Expert Speak: 5 Things to Keep in Mind for IIFT Exam 2023

The difficulty level of IIFT exam is usually high, with tricky VARC and calculation intensive Quants. The IIFT 2023 question paper was also of moderate difficulty level. VARC was moderate to tough, so was the DILR section. The Quant section was tougher than VARC, DILR and GA.

The IIFT entrance exam is considered one of the high difficulty level MBA entrance exams in India. The syllabus and pattern are prescribed by the institute. It also sets the test paper. Considering IIFT is one of the top colleges for MBA in India, the only moderate to high level questions are selected to prepare the test.

Yes, the difficulty level of the IIFT question paper may affect the admission cut offs.  If the difficulty level of the IIFT question paper is high, the admission cut off may be lower and if the question paper is easy the admission cut off may be high. The IIFT cut offs also depend upon overall scoring trend and pass percentage of the given year.

 The difficulty level of IIFT 2023 question paper was moderate to high, similar to IIFT 2022, thus the cut offs were in same range as previous years. 

The Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension section of IIFT entrance exam has the maximum weightage. There are 35 questions in this section and total marks is 105. Each question carries 3 marks for correct attempt and -1 for incorrect attempt. This section is usually of moderate difficulty level. The questions are asked from Reading Comprehension passages, Identify the Synonym, Identify Grammatically Correct/Incorrect Sentence, One Word Substitution, Jumbled Paragraphs, etc. The Reading Comprehension passages are simple and fact based so there's not much pressure on candidates to get the gist right. Verbal Ability and Grammar questions are usually easy and can be completed within minutes.

Ideally, a candidate must prepare for the IIFT exam for at least six to nine months. They must study for the exam diligently for six to eight hours every day and the daily plan should include studying a chapter, solving related sample questions and memorising formulae. The first few months should be spent in covering the IIFT syllabus. An important aspect of IIFT preparation is practicing sample questions that are based on the important topics of IIFT syllabus. After that candidates must spend about two months in solving practice questions and mock tests. In the last month before the exam, candidates must make time for revision of all the important chapters and have problem solving sessions to tie up the loose ends. In the last month, keep the focus on important topics from which maximum questions are asked.

The Pearson Guide to Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning by Nishant Sinha and Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning by RS Aggarwal, are highly recommended for IIFT exam’s Verbal Ability preparation. Candidates must study from books which are recommended by experts and toppers only as this exam requires focused preparation and you can't afford to waste time.

The Verbal Ability section of IIFT includes Reading Comprehension. The Reading Comprehension passages of IIFT are long and tough so it is important that you have a good control over English comprehension and reading speed. For this, you need to start preparations early on by reading books, novels, magazines and newspapers. Target reading about 20 pages of a book every day. Do it for six months.

Indian Institute of Foreign Trade offers various facilities to postgraduate students. Currently, over 60 students are residing in the newly constructed hostel. IIFT has computer centres and offers various other facilities to the students. One of the major USPs of Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT Delhi) is its Foreign Trade library which is a knowledge bank for several resources in the field of WTO-related issues, Foreign Trade, Management, and others. IIFT's library has 84,000 volumes and subscribes to around 800 journals. There are 17,581 bound periodicals and 255 periodicals. 

The candidate must start preparing for IIFT exam at least six months in advance. They should complete the IIFT syllabus in first three months and then practise a good number of mock tests and sample papers in the remaining time along with regular revision. The IIFT exam is a high difficulty level test, thus it is important for candidates to plan way ahead and start preparations at the early stage. Since the exam is held in December, candidates need to take the decision of preparing for it the latest my May-June so that they have at least 6 months for preparation.