IIFT 2017 Analysis: Exam pattern revamped; Cut-off expected to go down

Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) conducted the MBA entrance exam was held on 3^rd December (Sunday), across India to grant admission to its two-year program in International Business. The test was conducted between 10 am and 12 o’ clock i.e. within the time frame of 120 minutes.

The exam paper came up with many surprises for the exam takers. The biggest change in the IIFT exam was seen in the total number of questions. From 123 questions that appeared last year, in 2017, IIFT paper comprised of 114 questions only. On the contrary, the level of difficulty was high in comparison to the previous year.

Another major tweaking in the exam was the number of section in the exam pattern. From the tradition 4 sections, IIFT 2017 contained 6 sections. Take a look at the sectional composition of questions from the six sections:

Exam Pattern of IIFT 2017

Section Name	Total no. of Questions	Marks per question	Total Marks
General Awareness	18	0.50	09
Verbal Ability	20	1.00	20
Reading Comprehension	16	1.00	16
Quantitative Aptitude	20	1.00	20
Logical Reasoning	20	1.00	20
Data Interpretation	18	0.75	15
Total	114		100

1. Verbal Ability Section

The verbal ability section was a major surprising element in the exam for the exam takers. The questions on topics such as on punctuations and passage improvement were lengthy. The questions from verbal analogy were quite confusing as per the exam takers. Overall this section was rated moderate to difficult by the IIFT exam takers. The cut-off for the verbal ability section is expected to go down this year.

Here is a topic-wise distribution of questions from the verbal ability section:

Topic	Number of Questions	Level of Difficulty
Punctuation	3	Difficult
Phrase/Clause identification	5	Difficult
Verbal Analogy	3	Difficult
Prefix/Suffix	1	Easy
Passage Improvement	5	Moderate
Jumbled Words	3	Moderate - Difficult
Total	20	Difficult

2. Reading Comprehension in IIFT

The reading comprehension was although very lengthy but the questions from this section were not difficult to crack. Out of 16 questions, a candidate with good reading speed could easily crack 12 questions. For those who faced higher level of difficulty in cracking the Verbal ability section, RC was a life saver to score good percentile.

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3. General Awareness Section

Moving on to another important section of IIFT exam; GK is important to push the percentile score. This year, in IIFT exam, GK section was not a cakewalk. The level of difficulty was rated as moderate to difficult by the exam takers. Unlike previous year, GK is expected to have cut off below 1 mark.

Topic	Number of Questions	Level of Difficulty
Business and Economy	6	Difficult
Sports	3	Difficult
Brands	6	Moderate
Personalities	1	Moderate
Geography	1	Easy
Miscellaneous	1	Difficult
TOTAL	18	Difficult

4. Quantitative Ability Section

Where Verbal ability and GK were challenging to crack for the aspirants, Quantitative ability was no less in testing the skills of the IIFT aspirants. Out of 20 questions, 7 questions from Arithmetic were the easiest to crack and saved the aspirants from the risk of scoring low in the exam. Overall the quant section was moderately difficult. Here is the topic wise bifurcation of the topics that came in the exam:

Topic	Number of Questions	Level of Difficulty
Number System	1	Moderate
Arithmetic	7	Easy
Algebra	5	Easy-Moderate
P&C and Probability	2	Moderate
Geometry, Mensuration and Trigonometry	5	Moderate
Total	20	Moderate

5. Data Interpretation

The Data Interpretation section was no less intricate to crack. Out of 18 questions from this section, the ones who attempted 4 questions are expected to score good in the exam.

6. Logical Reasoning

This section came as good news for the IIFT aspirants aiming to score high percentile. From 20 questions that were asked in the exam, there were 10-12 questions that were easy to attempt for an average student. Questions on topics such as Distribution and Input-output were moderately difficult. Other topics such as Direction sense, syllogism, selection and data sufficiency were easy to handle in the exam.

In Summation

IIFT exam came with a higher difficulty level in 2017. An IIFT aspirant can expect 35-40 marks as a good score to grab a seat in IIFT campuses. So the candidates scoring low in the exam can expect a high percentile this year.

IIFT allot the different campuses located at Delhi, Kolkata and Kakinanada in Andhra Pradesh. Every year approximately 60 thousand students compete for 420 seats. IIFT accepts the score of its own entrance test to grant admission; foreign nationals and NRIs are required to submit GMAT scores.

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