National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) is a national level scholarship program which is funded by NCERT and was introduced in year 1961. As an initiative to award meritorious students, a stipend up to Ph.D. level in Social Sciences, Basic sciences and Commerce is awarded to students who become NTSE Scholars. The scholarship program aims to promote higher education and to give financial support to those blessed with intelligence.
NTSE is conducted in two stages for the students of class 10. 1000 scholarships are awarded every year out of which 250 are reserved for SC, ST and physically challenged students.
Not only just scholarships, being an NTSE scholar adds more brownie points to your CV. Therefore, prepare sincerely as it holds the key to your splendid future. Here are a few advantages you get being an NTSE Scholar:
NTSE Scholar Advantages
- Most of the recognised coaching centres which prepare students for careers in science discipline (JEE, medical, etc.) offer free admission and up to 50% off on preparation material.
- If you’re a IIIT-Delhi aspirant, a bonus of 6 marks is added to your JEE Main score while considering admission into the institute.
- A number of foreign universities which offer undergraduate courses in science give preference to NTSE scholars during selections.
- Bagging internships during early years of college (when you have nothing substantial on your resume) is easier as compared to others.
- A monthly scholarship of Rs 1250 is given to NTSE scholars for pursuing science, social science, humanities, fine arts, languages, commerce, or vocational studies in class 11 and 12. The scholarship amount is increased to Rs 2000 per month from undergraduate up to doctoral level.
- Benefits during NDA selections.
NTSE Exam Procedure
NTSE is conducted in two stages, Stage-1 and Stage-2, the details of which are mentioned below.
NTSE Stage-1:
- It is conducted at the state or union territory level.
- Candidates can apply for the first stage from their respective states.
- Results are announced separately for different states and union territories.
- Candidates must score a minimum of 10 marks each in MAT, SAT and Language Paper to qualify for NTSE Stage-2.
- About 4000 students qualify Stage-1 who then become eligible to participate in Stage-2.
NTSE Stage-2:
- It is conducted at the national level.
- Candidates who qualify Stage-1 can appear for Stage-2 exam.
- Questions are not asked from the language section in this paper. There are 100 questions each from MAT as well as SAT.
- Candidate must score well individually in SAT and MAT to qualify Stage-2.
- Top 1000 candidates who qualify Stage-2 are given the prestigious NTSE scholarships.
NTSE Scholarship Details
About one thousand (1000) scholarships are awarded for NTSE as follows:
- a) Scholarship of Rs.1250/- per month for Class-XI to XII
- b) Scholarships of Rs.2000/- per month for Undergraduates and Post graduates
- c) Amount of Scholarship for PhD be fixed in accordance with the UGC norms
Eligibility Criteria
For a candidate to be eligible to take NTSE 2018, he must fulfil the following criteria.
- Candidate must be an Indian.
- Candidate should be less than 18 years of age as on July 1, 2017.
- Candidate must be studying in class 10 in a recognised school in India.
- Candidate must secure at least 75% in class 9.
NTSE Exam Pattern
The question paper is divided into two sections – Mental Ability Test (MAT) and Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT).
MAT: The questions in this section are designed to judge the ability to think, power of reasoning, ability to judge, evaluate, visualise in space, etc. Questions are asked from series, analogies, pattern perception, classification, coding-decoding, problem solving, hidden figures, block assembly, etc.
SAT: The questions in this section is further divided into language test and test for science, math and social sciences. The language test consists of questions either from English or Hindi (as selected by the user).
- Mode of Exam: NTSE is a pen-and-paper based (offline) test.
- Exam Duration: Candidates are given 3 hours to complete the paper.
- Language for Question Paper: You have the option to take the paper in Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu or Urdu.
- Question Type: The questions are of MCQ type with 4 alternatives per question.
- Marking Scheme: Candidates will be awarded +1 for a correct response. There is no negative marking for incorrect answers.
- Qualifying Marks: Qualifying marks for candidates of General category is 40% in each paper. For SC, ST and physically handicapped 32% in each paper.
