Chetan Yadav (IIT-D)

Dear Design Aspirants!

Hello! I’m Chetan. I’d like to share how I prepared for the admission process of IITs and NID. But before that I’d like to give all the credit to Teacup and Prasanna sir for my selection.

HOW IT ALL STARTED – 1^st PHASE OF PREPARATION:-

I’ve always been good at sketching but I never thought of taking it professionally. When I was in IVth sem of my engineering, a classmate saw me sketching cars on top margin of my notebook’s page and asked if I ever appeared for NID’s entrance. Being unaware of what NID was, I searched about NID, Design, colleges, etc. Upon searching, I found that this was what I always wanted! I gathered as much information I could, contacted alumni of several batches who never replied. One day, while searching for CEED, I landed up on Teacup…The day was 31^st December 2011, Yes, I remember the date. I thoroughly read the blog…every single post and every single comment. This was when I stopped searching Google. Here, I found answers to all my stupid queries. I even subscribed to the comments of all posts on Teacup so whenever someone would comment, I’d get an email.  In the past 2.5yrs of my association with Teacup, I asked Prasanna sir uncountable questions ranging from stupid to serious ones though stupid questions were much more than the sensible ones and he handled them all patiently. Well, salute to his patience! I see many candidates asking him same questions again and again and he answers all the doubtful souls…Kudos to all the help he rendered. I did not opt for any coaching or formal training; Teacup and my passion helped me evolve.

2^nd PHASE OF PREPARATION:-

CEED: I aimed only for NID and IITs (primarily Delhi and Bombay).  I practised all the previous years’ papers of CEED and sent their solutions to Prasanna sir for improvements (he even helped me with the IITB’s application). I focussed on sketching with time-constraint; this is very important to score high especially during DATs and Studio Tests. Practised few still-life sketches, common products, comic strips, learned different types of polymers and metals and their respective usage (my mechanical engineering background helped in this), learned about different painting styles (I had Painting as a subject in class12th so this helped too). I didn’t prepare for GK questions specially; I used to read newspaper regularly. 

DAT/Material Test: I brought home some clay and wires to practise model making. Also I practised all possible geometrical shapes (particularly Tetrahedron and Octahedron) with paper cutting-pasting as well as Origami.

And as far as my portfolio is concerned, it had almost 30 pages consisting of my ball pen sketches, product concepts, few CAD models (I showed them on my laptop) and my doodles (I had made a collage of the doodles on a chart). When I was in final year, I appeared for CEED’13 and NID’13 (Product and Transportation).  I didn’t qualify CEED’13 but was lucky enough to get interview calls from NID (both disciplines) where I subsequently didn’t get selected. Then, I appeared for CEED’14 and NID’14 (Product and Transportation). I failed at NID this time but got AIR 166 in CEED. Before getting selected at IITD, I got a chance to be interviewed at IITB (PD, VC and MVD) and IITK. NID-PD guys were interested in ergonomics and mechanisms. NID-Transportation guys were more interested in materials and manufacturing processes (mainly concerned with the portfolio). IITB-MVD panel was more interested in asking all the engineering questions-no design questions. IITB-VC panel was in too much hurry-asked me to show the best 3 works of mine (the quickest interview-4minutes). IITB-PD panel was more interested in materials, manufacturing processes and product usability. IITK panel wasn’t interested at all-was only interested in asking my University’s background-they didn’t ask any engineering or design question. IITD panel asked few questions on materials, my passion for design, and since they seemed to have liked my portfolio, they also asked questions related to it. They even appreciated my cartoons which weren’t the part of my portfolio. This year, I didn’t use the folio which I took to NID last year. 

WHAT CANDIDATES CAN DO:-

Firstly, read Teacup thoroughly, subscribe to the posts and comments; this blog is more than enough for the aspirants’ need. 

These exams test the candidates’ creativity and since creativity has no limits, one can’t prepare according to any pattern and fixed syllabus. Therefore, no coaching is required. Also, since 2013, CEED pattern has changed a little bit and in 2014, NID completely revamped the entrance. Ideally, candidates should go for the exam with a free state of mind; just don’t expect any question and simply don’t prepare for any particular problem and a solution for it. Be aware of what’s happening around (for GK). Focus on materials; this is the favourite section of examiners and its knowledge would come handy during preliminary entrance, DAT/ Studio Test as well as in the interview. Knowledge of materials is so cool that one can actually impress the examiner and the interviewers. Study: (1) Different architectural styles (of buildings and temples) of India, (2) Painting styles of India, (3) Colour theory and also (4) Learn few terminologies of photography. In CEED, when they ask to explain a scene given, don’t simply write what you see, unleash your imagination and knit out something positive and comic. In Material/Studio Tests when they ask to make something out of the given materials, they expect one to make a ‘neat’ and ‘strikingly different’ product (Focus on making neat products-it’s always written in question paper) but when they ask to sketch, they expect it to be colourful and self-explanatory (draw arrows and finger/hand to show usability). In Material/Studio Tests, a little knowledge of origami might help in finishing the product in time. Whatever one has in her/his portfolio, one should be able to market it, describe how/why different materials have been used, its functionality/ergonomics and how different it is. In portfolio, hand sketches (NID and IITD like them colourful) are enough but if one has few CAD and digital sketches then great-icing on the cake!

And above all, one should have a positive outlook.

Here’s a post I’ve written which has several links I referred while preparing for the entrances and portfolio: 

 http://artistchetan.blogspot.in/2014/06/collection-of-industrial-design-sketches.html

LINKS FOR MY PORTFOLIO:-

http://www.coroflot.com/chetanyadav/Portfolio-Presented-at-IITs-for-MDes-2014

https://grabcad.com/library/watch-design--5

https://grabcad.com/library/wagon-r

I can be reached at: chetan.yadav8[at]yahoo[dot]in or http://artistchetan.blogspot.in