With no fixed paper pattern and question types, the IIFT entrance exam does not guarantee admission to many. Use these tips

TOUGH IT OUT

With no fixed paper pattern and question types, the IIFT entrance exam does not guarantee admission to many. Use these tips to get your foot in the door

To be held on November 25 this year, the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) entrance exam is considered one of the toughest management tests because it is all about change and surprise. Every year, a new element, like an altered paper pattern or a differential marking system, is added. Whether or not the paper has sectional cut-offs remains a big question and adds to the uncertainty.

Out of almost 58,000 applicants, only 300 make it to the exalted institute, after two phases of the entrance process—written test and essay writing, group discussion and interview.
However, if you are keen to be among these 300, do not let the stats scare you and instead focus on the following details about the paper, and power through.

IIFT 2011 PATTERN:

Last year, the exam was divided into six sections — general awareness, reading comprehension (RC), verbal ability (VA), quantitative ability, data interpretation (DI) and analytical and logical reasoning (LR). In all, there were 120 questions worth 100 marks. Each section had questions with a blend of variety and difficulty level.

GENERAL AWARENESS:

The questions in this section are normally about foreign issues, books, authors, history, geography, Hollywood, media, economics, current affairs, companies, famous people, etc. Last year, there was a tricky question that involved matching of three parameters. The options are intelligently decided and you can get distracted from the actual answer. Having said that, if you have been following newspapers religiously, you will not find it tough to answer most of the questions.

SAMPLE QUESTION:

Q. Match the correct name of the film with its lead actor and director 

QUANTITATIVE APTITUDE:

Questions in this section are normally based on percentages, logarithms, progression, linear equations, inequalities, geometry, time and work, time and distance. The quant section is usually considered difficult except in the last year, when aspirants found it easy and scoring. Most of the questions are standard, with few demanding extensive calculation. They are usually lengthy but simple. If you have done sufficient practice using good quality reference material, you will be able to solve most of the questions.
SAMPLE QUESTION:
Q. An old lady engaged a domestic help on the condition that she would pay him R90 and a gift after service of one year. He served only 9 months and received the gift and R65. Find the value of the gift.

(1) R90
(2) R12
(c) R15
(d) None of these

VERBAL ABILITY:

The vocabulary section normally contains a diverse set of questions based on word usage, synonyms, antonyms, confusing words and finding the correct spelling. For students with good vocabulary, this section will pose less trouble.

SAMPLE QUESTION:

Q. Match the words in column 1 with their appropriate meaning in column 2.
 

CHECK POINTS

IDEALLY,
you should attempt a majority of the questions from your strong areas to boost the overall score and try at least seven to eight questions from other sections so that you are safe in case of any sectional cut-offs.
WITH NO CLARITY ON SECTIONAL CUT-OFFS,
you need to quickly decide your sectional time allocation.

MORE TIME
should be devoted to quant, data interpretation and reading comprehension sections, ideally, while quickly solving other sections.
THE CATCH
is not to get stuck on lengthy questions. If you realise early enough that such questions should be dumped in favour of others, you can expect to crack the paper and get a call letter from IIFT for the second phase.

IIFT AT A GLANCE

Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) offers a two year full-time management degree in international business (IB). The course focuses on international perspectives of various subjects like international marketing, international finance, international strategy and international brand management.

The IIFT exam score is accepted by the institute that has campuses in Delhi and Kolkata as well as by Gitam Institute of Foreign Trade, Visakhapatnam and the Institute of Finance and International Management (IFIM), Bangalore.

 

STUDENT SPEAK

The general knowledge section has to be prepared well in advance otherwise you will lose marks in this very important section.
ROHIT GUPTA,
1st year student at IIFT 

The difficulty level of questions is generally higher than that of the CAT. You need to strategise ahead of the exam to be able to score well in all six sections.
MITUL JAIN,
1st year student at IIFT

 

ANALYTICAL AND LOGICAL REASONING:

This section has diverse questions, including those on decision-making, coding, alphabetical and numerical series and statement-assumptions. Managing accuracy in this section is not a challenge and hence this section can act as a score booster.
SAMPLE QUESTION:

Q. In a certain code language ‘HORSE’ is written as 71417184, then the word ‘MONKEY’ is coded as
(1) 11141216425 (3) 12151411325 (2) 12141310424 (4) 12151210424

DATA INTERPRETATION:

Traditionally the DI section questions have demanded tedious calculations, which forced students to calculate up to the third decimal and were thus time consuming. The key is that the answer options were given in two decimals but are rounded off from the third decimal. The ideal strategy is to manage a decent number of attempts in one set, to make the sectional cut-offs.

READING COMPREHENSION:

The passages in the IIFT exam are lengthy and are accompanied by relatively few questions per passage. Topics ranged from economy, trade, behavioural aspects, and finance to opinions of authors. Fast reading and quick grasping of data is what you need to develop, to attempt such passages in the given time.