An analysis of five years of IIFT papers

Around three months are left for the IIFT entrance exam scheduled on November 25, 2012. With the registration deadline ending on September 3, 2012, preparation should be at its peak now. The first step of preparation is to become aware of the exam pattern and the trends of change.

IIFT entrance exams follow a set pattern but the number of questions varies every year. The paper also throws some surprises every year. The exam follows a paper-pencil-based format. Each question had four options and the extent of the negative marking was 1/3rd of the marks allotted to the question. The duration of the exam is two hours, and will be held from 10 am to 12 noon. The sections are quantitative ability, reading comprehension, English usage, data interpretation, logical reasoning and general awareness. The difficulty level ranges from moderate to difficult.

Let us now have a look at the section-wise analysis in detail:
IIFT 2007: IIFT 2007 was on the same lines of IIFT 2006. The difficulty level was moderate to difficult. The verbal ability section was of moderate difficulty level, while reading comprehension passages were simple in nature. The EU questions were on fill in the blanks, spotting the correct/incorrect sentences, verbal analogies, direct vocabulary, para jumbles, spelling check, etc.

The general awareness section had moderate to difficult level of questions. The emphasis was on current affairs and static GK. The Quant section had questions from arithmetic, algebra, set theory, permutation, combination, probability, complex number, statistics and trigonometry. The overall difficulty level of the section was easy to moderate.

The data interpretation section was tough and calculation intensive while the logical reasoning and decision making parts were easy. The topics of this section were tables, blood relation, simple syllogism, numerical reasoning, comparison-based reasoning, criteria-based decision making and individual reasoning.

IIFT 2008: The IIFT 2008 paper had 150 questions and the difficulty level was tough. The Quant section was very difficult. The calculations for some questions were tedious. The topics were permutation & combination, probability, maxima minima, progressions, statistics, geometry & mensuration, statistics, trigonometry, etc.

The verbal ability & reading comprehension section was of moderate difficulty level. The comprehension passages were long. The English usage portion was difficult in nature. The questions were on vocabulary, fill in the blanks, phrasing, analogy, antonyms, para jumble and word usage. The data interpretation & logical reasoning section was of easy to moderate difficulty level. The questions were on puzzles, symbols notation, deductions, decision making and input-output. The data interpretation area was of moderate difficulty level. The questions were on table, bar graph and line graph.

The general awareness section was of moderate difficulty level. The questions were from the areas like sports, literature, general awareness, geography, economics, current affairs, awards and science. IIFT 2009: IIFT 2009 had seen a drop in the number of questions from 150 to 122. The overall difficulty level was moderate. The Quant section was tough. The questions were a mix of higher and basic maths. The topics were percentage, permutation and combination, probability, trigonometry, progression, plane geometry, logarithm, equations and inequations, time-speed- distance, work and time, games of skills, stocks and shares and mensuration.

The data interpretation and logical reasoning section was moderate. The DI sets were based on bar graphs and tables. The LR questions were on direction sense, blood relations, data arrangement, quantitative reasoning and input-output.

The verbal ability section had four RC passages which were of moderate-to-tough difficulty level. The english usage questions were on synonyms, antonyms, fill in the blanks, sentence correction and paragraph formation. Compared to other sections, it was easy.

The general awareness section was of moderate difficulty level. The questions were a mixture of traditional and dynamic GK. There were questions from business, books, writers, current affairs and economics.

IIFT 2010: IIFT 2010 again saw an increase in the number of questions, from 122 to 135. The difficulty level of the paper was moderate to difficult. The Quant section was moderate. The questions were on number systems, progression, percentages, average, permutation & combination, probability, maxima & minima, trigonometry, profit & loss, partnership, co-ordinate geometry, linear & quadratic equations, mensuration, trigonometry, logarithm, set theory, algebra, etc.

The data interpretation & logical reasoning section was of Easy to Moderate difficulty level. The LR section was easier than the DI section. The questions were from data arrangement, table, bar chart and bar graph.
IIFT 2011: IIFT 2011 exam was quite lengthy. The difficulty level was moderate. The quantitative ability section had 24 questions from arithmetic, algebra, geometry, permutation & combination and probability. The overall difficulty level was easy to moderate.

The reading comprehension section had 15 questions. The difficulty level was easy to moderate. The English usage section had 20 questions from vocabulary, which had more questions on synonyms, antonyms, figure of speech and idioms. The other questions were on grammar, para completion, sentence jumble and word jumble. The difficulty level was easy to moderate.

The logical reasoning section had 21 questions. The difficulty level of the section was easy. There were few questions from verbal logic as well. The other questions came from blood relations, team selection, arrangement, coding & de-coding, information-based sets, syllogisms and course of action. This section had 21 questions. The difficulty level was tougher than last year. The section had a mix of questions from static GK and current affairs.

The difficulty level of the section was moderate to tough. Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more on IIFT 2012 exam.