Class 8 students, teachers gear up for NMMS exam tomorrow

CHENNAI: Thousands of Class 8 students from government and aided schools across the State are all set to attend the National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship (NMMS) exam on February 25. Those who clear the test would get a monthly scholarship of Rs 1,000 for three years.

The scholarship exam is being organised by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT). The test is meant to select students of government, government-aided and panchayat schools of Tamil Nadu for the scholarships. However, students of private and residential schools are not eligible to apply for the exam.

As per the modalities of the scheme, only those hailing from families with a total annual income less than Rs 1.5 lakh are eligible to apply for the scholarship. The Class 8 students who clear the test would start receiving a monthly scholarship of Rs 1,000 per month from Classes 9 to 12.

The NMMS exam has two papers, the mental ability test (MAT) and scholastic aptitude test (SAT), which will be held in offline mode.

The mental ability test will have analogy, series of numbers, and perception of patterns and figures in the shadows. The paper 2, SAT, will have physics, chemistry, biology, social science, mathematics.

Besides students and their parents, even teachers are doing their best to enable the children to win the scholarship. To help more students clear the exam, V Deepa, a secondary grade teacher of panchayat union middle school in Coimbatore, has designed a NMMS question bank. She also takes online NMMS coaching classes.

Speaking to DT Next, a teacher from Nagapattinam pointed out how the headmaster and teachers of Nellukadai municipal middle school, which boasts of having the most number of students who cleared the test, have been providing special training for the students.

At present, 14 students of the school have cleared the exam and have been receiving the scholarship amount every month.

In all, around 2,000 Class 8 students from Nagapattinam district are appearing for the exam this year.