National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) conducted by National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is an all India level talent search and scholarship program.

Eligibility Criteria for Stage-I:

NTSE Stage-I is conducted by State/UT bodies. Only Indian students are eligible to appear in this level.

The students studying in Class X are eligible for appearing in the test.

They are required to have obtained 60% marks in their Class IX, in the last academic year.

Student must be studying in a recognized school in the respective State or Union Territory.

The SC, ST and PH category students get a relaxation of 5% and the maximum score they must have obtained in their Class IX is 55% marks.

Students registered under Open Distance Learning (ODL) are also considered eligible for the scholarship examination, if he/she is below the age of 18 years (as on July 1, 2017) and is not employed while appearing for Class X exam.

NTSE Eligibility Criteria for Stage-II:

Students, securing 80% marks or above in the State level exam, are eligible for the Stage-II to be held by NCERT at National level.

Around 4000 students are shortlisted for the National level NTSE across the country.

All the students, who secure the minimum required marks at Stage-II, are eligible for the scholarship program.

Key dates
Notification released on

July 31, 2017

NTSE Application process starts from

August 2017

Last Date for Submission of NTSE 2018 Application Form for Stage-I

To be notified by the respective State/UT and may vary from State to State usually conducted in July

Stage-I Exam in Mizoram, Meghalaya,

Nagaland and Andaman and Nicobar Islands


04 November 2017 (Saturday)

Stage-I Exam in all other respective States and Union Territories


05 November 2017 (Sunday)

Stage-II National level Exam in all States and Union Territories


13 May, 2018 (Sunday)

Final Result of NTSE 2018


Last week of August 2018

Exam Pattern

There are 3 papers in both stages –

1. Mental Ability Test (MAT),
2. Language Test and
3. Scholastic Ability Test (SAT).

Questions are in the form of multiple choices with negative marking deducting 1/3 marks. The tests are available in Asamiya, Bangla, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Malyalam, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. However, language test is available in two languages – English & Hindi.
Test No. of Questions Maximum Marks Time
Mental Ability Test (MAT) 50 50 45 minutes
Language Test 50 50 45 minutes
Scholastic Ability Test (SAT) 100 100 90 minutes