Yes indeed! Drawing is very much require to crack NID DAT. 

About NID, 

NID stands for National Institute of design, is nationally as well as internationally one of the finest educational and research institution which provide Industrial, Communication, Textile and IT Integrated Design courses both for under-graduates and post-graduates. It was an autonomous all-India body. 

NID organise a two stage national level Entrance examination every year for admission of students for B. Des and M. Des courses provided by NID. The entrance examination of NID is being called NID-DAT. DAT stands for design aptitude test. This examination evaluates the candidate's visualisation skills, creative & observation skills, knowledge, comprehension, analytical ability, et cetera. Experts have shared that this NID's design aptitude test is one of the most challenging design entrance exams conducted in India.

Syllabus and the pattern for NID DAT 

NID DAT consists 2 stages which are, NID DAT Prelims and NID DAT mains. NID DAT Prelims is a written test where as Mains is based on studio test and personal interview. 

Stage 1- NID DAT prelims (written test) 

NID DAT prelims will have 22 objective type of questions and 4 subjective types of questions worth 100 marks for 3 hours.

The syllabus for NID DAT prelims are- 

• Communication skills
• Compositions
• Animation 
• creativity
• Drawing skills for subjective part 
• General mental ability
• Design skills
• Environment sensitivity
• Visual design 
• Thematic colour arrangement
• Proportion and perspective
• Abstract symbolism
• Memory drawing

Stage 2 – NID DAT mains (studio test)

After qualifying in NID DAT prelims, candidates must sit for NID mains. This paper is worth 100 marks which is to be completed in 3 hours. Candidates have to appear for studio test and a personal interview round in this stage. Candidates who will be qualified for the studio test round, can only appear for personal interview round. 

Studio test syllabus-

• Doodling
• 3D model
• Observation test
• Creative thinking
• Audio visual experience

The studio test for NID admissions may comprise of questions which candidates have to solve in different formats like-

• Drawing/ sketching
• Hands on model making
• Group discussion
• Presentation

NID DAT candidates are evaluated for-

• Knowledge
• Comprehension
• Analysis
• Creativity
• Visualisation

Seeing the syllabus of NID DAT mains studio test, it is quite confirmed that drawing is very much necessary to crack the exam. Whereas prelims is completely based on knowledge and ideas. You don’t need to have tremendous drawing ability. Just a lot of creativity and strategy will help you to crack the drawing part of the mains. You need to choose the questions very wisely while answering and just need to answer it down just to give a complete knowledge about what you want to portray. 

All the best!