maintain the same person in all the scenes
8. Draw the scene of an artist making art in his/her living room.
9. Draw the scene of a manager in his office room, in front of a system (Computer) with files piled on his desk.
10. Draw the scenario of two kids competing for one another on video game
11. raw the scene of a room with at least one person, dating back to early 40's, 1940-1950 time. The very look of the image should give the perception that the scene dates back to 40's
12. Draw a gadget tab (iPad or big sized mobile phone) showing that video was running on the screen. No background, only the gadget and the view of the video
13. Draw a villager preparing chappatis/rotis, sitting on the floor, rolling the dough while a pan/tava with a chappatis on top of a natural mud made stove, burning using wood/twigs. 
14. Illustrate the last scene of the thirsty crow-pebbles story, the scene of crow drinking water while it had already dropped some pebbles up to the half of the jar.
15. There was a power cut. Draw the scene of your father fanning you, while you're fast asleep at the comfort of the fanning. Your father being happy at that moment.
16. Draw yourself with head over phones on, enjoying the music like anything
17. Draw yourself in a superhero costume 
18. Draw yourself sitting on a sofa exhibiting ur happiness in watching the winning match on TV

2. Human/Object sketching exercises

1. Draw a portrait of a pretty girl with curly hairs, cheering up, with appropriate details in the background.
2. Draw a 6 years kid weeping on his/her study table with some books. Show appropriate details including the background.
3. Draw a 2-3 years child, just learnt to walk using the support of the adjacent wall. Show appropriate details including the background.
4. Draw a portrait of a cheerful farmer with a turban and moustache, holding a plough. Show appropriate details including the background.
5. Draw a girl kid (6-10 years old) with a puppy in her hand.
6. Draw the sketch of a basket of vegetables on top of a table, visible in the dimness of a candle light. Show appropriate details, shades etc. 

Choose two Homonym of your choice and draw them. 

Note: Homonym is a word that is spelt the same or sounds the same as another word but is different in meaning.

Ex: 

(pray, prey), 

(sell ,cell)

this page has a very long list of Homonym

1. Draw the two meanings of the word "Spring" and write a one-line explanation for the sketch.
2. Draw the two meanings of the word "tire" and write a one-line explanation for the sketch.
3. Draw the two meanings of the word "desert" and write a one-line explanation for the sketch.

3. Story writing exercise

Frame stories using the following set of words, don't exceed 7 lines 

1. Iron box, doll, shirt, table
2. Tiffen box, stove, wall clock, mother, cat
3. grandma, shoes, car horn, TV
4. Ants, Laptop, cookies, Sleep
5. Water bottle, monkey, window grills, fridge
6. Doctor, sweets, salt, grandma, 
7. Bulb, plant, carpet, glass jar

If possible illustrate one frame of the story (pick any scene of your choice from the chosen story), which you've written. 

4. Poster making exercise

(you may use colours, rulers or other media)

1. Population reduction - a theme poster that shows the downside of population growth. Give appropriate title and caption
2. Make a poster for avoiding food wastage showing at least one kid in hungry or starving mode
3. Create a poster advertisement to promote 'Swachh Bharat' campaign, showing at least a kid involved in the activity, 
4. Make a poster for bringing awareness of digital India. Include the key elements like e-payments, govt. apps, digishala, govt. digital services, prevention of corruption, reduction of documents, hence papers, fast services/processes, 
5. Your college is organising a cultural festival, make a poster showing the details of events or diff. kind of cultural.
6. Create a poster advertising men to join Indian armed forces for a minimum of one year. Use Indian flag, Indian emblem, a Soldier. Use the form of them (texture, pattern, outline etc) 
7. Design a poster to bring awareness about education focused on the rural parts of India. Illustrate visually the benefits 

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(Below is a Supplementary Exercise)

5. Replicate exercises

Exactly redraw/replicate the below images, giving form and details - as much as possible

(just replicate the front girl and the table, no need to draw other kid in the backdrop)

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P.S.: I will update this page with more exercise and other variants of questions as soon as I finish next phase of previous paper analysis. Until then I hope the above exercise practice questions would come handy to during your preparation.