National Talent Search Scheme is a flagship activity of the NCERT started in the year 1963. The purpose of the
scheme was to identify talented students and nurture their talent. Talent refers to the potentiality that manifests itself in a high level of
performance in one or more specialized areas. The scheme, therefore, covers areas like Sciences, Social Sciences, Engineering, Medicine, Management
and Law. It honours and helps talented students by providing financial assistance in the form of a monthly scholarship. For the courses in Basic
Sciences, Social sciences and Commerce, this assistance is provided up to Ph.D. level. For professional courses like Engineering, Medicine,
Management and Law this assistance is given only up to Post Graduation. The NCERT conducts the National Talent Search Examination for students
studying Class X. However change was made in 2006 wherein the NTSE Examination was held at end of Class VIII. From 2012 (till date), this is again
being held for Class X students only.
There will be two-stage selection process for award of scholarship. For Stage-I, which is conducted at state level,
the selection process will be done by States / UTs through a written examination. Students who qualify Stage-I will be eligible to appear for
Stage-II examination, which is in national level conducted by NCERT.
Students of Class X studying in any recognized school are eligible to appear for Stage-I examination conducted by
the States/UTs in which the school is located. There will be no domicile restriction.
The pattern of the examination will be as follows:
Stage-I examination at the state/UT level will comprise two parts, namely (a) Mental Ability Test (MAT) and (b) Scholastic Ability Test (SAT)
which also includes Language Comprehensive Test.
State-II examination at the National level will comprise (a) Mental Ability Test (MAT),
(b) Scholastic Ability Test (SAT) covering Language, Social Sciences, Sciences and Mathematics.
The pattern of Stage-II examination will be
as follows:
| Paper |
Test |
Number of Questions |
Number of Marks |
Duration (in Minutes) |
| Section-I |
Mental Ability Test (MAT) |
50 |
50 |
45 |
| Section-II |
Language Test (LT)
English/Hindi |
50 |
50 |
45 |
| Section-III |
Scholastic Ability Test (SAT) |
100 |
100 |
90 |
At Stage-II (National Level) Exam, there will be negative
marking in each section. For each wrong answer 1/3rd marks will be deducted. No marks will be deducted for unattempted questions.
Language Test Qualifying in nature and marks obtained for Language Test will not be counted for final merit.
If a candidate is selected, the scholarship shall be paid for pursuing studies in India only.
15% for students belonging to the SC category, 7.5% for students belonging to the ST category and 3% for Physically Challenged Group of Students.
Qualifying marks for candidates from General category is 40% in each section and for candidates from SC, ST, PH is 35% in each section.
About One thousand scholarships are awarded for different
stages of education as follows:
(a) Scholarship of Rs.1250/- per month for Class-XI to XII.
(b) Scholarship of Rs.2000/- per month
for Undergraduates and Post-graduates.
(c) Amount of Scholarship for Ph.D. be fixed in accordance with the UGC norms.
Visit NCERT
website for more details,
