National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) Brochure

The National Talent Search Examination for students studying in Class X is meant to identify the nurture talent. The examination is conducted every year at two levels: Stage-I (State Level) and Stage-Il (National Level).

Selection Procedure:

Identification of talent comprises two-stage selection process. While the individual State/ UT conducts the first stage selection, the second stage selection at the national level is carried out by the NCERT.

STATE LEVEL EXAMINATION

Each State/ UT conducts its own examination. They have the autonomy to lay down their own norms for the purpose of determining the eligibility of the candidates. This examination is primarily used to recommend a given number of candidates for the second level test to be conducted by the NCERT. This number is based on the enrolment of students at Classes IX and X in different States/UTs. The candidates are to be recommended on the basis of the merit in the written examination conducted by the States/UTs. The details of the number of candidates for different States/ UTs as applicable are notified separately.

The state level screening examination is conducted in all State/ UT’s on first Sunday of November except in Nagaland, Andaman and Nicobar Island, Meghalaya and Mizoram where it will be conducted on first Saturday of November every year until and unless some special circumstances occur.

The addresses of the Liaison Officers of each State/ UT are given in Appendix with whom information about state level examination may be sought.

Eligibility:

All students studying in Class X in any type of recognized school including Kendriya Vidyalaya, Navodaya Vidyalaya, and Sainik School etc. will be eligible to appear at the State Level Examination from the State in which the school is located. However, no domicile restriction shall be imposed. The state may impose any other eligibility condition for appearing in the screening examination like any qualifying percentage of marks in the previous annual examination etc. Students registered under Open and Distance Learning (ODL) are also eligible for scholarship provided the students are below the age of 18 years (as on 1st July of that particular year) the students is not employed and they are appearing in class X for the first time.

How to apply?

The students studying in Class X in the country ought to be on the lookout for any advertisement in the newspapers or circulars in the school by the respective Government of their State/ UT for the above said examination and act as per the requirement given in the State advertisement/ circular. Any other information/ query about the details of the state level examination may be had from Liaison Officers of the State/ UT agencies, the addresses of which are given in the Appendix.

The filled in application by the student be submitted to the State Liaison Officer duly signed by the Principal of the school before the due date as advertised/ circulated by each concerned State/ UT.

Medium of Examination:

The medium of the test shall be as announced by the State/ UT.

Fee:

State may impose any fee for examination and/or for application form.

Examination:

State Level Examination may have Two Parts: Part-I Mental Ability Test (MAT) and Part-II Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) for nominating the required number of candidates for the second level test to be conducted by the NCERT.

Examination Date	Paper	Test	Timings	No. of Questions	No. of Marks	Time Duration	Qualifying	Selection Criteria
1st Sunday of November (In all the States/ UTs of the country except Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Andaman & Nicobar exam where will be held on 1^stSaturday November month every year)	Paper – I	Mental Ability Test (MAT)	09.30 am to 11.30 am (All Candidate except visually Challenged Candidates)	100	100	120 Minutes	32% SC, ST and PWD and 40% for Others (General & OBC)	• Only candidates qualifying in both the papers separately will be considered for merit • Selection of the awardees will be made on the basis of total Marks scored in MAT & SAT based on merit • There will be No Negative Marking
			09.30 am to 12.00 noon (Only visually Challenged Candidates)
	Paper – II	Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)	13.30 pm to 15.30 pm (All candidates except visually Challenged Candidates)	100 (Science 40, Mathematics 20, Social Science 40)	100	120 Minutes
			13.30 pm to 16.00 pm (Only visually Challenged Candidates)

Results:

The State/ Union Territory will prepare a merit list of the candidates ensuring the minimum qualifying marks in both the tests separately. These marks are 40 per cent in the case of General and OBC category candidates and 32 per cent in the case of SC/ ST/ physically challenged candidates.

The result of State Level Talent Search examination is declared in months of January/ February by the States/ UTs themselves. This examination is used only to recommend the candidates for second level NTS examination conducted by the NCERT. The marks of the State level Examination are not added to the National Level Examination for award of scholarship. No correspondence will be entertained by the NCERT with regard to first level examination conducted by the State/ UT. The candidate having any query/ complaint/ clarification with regard to the State Level Examination shall have to correspond only with the state examination agencies.

NATIONAL LEVEL EXAMINATION

There is no fee of any kind for appearing in the National Level Examination.

Eligibility:

The National Talent Search Examination is open for students of Indian nationality whether they study in India or abroad at Class X level.

Candidates Studying in India:

Only the candidates selected by the States/ UTs on the basis of their screening examination shall be eligible to appear in the National level examination to be conducted by the NCERT on the Second Sunday of May each year (unless otherwise notified).

