National Crossword Contest Opens Doors to Class 12 Graduates Awaiting College Admission

National Inter-College Crossword Expedition (NICE) 2025, the country’s premier cryptic crossword contest for college students, has introduced a new category — ACA (Awaiting College Admission) — to allow students who have passed Class 12 this year, and are in the process of taking admission in college/university, to participate in the contest.

Until now, the contest was open only for students enrolled in college. But due to the persistent requests from students who have taken their class 12 board exams this year and are awaiting admission to higher education institutions, the NICE 2025 organisers have allowed them to participate in the preliminary online rounds scheduled in May-June. Students under the ACA category can participate in the online rounds scheduled on the following dates:

Round N – May 18, 2025

Round I – May 25, 2025

Round C – June 1, 2025

Round E – June 8, 2025

While registering, such participants must enter “ACA (Awaited College Admission)” in the HEI (Higher Education Institution) column. Once the college/university is admitted, they have to update the HEI details by July 31, 2025 to become eligible to participate in further zonal rounds. This initiative not only makes the competition more inclusive but also gives students an early exposure to reasoning, linguistic proficiency and wordplay. Free registration for NICE 2025 is available at https://nice.crypticsingh.com/register.