The Common Entrance Examination for Design (CEED) is an all-India examination conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, on behalf of the ministry of human resources development, department of education, Government of India.

CEED is a qualifying examination for admission to masters in design (MDes) courses at the Industrial Design Centre at IIT Bombay, Instrument Design and Development Centre at IIT Delhi, Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing at IISc Bangalore and the design programme at IIT Kanpur. For the courses at IIT Kanpur and IISc Bangalore, GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) is also a qualifying examination.

CEED / GATE qualification in itself does not guarantee admission to these courses. Applicants will need to be prepared for further tests and interviews depending on the institution.

The application form and information brochure can be obtained from the GATE Office, IIT Bombay, upon payment of Rs 990 (Rs 495 for SC / ST candidates) by demand draft in favour of IIT, Bombay and payable at Mumbai. It can also be downloaded from the website (www.iitb.ac.in/gate), filled-in and submitted along with a demand draft for Rs 950 (Rs 475 for SC / ST candidates) — made out in favour of IIT, Bombay and payable at Mumbai — to the GATE Office, IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai-400076. The last date for receipt of applications is November.

The announcement for admission to the MDes programme appears in February, March or April in all leading newspapers. Applicants are called for the written test in May-June, followed by an interview. Admissions are finalised within a week after the interviews.

Eligibility

You must either have completed or be expecting to complete any of the following undergraduate studies by July (in the year of joining).

Bachelors degree in engineering or equivalent in any branch.

Bachelors degree in architecture or equivalent.

Bachelors degree in design or a CEPT professional diploma in interior design (five year programme).

BFA (professional course in applied art / fine art).

GD art (five-year professional programme).

Professional diploma of NID.

Entrance exam

The entrance exam is held in January. CEED is conducted in Mumbai, New Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Guwahati, Chennai, Roorkee and Bangalore .

Pattern of exam

The examination tests the candidates for visual perception ability, drawing skills, design aptitude and communication skills. The exam consists of two parts. The first part tests your drawing skills, aesthetic sensibility, creativity, problem identification and your approach to visual and product design. The second part is mainly objective-type and tests your skills on visualisation, creativity, design, general awareness and comprehension.

How to prepare

No textbook or guide is necessary to prepare for the CEED. You can, however, polish your drawing and rendering skills. Typical examples of questions assess your ability to visualise objects, buildings and landscape scenery. Therefore, observe very closely such images in magazines such as Inside Outside or such scenes at construction sites to be able to reproduce the drawing on paper as accurately as possible. You need to sharpen your power of observation, practise sketching and shading and let your imagination take over.

In addition, visual literacy is also an important aspect wherein you have to describe a situation depicted in a sketch, for example the conversation between two elderly women. Their character sketch should be competently handled as well.

sample test paper

Show in various creative ways the alphabet “a” changing into an apple. (There is a square which has five rows and five columns. The first column has “a”, the second, third and fourth columns are blank, and the fifth column has an apple.)

Design a poster announcing the CEED 2020 examination.

OR

Design a comic strip keeping the water kingdom details in mind.

Do a picture sketch, writing a conversation between two elderly women (character sketch is important) within 150 words.

Think of yourself as a blind man and design a thought process in his mind, while he would cross the road from point x to the other end.
(There is a busy street with a bus stop and shops on the other side.)