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For decades, the National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) was a goal for many Class 10 students. Then it stopped, and parents and students still search for NTSE dates. This post sets out what NCERT's own notices say about the exam's status, what the scheme offered, and what a Class 9 or 10 student who would have taken NTSE can do now.
What is NTSE's current status?
The key document is an NCERT notice dated 15 December 2021, linked from the NCERT National Talent Search page. It says the Stage-I and Stage-II examinations of NTSE 2021-22, announced on 2 December 2021, are "postponed due to administrative reason", and that a "fresh schedule will be intimated accordingly in due course of time." You can read the notice itself: NTSE 2021-22 postponed.
When we checked the NCERT page in October 2026, the latest exam items were from that 2021 cycle: the result of the Stage-II exam held on 24 October 2021, award letters for 2021 awardees, and the postponement notice. The newest item, a notice dated 4 June 2025, gives telephone numbers for enquiries about the National Talent Search Scheme exam and scholarship. No new exam date has been announced on the page.
So the accurate answer is: NTSE has not been held since the 2021 cycle, and NCERT has not published a new schedule. If a website gives you an NTSE date, check it against the NCERT page before you plan around it.
What did NTSE offer?
NCERT's 2019 information brochure describes the scheme's history. It began in 1963 as the National Science Talent Search Scheme with 10 scholarships in Delhi, was renamed the National Talent Search Scheme in 1976, and in 2019 the number of scholarships was raised from 1,000 to 2,000. Selection was in two stages: a state-level exam, then a national exam run by NCERT, each with a Mental Ability Test (MAT) and a Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). The brochure lists reservations of 15% for SC, 7.5% for ST, 27% for OBC and 4% for students with benchmark disabilities.
The brochure gives the rates set in 2014-15:
₹1,250 a month in Classes 11 and 12.
₹2,000 a month for undergraduate and postgraduate study.
For PhD, as per UGC norms.
Worked example: what was the scholarship worth? For Classes 11 and 12, ₹1,250 × 12 months × 2 years = ₹30,000. For a three-year degree, ₹2,000 × 12 × 3 = ₹72,000. So a student who held it from Class 11 through a three-year degree received ₹1,02,000 in total, at these rates.
What happens to students who already hold NTSE scholarships?
The NCERT page still carries the scholarship disbursement section, including a link to the NTS scholarship claim portal and contact details for scholarship queries. Existing awardees should follow instructions there. NTSE scholars may also have a route to more support: the INSPIRE-SHE FAQ from the Department of Science and Technology lists "National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) scholars" among students eligible for SHE when they study natural sciences at Bachelor's or Master's level.
What can a Class 9 or 10 student do instead?
The reasons to prepare for NTSE were good ones: thinking under time pressure, and maths and science beyond the textbook. Those still pay off.
Science and maths olympiads. The national olympiad programme begins with exams open to school students. See our guides to the junior science olympiad (NSEJS) and the maths olympiad route through IOQM.
INSPIRE Internship camps in Class 11. DST's INSPIRE Internship guidelines describe five-day science camps for students who were in the top 1% of their Class 10 board exam and are studying science in Class 11.
INSPIRE-SHE after Class 12, for students who take up a BSc, BS or integrated MSc in a basic science. Our guide to INSPIRE-SHE eligibility covers the rules.
Are old NTSE papers still worth practising?
Yes, for reasoning practice, as long as you treat them as practice and not as a guide to a current exam. A common kind of mental ability question is a number series. Try this one: 2, 6, 12, 20, 30, ?
Differences: 4, 6, 8, 10. They rise by 2 each time.
Next difference: 12. Next term: 30 + 12 = 42.
The habit that solves it, looking at how a pattern changes rather than at the numbers themselves, helps in olympiads and in school maths.
When an olympiad-style question exposes a gap in a concept, the Fermi Concept Library covers every concept in physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and computing, so you can fill it before moving on.
Bookmark the NCERT NTSE page and check it once a term; in the meantime, pick one olympiad and look up its official registration dates.