The NCERT will convey the roll number, the venue, the date and time for the national level examination to all such candidates directly through its portal www.ncert@nic.in.

Candidates Studying Abroad:

Students of Indian nationality studying abroad at the Class X level may also compete for Talent Search Award under the following conditions:

(i) The Indian students studying abroad in Class X or equivalent class shall be exempted from the first level-screening test and shall be permitted to appear directly at the second level examination conducted by the NCERT.

(ii) A candidate shall be eligible to appear in the second level NTS examination only if he or she has obtained at least 60 per cent marks (in aggregate) at the previous annual examination.

(iii) A candidate will have to appear in the NTS examination at a centre in India at her/his own cost.

(iv) A candidate desiring to appear in the NTS examination may request through the Head of the Institution where he or she is studying along with an attested copy (by the Head of the Institution) of the mark sheet of Class IX. The request should reach the Head, Department of Educational Survey Division, NCERT, New Delhi-110016 latest by 31^st December of the concerned year.

(v) The Council shall allot roll numbers to the eligible candidates and inform them about the date, time and the venue of examination along with other relevant instructions.

(vi) No request for change of Centre shall be entertained.

(vii) If a candidate is selected, the scholarship shall be paid for pursuing studies in India only.

(viii) Change of center will be permitted in genuine cases and as per instructions issued from NCERT.

Syllabus:

There is no prescribed syllabus for the NTS examination. However, the standard of items shall be conforming to the level of Classes IX and X. A separate booklet called ‘Learn about the Test’ containing sample items for both the Tests- MAT and SAT is available in print as well as on the NCERT website www.ncert.nic.in.

Scheme of Testing:

The scheme of testing is given below

Examination Date	Paper	Test	Timings	No. of Questions	No. of Marks	Time Duration	Qualifying	Selection Criteria
2^nd Sunday of May every year (In all the States/ UTs of the country)	Paper – I	Mental Ability Test (MAT)	09.30 am to 11.30 am (All Candidate except visually Challenged Candidates)	100	100	120 Minutes	32% SC, ST and PWD and 40% for Others (General & OBC) Category separately in both papers	• There will be No Negative Marking • Only candidates qualifying in both the papers separately will be considered for merit • Selection of the awardees will be made on the basis of total Marks scored in MAT & SAT based on merit
			09.30 am to 12.00 noon (Only visually Challenged Candidates)
	Paper – II	Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)	13.30 pm to 15.30 pm (All candidates except visually Challenged Candidates)	100 (Science 40, Mathematics 20, Social Science 40)	100	120 Minutes
			13.30 pm to 16.00 pm (Only visually Challenged Candidates)
*If there is any change in pattern for Stage – II examination then the same will be communicated later on through NCERT website www.ncert.nic.in. Candidates are advised to keep track of updates on NCERT website.

Written Examination:

The written examination shall consist of two paper, Paper-I Mental Ability Test (MAT) and Paper-II Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Both the tests will be administered on the same day

Mental Ability Test:

There shall be 100 multiple-choice type items, with four alternatives. Each item will carry one mark. Candidates are required to answer the items on a separate OMR sheet as per instructions given in the test booklet and on the OMR sheet.

Scholastic Aptitude Test:

The scholastic Aptitude Test will consist of 100 multiple-choice items of one mark each. Each item shall have four alternatives, out of which only one will be the correct answer. There shall be 40 items from Science, 40 from Social Science and 20 from Mathematics, Candidates are required to answer the items on a separate OMR sheet to be provided at the examination centre as per instructions.

Important Note: Students are allowed to take away question booklets of both the tests (Mental Ability Test and Scholastic Aptitude Test) after the examination.

Medium:

The tests will be available in the following languages: Asamiya, Bangla, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Malayalam, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. The candidate has to mention his option regarding the language in which he/she want to take the test in the application form. Accordingly, the question booklet in that language shall be made available to the candidate at the centre. After exercising this option, no request for the change of medium will be entertained.

Allotment of E-Admit Cards:

The NCERT shall upload the E-Admit Cards for the second level examination on its website. In case there is any change of address prior to the National Level Examination, it shall be obligatory on the part of the candidate to communicate the same to the state examining authority, which in turn shall inform the NCERT for change of address after the candidate has download the admission letter for second level examination. The same may be communicated to the NCERT directly.

Venue, Date and Time of the Test:

The admission letter shall have all the information about the venue, the roll number, the date and time of the test. Candidates can download their E-Admit cards themselves before 21 days of examination.

