NATA 2026 · Phase 2 · 7–8 August
NATA Phase 2 deadline, and how to pin it down
NATA 2026 Phase 2 sits on 7 and 8 August. The single thing a candidate most needs — the date registration closes — is not given as a Phase 2 date in the official schedule, which sets out a general rolling rule instead. This page gives you what is officially stated, the date that rule implies, and where the widely-circulated answer is simply wrong.
01 — The deadline
Probably 3 August, 23:59for the 7 August (Friday) sitting
Probably 4 August, 23:59for the 8 August (Saturday) sitting
That is roughly 19 days away. But treat it as the earliest date you should assume, not a date anyone has promised you.
Confirm on nata.inSeveral coaching sites publish “Friday test closes the preceding Tuesday”. The official schedule page says Monday for a Friday test. Tuesday is the correction window close — a different row of the same table.
They appear to have misread one row as another. A candidate planning around their date would arrive to find registration already shut. If you take one thing from this page, take this.
No Phase 2 registration deadline is officially published. No official document states one as a date.
The brochure sets out the schedule separately — Appendix V says "The detailed date and session-wise schedule ... will be published separately on the official NATA website". The schedule page gives a rolling rule rather than a Phase 2 date, and that rule is not labelled as applying to Phase 2. This is the single most important fact on this page: the deadline you most need is not stated as a date, so it has to be derived and then confirmed in the candidate portal.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
The Council's general rule closes registration at 23:59 on the Monday before a Friday test, and 23:59 on the Tuesday before a Saturday test.
The schedule page Activity Timeline lists "Closing Date Of Online Registration For The Upcoming Weekend Examination — Monday (11:59 pm) / Tuesday (11:59 pm)". The correction window closes one day later (Tuesday / Wednesday), and the admit card is available from that same later day.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
Applying that rule to Phase 2 gives Monday 3 August 2026, 23:59 for the 7 August test, and Tuesday 4 August 2026, 23:59 for the 8 August test.
Correction window would then close Tue 4 Aug / Wed 5 Aug, with admit cards from Tue 4 Aug / Wed 5 Aug respectively.
Read this carefully: DERIVED, NOT OFFICIAL. The Activity Timeline is generic and Phase 2 sits in a separate table, so it is not confirmed that the rolling rule governs Phase 2. Treat 3/4 August as the earliest date you should assume, not an officially stated one. Confirm in the candidate portal before relying on it.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
Coaching sites are circulating a Phase 2 deadline that is one day too late.
Several publish 'Friday test closes the preceding Tuesday'. The official schedule page says Monday for a Friday test; Tuesday is the CORRECTION window close, which is a different row of the same table. A candidate who plans around the coaching date would find registration already shut.
Read this carefully: Stated here as a correction to third-party error, sourced to the official timeline. The error itself is third-party.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
One practical note. The live deadline may only be visible inside the logged-in candidate portal, which we cannot read from outside. If you are registering, log in and check there — do not take any third-party date, including this page's derived one, as the last word.
02 — Can you even sit it?
This is the first gate, and it is absolute. Phase 2 is not a second chance for people who did badly in Phase 1 — it is a first chance for people who missed Phase 1 entirely. If you sat Phase 1, this page is not for you, and your Phase 1 score is what you have.
NATA 2026 Phase 2 is held on 7 and 8 August 2026.
7 August is a Friday and carries the afternoon session only. 8 August is a Saturday and carries up to two sessions. Session 1 runs 10:00-13:00; Session 2 runs 13:30-16:30.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
Phase 2 is open only to candidates who did not appear in Phase 1.
The brochure is unambiguous: the Council conducts Phase 2 "for candidates who did not appear in Phase-1 but wish to seek admission to the Architecture programme", and "A candidate shall be permitted to appear in only one Phase of NATA 2026." The schedule page repeats it: "Candidates who have already attempted Phase-1 will not be eligible to take the Phase-2 examination."
