NID Entrance Exam 2018 Exam Analysis by Experts

By Shaun D’Sa

NID DAT Prelims 2018 was conducted on January 7. Most of the students who took the exam felt that NID Entrance Exam 2018 was tougher than past years' papers. View NID Entrance Exam 2018 Student Reaction here.

NID DAT Prelims 2018 Exam Analysis for the UG paper

For the 2018 NID DAT (Prelims) BDes exam paper, the overall structure in terms of marks did not change from the last year, It was, objective type - MCQs for 70 marks and subjective type - Drawing Questions for 30 marks totalling to a 100 marks.

There were 64 objective questions in total.These were further divided into different sections with marks per question ranging from 0.5 to 3. It had a mix of general knowledge questions which included current affairs like Indian olympic medal winners, logos for government programs, Indian history and art and evolution. Mental ability questions were pretty straight forward, Reading comprehension was also asked along with some math questions on percentages and time & work. However some tough questions like those on tessellations were also asked which students found a little challenging.

The subjective part had 3 questions of 10, 14 and 6 marks. These tested the art skills, problem solving skills and creative thinking skills of the students.The first question was a direct art question, wherein the outline of a bottle, a cuboid and a mug was given. The students had to draw them with an appropriate texture and a light source. If one had practice in materials, textures, lighting and shadow, it was just a matter of the speed and presentation in answering such questions. The second question was interesting with a tough twist. It involved a situation where there was a fire in the ground floor and a middle aged woman with 2 young children on the first floor. How best could the family be rescued with the limited resources of a 5 foot ladder, a 12 foot rope and scooter is what had to be illustrated in 2 panels. This question was more like a combination of problem solving and creative thinking. The third question was a creative question in which a corn and a pea seed had been planted by a young boy which grew by the very next day.into something unimaginable which the student had to draw out of his or her imagination. This would be comparatively easier since it has a wider boundary for a creative solution.

Overall, the objective section seemed to be more straightforward except for a few questions compared to the subjective section. It demanded a combination of creative thinking and problem solving abilities.

NID DAT Prelims 2018 Exam Analysis for the PG paper

The paper was divided into two halves- objective and subjective. The objective section had 59 questions in total.These were further divided into different sections with marks per question ranging from 0.5 to 3. The subjective part had 3 questions which tested the creativity and the sketching abilities of students. The overall distribution of marks remained the same- 70 for objective and 30 for drawing totalling to 100 marks.

The first quarter of the paper had a few GK questions which included questions about artists, CEOs, languages etc.

The next set of questions had government logos, passage comprehension, math puzzles and mental ability questions. Comparing this year’s paper with the last year’s, students found the going a little tough. The number of questions had come down to 59 in comparison to last year’s 67 questions. This resulted in the increase of marks per question and also in the increase of the difficulty level.

The next few sections had questions that involved paper cutting, number series, visual perception questions, logical and reasoning questions. Again here, the questions demanded a lot of logical reasoning skills and students found the difficulty a notch higher compared to the last year.

The subjective part had 3 questions of 8, 10 and 12 marks. The creative questions came with specific instructions as to what materials to use while drawing, for example; pencils, colors etc. The first question was a story writing question with given objects and the students were asked to illustrate one scene from their story. The next question was to draw three products which could be held with the thumb and index finger. No specific instructions were mentioned here for presentation of drawings. For the last question, the students were to come up with four innovative products from a steel tube with the outer diameters ranging from 4-10mm. Here again, certain instructions like the less use of manufacturing processes, ease in production and use of pencils only for drawing were given.

Overall, it was a mix of emotions with the paper weighing between moderately okay to difficult. On a comparative note, the subjective section seemed to be a little easier compared to the objective part and the 2018 edition of the DAT prelims seemed to be a little difficult for the students as compared to the 2017 edition.

About the Author:

Shaun D’Sa has a Master’s degree in Industrial Design from IIT Delhi. He is Director at Design Quotient Labs (DQ Labs), a coaching platform for Architecture and Design entrance exams.

He began his career with General Motors Advanced Design Center at Bangalore, where he had the opportunity to work with design teams for car brands like Hummer, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Holden, Buick to name a few. Shaun has also been a part of many teams of International and Indian designers for design centric ethnographic studies across India and abroad. Due to his passion for Design and Architecture, he has travelled extensively abroad and has been a part of many design workshops in many countries across Europe.