Exam guide · 01 · Exam pattern
The pattern: two parts, not one
Most of what is written about the NATA pattern describes the 2023-24 exam — a mixed-mode paper with a Mathematics section and a General Aptitude section. That exam is gone. What follows is the pattern the current brochure actually specifies, including the two places where the Council has published nothing at all.
Every claim below carries its status. Nothing is asserted without a source, and where the brochure does not state something, or two sections read differently, that is shown rather than resolved.
What the record says
NATA 2026 is two parts on the same day: Part A offline on paper (80 marks, 90 min), Part B adaptive on computer (120 marks, 90 min). Total 200 marks over three hours.
Part A is taken first, then Part B. A ten-minute break is permitted between them, but the candidate may not leave the centre.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
Part A is three questions: A1 Composition and Colour (25), A2 Sketching and Composition in Black and White (25), A3 3D Composition (30).
Eighty marks across three questions means each is worth roughly 13% of the whole exam. There is no salvaging a bad question by volume, the way a 50-question paper allows.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
Part B is 50 questions: 42 MCQ and 8 NCQ (No Choice Questions), in English and Hindi.
Two sections give different figures: §4.0 gives 42 + 8, while §13.0(b) refers to "the 40 MCQs and 10 NCQs". Total is 50 either way.
Read this carefully: Prepare for 42 + 8. §4.0 is the pattern specification and is independently corroborated by the Test Center Manual; §13.0 is a relaxations clause whose figures appear to reflect an earlier pattern. The distinction changes nothing you would actually do differently.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
Part B allows 108 seconds per question, presented one after another, on an adaptive engine.
90 minutes across 50 questions. The adaptive structure dates to NATA 2025 per the President's foreword in V2.0, which states that NATA 2026 continues it.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
The marks awarded per Part B question are not published anywhere in the official brochure.
120 marks across 50 questions averages 2.4, which would be consistent with variable weighting under an adaptive engine — but that is arithmetic, not policy. Coaching sites uniformly assert 1-3 marks per question.
Read this carefully: The brochure does not state a per-question mark. Any specific mark value you see quoted is third-party inference presented as fact.
Whether Part B carries negative marking is not stated in any official document.
The widely-repeated "no negative marking" claim appears only on coaching sites. We could not source it to COA.
Read this carefully: This one matters for strategy — whether to guess depends on it. Since it is unpublished, do not build a guessing policy on the assumption that wrong answers are free.
Sources cited on this page
- NATA 2026 Information Brochure V2.0
Published 2026-04-10
The current version, and the highest that exists as of 2026-07-16. TRAP: nata.in serves two brochures simultaneously. V2.0 is at Final-NATA-BROCHURE-2026.pdf; the older, more widely-linked nata-brochure-final.pdf still serves the SUPERSEDED V1.0. Both are titled 'NATA BROCHURE 2026 final'. The coa.gov.in copy above is byte-identical to nata.in's current V2.0. Always check the version box at Appendix VI before trusting a downloaded copy.