National Means-Cum-Merit Scholarship (NMMS) is one of the topmost scholarship schemes sponsored by the central government. Department of Literacy & Education under the Ministry of Human Resource Development (now known as Ministry of Education) imposed NMMS scholarships intending to provide financial support to the deserving students coming under the economically weaker section. NMMS application facilitates deprived students to proceed with their secondary education by granting an about of Rs 12,000 every year. The NMMS scholarships are distributed in November and over one lakh student seeks the benefit of it.
Over 1,00,000 NMMS scholarships are distributed every year by the Ministry of Education under the central government of India. The NMMS application scholarships are given to meritorious students of economically weaker sections. Education Department/ SCERT of various states conducts the NMMS exam for students. The students who obtain the required minimum percentage of marks get eligible for the National Means Cum Merit Scholarship (NMMS). The NMMS exam application is usually conducted between October and November. Students can register themselves for the NMMS exam in online/offline modes.
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Objectives of NMMS
NMMS scholarships were initiated in May 2008. The foremost objective of NMMS is to encourage brilliant to proceed with their secondary education and to decrease the dropout rate as a large number of students forgo their studies after completing their 8th. The central government releases 1 lakh NMMS scholarships every year to promote education in India.
Awards under NMMS Scholarships Application
NMMS distributed over 1 lakh scholarships of Rs 12000 per annum to EWS students every year. The candidates who get selected for the scholarship gets the scholarship by MHRD. The State bank is India pays the entire amount in a single go every year for National Means Cum Merit scholarship. The public financial management system leads the transfer of scholarship amount in the desired candidate account. The student enrollment in 7th and 8th standards and their population decides the allocation of several scholarships in various states and Union Territories. The necessary details about NMMS scholarships are listed below:
A student studying in class 9 receives the sum of Rs 12000 as the scholarship amount in one go for an educational year.
The NMMS scholarships renew every year till the time student completes his/her 12th class exams. Furthermore, the student must be passed every year to be eligible to get a scholarship.
Important Dates for NMMS Scholarships
The NMMS Scholarships is announced every year usually in July and the last date for its registration falls in October. The application period is however uncertain as it may change every year as per the preference of the Ministry of Education.
| Events | Tentative Dates for NNMS |
| Application Dates for NMMS scheme | July – August |
| Last Date to Apply for NMMS exam | September – October |
| NMMS admit Card for the exam | October – November |
| Exam Date of NMMS exam | November – December |
| Result Announcement of NMMS | January – March |
Eligibility Criteria for NMMS Scholarships
NMMS scholarships are only meant for meritorious yet economically weaker students of India. The students to get eligible for NMMS scholarships are required to fulfill all the eligibility criteria mentions below to get eligible to appear for the selection test of NMMS.
The meritorious economically weaker student who wishes to apply for NMMS scholarships most have passed 8th class with a minimum percentage of 55% and must be studying in the 9th class.
The student must be seeking education from a local body/government / government-aided schools.
To continue getting scholarships in higher standards, the candidates must secure a minimum of 69% marks in board exams of class 10th.
To continue to receive the scholarship in class 12th, students must have played class 11th exams with a minimum of 55% marks or equivalent marks. For students belonging to SC/ST category, 5% relaxation is offered to such students.
The family income of the candidate applying for NMMS scholarship must not exceed 1.5 lakh.
Furthermore, students studying in KVS, NVS, private schools, and Sainik schools are not eligible to apply for NMMS scholarship.
Application Process for NMMS Scholarships
To apply for NMMS scholarship, a student must make sure that he/she fulfills all the eligibility criteria set by the ministry of education. After making sure, students can apply online for NMMS scholarship by following the below-mentioned steps. Below you can find step by step guide to apply for NMMS form with the utmost ease.
Firstly the students are required to register themselves as a new student by filling all the requisite details on the national scholarship or NMMS portal (NSP).
Students applying for NMMS are advised to keep a copy of all the necessary documents required during the registration process.
All the necessary information like school enrollment number, educational qualification, bank details, Aadhar card number, and the state domicile are to be filled in the application form by the registering candidate.
