How to Balance 12th Boards With Design Entrance Exams (NID/NIFT/UCEED)
  • Articles
  • How to Balance 12th Boards With Design Entrance Exams (NID/NIFT/UCEED)

How to Balance 12th Boards With Design Entrance Exams (NID/NIFT/UCEED)

#B.Des
Ritika JonwalUpdated on 14 Nov 2025, 12:57 PM IST

Hello students! Preparing for design entrance exams like NID, NIFT, and UCEED can be intimidating, especially when you are preparing parallely with the 12th class board exams. We understand that the struggle is real and students need proper understanding and study plans, and strategy to excel in both areas. This article is curated by the experts to help students with important tips and strategies to help them understand and effectively prepare for the design exams like NID, UCEED, and NIFT with the 12th board exams.

This Story also Contains

  1. Preparation Strategies and Study Plan for Design Entrance Exams with 12th Boards
  2. Proposed Daily Time Distribution for Design Aspirants with 12th Boards
  3. Tips and strategies for students preparing for design entrance exams and 12th boards parallely

Preparation Strategies and Study Plan for Design Entrance Exams with 12th Boards

Let’s begin with three essential questions as follows:

  1. Do you believe that artistic talent is purely natural?

  2. How to prepare for design exams, when it's beyond a fixed curriculum?

  3. Is it difficult to manage both the 12th board examination and the Design preparation journey?

If your answer is yes you are not alone, thousands of students face this dual challenge every year, struggling to bridge the gap between traditional academics and creative learning, required for design exams like NID, NIFT and UCEED.

The Challenge: Why does design feel different for different students?

Unlike other academic subjects, design entrance examination test abilities such as :

  • Visualisation Skills

  • Observation Skills

  • Creative Problem-Solving

  • Spatial Reasoning

UPES M.Des Admissions 2026

Ranked #45 Among Universities in India by NIRF | 1950+ Students Placed, 91% Placement, 800+ Recruiters

Parul University B.Des. Admissions 2026

India's youngest NAAC A++ accredited University | NIRF rank band 151-200 | 2200 Recruiters | 45.98 Lakhs Highest Package

These are not found in our current school curriculums, and they operate in different neural pathways than memorizing equations or historical facts.

Students are also advised to go through these Articles:

Understanding the Skill and abilities Gap : What makes design different from traditional 12th board syllabus.

Design Aptitude Tests evaluates you on abilities and skills that require creativity, spatial reasoning and innovative thinking. Traditional academic subjects are more focussed on curriculums designed for the skills like logical, analytical and factual reasoning.

Fundamentally, this is the reason why a student struggles with design entrances, while others with average academic performance excel in creative problems. The skills tested in creative exams include:

  1. Mental Rotations, Imagination for Forms and shapes interpretation.

  2. Recognition for the patterns, details and visual memory testing

  3. Design thinking and user-centric solutions

  4. 2D-3D correlations among the shapes and cross-sectional understanding.

However ,most of the skills are easy to learn or develop over the time with regular practise and structured thinking patterns.

Proposed Daily Time Distribution for Design Aspirants with 12th Boards

For success, students are recommended to follow the provided time distribution below for preparation for design entrance exams and 12th board exams preparation:

1763104845755

Learning the Strategic Balance between design entrance exams and 12th boards exams : the “80:20” Principle of Success.

From the experience of the students, teachers and experts, it has been formulated that 80:20 principle helps to caters the challenge of balance between design skills and traditional exams as follows:

  1. 80%: Dedicating for the weaker sections

  2. 20%: Practising the Stronger Areas

Pearl Academy M. Des 2026

No. 1 Design & Fashion Institute by ASSOCHAM, India Today, Outlook and The Week rankings

UID B.Des Admissions 2026

1200+ Recruiters for Placements | 30+ International Collaborations | 45+ Advanced Labs and Studios

Let’s discuss the strategy for executing the 80:20 strategy for a time frame of 06 months.

