IIFT Institute & IIFT Exam Analysis

 

IIFT Institute & IIFT Exam Analysis

The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) is an Institute with a wide scope in International Business & therefore offers an MBA(IB) degree with a high exposure in International Business. It was initially set up in New Delhi in the year 1963, followed by a campus in Kolkata in 2006 and then followed by a campus in Kakinada in 2018. A myopic vision would tell that IIFT New Delhi is the best amongst the three & it is indeed the best, however, there will be other parameters discussed as the blog progresses.

IIFT Exam Analysis

Traditionally, this examination has been held 7 days after CAT. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, this examination will be held on 24^thJanuary, 2021. Up till IIFT 2018, this examination was a pen & paper examination, however, from 2019 onwards this examination has become a Computer Based Examination. Even though the dynamics, number of questions & marking scheme have changed dramatically with this shift, the essence, style & type of Q’s asked within the examination have more or less stayed been the same. One thing which has also stayed the same is a 1/3^rd negative marking for each incorrect answer & 4 options for each possible answer.

One advantage that candidates do have is that they can move freely across the sections which is not an option in the CAT examination. However, the disadvantage is that the per question time becomes limited with 110 Qs in 120 minutes. Plus, there are sectional cutoffs for all of the sections which are mandatory to clear to secure a Shortlist for the IIFT Colleges. One thing to keep in mind is that these Sectional & Overall Cutoffs are for all the Campuses combined & are determined based on how all the candidates have performed within the examination.

How to approach the examination?

This examination has 4 sections as of now:

11 1)  Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (35X3=105)

2   2) Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (30X3=90)

3   3)  Quantitative Ability  (25X3=75)

4   4)  General Awareness  (20X1.5=30)

At first sight, the first 3 sections look very familiar to what you have in the CAT Examination. Even though it’s still an aptitude based examination, the type of Q’s are very different from the ones encountered in the CAT Examination.

 

For the ones fretting about the VARC section in IIFT, there is a piece of good news as well as that of bad news. The good news is that the RC part & the part where you have to infer what the passage means is very straight forward. Application of logic in answering the question is minimum as the questions are much more direct. The bad news is that grammar & vocabulary take a huge toll especially vocabulary where many foreign words come into play, therefore, a stronghold on grammar & vocabulary is essential for this section, especially in areas where there may be very close options & one has to pick the most grammatically correct sentence.

 

DILR section is very different from the section that comes in the CAT Examination. Here, the DILR section will primarily involve number crunching & Data Interpretation from various tables with options at times not very conducive/helpful towards candidates. Therefore, having good observation skills for Data & the correct approach to reach the right answer in the quickest possible manner is essential for this section. Even the Logical Q types are very often not the ones that are encountered in CAT. So for practicing the same, it is extremely essential to practice as many questions of similar type, which are ultimately very helpful in the final examination.

 

For the Quantitative Ability section, the examination is heavily geometry-based & algebra based questions are much different as compared to CAT. Overall, the questions are much tougher on average as compared to the ones one would encounter in the CAT Examination. So, a stronghold of concepts is extremely important for scoring well in the Quantitative Ability section.

 

Moving on to GK, it is very vast, however, one thing that an aspirant must do is that they can keep their eyes & ears open to what is happening across the globe. Even if one reads all the magazines across the globe from the past one year, there would be questions where one has less idea/is not sure about. However, if one has kept his/her eyes & ears open, one is bound to get more instinctive answers correct.

 

IIFT Institute

Though the Institute has been established since 1963 & is in all respects a renowned Institute, it is still restricted to International Business, which is one of the factors one should keep in mind before choosing between Institutes. Coming to the New Delhi, Kolkata & Kakinada debate, Kakinada Campus is still in its primitive stages, which is a factor one must not overlook while choosing between Institutes. New Delhi & Kolkata have their campus placements together, however, New Delhi Campus will always have the upper hand being located in the Capital of the Country & being the older of the 2 campuses.

Contribution by Nikhil Jain, MBA student at DFS