National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) is a national-level scholarship program conducted by National Council of Educational Research and Training NCERT to identify and encourage bright students. The exam was introduced in 1963, with an aim to nurture talent that exemplifies extraordinary talent. NTSE is hailed as one of the most prestigious examinations conducted at the secondary level every year.
NTSE is conducted on two levels for students of class 10 –
- Stage 1: This stage is conducted at the state level. The students who qualify in stage 1 will be eligible to participate in the second stage. Stage 1 was conducted last conducted in November 2017.
- Stage 2: This stage of the exam is conducted at the national level. For the year 2017-18. Stage 2 was conducted on May 13, 2018.
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As the NTSE Stage 2 for the year of 2018 now over, with bated breath, students now awaits for the results and are hypothesizing about the cut-offs.
All About NTSE Cut Offs
There have been some changes to the pattern of the exam this year so speculating cut-offs this year will be a bit dicey. The factors that will be considered in deciding NTSE Cut offs of 2018 are:
- The pattern of the paper: This year the language paper has been removed. In other changes, the MAT and SAT paper had 100 questions. The time duration for each paper was 2 hours, this helped students to attempt more questions in the given time.
- Marking schemes: This year’s biggest change was change was that there was no negative marking and was completely eliminated in Stage 2 of the exam. This has encouraged a lot of guesswork by the applicants but what it has done is that students have attempted more questions than any of the previous year’s.
- No Disqualification: This year’s SAT paper was a bit difficult but MAT paper was easier as there was no language paper this year. But yes, both papers are equally important to crack the exam despite absentee language paper. However, the number of students disqualified will substantially go down.
Previous Year’s NTSE Cut-Off.
Predicting anything requires a trend analysis of the gone by years. Here are the cutoffs of 2016-17, to give an idea what is it going to be like this year:
NTSE 2017 Cut Off :
| Category | Maximum Marks of MAT and SAT | Cut Off Marks |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Caste (SC) | 143 | 46 |
| Scheduled Tribe (ST) | 143 | 47 |
| Physically Handicapped (PWD) | 143 | 49 |
| General | 143 | 77 |
NTSE 2016 Cut Off :
| Category | Maximum Marks of MAT & SAT | Cut Off Marks |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Tribe (ST) | 145 | 52 |
| Physically Handicapped (PH) | 145 | 53 |
| Scheduled Caste (SC) | 145 | 56 |
| General | 145 | 85 |
NTSE Qualifying Marks
The qualifying marks last year was calculated for MAT, SAT including the Language paper. The qualifying marks are set to change this year as the language paper is no longer in the syllabus.
| Test paper | Maximum Marks | SC/ ST/ PH | General |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper I MAT | 49 | 35% (17.15) | 40% (19.6) |
| Paper II English | 50 | 35% (17.5) | 40% (20.0) |
| Paper II Hindi | 50 | 35% (17.5) | 40% (20.0) |
| Paper III SAT | 96 | 35% (33.6) | 40% (38.4) |
| Total Marks | 145 | 35% (50.75) | 40% (58) |
NTSE 2018 Cut-Off predictions:
With all the changes for NTSE 2018, the cut-off is expected to be higher this year than the last. The cutoff can go as high as a total of 140. Here are the predictions:
- MAT: 80-85 marks
- SAT: 55-70
Though nothing is certain as of now, patience is the virtue.
Good luck with your results!