As the registration process gets over, the NMMS portal generates an application NMMS login ID for the students applying for the scholarship. The application NMMS login ID generated by the NMMS portal is further used as an NMMS login ID for NMMS for future references.
The students who are class 9 or 10 are required to register themselves under the pre-metric category while students of 11th and 12th class are registered under the post matrix NMMS scholarship category.
The students must be cautious while filling up the necessary details like date of birth, email ID, applicant’s name, and mobile number in the registration form. After filling the form and attaching required documents, students are required to save the filled details as a draft.
Once all the information is filled out in the firm correctly and precisely, the student is required to finally submit the NMMS scholarship application form.
Selection Criteria for NMMS
The NMMS is a scholarship provided by the central government of India under its scheme, however, the scholarship test is conducted by all the states for its students the NCERT sets the guideline for NMMS Scholastic aptitude and mental ability test. The students are provided 90 minutes time duration to attempt the scholarship test. Below you can find the details regarding the state level examination test.
Cutoff Marks or Qualifying Marks for NMMS
The candidates have to appear for two categories or papers for the NMMS exam. The two papers SAT and MAT is conducted for 90 marks each. To qualify the NMMS exam students must meet the minimum cutoff requirement. The passing marks are only termed as qualifying marks for the NMMS exam. So if a candidate meets minimum passing marks, he/she gets qualified for receiving the scholarship. The candidates who score more than the required passing marks are listed in the merit list. Cutoff marks are determined by the NMMS authorities for various categories. Students who get equal or higher marks then the released cutoffs then the candidate is considered as passed. Below you can find the minimum marks required by the candidates of various categories for clearing the exam.
| Category | Minimum marks required |
| Students Belonging to General Category | 40% marks |
| Students Belonging to OBC Category | 32% marks |
| Students Belonging to SC/ST category | 32% marks |
National Means Cum Merit Scholarship Entrance Exam Merit List
DGE or Directorate of government education of all the states and Union Territories every year publishes the merit list of NMMS in January – February online. The NMMS results of the students who appear for NMMS exams are made available in the ODF form which contains all the details of the students including the name of the student, school name of the student, marks obtained by the student, rank obtained by the student in MAT and SAT exams. Candidates have selected for the NMMS scholarships based on their performance in exams. The students who get qualified receive the scholarship amount if Rs 12,000. The NMMS results of exams can be checked NMMS apply online.
Steps to check NMMS Entrance Exam Results Online
Step 1: Visit the official website of your respective education department of your state or Union Territory.
Step 2: Open the homepage of the education department.
Step 3: You will find the result link of the NMMS exam on the home page. Click on it.
Step 4: As soon as you click on the result link a PDF file will appear on your computer screen.
Step 5: Look for your name and roll number on the list and scroll down for details in PDF file.
Step 6: Qualified candidates will also be able to check their SAT and MAT scores along with the required cutoffs.
Step 7: at last take out a print out of the NMMS result and keep it with you safely for future use.
Syllabus for NMMS Scholarships
To get selected for NMMS, students must prepare thoroughly and finish the entire syllabus at least a month before examinations.
The NMMS exam generally asks questions from the class 8th syllabus. Therefore, students are required to study the complete syllabus of class 8. Students must focus on subjects like mathematics, science, and social science to clear the NMMS examination.
Students may also get questions from the syllabus of class 7.
Students must practice for reasoning questions too as the MAT section of the NMMS exam comprises if reasoning questions.
Students can refer to any book for solving questions of reasoning.
Books Students can refer to for NMMS Entrance Exam
For preparing for NMMS, students can refer to the below-mentioned books to score well and qualify the exam:
Students can refer to the class 8 NCERT books of Mathematics, Science, and Social Science.
Buying Links: NCERT BOOK
Students must also go through the NCERT class 7th books to prepare for the NMMS scheme exam.
Buying Links:
Mathematics – Textbook for Class 7
After going through the suggested books, students can also solve previous years’ NMMS question papers to prepare for the NMMS exam level questions.
Question Paper of NMMS
To get a clear idea about the exam to understand the exam pattern students must solve past year NMMS question papers. Regularly solving the past year’s question paper of NMMS will help the student in practicing real-time management as per the NMMS exam application. Furthermore, by solving the NMMS question papers, a student must be able to assess the difficulty level of the exam. The students would also get the practice of previously asked questions along with an idea of important topics.
