Information related to National Talent Search Examination

National Talent Search Scheme is one of the important activities of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), Delhi. The Scheme aims at identifying and nurturing the talent of students studying in schools. The scheme honours and helps talented students by providing financial assistance in the form of monthly scholarship. For the courses in Basic Sciences, Social Sciences and commerce, this assistance is provided upto Ph.D level. For professional courses like Engineering, Medicine, Management and law, this assistance is given only upto Post Graduation level.

Key features of the scheme are as under:

Amount of scholarship: Awardees of NTS examination get a sum of Rs.500/-per month as per NTS rules.

Reservation: 15% scholarships are reserved for students belonging to the SC category, 7.5% scholarships for students belonging to ST category and 3% for physically challenged group of students.

Eligibility: Any student studying in class VIII in a recognized school is eligible to appear at the State Level Examination from the state in which the school is located. No domicile restriction is imposed. The state, however, may impose any other eligibility condition like qualifying percentage of marks in the previous annual examination.

Mode of Conduct of examination: The examination is conducted in two stages:

Stage-I: This examination is conducted by respective State/Union territory in the form of a written test usually in the month of November. The actual dates are notified by the respective State/Union Territory well in advance. Students who qualify Stage-I are eligible to appear for Stage-II examination conducted by NCERT.

Stage-II: This examination is conducted by NCERT usually in the month of May every year followed by an interview. The actual dates for examination are notified by NCERT. Only those students are eligible to appear in the II Stage examination who qualify Stage I examination.

How to apply:

The students studying in Class-VIII in the country should be on the look out for any advertisement in the newspapers or circular in the school by the respective Govt. of their State/Union territory and act as per the requirements given in the advertisement /circular. Any relevant information may be had from the Liaison Officer of the State/Union Territory. The advertisement in the Newspaper or Circular may appear two/three months in advance of the date of conduct of I Stage examination. The address of the Liaison Officer of State/Union Territory can be had from NCERT website: [ http://www.ncert.nic.in ]. The application form can be downloaded from above stated NCERT website. The filled in application by the student is to be submitted to the state Liaison Officer (I Stage) duly signed by the principal of the school before the due date.

Medium of examination: The medium of the I Stage test shall be as announced by the State/Union territory.

Syllabus: There is no prescribed syllabus for NTS Examination. The standard of items shall be conforming to the level of classes VII and VIII.

Pattern of examination:

A. Stage-I : (State Level examination )may have two parts:
(a) Part-I: Mental ability test (MAT)
(b) Part-II: Scholastic Ability Test (SAT) usually covering Social Sciences, Sciences and Mathematics

B. : Stage-II (conducted by NCERT)

The written examination has two components:

(a) Part-I: Mental Ability Test (MAT) comprising of 90 multiple choice type questions with four alternatives and only one correct answer. The candidates are required to answer the questions on a separate answer sheet as per instructions.

(b) Part-II: Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT): This test comprises of 90 multiple choice questions. Every question has four alternatives, out of which only one is the correct answer. There are 35 questions from Science, 35 questions from Social Science and 20 questions from Mathematics.

The question booklets of both the tests MAT and SAT will be taken back from the students alongwith the answer sheets at the end of examination.

Interview:

Only those candidates who are found eligible for interview after Stage II examination are informed by NCERT through registered letter for the interview which is normally held during the month of July and August.

Sample Test Items: For both the tests-MAT AND SAT, can be had from NCERT website: [ http://www.ncert.nic.in ].

Candidates studying in India:

Only the candidates selected by the State/Union Territory on the basis of their performance in screening examination shall be eligible for the National Level examination (conducted by NCERT).

Candidates studying abroad:

Students of Indian Nationality studying abroad in Class VIII may compete for National Talent Award under the following conditions:

(1) The students studying abroad in Class VIII/equivalent class are exempted from First level examination and are permitted directly to appear in second stage examination conducted by NCERT.
(2) A student is eligible to appear in second level if he/she has obtained at least 60% marks in aggregate in the previous annual examination.
(3) A candidate will appear in the National level examination at a centre in India at his/her own cost.
(4) A Candidate desiring to appear in the NTS examination may request the head of the intuition where he/she is studying alongwith the attested copy of the marks sheet of Class VII. The request should reach the Head, Department of Educational Measurement and Evaluation, NCERT, New Delhi-110006 latest by 31 March of concerned year.
(5) A candidate shall have to attend an interview if he/she qualifies for the same, in India at his/her own cost.
(6) If a candidate is selected, the scholarship shall be paid for persuing studies in India only.

Any further information related to this examination can be had from:

R.P.SHARMA
CONSULTANT
CENTRAL BOARD OF SECONDARY EDUCATION
17, ROUSE AVENUE,
NEW DELHI-110002.
PHONE:011-23211200 or Mail to: rpsharma_48@yahoo.com