- Only those students who are selected by the states/UTs on the basis of their screening examination shall be eligible to appear in the NTSE stage – II examination, which is conducted by the NCERT.
- NCERT will convey the Roll Number, the venue and the time for the national level i.e., Stage – II examination to all qualifying candidates directly through speed post.
- If you have changed your address before the Stage II exam, it is compulsory for candidate to inform the same to the state examining authority, which in turn informs NCERT about the same.
- NTSE Stage – II examination is conducted on the second Sunday of May each year. For 2015 – 2016 academic year the State – II examination has been scheduled to be held on 8th May, 2016 (Sunday).
- NCERT does not charge any fee for Stage-II examination.
- Indian Students Studying Abroad in Class X can appear directly for Stage – II NTS Examination
- There is no prescribed syllabus for the NTS Stage II examination.
- Selection of candidates is based on the performance of written exam in MAT and SAT. A minimum marks should be obtained in all language tests.
- There is no interview for selection of candidates.
- Normally Stage II results (only selected candidates) are declared in the month of August. The same result is uploaded on NCERT website.
- There is no provision for rechecking of students OMR answer sheets.
- The pattern of stage – II will be as under:
| Paper | Test | No. of Questions | No. of Marks | Duration (in minutes) |
| Paper-I | Mental Ability Test (MAT) | 50 | 50 | 45 |
| Paper-II | Language Test (LT) English/Hindi | 50 | 50 | 45 |
| Paper-III | Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) | 100 | 100 | 90 |
- At Stage-II (National Level), there will be negative marking in each paper. For each wrong answer 1/3 marks will be deducted (No marks will be deducted/or unattempted questions.