Are you unsure about where to start your preparations for your NID-DAT entrance examination?

Are you sure about your goal but you are starting to get nervous about the exam?

Have you had people tell you how difficult it is to get into a top design school?

We know just the things that would help you get through this ‘tough’ time, increase your confidence and sail you through your preparations! However, clearing NID-DAT or any entrance exam for that matter, requires a natural inclination towards design, a dose of inherent creativity and being able to innovate and think laterally, out of the box. Here is the information on NID DAT study material and preparation books that will help you for the exam.

Wait up! As a bonus we will also share some other books as well at the end, these will help you practice and familiarize yourself with the concepts that you might be tested on in your NID-DAT entrance test.

The Big Book of Brain Games: 1000 PlayThinks of Art, Mathematics and Science is a huge collection of puzzles, teasers and fun games. It dares the readers to exercise their brain in different ways. Designed by the famous puzzler, Ivan Moscovich, the book has numerous brain-teasers which can satisfy anyone from a beginner to the most ardent and experienced puzzle addict.

Lateral thinking is a book about freeing up your imagination. Through a series of special techniques, the author Edward de Bono shows how to stimulate the mind in new and exciting ways, in groups or working alone. Soon you will be looking at problems from many different perspectives and offering up solutions that are clever and effective. 

This engaging book offers readers the ultimate exercise for the brain. Using the same fun and accessible style that has made his earlier books so popular, the author Philip Carter helps people identify mental strengths and weaknesses, and provides methods for improving memory, boosting creativity, and tuning in to your emotional intelligence.

This book is an exhaustive, multi-disciplinary encyclopedia of design. Richly illustrated and easy to navigate, it pairs clear explanations of every design concept with visual examples of the concepts as applied in practice. From the “80/20” chunking rule, to the baby-face bias to Occam’s razor, and from self-similarity to storytelling, every major design concept is defined and illustrated for readers to expand their knowledge.

Visual Notes for Architects and Designers demonstrates how to make quick, notational sketches that serve as visual records for reference, and improve understanding and facilitate the development of ideas. It shows you how to increase your knowledge of a subject beyond what is gained through observation or verbal representation alone. You gain access to simple techniques for collecting, analyzing, and applying information.

This book is a fascinating and informative work that is a must-read for all design aspirants, in addition to being a general introduction to the world of design it shows you how to look at things as a designer.

Hone your Logical Reasoning skills by practicing regularly with the complete works of R.S Aggarwal. You won’t require anything else for LR.

No better way to prepare for any entrance exam by giving as many mocks as you can. They will help you define your focus and understand the areas you are weak at.

One of the most comprehensively compiled study materials for NID-DAT preparation. It covers all the relevant concepts and has many mock tests as well

This is one of the more exhaustively written study materials for NID-DAT preparation available in the market. It covers all the important concepts and case studies and additionally, it has a numerous mock tests as well of varying levels of difficulty.

1.Develop Observation & Visualization Skills

Try to understand that the main purpose of DAT is to test candidates on their imaginative and creative skills. Apart from that, the questions are framed to judge your general awareness, observation skills and visualization as well. It is a common myth that only good sketching is important to crack the entrance exam. This is not entirely true, as developing the above mentioned skills is also important. I would strongly suggest that you should start your preparation with developing these skills.

2.Improve your Speed

Now, don’t get me wrong, having exceptional drawing skills and creativity are important, but know that they wouldn’t amount to much if you don’t have speed. The whole idea is to be able to present your imagination and creativity in the exam in the limited time allotted to you. You should work on improving your speed pal so that you can answer as many questions correctly as possible for you in the given time. Go full throttle!

3.Solve Sample Papers

Boys and girls, just like for any other entrance test, it is super important to practice NID-DAT sample papers as much as you can. Not only would this give you all an idea about the types of questions that are asked in the exam but you will also get to know the overall difficulty level of the entrance test. Additionally, this will help in increasing your question solving speed (vroom vroom!). You will also get to know the sequence in which you need to answer different sections if you regularly solve sample papers and mock tests.

4.Develop your General Awareness

Something more important than cramming a GK book, is reading newspapers daily. It would also serve you well to know about famous designers who have contributed to this challenging field. I would also suggest spending time on reading fashion & design books/magazines, if you are not already doing it. Know that National Institute of Design looks for people who have a genuine interest in the field of design and they will design the question paper in a way that filters out the ones who don’t. As someone wise once said, be so good, that they can’t ignore you!

5.Don’t waste time in Erasing & Redrawing

Ah! You keep judging your work, and in the limited time given to you for completing the test, you end up wasting time in erasing and redrawing. A lot of the candidates end up doing this. One thing you can do to ensure you don’t do this, is to draw with a light hand first, focusing majorly on outlining only. Once you are satisfied with the rough outline and dimensions, you can start working on detailing your work and finalizing it. If you do this, you will end up saving a lot of time.

6 Be Innovative

Being innovative means being able to use your imagination and original ideas to create something; this is a prerequisite for clearing this exam. You should have the ability to come up with unique ideas to design something new and creative. Questions in NID-DAT will evaluate your out of the box thinking. Keeping aside conventions, you need to bring your lateral thinking into play.

So, following these simple NID-DAT Preparation Tips while putting in hard work for studying for your entrance test will help you to achieve your goal of getting into NID, it is as simple as that. Give your 100 per cent, develop a natural inclination towards design, and maintain a proactive approach throughout your preparation phase and nothing can hold you back from clearing the exam with flying colors. All the very best! Thank us once you are settled into your hostel room at NID!