Pearl Academy B.Des Admissions 2026
No. 1 Design & Fashion Institute by ASSOCHAM, India Today, Outlook and The Week rankings
NID DAT Application Date:11 Sep' 25 - 01 Dec' 25
To select the best candidates from all around India, the National Institute of Design (NID), one of the most prominent design schools, administers the NID DAT (Design Aptitude Test). NID Mains 2025 results are out on May, 16th, 2025. As per the NID DAT 2025 Exam Pattern, the test is an ideal combination of assessing prospective candidates' Critical Thinking, Drawing, Communication, and Creative Aptitude abilities. Students who concentrate on high-weightage subjects and the most crucial ones can achieve good scores. To help you do well on the NID DAT 2025, this article explores the most important subjects.
Topics are curated based on information gathered from students who appeared in the last two years of the NID DAT exams according to the NID DAT 2025 Exam Syllabus.
Design Principles & Sensitivity tests student’s understanding of the design in-depth and understanding the needs of users and then coming up with practical, logical and critical solutions. The principles of design are the rules to be followed to create an effective and attractive design composition.
Important topics: elements of design (balance, contrast, rhythm, etc.), color theory, ratios, proportions, etc.
Problem-solving through Creative Thinking is a bigger objective of Design altogether as a subject, and this motivates the practical solutions. Design thinking for problem solving is the design methodology process where complex issues are tackled by understanding and framing the problem to find the best solution in a human centric way.
Key Important Areas:
Storyboarding: Visual storytelling to explain the scenarios and implement solutions.
Frugal Thinking: Rethinking the objects and their objective to propose better, sustainable and cost-effective solutions.
EXAMS dates- 13-14 Dec | Leading Design College | Highest CTC: ₹12 LPA | Average CTC: ₹7.5 LPA | Scholarships for Deserving Students
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This is an essential topic regarding understanding and awareness of surroundings in everyday life.
Design History and Cultural Awareness: The questions asked are direct and indirect, where a question in an indirect format can ask you to identify the famous painting and its time era.
General Awareness: This includes the happenings in the surroundings, major events , awards & ceremonies(Government), Government policies or other relevant Information.
The knowledge of material, their physical properties and chemical properties allow you to create designs that are practical and viable. As a designer a student is expected to have an understanding of at least the basic materials like woods (hard/soft wood), metal (ferrous/non-ferrous).
The understanding of the material is useful for the NID Studio Test 2025 exam where students have to undergo the model making for the given “Problem Statement”, which holds a good weightage of the marks in overall merit.
Logical and Analytical Thinking is an integral part of NID DAT Exam, that helps ensure the design solutions proposed in the classroom are practical, functional and user-centric (designed keeping the user in the focus). In this section a student is expected to analyze patterns, solve puzzles and derive conclusions from the given scenarios/problem/information in the questions.
Important Topics under this section are:
Puzzles & Pattern Identification : Non Verbal Reasoning
Sequence & Series Completion : Logical Reasoning
Syllogism & Analogies : Establishing Relationship
Sketching is the foundation of non-verbal communication between the examiner and the reflection of the students to the given problem statement. This section can significantly help candidates to score high and stand out in the merit.
Based on the analysis of the NID DAT previous year question papers, following are the proposed topics under this section:
Human Anatomy : Postures and Movements
Product Sketching : Depicting Human Interaction
Environmental Compositions : Both Indoor and Outdoor composition
Perspective Drawing : One, Two and Three Point Perspective
On Question asked by student community
You can get the NIT DAT SYLLABUS, updated version from careers 360 in detail from careers 360 article. Follow the link given from The link of the syllabus article is given below from careers 360
https://design.careers360.com/articles/nid-dat-syllabus-2026
Yes you are eligible to appear for NID DAT for the M.Des programme. Since you are in final make sure you will have completed your BA by the required deadline. Also go through the specific specializations you want to apply for, some may require certain specific backgrounds to be eligible to apply for them. You can find more details here design.careers360.com/articles/nid-dat-eligibility-criteria
Hello,
To prepare for M.des exams like CEED or NID DAT, here are some points which you can follow:
Understand the pattern – focus on creativity, design aptitude, and problem-solving.
Practice sketching daily and improve visualization.
Study basics of color, form, and design concepts.
Solve previous papers and build a strong portfolio.
Stay consistent and observe everyday designs for new ideas.
THANKU.
Hi daksh
As 563 rank in nid dat exam cannot guarantee admission in designing college but it could be a good chance to explore some campus as if you are not from general category as category role plays an important role . But now you can do one thing focus on your strengthening your protofile or preparing for the studio test (bdes) or interview (mdes).
Thanks.
No, IPU (Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University) does not accept NID DAT Prelims score for admission to the B.Des (Bachelor of Design) program.
Instead, IPU conducts its own entrance test or may consider CUET (UG) scores for B.Des admissions, depending on the latest admission guidelines. Always refer to the university's official prospectus for the year you're applying to for the final admission criteria.
NIT DAT (https://www.shiksha.com/design/articles/nid-admissions-2025-colleges-accepting-nid-entrance-exam-scores-for-bdes-mdes-courses-blogId-13097)
Ranked 2nd in the IIRF 2023 Design School Ranking | Approved by AICTE | Highest CTC 13 LPA
Ranked amongst top 3% universities globally (QS Rankings)
No. 1 Design & Fashion Institute by ASSOCHAM, India Today, Outlook and The Week rankings
EXAMS dates- 13-14 Dec | Leading Design College | Highest CTC: ₹12 LPA | Average CTC: ₹7.5 LPA | Scholarships for Deserving Students
Courses offered in- Fashion Design, Product Design, Communication Design, Interior & Spatial Design & Animation & VFX Design
Ranked #45 amongst Universities in India by NIRF | Ranked #1 in Academic Reputation in India by QS World University Rankings