Declaration of Results of NMMS
After the entrance test is conducted and the students who registered for NMMS appear for the exams through NMMS admit card stares announce the list of candidates who have created the SAT and MAT with a minimum of 40% marks in every test. Below you can find the conditions under which the selection of the final list is prepared with the names of qualifying students:
The candidate must secure a minimum of 40% marks in both the tests I.e., SAT and MAT as per the set rules. However, the ministry has set a set of relaxation for students applying through the reserved category. Students are required to score at least 32% to beat the cutoff and seek the scholarship.
Moreover, the candidate must have scored a minimum of 55 percent of marks in their class 8th final exams. Also, the students from SC/ST category can seek a relaxation of 5% on admission.
To avail the benefits of NMMS, students must fulfill all the eligibility criteria set by the ministry of education.
Examination authorities from various states release the results in both NMMS apply online and offline mode.
Students who appeared for the NMMS scheme exam can check their results on the official website of SCERT’s of their respective UTs or states.
The offline result for NMMS scheme exam is made available on the boards of various school premises
The result for the NMMS scheme is released between January to March every year.
The results declared for NMMS includes the following details: Name of the student, school name of the student, roll number, marks scored in SAT and MAT, and rank of the student.
Overview of NMMS Scheme Exam
| Conduction Authority of NMMS | Ministry of Human Resource & Development (Ministry of Education)
Under the government of India |
| Name of Scholarship Exam | National Means-Cum-Merit Scholarship (NMMS) |
| Scholarship Amount under NMMS | Rs. 12000/- Per Annum |
| Date of Examination of NMMS | Between November – December |
| Result Announcement of NMMS Exam | In January – February |
| Official Website of NMMS | www.mhrd.gov.in |
FAQs Related to NMMS Scholarships
How can a student avail the benefits under NMMS?
A student can avail or seek financial benefits under the National Means Cum Merit Scholarship (NMMS full form) by fulfilling the following criteria. Students must have passed class 8 with a minimum of 55% marks or grades equivalent to it. Moreover, to continue obtaining the benefit of the NMMS scholarships, the student must pass 10th class with not less than 60% marks. However, to continue to obtain the benefits of the scholarship class 12, students must pass the class 11 with at least 55% marks.
How can one register for the NMMS Scholarships scheme?
All those students who fulfill the eligibility criteria for the NMMS scheme can register themselves online on the National scholarship portal, NMMS full form. The students are first required to register themselves on the NMMS apply online portal and then proceed with the application process after logging in through their IDs on to the dashboard. Later the students will be provided with their admit cards to appear in the exam.
How can a candidate check his/her result of declared for the NMMS scheme?
The different states in India declare their results separately for the NMMS scheme. After assessing the scores or marks scored by various students, a list of selected students is released. Unusually the students who score marks not less than 40% in SAT and MAT get selected for the NMMS scholarship.
What do NMMS Scholarships stand for?
The short form NMMS stands for the National Means Cum Merit Scholarship Test. (NMMS full form) Department of Literacy & Education under the Ministry of Education (MHRD) conducts an NMMS exam every year for students to continue their secondary education after clearing class 8.
What is the exam pattern of NMMS?
The NMMS exam application is conducted in mainly two categories namely SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) and MAT (Mental Ability Test). The SAT section assesses the subjective knowledge of the students while the MAT section assesses the reasoning and aptitude of the students. The students are granted 90 minutes each to complete the SAT and MAT tests. The entrance test consists of 90 questions that too are offered in multiple-choice.
How much should a student score pass the NMMS examination?
A student is required to score 40% marks each in both SAT and MAT exams.
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Sir/Mam,
I am a school student from Tamil Nadu. I attended the NMMS exam in academic year 2016-2017.But, still I didn’t receive the scholarship amount. In my school they had apply me for minority scholarship. It have any issues in receiving nmms scholarship? They said to me they can’t apply 2 scholarship for one account. How is this possible? They also said this for my sister. Please help me to receive scholarship