Submission of Photograph:

The admission letter issued to the candidate shall contain E-Admit Card to be filled in by the candidate. She/he shall have to paste an attested passport size photograph at the appropriate place in the E-Admit Card. This shall have to be submitted to the Centre Superintendent on the day of the National Level Examination.

The Centre Superintendent, at his own discretion in special cases, may admit a candidate without photograph. However, a candidate shall have to submit an attested photograph to the Centre Superintendent immediately after the examination, which he shall forward to the NCERT.

Centre of Examination:

Generally, the candidate belonging to a particular state shall be allotted the centre in the same state. Normally there is only one centre in each state for the National Level Examination.

The conduct of examination at the centers shall be done under the supervision of the Centre Superintendent appointed by the NCERT. An independent observer for each centre is also appointed by the NCERT.

Change of Centre:

Only in exceptional cases under special circumstances, like transfer of the parents of the candidates, the centre of examination may be changed on a written request received to the NCERT within 15 days of the download of the E-Admit Card prior to at least 21 days of examination. However, it may be noted that in such cases only the English medium test booklet shall be provided to the candidate at the changed centre.

Conduct of Examination:

The Centre Superintendent shall conduct the examination on the date and time of examination as announced by the NCERT. He/ she will follow instructions for the conduct of the examination as supplied by the NCERT. For various eventualities like the late coming, malpractice, use of helper (in cases not covered by the instruction from NCERT, the Centre Superintendent shall follow the rules prevalent for the Board Examination of the State concerned.

Marking:

Each item in both the tests shall carry one mark each. A candidate shall get one mark for correct response. There will be no negative marking in either of the tests. Nevertheless, candidates are advised not to resort to blind guessing, which may not be of any help to them.

Processing of Result:

The scoring of the OMR-sheets for both the MAT and the SAT shall be done through the computer. All possible precautions are taken and necessary checks applied while processing the result to ensure zero error results.

Declaration of Result:

The final award shall be declared on the basis of combined scores of MAT and SAT. Only the selected candidates shall be informed by registered letter and through NCERT website www.ncert.nic.in. Marks obtained by the candidates in written examination will be revealed to all the candidates individually through NCERT website.

Rechecking:

Since the NCERT applies rigorous checks and counterchecks before the declaration of result, no request for re-evaluation or rechecking of scripts will be entertained. Candidates will be provided facility to have access to their scanned OMR sheets which will be placed on NCERT website along with final scoring key so that they can calculate their own score.

RATES OF SCHOLARSHIP:

The rates of scholarship at different stages are given as under:

Sl. No	Stage	Rate of Scholarship
1	Higher Secondary level	Rs. 1250/- p.m.
2	Graduate and Post Graduate	Rs. 2000/- p.m.
3	For Ph.D. degree (four years)	As per UGC norms

Mode of Payment:

The payment of scholarship shall be made direct to the awardees. The scholarship amount will be either directly transferred to their joint account through e-banking or will be sent through bank draft wherever above-mentioned e-banking facilities are not available.

(i) The payment of scholarship shall be made to the awardees on the receipt of the claim bill on a prescribed Performa sent to the NCERT duly signed by the Principal/ Head of the Institution and accompanied by the mark sheet of the previous annual examination.

(ii) The Payment of scholarship to the awardees will be made for a maximum period of 12 months in a one academic session subject to the condition for the maximum period of duration of the specific course.

(iii) The bank will transfer the amount of scholarship to the awardees on annually basis. NCERT will pay the scholarship from July to June (for manually) and from April to March (for online) for a particular academic session.

(iv) The payment of scholarship during leave shall be governed by relevant leave rules.

LEAVE RULES APPLICABLE TO ALL THE AWARDEES:

(i) Leave must be got sanctioned from the Head of the Institution/ Department before it is availed of. Any absence from studies/research without leave shall lead to discontinuation of scholarship.

(ii) Generally, no leave with scholarship shall be granted to awardees except on medical grounds.

(iii) Medical leave up to a maximum of four months in an academic year shall be admissible, if recommended by a competent medical authority, as under:

(a) Full scholarship if the absence does not exceed two months;

(b) Half scholarship for a further period of two months;

(iv) For married men/ women, scholarship will be admissible at full rates up to 15/ 135 days respectively, for absence on grounds of maternity.

(v) The awardees working at the Ph.D. level shall, however, be allowed casual leave with scholarship up to a maximum of 30 days in an academic year. The Ph.D. Supervisor will grant this leave.

(vi) Applications for medical leave, including maternity leave, should be referred to the NCERT within a fortnight of the illness/ confinements.