IBSAT, the MBA entrance exam for IBS (ICFAI Business School), was held on Sunday, December 27, 2009. MBAUniverse.com presents to you the post-exam analysis.

One major change this year in the IBSAT entrance exam was the absence of Essay writing section. There were total of 125 questions and 4 sections. The number of choices were 5. The test duration was 2 hours and there was no negative marking. The marking scheme was not specified.

According to leading test prep institute T.I.M.E. the IBSAT 2009 was quite similar to IBSAT 2008 in that the number of sections, number of questions and the number of choices were the same. “Overall the paper was of moderate level difficulty. However, after writing CAT, IIFT, JMET and SNAP, the ISBAT test would not have posed too much of a challenge and those with a higher speed would have found the exam to their liking,” said an official from T.I.M.E.

Sectional analysis
Verbal Ability: The Verbal Ability section of IBSAT maintained its trademark trickiness. The areas and distribution of Qs was same as last year. "There were a few easy questions for the picking and anyone who read the entire section before answering would have benefited," said an expert from T.I.M.E. 

"The questions on Fill-in-the-blanks (two blanks in a sentence) and Para-Jumbles were easy picking.  The questions on Sentence Correction and Sentence Error Recognition were of medium level difficulty and should have been attempted for a good score. However the questions on Vocabulary demanded a good reading habit and would have troubled even the most prepared of the test takers. The questions on Idioms/Phrases and Cloze test were tricky and would have required a good amount of thought," said the MBA expert.

Reading Comprehension: The Reading Comprehension section of IBSAT-2008 had three passages which were around one and quarter pages long and were quite easy to read as well as answer. The passages on ‘Ancient Monuments in Punjab’ and ‘Principles of Amrtya Sen’ should have been attempted without fail.

Quantitative Ability: The Quantitative Skills section of IBSAT was on predictable lines. The Quant questions focused on Numbers, P &C , Probability, Geometry and Mensuration. "A student who worked on identifying the really easy questions would have been able to maximize the returns for the amount of time spent on this section. There were a couple of difficult questions in P&C which would have required more time and hence were better avoided," said the MBA expert from T.I.M.E.

Data Adequacy & Data Interpretation: This section had the same mix as last year with 15 Qs on DS and 10 Qs on DI. The DS questions were straightforward and didn’t involve much calculations. "The Qs on Pie chart was calculation intensive and would have taken quite a bit of time. However, students with a knack for speed would not have faced problems. The set on Venn diagrams was not very routine and would have scared many people; but the Qs were straightforward and required no calculations," said the MBA expert from T.I.M.E.

The IBSAT entrance test was conducted over 143 test centers across India. The IBSAT institutes are the IBS campuses in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Gurgaon, Indore, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Nagpur, Noida and Pune. ICFAI Business School is the management institute of ICFAI University.

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more post-exam analysis of entrance exams of leading MBA schools!