IIFT 2018 will be conducted on December 2, 2018
The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) entrance test is the test for admission to the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi and Kolkata. IIFT 2018 will be conducted on December 2, 2018. and will be a two hours examination. The institute was set up in 1963 by the government of India as an autonomous organisation. It is one of the premier B-schools in India and among the top-10 B-schools in the country. The following cities will be the exam centers this year – Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jamshedpur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur and Visakhapatnam.
Examination pattern
Last year’s paper pattern:
Section 1: General Awareness — 18 questions, 0.5 marks (per question), total (9), 0.17 (negative marks per question)
Section 2: Verbal Ability — 20 questions, 1 mark (per question), total (20), 0.33 (negative marks per question)
Section 3: Reading Comprehension — 16 questions, 1 mark (per question), total (16), 0.33 (negative marks per question)
Section 4: Logical Reasoning — 20 questions, 1 mark (per question), total (20), 0.33 (negative marks per question)
Section 5: Quantitative Ability — 20 questions, 1 mark (per question), total (20), 0.33 (negative marks per question)
Section 6: Data Interpretation — 20 questions, 0.75 mark (per question), total (15), 0.25 (negative marks per question)
Exam duration: Two hours with no sectional time limit. Sectional cut-offs are applicable. Negative marking is 1/3 rd of the allocated marks.
Preparation tips
Except for the section on general awareness, all the other sections of IIFT get well covered with a good preparation for CAT. However, it would be advisable for a student to work on his/her speed as some of the questions under data Interpretation tend to be calculation intensive. Similarly, RC in IIFT has featured passages that are longer than those in CAT. Students must be prepared well for that with sufficient mock tests.
However, it has been observed that it is possible to attempt many questions without reading the passage too deeply, so students would be well advised to practice using this approach too.
For preparation on General Awareness, in addition to reading newspapers regularly, it would be advisable for a student to prepare from the following sources:
— In the various issues of a good GK magazine, like MBA Education and Careers, focus on features like business GK, current issues and events, and current event chronicle (this feature captures important tid-bits). In addition to the above, please revise good GK model papers.
— Manorama and CSR Year Book helps in preparation for stock type questions. In Manorama Year Book and CSR, please focus on the following chapters:
Who is who
What is what
Science scan
Human body
Computers
Landmarks of history
The universe
While preparing for this section, a student should focus on issues related to national and international events, world bodies, and foreign trade related information.
Giving mock IIFT papers
Most students have practice of online exams since CAT, and therefore its mocks are held in electronic format. IIFT is a paper pencil based exam and thus students must get sufficient practice in this format using a reputed test series like the OMETs.
Students should remember that sectional cut-offs are present in the exam. Hence, the key to doing well is that students must allocate time proportionate to the marks of the section, except for the GK section, which takes much less time. Some adjustment in time allocation, based on one’s strengths and weaknesses is acceptable. However, such adjustments should not be more than ± 10 per cent of the time allocated.
The overall number of questions decreased to 114 in 2017 from 123 in 2016 and 124 in 2015. The QA section, DI section and the LR section were all stand-alone sections in 2017. This was a major change of patterns and students were caught off guard since they have to crack 6 sectional cutoffs and then the over all cutoff. Students must therefore practice all kinds of patterns, so that they are confident of cracking all sectional cut-offs, irrespective of sectional composition.
Authored article by Ankur Jain, Chief Knowledge Expert T.I.M.E.