IIFT – 2010 Analysis

Click here for the Key

Click here for IIFT 2010 Solutions

Exam Snapshot

IIFT 2010 largely remained true to its reputation, largely because it had some very difficult Quant questions and some highly calculation intensive DI questions. And only largely because it followed the same pattern in terms of marking and in terms of number of sections and marking pattern and threw no real big surprises at the students on this front.

The paper needed smart allocation of time to be done as soon as the exam starts, when the number of questions & sections is known. As 4 broad sections are generally expected, as much time as possible for Quant & DI should be the right strategy for this year as well ,keeping in mind the papers of previous years. That said, enough time was to be allocated for Verbal & GA sections, as sectional cut offs exist.

A good time allocation strategy would be to give GK around 10-15 minutes, similar time for the Verbal Ability part of English and apportion the remaining time between the other sections depending on their relative difficulty levels.

Given the time pressure in an exam of 135 questions, the candidates feel a strong urge to quickly choose between two options and move on. Students who overcame this would stand a better chance of clearing the cut offs as their accuracy would be high.

Also those who smartly negotiated the LDI section by carefully picking the questions to answer, there by avoiding the calculation intensive questions would have a better chance. Infact, this is one section which will play a major role in the low cut-offs over all.

The paper also had quite a few errors which again would have wasted the students time and there by resulting in lower cut offs.

Let us now look at the individual sections of IIFT 2010.

Section 1

No. of Qs : 30 (1.0 marks per Q  Total Marks – 30.0 Marks)
Description       : Quantitative Ability

The Quantitative section, similar to last year was on the very difficult side. Most questions needed indepth calculations and thinking while the sitters were far and few in between. Most of those which the students would be tempted to attempt needed simple logic but had engrossing calculations and hence the over all attempts in the paper would be low.

Students should be on the alert for any opportunities of back-substitution of choices like in the question on confectionaries. The questions on Cosine rule , PPL (Shyam, Gopal & Madhur), T&W (Dr. Gupta, Dr. Sharma, Dr. Singh), Venn diagrams (Rajneeti, Avatar, 3 Idiots) are on the familiar and easier side and the students should not have missed these.

Sitters like the question on Log 2 were not to be missed along with basic conceptual questions like the one on "SERIES".

Question 13 did not have the right choice and those who attenpted this would have wasted some valuable time on it. Errors like this and the general difficulty level of the paper would mean that the cut off in this section would be low at around 7-8. A good time allocation strategy for this section would be around 35-40 minutes. Attempts in the range of 12-13 should be considered to be very good.

Let us look at the topic wise breakup of the section

Section 2

No. of Qs : 40 (15Qs in Part-1 (RC) & 25 Qs in Part-2 (Vocab) Total Marks – 23.0 Marks)

Description      : Verbal

This section comprised of two parts viz. Reading Comprehension and Verbal ability and had a total of 40Qs. The RC Qs had a higher weightage of 0.7mark/Q whereas the Verbal Qs had a weightage of 0.5marks/Q. This would bring the weightages of RC and Vocab closer compared to last year when they were 1 & 0.6 resectively.

There were 4 RCs in the Part-I of this section. The passages themselves were not easy to read. The ones on Kodak And Warren Buffet could be grasped with one careful reading.

The ones on Limited Statistical Evidence and Reactions to Organisational Experience were difficult to grasp and would have needed re-reading in places. The questions were difficult to answer mainly because of the poor phrasing, and seeming irrelevance of some choices. The Verbal ability part was not too easy either. The Qs on Fill in the Blanks, Sentence correction, Similar Analogies, Spellings and Error Identification were easier than the others and should have been attempted. The Reverse Analogies and the Jumbled sentences were difficult. A good time allocation strategy for this section would be around 30-35 minutes. Attempts in the range of 21-22 should be considered to be very good.

Section 3

No. of Qs : 35 (1.0 marks per Q  Total Marks – 35.0 Marks)

Description : Logic & Data Interpretation

Like last year and the year before, the Data Interpretation section was the ‘most tedious’ section in IIFT-2010 on account of the very lengthy and time consuming calculations required to solve each question.

The graphs and data given were easy to understand, but the amount of calculations with the kind of numbers given (looked like IIFT is using real numbers instead of toning the data down for exam usage) was the factor which dragged down the speed of most of the students including the well prepared ones. This shows that clear focus on speed maths practice would provide the much needed edge to the students in this section.

The lone question with pie chart on different states was a surprise sitter amidst sets having loads of calculations.

The sets on "Population", "Branding Points" and "Floor Space" were on the easier side and should have been attempted. They had their share of difficult questions too, but the smart student would have spotted them out and avoided them. The set on "Carbon Credits' was very difficult and the students would have done well to leave this. The set on mobile companies had too much data to work with, and with numbers like those in this set, it would be nearly impossible to be fast and accurate in an exam scenario. This set was to be left alone.

The Qs on logic were of familar formats but had too much data and too many parameters. This again would provide no respite to the students who would have looked to quickly sneak through the logic part of this section.

The sets on "Cultural Week" and "Parking Lot" were easier ones of the lot and should have been definitely attempted.

A good time allocation strategy for this section would be around 30-35 minutes. Attempts in the range of 13-15 should be considered to be very good.

Section 4

No. of Qs : 30 (0.4 marks per Q  Total Marks – 12.0 Marks)

Description : General Knowledge

"Any thing under the Sun" section which General Awareness is, is again on the similar and expected lines as last year. The questions were of known pattern and were on familiar and expected topics like Navratnas, FDI, Cities, SEZ etc.

Students who are in touch with the happenings around them through the newspapers on a regular basis would have a definite edge over the others who tried some last minute sprints to the yearbooks et. al.

A good time allocation for this section would be around 10-12 minutes. Attempts in the range of 12-14 should be considered to be very good.

IIFT Fact file

Click here for IIFT 2010 Solutions