Best Books for Architecture Entrance Exams

There are 2 Architecture entrance exams conducted twice every year for admission in Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) courses offered by the National Test Agency (NTA) and Council of Architecture (COA).

The 2 Architecture entrances exams are: -

• JEE B.Arch Paper-II (conducted by NTA)
• NATA ( conducted by COA)

You often get confused about which books you should study for the Architecture Entrance exams. But now we have compiled some specific books for you that will help you to excel in your examination and clear the Architecture entrance exams easily. These books will be quite handy and useful for you. 

In this article, you will get all the information about the best books to study for the Architecture entrance examinations.

Best Books for JEE B.Arch Paper-II Architecture Entrance Exam

The National Test Agency (NTA) conducts the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main B.Arch examination every year. JEE Main Paper 2 is a national-level entrance examination that offers admission in B.Arch, and B planning courses. These courses are offered to get admission in India’s leading institutes that are – National Institute of Technologies (NITs), the Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs), and Centrally Funded Technical Institutes (CFTIs). The JEE Main paper 2 is also conducted twice a year like NATA.

If you want to excel in you’re JEE B.Arch paper II examination you should study well and for studying well and excelling in the entrance examination you should prepare from the books mentioned below to enhance your speed and accuracy to crack the examination easily

JEE B.Arch Paper-II – Mathematics

Firstly, you should study from the theory books recommended by your board or NCERT. This will help you to consolidate your basics. Once you have consolidated your basics then you can move forward to solve JEE level mathematics questions. You just have to attempt JEE Main level questions.

• Complete Mathematics written by Ravi Prakash, Ajay Kumar, and Usha Gupta and A Complete Resource Book in Mathematics for JEE Main written by Dinesh Khattar - These books are published by TATA Mc Graw Hill and Pearson Publication respectively. In both, the books things are written in a very structural and organized manner. These books cover some additional theory which NCERT and your board recommend books do not cover. These books have many illustrations, examples, solved examples which will help to prepare for the JEE Mains level of questions. After solving these questions you will get more questions to practice and believe us you will understand each and every concept in detail for any of these books. For JEE Main Paper II you should practice from any of these books in detail and I can assure you that you will clear the examination easily.

JEE B.Arch Paper-II – Aptitude

• Self Study Guide for B.Arch by Arihant Publication – This book contains everything which is asked by JEE B.Arch paper II in their aptitude section such as Aptitude, Non-Verbal Reasoning, Architectural Awareness based questions, Drawing, Design, Mathematics, and etc. we would strongly recommend this book for the aptitude section only. The aptitude which is given in this book is JEE B.Arch paper II specific aptitudes. The nonverbal reasoning and orthographic projection-based questions are given in the same manner which comes in the JEE B.Arch paper II examination. So if you really want to excel in your aptitude section, then you should prefer this book by Arihant publications.

Apart from this book, you should practice JEE B.Arch paper II and AIEEE previous year question paper of the last 10 years that will help you to understand the pattern, what type of questions are asked, and what variety of questions used to get covered by this examination. After solving the previous year's papers you will get clarity about their mindset and what type of questions they will ask in the examination.

Best Books for NATA Architecture Entrance Exam

The National Aptitude Test in Architecture (NATA) is an entrance examination for you to pursue your career in architecture. NATA is a national-level entrance examination. The Council of Architecture (COA) conducts the National Aptitude Test in Architecture (NATA) for admission in B.Arch and B.Planning courses in various colleges. They offer a 5-year undergraduate degree program in architecture. The NATA Entrance Exam is conducted twice every year, in the months of April and May.

NATA has a habit of surprising students each year by changing their exam patterns. This year they have changed their pattern upside down. Till last year NATA asked everything about physics, chemistry, mathematics, drawing, design, and aptitude but now NATA will only check your logical ability with their geometrical ability, numerical abilities, and comprehension skills. So, a lot many things are asked by NATA.

There are some of the best books mentioned below for each section of the NATA entrance exam which will help you to secure a good rank in the examination.

Aptitude and Geometry

• Test and Assess Your IQ written by Philip Carter and Ken Russell – This book contains and covers all the variety of questions that NATA has asked this year in their examination and that one also which NATA was asking in their aptitude test previously. NATA is interested in numerical ability, verbal and special aptitude questions which are given in this book in a very vast manner. So, we strongly recommend this book if you want to target aptitude.
• Takshzila – If you want to consolidate the basics of the aptitude and read the theory then this is the best book for all that. You just have to study theory apart from this book because other than the theory part, all the things are of CAT level only. So you don’t have to practice CAT level questions for NATA. You should know only the basic aptitude, the tricks, and the techniques to solve the aptitude test. So, in this book, the tricks and techniques are given in detail so you can study that also. The book's geometry study material is very useful for you because NATA is asking geometry-related questions every year.
• Ultimate Psychometric Tests are written by Mike Byron – This book also contains verbal, numerical, diagrammatic types of questions that are asked by NATA in a similar manner itself. So we will highly recommend you to study from these books because it will help you to understand the exam pattern, type of questions asked by NATA, the difficulty level of examination, etc.

All types of questions of Aptitude and Geometry which are asked by NATA are covered in these 3 books in detail.

Puzzles and Riddles

This year NATA has additionally introduced something new i.e. they are asking questions of puzzles and riddles in their Architecture entrance examination.

• Word Games, Riddles, and Logical Tests written by Adrian Wallwork – This book contains the best questions for puzzles and riddles. We strongly recommend this book for puzzles, word games, riddles, and logical tests. After practising from this book you can easily solve the NATA puzzles and riddles questions. NATA also considered this book while preparing the puzzle and riddle section for the examination. There are many questions from this book that have come in the NATA examination this year. This book has an excellent collection of questions that you should practice for the Architecture entrance exam.

Image-Based Questions

• How to Pass Diagrammatic Reasoning Tests by Mike Byron – NATA always asks questions related to imagination, visualization, and observation. So this is the best book for that type of question. In this book, you will get images and you have to answer according to those images i.e. imagination-based questions. so to consolidate your imagination and visualization skills you should practice from this book. This book is a step-by-step guide for your nonverbal reasoning section questions. You will learn in detail about nonverbal reasoning and diagrammatic reasoning from this book.