How to prepare for NID Entrance exam in the last 10 days?

When you’ve got only 10 days left, I am pretty sure you’ll be freaking out about what’s left and you'll have that feeling of not knowing anything. But don’t worry, it happens to everyone and it’ll pass. First of all, there is no exam which you can clear with just 10 days of practice. Either you have been involved in design related activities (i.e., sketching, reading about design, general awareness etc) ever since, or you have been subconsciously preparing for the exam for a while and now you have come to this stage.

Whatever the case, let’s talk about what you can do now that you don’t have much time left. NID (National Institute of Design), conducts its entrance exams annually for both the bachelors and masters’ programs. The exam is conducted to test the creativity and imagination of the students. Cause, that’s the blood and bones of a designer. Creativity is a must; you can’t do without it in the design field. And so, NID checks whether your left brain is grinding or not.

Creativity is very subjective; it comes from the way you the think and the way the person looking at it thinks. So, there isn’t much you can do about it in the last few days. But here are a few things that may boost your performance, not only for the exam, but overall, as a designer.

If you are someone who has been practicing your skills for quite a while, then this is your time to recap everything. You can start with sketching. Sketch. Sketch, sketch and sketch. I can’t stress on this one enough. It’s super important. And the good part is, you don’t need to be super skilled at sketching, you just need to get your ideas across. It’s a designer’s language.

So, you can sketch everything and anything that you see around you, or whatever comes to your mind. Remember, it’s your sketch, let your personality show through.

Some specific things to practice would be, product sketching, human anatomy, nature sketching, animals etc. After doing things, get to making scenarios. Combining all of it.

1. First, if you're someone who doesn't really have an upper hand on sketching, then worry not. In the last few days you should just doodle a little bit here and there and try to get your ideas clear on paper.

2. Secondly, read about India’s cultural arts. Like the dances, textiles, music, art, architecture, famous monuments, food etc. You can learn all this state wise so that you remember it better.

3. Then, mathematics. If you don’t like it, then I am so sorry, but you’re going to be needing it. So go ahead and brush up your skills.

4. Read about designers. Their work and the concepts behind it. Especially the famous designers. Both Indian and foreign.

5. Look at logos! Government based firms, private, all of them. Go play some logo games.

6. And, other than all that, sit back and read. Comics, books, anything that sparks your crazy side. If you don’t want to read, watch things.

That’s about all. It’s the last few days. Don’t do too much, just enough. Whatever you have done till now is good enough and just following the things mentioned above for a few hours a day can help you quite a bit. If you want you can refer our blog on the detailed NID Exam. So fellas, grab your sketchbook and get sketching. Good luck!

For more information about the NID exam, visit their website; https://www.nid.edu/home

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Parinita Manchanda

Communication Design/NID Vijayawada

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