Source · verified 2026-07-16
Phase 2 allows one attempt only.
Registration permits "one test or maximum of two Tests during Phase-1 OR only one Test during Phase-2 of NATA, in one academic year". There is no second sitting and no best-of-two within Phase 2.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
03 — What a Phase 2 score actually gets you
Worth being blunt, because most coverage is not: a Phase 2 score is a materially weaker instrument than a Phase 1 score. It carries no percentile, and it reaches only the seats still empty once the main counselling rounds have finished. That does not make it worthless — it makes it a different, narrower thing than what a Phase 1 candidate holds, and you should plan accordingly.
A Phase 2 scorecard carries a raw score only — no percentile.
"After completion of Phase-2, only Raw scores shall be generated without any Percentile." Percentile requires the full Phase-1 cohort across the 10-week window, which Phase 2 does not have.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
A Phase 2 score is usable only against seats left vacant after CAP counselling closes.
"Eligibility will be restricted to admission against vacant seats in B.Arch. degree program after completion of the Centralized Admission Process (CAP)." This is a materially weaker position than a Phase-1 score, not an equivalent one — the main counselling rounds are over before a Phase 2 score can be used.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
Institutions MAY admit on a Phase 2 raw score. They are not required to.
The brochure says admissions against vacant seats "may be made on the basis of the Raw Score obtained either during Phase-1 or Phase-2". "May", not "shall". No official list of states or institutions that accept a Phase 2 score exists in any COA document.
Read this carefully: Do not claim universal acceptance. Whether a given state or institution will use a Phase 2 raw score is not something COA has published.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
The brochure's own definition of a qualifying score arguably cannot be met by a Phase 2 candidate.
§10.1 says no minimum raw score is prescribed, and defines the valid qualifying score as the Final Scorecard showing "the corresponding non-zero Percentile Score". But §3.0 says Phase 2 scorecards carry no percentile at all. Read literally, the two clauses do not compose.
Read this carefully: Two clauses in V2.0 that read differently, flagged rather than resolved. In practice §3.0 plainly intends Phase 2 raw scores to be usable for vacant seats. Raised because a candidate should know the two clauses can be read differently here — not to suggest Phase 2 is void.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
04 — The exam itself
The paper is identical to Phase 1. Two parts, 200 marks, three hours: Part A is offline on paper and worth 80 (composition and colour 25, black-and-white sketching 25, and a 3D composition built from a foam kit worth 30); Part B is a 120-mark adaptive computer test of 50 questions at 108 seconds each.
Report by 09:00 for Session 1 or 12:30 for Session 2. Gates close at 10:00 / 13:30.
Gates open 09:15 / 12:45; registration formalities complete by 09:45 / 13:15.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
No entry after 10:15 (Session 1) or 13:45 (Session 2), and no extra time is granted.
No candidate may leave before the session ends (13:00 / 16:30). A 10-minute break between Part A and Part B is permitted, but the candidate may not leave the centre.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
Bring: the downloaded original Appointment Card, an original photo ID, pencils, erasers, dry colours, and a scale up to 15 cm.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
No instruments are permitted — no compass, no set squares — and no calculators, phones, or wet media.
Appendix-II states "Don't bring any instruments". Also barred: Bluetooth devices, slide rules, log tables, electronic watches with calculators, and any textual material. Numerical Ability is examined without a calculator.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
The A3 foam kit is supplied at the centre. You do not bring one, and you cannot know its contents in advance.
The question paper carries a KIT CODE (D1, D2, D3...) and the invigilator issues the matching kit: a set of 3D forms made of foam plus a 15cm x 20cm foam base sheet. Glue is provided. The finished model is photographed at the centre in three views and uploaded.
Read this carefully: Consequence worth stating plainly: A3 cannot be rehearsed as an artefact, only as a capability. Anyone selling 'the NATA foam kit' is selling a proxy.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
Part B questions appear one after another at 108 seconds each. There is no evidence of a review screen.
