LEAD Trust is an educational NGO that was formed in 2009 to uplift the academic excellence of the educationally and economically backward students in India. It creates programs to train the students for admissions into many prestigious educational institutions in India such as IIT, AIMS, etc. It wants to produce productive, next generation citizens of India who can play an active and positive role in nation building.
LTSE stands for LEAD Talent Search Exam. It is an annual exam conducted by LEAD Trust to select bright students who want to pursue higher studies in India’s prestigious colleges. These include top engineering colleges (IIT, NIT, BITS), and top medical colleges (AIIMS, AFMC, JIPMER).
LTSE is usually held in January/Feb
All students who are going to appear for the 10th grade exam in that year. The student can be from any caste, religion, ethnicity, or other backgrounds. Both male and female students can write the exam.
The student should have secured at least 60% in the 9th grade exam.
This is a 2-3 hours objective-type exam designed to evaluate the students’ grasp of concepts in the fields of Maths/Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Logical Reasoning. The exams cover areas that are normally taught to students in the 8th, 9th and 10th grades by any educational board in India. The exam booklet contains test papers for all the subjects mentioned above. But typically, the student writes the exams in only 4 of these subjects, depending on which stream he/she is pursuing. For example, for someone who wants to pursue the engineering field, he/she would write the papers in Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Logical Reasoning. For someone who is aiming for the medical stream, they would write the Biology paper, instead of Maths. All questions are of objective type, and the students need to answer them in an OMR sheet.
Previous year’s exam papers are available online at https://leadtrust.in/downloads
Yes, you can attempt the exams for both the streams.
Students will be selected by the Partner colleges based on the following criteria:
- LTSE score
- 10th class scores – when they are available
- 9th class score – minimum 60% is required in the appropriate subjects
- Face-to-face interview – this usually happens after all the 10th board exams have finished, and is conducted in 3-4 different places – one each in Kerala, North and South Karnataka
Students can choose any of the following colleges:
- Shaheen PUC, Bidar – Separate hostel facilities for Boys and Girls
- Shaheen PUC, Bangalore – Separate hostel facilities for Boys and Girls
- MS Academy, Hyderabad – Separate hostel facilities for Boys (engineering and medical) and Girls (only medical)
- Alps PUC, Kerala – Separate hostel facilities for Boys and Girls
- Crescent PUC, Bangalore – Separate hostel facilities for Girls
- Wisdom PUC, Bidar – Separate hostel facilities for Boys and Girls
- Benchmark Schools, Tirur, Kerala – Separate hostel facilities for Boys and Girls
- Zaitoon International Campus, Kottakal, Malappuram
- Amster Academy, Bangalore
Totally, these partner colleges have produced 33 IITians, 60 NITians, 894+ CET, 219+ Medicine, 88 Science Olympiad, 7 Maths Olympiad and 44 CPT ranks. More details on the website.
When selected, you become a full-time, residential student of the college that selected you. You will be enrolled in the appropriate stream in the Junior College (Pre-University in case of Karnataka), and will appear for regular exams for 1st and 2nd years of the Junior College. At the same time, you will be trained for the entrance exams such as IIT-JEE Mains and Advanced, NEET, CET, etc.
Note that (almost always) this is a residential program. Thus, all students who are selected WILL have to live in the hostel facilities provided by the college. There are separate facilities for boys and girls. The program is quite rigorous, with studying hours starting before dawn and very often continuing well after dinner. So, be prepared to work hard. All the colleges have a no-electronic devices policy. And yes, that means no mobile phone, not even the basic kind.
The actual training program is conducted by our partner colleges. In most cases, students selected through LTSE will be placed in a special batch of students, where they will undergo rigorous training for the various competitive exams, besides being taught the regular 11th or 12th courses. Often, the college would hire specialized coaches who might come from outside. The coaching hours wary, and can start as early as 6 AM (every day) and can go on till 10 PM. Usually, there will be 4-5 hours of coaching almost every day. One day of the week is usually dedicated for practice exams.
Note that the exact schedules vary greatly from college to college. Please enquire with the colleges on the day of the interview.
- Engineering
- Boys – Shaheen (Bidar and Bangalore), MS (Hyderabad), Alps (Kerala), Wisdom PUC, Bidar, Benchmark Schools, Tirur, Kerala
- Girls – Shaheen (Bidar and Bangalore), Crescent (Bangalore), Alps (Kerala), Wisdom PUC, Bidar, Benchmark Schools, Tirur, Kerala
- Medicine
- Boys – Shaheen (Bidar and Bangalore), MS (Hyderabad), Alpine (Kerala), Wisdom PUC, Bidar, Benchmark Schools, Tirur, Kerala
- Girls – Shaheen (Bidar and Bangalore), Crescent (Bangalore), Alpine (Kerala), Wisdom PUC, Bidar, Benchmark Schools, Tirur, Kerala
This completely depends on how much scholarship the colleges are willing to extend to you. Scholarships range from 25% to 100%, and they include boarding, lodging, food, college fees, tuition fees, coaching fees, etc. Several students have gotten complete 100% scholarships through this program, Alhamdulillah. In some very deserving cases, there may also be a cash stipend given to students, on top of the scholarship.
Note that payments for books, stationary, clothes, travelling expenses, etc may not be covered. Exact scholarship details vary from college to college.
In 2016, selected students were offered scholarships worth 60 lakhs.
In 2017, this amount had increased to 1.3 Crores!!
In 2018, more than 3 Crores of scholarships was offered to students.
In 2019, selected students were offered scholarships worth 6.3 Crores.
In 2020, this amount had increased to 7.1 Crores!!
And in 2021, more than 4.2 Crores of scholarships was offered to students. Alhamdulillah
Please visit www.leadtrust.in to register for the entrance test LTSE
Please visit the website for a list of LTSE co-ordinators and choose one who is closest to you.
Exam is completely in online mode
Evaluations normally take more than a week after the online exam.
Due to Covid-19, the personal interviews may be taken online or offline depending on the guidelines from the government on mass gathering for the safety of students.
If the interviews are held in offline mode, the venues will be declared after the results are announced