Even if you had a bad CAT Exam, there are better options to achieve your goal of admission to a management program in any top b-school. You can’t drive a car by simply looking out of the rear-view mirror. So, stop regretting your performance in CAT and learn from your mistakes.
The sky is not the limit for the dreamers. If you aspire to seek admission in programs which accelerate your knowledge about International Business, then opt for IIFT exam. Since IIFT is conducted before CAT, it gives you an edge over other candidates appearing for CAT.
IIFT has left test takers gasping for time management as it is difficult to attempt 123 questions in 2 hours. Despite the odds associated with the exam, the IIFT Cut off will be very low. Thus, candidates with low scores get high percentile.
Moving over to IIFT, to be held in last week of November 2017, students must focus on their strengths and work on a score maximising strategy. Students should know DI in IIFT has always been very calculation-intensive and should work out their own strategies to deal with this. DI will most probably be coupled either with LR or QA, both of which are quite simple as compared to CAT.
IIFT Exam: Easy or Difficult?
IIFT is expected to be conducted in November 2017 across the country for a duration of 2 hours. It is conducted in the conventional pen and paper mode. The exam is divided into 4 sections with similar difficulty level as of the previous years.
The test is known to greet the candidates with trickier and lengthier questions almost in all sections of the exam. It has always been difficult for the candidates to cross the hurdle of 50 questions out of 124. Thus, IIFT Cut off is generally low every year.
A penalty of one-third marks is awarded for every wrong answer. The candidates, therefore, had to be careful to avoid this negative marking by choosing the answer options with well-calculated thought process.
Questions in different sections and sub sections in IIFT entrance exam carry different marking pattern. While overall maximum marks are 100, the maximum marks allotted to different questions vary from 0.5 to 1. Sectional cut offs also play an important role and a candidate has to clear them as well.
Accuracy is the basic key to score better in IIFT 2017. As per the IIFT Cut off trends of the previous year, low scores give you high percentile in IIFT. Also, last year the cut off went up to 48.8 marks. Round figures (48 marks) don’t fetch your admission to IIFT!
As analysed, the most scoring section in the exam is General Knowledge. One with great knowledge about the current affairs and things happening around the world has the key to crack this section. However, IIFT Cut off for GK section is the lowest every year. It was 0.82 marks last year.
Experts suggest VARC to be the easiest section in the IIFT Exam due to its unique differential scoring pattern. Maintaining a good combination between these two sections can fetch you scores for a high percentile. However, IIFT Cut off for this section last year was 8.75 marks
Although there are 22 questions in the Quant section of the exam based on simple mathematics yet this section is termed to be least scoring section. It would be! As there are a lot of non-engineers appearing for the exam too. Sharpen your brains for the Quant section. The minimum marks required to get admission to your desired program is 4.34 marks.
The highest cut off and toughest section in IIFT is LRDI. This section has the maximum questions- 33 MCQs. However, IIFT cut off for this section dipped last year. It went down to 8.68 marks.
How to score high percentile in IIFT Exam?
One must not focus on the sectional cut off for IIFT during the exam preparation. Keeping yourself active and practicing is the key to success in the exam. Apart from being intellectual, one must stay updated with general knowledge to crack the exam and the sectional cut off.
While discussing about the preparation strategies and success stories, we must not forget IIFT Topper Mohit Sharma. He divided his preparations into 3 different slots according to the section he focussed on as mentioned by him.
3 months before the IIFT Exam, he analysed his weak and strong areas to focus on the weaker ones in the time left with him. He enlisted the important topics from each section to devote his time to them. He gave a few diagnostic tests to gauge his level of preparation and determine the areas which require the maximum focus and time.
Last month of his preparation just included- mock tests. He analysed his performance from the mock tests he gave to work on the weak areas. Analysing his previous mock results was his next step when he was left with 15 days in hand. Then, he worked on the shortcut tricks, mathematical formulae, and the wordlists.
Read More: Indians Are Over Obsessed With IITs, IIMs & Sharmaji Ka Beta: Anything Wrong In That?
IIFT Exam pattern is to attempt the questions from all sections equally well and not to undermine the importance of GK. IIFT topper Mohit says, “Though the exam is claimed to be tough, but the GK section is the only section where awareness and observation catches the eye.” He was a true follower of The Hindu newspaper and inculcated a habit of reading it daily to keep himself updated. He majorly focused on Business and Economics section as it was predicted that the topics from this section of the newspaper are likely to come in the exam.
Given below are few topics one must focus on during GK preparation:
- Demonetisation
- GST bill
- Brexit
- Surgical Strike
- Cyrus Mistry removed from Chairmanship of TATA group
- Trump as US President
- India at Olympics and Paralympics
- Gold Monetisation Scheme
- Net Neutrality
- United Nations Climate Change Conference
- Startup India
Regular practice is the key to crack the LRDI section in the exam as it boosts the confidence and competency level in us. LR section includes maximum and easy questions based on blood relations, syllogism, series etc. DI section includes questions from Pie charts and Line graphs majorly. Practicing frequently will help the aspirant get a hang of the type of questions asked and will be instrumental in saving valuable time in exam. It is imperative to be very well acquainted with shortcuts like decimal to fraction conversion and vice versa, tables up to 25, etc. to ease the calculation part.
Mohit’s Mantra to crack the Quant section is “Be clear with the arithmetic fundas and you’ll clear this section of the exam”. There is nothing in this section which interests people in common, it varies. So, to focus completely on each sub-topic, one must opt for practice from ‘Quantitative Aptitude Quantum CAT’ by Arihant as suggested by Mohit.
Reading Comprehensions are known to be very lengthy in IIFT exam but the trick is to skim through the passages and find key words of question in the passages and find your answer therein. RCs could end up taking a lot of time, so it is advisable to keep an eye on the watch. Again, comprehensive practice should be done at home to make you acquainted with the type of questions.
High focus on vocabulary is given in the English section of the exam so it is advisable to read wordlists- Barron’s wordlist. Basic grammar rules should be read from any primer and it will come in handy in the exam.
Gear up for your preparations as November is few months away and so is the IIFT Exam!
Image Credits: Google Images
Other Recommendations:
http://edtimes.in/2017/07/north-campus-problems-best-solutions/