The skip-flag-and-return habit that works in JEE does not transfer. Budget the 108 seconds and commit.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
Candidates with dyslexia or autism may use a scribe for Part B, and receive 30 extra minutes on the Drawing Test.
No compensatory time is given for Part B, because it is a time-bound adaptive test. No scribe is permitted in Part A. The scribe must hold a lower qualification than the candidate and may only read and type. Requires government medical certification.
Read this carefully: New in V2.0 — absent from V1.0 entirely. Anyone advising from the old brochure will not know these relaxations exist.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
05 — What to do with the days you have
Three weeks will not build drawing ability from nothing — that takes months of daily practice, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something. What three weeks can do is stop you losing marks you would otherwise have won: on timing, on the parts of the format that surprise people, and on the 40% of the paper most candidates under-rehearse because it happens on paper rather than a screen.
Now → 3 Aug
Register, then verify
Register today rather than on the derived deadline — you gain nothing by waiting and the date is not confirmed. Then log into the portal and read the real closing date with your own eyes.
Daily, 60 min
Part A, on real paper
Part A is 40% of the exam and cannot be practised on a screen. Dry colours only, no compass, no set squares, scale under 15 cm — rehearse inside the actual constraints, not comfortable ones.
Daily, 30 min
108 seconds, no going back
Drill Part B with a hard per-question timer and no skipping. The adaptive engine gives you one pass. If your habit is to flag and return, that habit will cost you marks here.
For the drawing half, our Design Drawing course and Drawing Fundamentals cover perspective, composition and tonal work directly. For the wider admission picture — JEE Paper 2, counselling, school shortlisting — see the NATA & JEE entrance guide.
06 — Fees, results and the rest
The Phase 2 fee is one unit of the standard per-test fee: Rs 1,750 general/OBC-NCL, Rs 1,250 SC/ST/EWS/PwD, Rs 1,000 transgender, Rs 15,000 outside India.
The fee is charged per test and is non-refundable in all cases. Phase 2 is a single test, so a single unit applies. There is no Phase-2-specific fee table.
Read this carefully: The section heading in V2.0 reads "APPLICATION FEE FOR NATA 2025"; the figures below it are the 2026 figures, so only the heading carries the earlier year.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
Results are declared within 7 days of the test date.
The schedule page gives the rule only. No calendar result date has been published for Phase 2.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
The Phase 2 exam is structurally identical to Phase 1. There is no Phase-2-specific difference in the paper.
The Test Center Manual states its rules apply across both phases explicitly. Part A offline 90 min / 80 marks, Part B adaptive CBT 90 min / 120 marks, in the same order, with the same materials rules.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
Phase 2 registration opened on 23 June 2026.
Read this carefully: Third-party claim (collegedunia). nata.in confirms registration HAS started but publishes no opening date. Plausible but not official — do not present as fact.
Sources
Every claim above is rendered from a sourced record carrying its own status and verification date. Nothing on this page is asserted without one. Last verified 2026-07-16.
- 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.
- NATA 2026 Information Brochure V1.0 (SUPERSEDED)
Published 2026-03-08
Withdrawn, but still live at the most widely-cited URL. Differs from V2.0 on NATA 2025 score carry-over (V1.0 invalidated a 2025 score on a single 2026 attempt; V2.0 reversed this to 'better of both'), and lacks §13.0 PwBD relaxations entirely. Cited only for comparison.
- Test Center Manual — NATA 2026
Published 2026-03-11
Explicitly governs both phases: rules apply 'from April 2026 to June 2026 during Phase 1 ... and in August, 2026 during Phase 2'.
- NATA 2026 Schedule page
Published 2026-07-16
Carries the rolling Activity Timeline. Note this table is generic and is NOT labelled as Phase-1-only; Phase 2 sits in a separate table on the same page. The brochure contains no dates at all.