NIFT PG 2027 Preparation Plan for Working Professionals

Course

Stage 01

Stage 02

Master of Design
(M. Des.)

CAT (Creative Ability Test)
GAT (General Ability Test)

Situation Test/
Personal interview

Master of Fashion Management (M.F.M.)

GAT (General Ability Test)

GD (Group Discussions)
Personal interview

Master of Fashion Technology
(M. F. Tech)

GAT (General Ability Test)

Personal interview

Phase

Core Areas

Time line

Phase 01:

Developing Foundation and Habit Building

Planning the daily study plan with work-life balance

Develop the foundation for vocabulary, reading skills, and general awareness of the industry

1-3 Months

Phase 02:

Skill Development and understanding the Core Syllabus

Orient yourself to the Quantitative Topics, Logical Reasoning, and Design Process.

Building Portfolio: It is a critical practice to begin at this stage.

3-6 months

Phase 03:

Intensive Practice and Mock Tests

Shifting to strict exam mode to begin with the full-length mock test,

Situation Test (Time-bound practice) and mock interview prep with AI or professionals

6-9 months

Testing Section

Preparation Strategy

Professional Leverage

Quantitative & Analytical Thinking

A daily 30-minute practice of the arithmetic section, like percentage, ratio and proportion, Speed-Time and Distance etc., is a must to complete the syllabus with working life

Turn your everyday work into mini DI sets to begin with.

Example: Analyse, average and interpret your sales targets

NIFT Communication and English

Reading the editorial section daily, for the newspapers is a good start

Recommended Papers: The Hindu, Economic Times(refined vocabulary)

NIFT usually gives you passage reading targeting business, fashion, economics, etc., where you have to deduce the meaning and correlate the facts.

General Awareness

General awareness is a subject that could be prepared during commuting time through mobile applications like GKToday or online newspapers, etc..

Focus Areas : History, Constitution, Geography and Current Affairs.

Staying updated with BOF(Business of Fashion) and allied industries, supply chains, retail, etc., which may sometimes be part of your job as well

Creative Ability Test(CAT)

Creativity can blossom anywhere, even a pocket diary where you sketch the perspectives, interactions, spaces and allied details in your pocket diary with pencil or pen as medium

Try communicating the life through metaphors

Example: To depict the “tension”, you may show a rubber band stretched between two nails

Situation Given

How to Begin

Design Principle Used

Rapid Storyboarding:

E.g. Depict the user journey for a contactless retail store of a given brand

To quickly capture the essence start with 10-sec gesture drawings in everyday life on way to work

Tip : A sequence of 4 quick frames communicates the intent crisp and faster.

To avoid : Any shading or detailing

Exploded Views

E.g. Multifunctional Jacket for the gig/ delivery partners

The challenges is to use the precise line quality and details form all views which is possible only through the

“Exploded View” depicting layers of products

Tip : Develop the line weight control at this stage for depicting the functionality.

Ergonomic Annotations

E.g. Look the office furniture around you and find an opportunity to redesign furniture for long working hours

At this point anything with minimum clean line drawing, hand done annotation and visual description of the “Ergonomic Considerations” are expected from the designer.

Tip : Outline the challenge visually and likewise address it by visually highlighting your provided solution. Always include a human outline to show the “Ergonomics” in design.

Avoid : Too much detailing

Professional Background

Potential Program to target

Leverage Points

*UI/UX Professional
*Product Developers
*Engineers

M. Des.

Showcase the wireframes, prototypes, blueprints, etc. as per your domain in your interview.

Tip: Include empathy and design constraints in your ideas to resonate better with design

*IT/Data Analytics

M.F.M.

Your understanding and interpretation of the data can be applied to fashion retail management, inventory forecasting, and consumer behaviour

*Sales/ Marketing
* Business Developers

M.F.M.

You can showcase your corporate, finance, and supply chain knowledge; talk about the real-world challenges you overcame, like customer acquisition, vendor management, etc.

*Illustrator Artist
*Painters or Fine Arts

M. Des.

Shift your focus from pretty sketching and include the functional parameters to portray yourself strongly as a problem solver