IIFT Exam Analysis (Available): Check detailed IIFT Analysis & Expected Cutoff

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.

IIFT exam has 110 questions in total. Section wise, the Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension section has 35 questions, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning section has 30 questions, Quantitative Aptitude has 25 and General Awareness section has 20 questions. Overall, the weightage of VARC section is maximum exam and candidates must try to solve about 27-30 questions to score well in this section. Within the sections, weightage of topics can vary from year to year. For example, in one year, the Quantitative Aptitude section may have more geometry questions than previous years.

The marking scheme of IIFT entrance exam is similar to other MBA entrance exams, i.e. positive and negative marking. Check the table below for details. 

The IIFT exam is of two hours. It is held from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM. there is no sectional time-limit in this exam and candidates have to address about 110 questions in a 120 minutes. Because there is no sectional time limit, candidates need to have a tab on the time so that they are able to solve a good number of questions in every section. Candidates must have a time management strategy for each section so that they don't end up falling short of time in the last section. For example, they should allot maximum time for the section they find the toughest and allot least time on GK.

In an IIFT question paper having 110 questions, about 65-70 accurate answers are considered a good attempt. In IIFT exam, candidates must aim to solve at least 70 questions accurately so as to score a good percentile in the exam for selection of admission to MBA-International Business programme. Sectional cut offs are equally important in IIFT selection process, thus candidates must try to solve 2/3^rd of the total questions in every section of the question paper. They must decide the number of questions to target per section beforehand and follow the same in the exam for best results.

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 General Awareness section of IIFT entrance exam has 20 questions. They are in MCQ format with four options to choose the right answer from. Maximum question are asked from Static GK whereas Current Affairs questions are less. This section is memory bases so it is best to attempt in the end, after completing the Quantitative Aptitude, Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension and Reasoning sections. Keep aside 10-15 minutes in the end to attempt this section in the IIFT exam.

Even the preparation for this section should be done preferably towards the exam date as one only needs to memorize events, dates, personalities, etc.

The difficulty level of Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension section of IIFT exam varies every year. Although, one can say that this section of IIFT is usually tougher than other MBA entrance exams, it is not really that tough as the Reading Comprehension passages are short and fact based. The questions are also simple and can be solved by noting important points of the passages. The readability is often good and candidates do not feel shortage of time in reading and solving IIFT reading comprehension passages. The Verbal Ability questions of IIFT are easy and pertain to mostly grammar and vocabulary.

If the IIFT question paper has 110 questions, you should attempt 65-70 questions with 100 per cent accuracy for a decent score. Ideally, candidates must attempt to solve about 2/3rd of the total questions in each section to be able to meet the sectional as well as overall cut off.

Since, there is negative marking in the IIFT exam candidates must make sure that they don’t waste marks by choosing incorrect options. If they are not sure of the answer, they should skip the question instead of making a guess because there is no negative marking for skipping questions. Negative marking can severely hamper your overall score.

Yes, the IIFT syllabus is similar to CAT syllabus. The topics included in English, Logical Reasoning, Data Interpretation and Quantitative Aptitude section of IIFT exam are same as CAT. The topics included in these sections of IIFT are same as that of CAT. In VARC section, one has to study reading comprehension, verbal ability, vocabulary and grammar. In Quantitative Aptitude section of both exams, there are questions from Arithmetic, Mensuration, Geometry, Trigonometry, Algebra, Modern Math, etc. In Data Interpretation, one has to study Tables, Charts, Graphs and Venn Diagrams. The Logical Reasoning section of both exams has questions from Sequence, Number System, Coding-Decoding, Family Tree, Blood Relations, Series, etc.

However, IIFT aspirants have to study General Awareness too as it is one of the four sections of IIFT question paper. The General Awareness section is memory based and can be prepared in the last month before the IIFT exam. Candidates can prepare for both CAT and IIFT simultaneously.  Read more: Is IIFT tougher than CAT exam?

There is differential negative marking in IIFT entrance exam. The negative marking is same for three sections and different for one section. One mark is deducted for every wrong attempt in Quantitative Aptitude, Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension and Reasoning sections. In General Awareness section, the negative marking is 0.5 for each wrong attempt. For a better understanding take a look at this table:

The topics under Quantitative Aptitude, Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation and Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension are the same for both CAT and IIFT. The latter, however has an extra subject – General Awareness (For General Awareness preparation, candidates need to devote only one month before the exam). Since to topics are same in both exams, the books recommended for IIFT are same as for CAT. Candidates can prepare for both exams simultaneously but the preparation strategy has to be exam-specific for both. Candidates need to practice sample questions and mock tests for IIFT. Solving CAT mock tests or sample question will not be helpful for IIFT as the type and difficulty level of questions are very different from CAT. The exam pattern and marking scheme of IIFT are also different from CAT. So, even though the CAT and IIFT syllabus are the same the preparation has to be different from each other.

If the IIFT question paper has 110 questions, you should attempt 65-70 questions with 100 per cent accuracy for a decent score. Ideally, candidates must attempt to solve about 2/3rd of the total questions in each section to be able to meet the sectional as well as overall cut off.

Since, there is negative marking in the IIFT exam candidates must make sure that they don’t waste marks by choosing incorrect options. If they are not sure of the answer, they should skip the question instead of making a guess because there is no negative marking for skipping questions. Negative marking can severely hamper your overall score.

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.

Yes, it is not mandatory to answer all the questions in the IIFT exam and no marks will be deducted for skipping questions. If you are not sure of the right answer to a particular question, skip it to avoid negative marking. Candidates should solve only those questions in the IIFT exam which they can solve accurately and minimum time. However, candidates must keep in mind that they need to meet a minimum cut off in every section so they should not skip too many questions. Meeting the sectional cut off will ensure that their overall IIFT score is high enough for selection in the personal interview and group discussion round of MBA admission.

Yes, there could be some e non-MCQs in IIFT exam, most likely in the Quantitative Aptitude section. However, the number of non-MCQs will be lesser than MCQs. The candidates will have to type in the answer with the help of computer keyboard. For doing calculation and rough work, candidates will be given rough sheet that will have to be submitted at the end of the test. The non-MCQs are usually of low difficulty level and have simple calculations. So, candidates will not face a lot of difficulty in solving the non-MCQs. Solving all the questions is not mandatory so one can skip the non-MCQ questions too if they find it difficult.