You can follow below steps for your preparation-

1- NID DAT is all about balancing skills: You don’t have to really worry if your sketching is bad. The people who secured good DAT scores did not necessarily have awesome sketching skills, but they were able to generate ideas which were out-of-the-box. This does not mean that you don’t need sketching skills, but if your ideas are really terrific, NID might overlook minor flaws in your sketches. Just make sure that the sketches you make are up to the point and express what you have in your mind.

2- Show your creativity: There are questions that test your sketching skills to the limit be sure that you have enough practice of sketching.

3- Know the design symbolism and conventions well: Make sure that you know the design conventions such as gestalt principles, meaning of colors, applications of different materials, etc, as well as design symbolism like speech bubbles, zoom in gestures, graphical symbolism, etc. This will help you understand the question and express your ideas in good depth.

4- Choose your media carefully: NID DAT paper is not suitable for using ‘wet’ media such as sketch pens or water colors. Therefore, stick to dry media which includes colour pencils, pastels, etc.

5- Develop your own sketching style: Apparently most of the students who secured a seat in NID during the past year had their own unique sketching style. This might mean that your score will be higher if you sketch using the style you have developed on your own.

6- Improve your observation of things and phenomena around you: Sometimes NID DAT tests your ability to analyse things from users’ perspective and even asks questions directly related to current affairs. It helps if you are updated with the events in the design world and know which products are rated as good design examples. Reading common design blogs such as core77 will keep you updated and also show how to critique design. If you can analyse your own design, your design skills will improve.

7- Plan and sketch, but be fast! One common problem faced by NID aspirants is that the paper is too lengthy. Therefore, always think thoroughly before sketching.

All the Best for your Preparation!!