On Sunday, November 27, 2011, several thousand aspirants will appear for the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi entrance test in nearly 20 cities. The entrance test is the first stepping stone for admissions to the MBA in International Business offered at IIFT in its Delhi and Kolkata campuses.
The IIFT test typically contains four sections — quantitative ability, data interpretation, verbal ability and general knowledge. The verbal ability section tends to be further divided into a set of reading comprehension questions and English usage and vocabulary based questions. In the previous years, incorrect questions have been awarded a penalty of 1/3 marks.
This is broadly how the paper outlay was in 2009.
|
Section |
Marks per question |
Number of questions |
Total marks |
Cutoff |
|
|
Quantitative Ability |
1 |
28 |
28 |
3 |
|
|
Data Interpretation |
1 |
34 |
34 |
9.67 |
|
|
Verbal |
Reading Comprehension |
1 |
15 |
15 |
8.48 |
|
VerbalAbility |
0.6 |
25 |
15 |
||
|
General Awareness |
0.4 |
20 |
8 |
2.27 |
|
|
Total |
|
122 |
100 |
37.4 |
|
In 2010, the pattern underwent a slight change in that the number of questions shot up to 135 with the GK section expanding the most.
|
Section |
Marks per question |
Number of questions |
Total marks |
|
|
Quantitative Ability |
1 |
30 |
30 |
|
|
Data Interpretation |
1 |
35 |
35 |
|
|
Verbal |
Reading Comprehension |
0.7 |
15 |
10.5 |
|
VerbalAbility |
0.5 |
25 |
12.5 |
|
|
General Awareness |
0.4 |
30 |
12 |
|
|
Total |
|
135 |
100 |
|
Read the IIFT 2010 analysis.
The general knowledge section of the paper is widely believed to be the decisive section. Since it’s the section where you either know the answer to a question or you don’t (you can rarely ‘derive’ an answer), being prepared well for it puts you in a different league altogether among the vast pool of aspirants appearing for the test. The data interpretation section of the test is known to be calculation intensive. The verbal ability section tends to contain more vocabulary-based questions than most other MBA entrance tests.
Mind you however, that the IIFT test is notorious as an unpredictable one. Although the pattern has not changed much between 2009 and 2010, that does not guarantee that it will remain the same this year too.
Discussions on preparing for the IIFT Test have been on on PaGaLGuY since a few months now. Here are some important links containing resources and material that would help you crack the test.
– The main IIFT Entrance Test thread: General discussions about cracking the test, pattern of the paper and strategy
– Another GK thread covering possible questions for all MBA entrance tests, IIFT included