IIFT – 2008 Analysis

Exam Snapshot

IIFT seems to be mimicking CAT in its unpredictability and the surprise element. IIFT in 2006 introduced multiple correct answers for questions and in 2007 matched (though most would say surpassed) the difficulty level of the CAT and reduced students to tears.IIFT in 2008 broke new ground by going in for a ‘SIX section’ paper which would have truly confounded most students who found it extremely difficult to plan the right time allocation strategy. More so given the absence of any information from IIFT on the issue of sectional cut-offs. The prudent ones would have however opted for safety and would have tried to do well in all sections. This strategy would have been the best considering the fact that IIFT did have sectional cut-offs in 2007 though the quantum was not specified. Moreover the splitting up of the ‘Quant’ section of 2007 into Quantitative and Data Interpretation sections in 2008 would have been a pointer of things to come as it is quite possible that IIFT wanted to evaluate the skills of students in each of these areas separately and thus pointing to sectional cut-offs.

Note: The following analysis is being done on the 'A' Series booklet.

Section 1

No. of Qs: 32 (0.8 marks per Q à Total Marks – 25.6 Marks)

Description       : Reasoning & Business Decision Making

The Reasoning & Business Decision Making section was quite verbose and would have required a lot of effort on the part of students to get decent attempts and a good score. The paper had quite a few puzzles and the surprising thing was that these mirrored the puzzle sets asked in CAT in the last 4-5 years. The set on ‘Five women shopping’ and the one on the ‘Motor race competition’ were the ones based on previous CAT sets. The former was quite a tough nut to crack and could have easily trapped many into committing mistakes. The key in this paper would have been to pick up the set based questions and avoid the individual questions. The ones on ‘Motor races’ and the puzzle on the ‘Mansingh family’ should have been attempted. The Deductions questions were quite doable and so were the Decision making sets on ‘Dadhichi Institute of Management’ and the ‘National Film Festival’. A good time allocation strategy for this section would be around 20-25 minutes. Attempts in the range of 14-15 should be considered to be very good.

Section 2

No. of Qs: 27 (0.7 marks per Q à Total Marks – 18.9 Marks)
Description       : Quantitative Ability

The Quantitative section had a surfeit of questions from the higher math areas than the traditional arithmetic questions. This coupled with the fact that the calculations for some of the questions were quite tedious would have made this one of the most difficult sections in IIFT-2008. Students should have realised that this was a low scoring section and should have diverted some of the time from this section to others where there were chances of a better score. A good time allocation strategy for this section would be around 20-25 minutes. Attempts in the range of 7-8 should be considered to be very good.

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Section 3

No. of Qs: 26 (0.8 marks per Q à Total Marks – 20.8 Marks)

Description: Data Interpretation

The Data Interpretation section can be classified as the ‘most tedious’ section in IIFT-2008 on account of the very lengthy and time consuming calculations required to solve each question. The data representation was easy to understand but most students would have been bogged down by the sheer weight of the calculations. Students who had left this section out would have taken a major gamble on account of the uncertainty with sectional cut-offs. . A good time allocation strategy for this section would be around 20-25 minutes. Attempts in the range of 12-13 should be considered to be very good.

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Section 4

No. of Qs: 12 (0.8 marks per Q à Total Marks – 9.6 Marks)

Description        : Reading Comprehension

The Reading Comprehension section had three passages which were quite lengthy and would have taken a fair bit of time to read. Students would have found the going tough on account of the ‘TRUE or FALSE’ questions that were common in all three passages. Passages 2 and 3 were easy to read and would have made many a student nostalgic on account of the passage being from Jules Verne’s “Twenty thousand leagues under the sea”. Though students would have found the passage on the ‘account of a ship journey’ easy to read it was by far the most difficult one on account of the tricky and very close options. The passage on ‘Nautilus’ easy to read and students should have attempted it. Though the passage on ‘Inventory’ was lengthy it had the easiest questions in this section and students would have found it quite easy to crack. A good time allocation strategy for this section would be around 15 minutes. Attempts in the range of 6-7 should be considered to be very good.

Section 5

No. of Qs: 23 (0.7 marks per Q à Total Marks – 16.1 Marks)

Description        : Verbal Ability

The Verbal section severely tested the students on their proficiency in vocabulary which made scoring quite tough for the not so adept students. The questions on phrasing were tricky with very close choices which would have induced many mistakes on the part of students. The para-jumbles were quite doable and students should have attempted them. A good time allocation strategy for this section would be around 15 minutes. Attempts in the range of 11-12 should be considered to be very good.

Section 6

No. of Qs: 30 (0.3 marks per Q à Total Marks – 9.0 Marks)

Description        : General Knowledge

This section was quite unlike the IIFT papers of yore on account of the fairly easy questions and choices (as compared to the previous years!!). However this would have proved to be a difficult section for those whose reading is erratic and who do not follow the daily news. This would have been a scoring section for those who had done quite a bit of reading and had prepared for this exam by doing a lot of reading. A good time allocation for this section would be around 10-15 minutes. Attempts in the range of 13-14 should be considered to be very good.

Sectional Scores and Overall Cut-Off

Neither the IIFT paper nor the IIFT bulletin has made any mention of sectional cut-offs. One should note that IIFT 2007 had sectional cut-offs albeit on the lower side on account of the very difficult paper. It is quite likely that this year the institute might go only for overall cut-off and not impose any sectional cut-offs. However if in case there are sectional cut-offs, then they could be in the range as given below.

IIFT Fact file