IIFT exam 2016: Last minute tips, cut-offs, exam analysis by expert; key tips to improve percentile & get the call

IIFT 2016 entrance exam aspirants are ready to take the bull by the horns on November 27 as only a day away from now, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade will conduct its entrance examination for admission to MBA (IB) 2017-19 batch across the country in a single session and in paper pen mode from 10AM to 12Noon. Around 45000 aspirants are expected to appear in the IIFT 2016 entrance exam. This article by Prof Arks Srinivas CEO VistaMind Education shares last minute tips to crack the exam with high score along with expected cut offs based on the past trends for the benefit of IIFT aspirants.

MBAUniverse.com & VistaMind have taken the unique initiative of providing detailed IIFT exam analysis with IIFT Call-Predictor to assess and predict whether you will get shortlisted by IIFT on the basis of your performance on Nov 27 in IIFT 2016 entrance exam.

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To know your accurate percentile in IIFT 2016 exam fill up the registration form. This will help you to get your percentile score based on the exam analysis and your performance in the exam.
The management exam season begins with IIFT exam on Sunday, the 27th of November! Many students preparing for CAT (which is on 4th Dec), would take a break and gear their preparation towards IIFT in this week and for the last two days. Unlike CAT and SNAP which are coming up in the month of December, IIFT has a GK section which makes people wince!

The good news, however, is that the cutoffs for IIFT has always been very low. The GK sectional cut-off last year was as low as 0.82!, YES !, less than 1 mark (out of 14 marks)!!
Things to do

Write One Mock at least (Or write the IIFT 2015 or IIFT 2013 paper)
Go through the Current Affairs of the last three months
Finalise your broad strategy for the paper

Review of previous 3 year IIFT exams
Before getting to a strategy of attempting the IIFT 2016 paper, it would be a good idea to review the IIFT papers over the last three years.

2015
2014
2013

Areas
#Qns

Marks
Total
Section
#Qns

Marks
Total

Section
#Qns

Marks
Total

Section
VA
20
0.75
15
31
20
0.75
15
32
20
0.75
15
27

RC
16
1
16
17
1
17
16
0.75
12

QA
22
1
22
22
20
1
20
35
25
1
25
25

DI
18
1
18
33
15

1
15
19
1
19
34
LR
20
0.75
15
20
1
20
20
20
0.75
15

GK
28
0.5
14
14
26
0.5
13
13
28
0.5
14
14

Total
124
100
118
100
128
100

VA Verbal Ability ; RC Reading Comprehension ; QA Quantitative Aptitude ;
DI Data Interpretation ; LR Logical Reasoning ; GK General Knowledge
As can be seen in the above pattern, broadly, the paper has not changed much. The DI area has been given both with QA as well as LR. The number of questions have changed very slightly in each of the sections and it is imperative that one gives time to each section so that one crosses the cut-off in every section.
Individual Sectional Cutoffs & Overall Cutoffs of IIFT 2015 and IIFT 2014

Individual Sectional Cut-offs
SectionIIFT 2015
IIFT 2014

VARC
8.75
6.5

QA
4.34
4.67*

DI LR
8.68
4.34*

Gk
0.82
2.49

* In 2014, DI was with QA and LR was a separate section
Overall Cut-offs in IIFT

Category
IIFT 2015
IIFT 2014

General
48.5
38.5

OBC
43.5
33.5

SC/ST/PH
38.5
28.5

IIFT has individual section cutoffs as well as overall cutoffs. The cutoff for the IIFT exam (for a general category student) has ranged from 38 marks to 48 marks over the years. In 2015 it was 48.5! Correspondingly, for a OBC student, the cutoff would be in the 33 to 43 range (about 5 to 8 marks less than general category mark). For an SC, ST and a PH category student, the required cutoff would be further down by another 5 marks respectively.
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Individual Section Cut-offs
The individual sectional cut-offs are normally not very high for the IIFT exam. A tentative cut-offs list could be as follows - VARC : 6.5 to 9 ; DILR : 6 to 10; QA : 4 to 7; GK : 1.5 to 2.5

Exam Strategy for the IIFT
It is expected that there would not be too much of a change in the pattern and it can follow almost the similar pattern as the last year or the year before last.
For IIFT, it is NOT enough to cross the cutoff for each section but to have an overall score, which is higher than the sum of cutoffs of individual sections. As you can see from the individual sectional cutoffs, the sum of them could be less than half the total score required for crossing the overall cutoff

Suggested Strategy for IIFT 2016

Sl no
Section
# Questions
Time Allocated
Desired Attempts

1
VARC
36-37
30
30+

2
QA
22-25
30
15+

3
LRDI
35-39
35/40
20+

4
GK
25-28
10
20+

Total
120-130
110*
85+

As one can see, the total time available is 120 minutes whereas, in the above time allocation, we have allocated only 105/110 minutes.

Buffer Time and Maximising Marks
The remaining 10/15 minutes should be used as a buffer and one should return to that section which is the easiest in the paper so as to maximize marks in at least one section. This will ensure that the overall score would be higher.
All competitive exams require the student to be mentally prepared for any eventuality and quickly adjust to the number of questions and time available for the same.
Sticking to a basic strategy would ensure that one goes through every question in the paper and hence gets a chance to maximize the score in paper!
To know your IIFT 2016 exam score and chances to get admission call from IIFT Register here for IIFT Call Predictor