The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) is one of India's most prestigious business schools. It conducts an entrance exam for its flagship course: MBA (International Business). The exam is considered to be pretty tough, even when compared to Common Admission Test (CAT) and this year, it’s being held on 23rd November, 2014 for admission to the academic session 2015-17.
With an influx of a dozen entrance exams for various B schools, it becomes quite confusing for a student to adopt the right preparation strategy for these exams. Contrary to the popular perception, the same preparation method won’t work for all exams. One needs to know how to fine-tune their study methods according to the kind of exam they’re going to take. Here we’ll tell you how you should prepare for the IIFT 2015 entrance exam.
In order to chart out a preparation plan, getting familiar with the IIFT 2015 exam pattern is necessary:
The entrance examination will be of 2 hours having objective questions from the following sections:
English Comprehension: This section will test the candidate's comprehension of and interpretative abilities in English as a language of business specifically in common forms of English expression, grammar and usage in business.
Logical Reasoning: This section would have questions on analytical reasoning, argument analysis and analysis of explanation questions.
Quantitative Analysis: This section will test the candidate’s understanding of Mathematics from the basics to Mensuration to Linear Algebra to Elementary differential calculus to Probability and Statistics.
General Knowledge & Awareness: The paper has questions which are usually a mix of static general awareness which ranges from geography to history to politics & economy and current affairs.
Now for the preparation tips for IIFT exam:
Brush up your GK: This is one of the main differences between IIFT and exams like CAT, XAT, MAT etc. The General Knowledge & Awareness section is the deal-breaker here. You should not wait until the last moment to start preparing for this section. If you had been preparing for IIFT from the last few months & had been going through the newspapers (especially the business & economy sections) that would be more than enough. If you have not been doing that, do not despair. You can always rely on a good yearbook like the Manorama Year Book. The number of questions in this section varies from year to year, but you can safely expect at least 15-20 questions in this section.
Work on your Speed: Wile CAT usually has around 60 questions, the number of questions in the IIFT exam hovers between 120-135! Speed, therefore, is important. The quantitative section of IIFT is considered to be one of the toughest, tougher than CAT. But you’d come across some really easy questions too which will be the real clinchers. For this, you will again need to work on your speed, so that you can easily manoeuvre through the question paper and manage to reach & spot these easy questions.
Expand your Vocabulary: The exam’s English Comprehension section usually has a lot of questions that will test your vocabulary, so you would need to work on that. You could use “flash cards” with words & their meanings and keep memorising sets of 10 cards everyday. You should also know how these new words are supposed to be used in a sentence. Read a lot. Nothing works like reading to improve your vocabulary as well as sentence-formation skills.
If you have got your basics right & foundation strong, cracking IIFT would be a cakewalk. Just keep in mind that in order to crack a 2 hour long paper that would consist of around 120-135 questions, your speed, accuracy & choice of questions is what would matter.
All the Best!