Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi

Every candidate must decide on the number of mock tests according to their own ability, strengths and weaknesses viz. the IIFT syllabus. However, it is recommended that candidates must practice at least 25-30 IIFT mock tests during exam preparation to reach 99 percentile level.The best time to start mock test practice is after completing the IIFT syllabus because if you solve mock tests without gaining control over the topics you might face difficulties in many. So, first complete the syllabus and then start mock test practice. Keep at least 2 months for IIFT mock test practice so that you can solve 25-30 mock tests in total in a gap of one day. An important aspect of mock test practice is analyzing their result. After solving every IIFT mock test, analyse your performance to see control on the topics. You will know which topics are your strong point and which require some more hard work.

Ideally, six to eight hours daily is what experts recommend for IIFT exam preparation, but since working professionals can’t devote that many hours, they should at least strive to devote four hours every day. They can study for longer hours on Saturday and Sunday. By striking a balance between weekdays and weekends, working professionals can crack the IIFT exam. It is just that they will have to study after work.They should start preparation much earlier as they will have less time to devote on daily basis. Ideally a working professional should start preparing for IIFT exam from March so that they have ample time to complete the syllabus and practice enough mock tests.

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.