IIFT 2015: Dont underestimate importance of GK; Know the 2 month preparation strategy

With barely 2 months left for IIFT 2015 exam for admission to MBA (IB) 2016-18 at this highly ranked B-school, candidates have been raising queries on the relevant areas of study to prepare for GK section and its overall importance in IIFT 2015 exam. What could be the outcome if they do not take the General Knowledge section as seriously as other sections, is another query raised by IIFT aspirants. The problem in preparing for GK part according to the aspirants, at this hour is also due to the fact that they are simultaneously preparing for CAT 2015.

While IIFT will conduct the entrance test for its Delhi and Kolkata campuses in 20 cities across India on November 22, CAT 2015 for admission to IIMs and other top rated B-schools will be held on November 29, 2015. Both the exams will have similar sections except for the fact that IIFT 2015 will have GK questions also, placed in a separate section and will be a paper pen based exam.

Now devoting an hour or even half an hour to GK regularly, has become a time constraint for the candidates preparing for both the important exams. Besides GK has no defined syllabus or topics that can be picked out to prepare, every day brings something new to be added on GK section. So what to study and what to leave, is another constraint.

IIFT 2015 exam will be the conventional paper pencil mode test and will be of 2 hours duration from 10.00 A.M. to 12.00 Noon to be held on Sunday, November 22, 2015. The written admission exam in IIFT consists of multiple choice objective type questions (in English). IIFT entrance test comprises the questions covering English Comprehension, General Knowledge & Awareness, Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Analysis.
There are no fixed number of questions in IIFT entrance test, their number may go anywhere in the range of 115 to 130.

GK: As important as other sections
The important component out of the 4 sections in IIFT 2015 exam- General Knowledge & Awareness contains questions in a range of 25-30. GK section will be at par with other sections as it will play the same role in pushing up your merit position in IIFT as other sections can do.

According to Prof S K Agarwal, expert on Verbal Ability and IIFT preparation shares that its not only conventional pattern of GK but also analytical and current environmental awareness of your surroundings which is needed to crack GK in IIFT 2015. In IIFT 2015 the weightage to General Knowledge & Awareness section would be 14 to 15% and a sectional cut off will also be applied.

Key Components of General Knowledge section
Important components of General Knowledge & Awareness in IIFT 2015 exam would be as follows-
A. Conventional
B. Business, Finance & Economy based
C. Current Affairs India (Political, Social, Sports, Films, awards etc.)
D. International ( personalities-past & Present, global events etc.)

Each part needs due weightage. Conventional GK is available in books; Current GK is based on current reading of newspapers and periodicals; Business & Economics GK reflect the changes in Fiscal and monetary policy, CRR, Repo Rate, Devaluation and up valuation of Rupee.

Please remember current GK-whether Business, national and international has an on-going preparation method and thorough reading of the newspaper only can keep you updated.

2 month preparation strategy
No Confusion
There may be certain confusing names, events where the aspirants may tend to forget the exact description. If you get confused the implication is that you may not be so good to manage the future affairs with this weakness. So have clarity and understand the difference, for example difference among the abbreviations like G-8, D-8, G-15, G-20, NATO, OAS, OPEC, OAPEC, OECD, OIC, APEC, ADB, ASEAN, EEC, EU, EFTA, SAARC, WCC, WTO, should be well understood and remembered in context so that you may not forget the same in the testing room.

Areas of GK preparation
All the Candidates, in one or the other way, are enriching their General Knowledge on the topics they like and are inclined to. The need is to understand the basics How and what to prepare to improve the General Awareness.
Study of any subject is not so vast as the study of General Knowledge or as you put it General Awareness. But on the other hand, the best part on preparation for this section is that you do not need any special skill set as required for Quant and Verbal. What you need is your inclination and interest in regular reading of books, periodicals and news papers.

Conventional Good books on GK are available in the market and may be considered the best to prepare in a short time like Manorama Year Book, General Knowledge refresher, General Knowledge by S. Chand & Co. and so on. Devote a few minutes every day and try to learn this type of GK as much as possible. You may even mug it up-if you can, but better way will be to relate one event to the personality, it will help you to prepare more than one question in a single reading. You may face questions based on the topics like Authors of the books, Historical facts & events, Personalities, places, questions based on inventions, discoveries and Geography, Physics, Chemistry, Biology etc

Business, Finance & Economy This is one of the most important parts of GK that appear in the IIFT entrance examination. Business and finance oriented General Knowledge improves your understanding of economic environment, strengthening your IQ and making you better equipped to face the Group discussions and Personal Interviews. Try to cover hot topics in Business, Finance and Economy. Going through them will help you to prepare better for your forthcoming IIFT examination. Following tips will be a great help to you-

Tips to cover Business & Economy
Please read whatever stuff is available on such topics as you may confront these questions in different manner like What is the current CRR, Difference between CRR & SLR Instruments for money control, The authority that can change the Bank Rate of the Country , Which is the petroleum product from which subsidy has been fully withdrawn, Budget speech of the President marks the beginning or the conclusion of budget session Where the budget is presented first in Loksabha or RajyaSabha, Which company is not included in the NAVRATNA companies of India, GST Bill, IIM Bill and so on.

Regularly read the business, economy page of newspapers like The Times of India, The Economic Times periodicals like The week, India Today, The Economist mark the striking events, read editorials and other articles analyzing various national and international events. Year books, purchased by you, will also be a good help in the preparation.

Current Affairs India - Put more emphasis on last few years events in the country Important changes, Events like Cricket World Cup, Victory at Lords after 28 years, Recent announcements by Government, past and forthcoming Olympics, key appointments, creation of additional states, awards. Global happenings that mark their impacts in the country must be well read. Although there is no syllabus for GK, you must brush up whatever you have read. Draw a quick plan to revise and learn.

Regular reading of the national events in the newspapers like The Hindu and the above mentioned ones will be quite advantageous. You need to spend around 15 minutes a day to it and one event will link you to another. Read the associated events as they are also the probable questions.

International - Answers to Questions based on International affairs sometimes are difficult to distinguish due to the close similarity in names, cities, figures etc. So the important part is to find out some key word in the articles wherefrom you learn and prepare the GK.

Put more emphasis on last decade events and global happenings like global depression, international appointments, mutiny in certain countries, economic swings that made impact on Indian Economy, UN, Defence.

Take it from expert
In view of Prof S K Agarwal, expert on IIFT 2015 preparation, if you read the stuff with interest you will surely remember it. You are still left with 2 months to IIFT 2015. You can prepare, revise and groom the General Awareness very well during this period, if you attend and follow the below given preparation tips.

-The time for crawling preparation is over and the need is to shed the human nature of waking up at the eleventh hour.
-2 months are sufficient to prepare, revise, refresh well in this area. You are required to meticulously follow the guided path and rest assured- if you do it, you will succeed.
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), is a highly ranked B school with an intake of 220 seats to its most sought after 2 years MBA programme in International Business. This programme is available at IIFT New Delhi and Kolkata campuses in India and at Dar-es-Salaam campus in Tanzania.