National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) is a national-level scholarship program in India to select the talented students. Scholarship is provided to 1000 students from the lakhs of students who appear for the examination every year. Qualifying the first level is not at all a difficult task if you do the right kind of preparation.

The National Talent Search Examination is conducted for students studying at the Class X level. The examination consists of the following two tests:
Mental Ability Test (MAT)  (50 marks) -  to judge their power of reasoning, ability to think, ability to judge, evaluate or discriminate, ability to visualize in the space, spatial orientation, etc
Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) - 

• Language Test (50 marks) is designed to judge the power of reading comprehension, logical sequencing; interpretative, evaluative, predictive and creative components of language.  Language test is to be attempted either in English or in Hindi (as per option of the candidate) in the national level NTSE. 

• Sciences, Mathematics & Social Sciences (100 marks)

The items in the MAT and SAT are multiple choice questions and there is no negative marking.

How to Prepare

• NCERT/SCERT Books: Start with your NCERT/SCERT textbooks from Class VIII to X and make your basics strong. 
• Solve the Previous Year Papers
• Prepare for MAT. The following books are valuable for NTSE preparation and are available at a discounted price at Amazon.

	Study Package for NTSE by Tata McGraw Hill is the most popular book for NTSE. The revised third edition of the book published in 2016, with mock test papers and higher order thinking questions, is based on the syllabus outlined for class IX and X, and follows the latest pattern of the examinations. The previous editions of this book are still available and are also useful. But go for the latest edition. This one is highly recommended for you.
	This book by the editorial team of Arihant, one of the reputed publishers of competitive examination books, is another useful study material for NTSE. It is a complete package covering all topics and the syllabus is completely updated in the latest 2017 edition.
	The latest edition of Target NTSE Class 10 Stage 1 & 2 Solved Papers (2010 - 17) + 5 Mock Tests (MAT + LCT + SAT) by Disha is good for practice. It contains question papers of the past eight years. The book has a separate section “PAST EXEMPLAR PROBLEMS' for SAT, MAT and LCT.
	MAT for NTSE Made Easy by MTG is a good resource for preparation for mental ability test of NTSE and other competitive examinations.
All the best!