Time Frame

Focus Split

(Design: Boards)

Design Tasks

Boards Exam
Topics

Daily Hourly
Commitment

Month 1-2

70: 30

Daily Sketching and
Visualisation Drills

NCERT Completion with all given exercise in the text book, with conceptual clarity

5-6 hours

Month 3-4

50: 50

Mock Test and
Previous Year Papers

Problem-solving Applied, Difficult subjects revision

6-7 hours

Month 5-6

40: 60

Work on Skills like Observation and Sketching

Previous year papers
And Mock Tests

6-8 hours

Also check:

Tips and strategies for students preparing for design entrance exams and 12th boards parallely

Students preparing for the design entrance exams with the 12th boards preparation can go through these common patterns and mistakes of previous students to understand what did work for them and where they need to improve, and therefore can prepare effectively for the exams better.

Common Patterns of Achievers

  • Early Beginners: Choose to begin the preparation early, from the class 11th itself.

  • Dedicate Practise: Daily practicing for 15-20 minutes at least for creative sketching based exercises.

  • Time Bound Exercises: Followed this rule for preparation of both 12th boards and design exams. Students can take regular mock tests, sample papers and previous year question papers with a set timer.

Common Mistakes and Smart Fixes

Given below are some of the common mistakes that students do while preparing for 12th boards and design entrance exams with the provided solutions they can incorporate in their preparation strategies:

Mistake

Problem

Solution

Aiming Perfectionism

Spending a great time in sketching one art

Set time Limits and focus on progress and communication

Ignoring either exam

Over Prioritising one area

Keep a balance approach of 40% time dedication to each and rest revisions

Over-Coaching

Dependency on Others for personal success

Focus on Self-Study use coaching and other aids for doubts clarification

Social-Media Distraction

Wasted focus Time

Reduce usage or look for resources helpful to preparation

Students are also advised to go through these Articles:

Final Takeaways

The journey of balancing 12th boards exams with the design entrance preparation isn’t just about time management, it’s more a journey of a growth mindset that embraces both analytical and creative thinking. The skills developed serve you throughout your career as designer.

The key to success lies in understanding that design skills are learnable and starting early is always advantageous over time, rather than waiting for the last minute preparation.

Related Articles:

Upcoming Design Exams
Ongoing Dates
SEED Application Date

1 Aug'25 - 30 Nov'25 (Online)

Ongoing Dates
GLS DAT Application Date

17 Aug'25 - 22 Jan'26 (Online)

Ongoing Dates
WUDAT Application Date

8 Sep'25 - 30 Dec'25 (Offline)

Certifications By Top Providers
Computer Fundamentals
Via Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore
Artificial Intelligence
Via Columbia University, New York
Certificate Program in Machine Learning and AI with Python
Via Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Post Graduate Certification in Data Science and Machine Learning
Via Management Development Institute, Murshidabad
VLSI Design using Verilog
Via National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology, Haridwar
Basic 3D Animation using Blender
Via Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Udemy
 1087 courses
Coursera
 505 courses
Edx
 330 courses
Vskills
 157 courses
Swayam
 136 courses
Explore Top Universities Across Globe

Questions related to B.Des

On Question asked by student community

Have a question related to B.Des ?

Hello,

Getting admission in IITs or NID for BDes depends on a few things: your entrance exam score, portfolio, and sometimes your interview performance.

  • IITs (for BDes) : Admission is mainly through UCEED . You need a good rank in UCEED to get in.

  • NID : Admission is through NID DAT (Design Aptitude Test) . Your portfolio and DAT score matter a lot.

If your preparation and scores are strong, you have a chance. You can check previous years’ cut-offs to see where you stand.

Hope it helps !

Here are top BDes (Fashion Design) colleges in Bangalore:

National Institute of Fashion Technology , Bangalore – Top choice

JD Institute of Fashion Technology

Vogue Institute of Art and Design

IIFA Multimedia

Army Institute of Fashion and Design

Taking a second drop is not an issue if you clear the required entrance exams or meet the eligibility criteria.


FLAME University Pune is a good option  for B.Des if you’re looking for a creative and interdisciplinary learning environment . The university offers a well-structured design  program combined with liberal arts, allowing students to explore multiple interests It has a beautiful and modern campus with strong academic support and personalized attention due to smaller batch sizes. However, it is more know  liberal arts and business programs, so if you want a purely design-focused education, you might also  consider institutes like MIT-WPU or Shiv Nadar University. Overall, FLAME is suitable for students who want a broad, flexible design education and can afford the higher fees.

CUET qualifies BDes Fashion Designing students.

The basis for admission is the CUET score.

yes, Indeed, CUET qualifies BDes Fashion Designing students.

Admission CUET score is very important.