IIFT 2017 – Exam Preparation Strategy

The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) written examination for admissions for the academic year 2018 – 2020 is on 26 November 2017. With limited time available for the exam, are you sure you are practicing enough and in the correct direction? Here, we will help you understand how to ace the exam with Oliveboard’s mocks and reap the maximum benefits. Let’s quickly glance through the IIFT 2017 exam pattern before that.

IIFT 2017 – Exam Pattern

Attribute	Description
Exam Mode	Paper-Pencil Format (As against online)
Total Time	2 Hours (No sectional time limits)
Marking Scheme	Differential Marking (Negative Marking: -⅓ of allotted marks); Total Marks: 100
	Quantitative Ability	Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation		English Comprehension		General Awareness
	1.00	LR	DI	RC	VA	0.5
		1.00	1.00	1.00	0.75
Number of Questions	Range: 110 – 140

The number of questions are not definite and vary each year.

Quantitative Ability: This section is considered as one of the most challenging ones in most of the competitive exams. However, IIFT 2013 and 2015 papers had comparatively easy questions for this section. Otherwise, it mostly includes questions that needs in-depth calculations.

Logical Reasoning: This section usually has a good mix of puzzles, input-output problems and other questions. IIFT 2013 and 2015 had easier case lets compared to IIFT 2014. Choosing the right questions is the key in this section.

Data Interpretation: This section is full of intense calculation of data sets. These are usually time question and consumes the maximum time during the exam. Calculation shortcuts and Vedic math tricks come handy for this section.

Few Tips to Improve your Calculation Speed

• Memorize all the multiplication tables up to 20, squares up to 30, cubes up to 20 and fraction tables
• Include calculations in your everyday life to improve your skills
• Continuous practice is necessary. This will help one identify pattern and thus develop tricks of their own
• Make notes of important quant formulas and keep revising
• Attempt as many mock tests you can and analyse your performance and speed after every mock.

Read more on how to improve your calculation speed.

Download speed math, shortcuts & tips vol. 1 for free and improve your quant knowledge and skills.

English Comprehension: This section usually includes 4 passages.  The Verbal and RC section normally is the easiest to tackle in IIFT. The passages are usually straight-forward and questions are mostly of moderate level.

Sentence jumbles, Direct-Indirect speech translation, forming meaningful words based on number codes and Latin Phrases were some new question types introduced in IIFT 2011 syllabus.

General Awareness: Candidate with a regular habit of reading newspapers usually find this section easy. One needs to be aware of the current happenings and popular news to crack this section.

Few General Exam Tips

• Get a strong hold over basics
• Maintain notes of quant formulas, grammar rules
• Practice sectional practice tests
• Attempt full-length mock tests and analyse mocks

Analysing Mocks

Divide each section into areas, sub-sections and sub-topics and check the trend in each area, sub-section and sub-topic. Analysis should be based on the same parameters (trends) as the overall test: Attempts and Accuracy. This done regularly over a period should give you a trend of your performance in each section.

Ace the IIFT Exam with Oliveboard’s Topical Tests – Level 1, 2 & 3

Take topic tests for 35+ topics on Oliveboard to make the most out of your practice sessions. Each topic is divided into Level 1 (Easy), Level 2 (Moderate) and Level 3(Difficult). Based on your comfort and preparation, you can take these tests for different topics of varying difficulty level.

• Login to Oliveboard
• Click on the Practice Tests tab

Level 1: The difficulty level of these tests is basic and are aimed towards building conceptual clarity. Once you’ve taken this, it’s time to move to the next level!

Level 2: In these tests you can expect moderate level questions and taking these tests will help you strengthen your ability to apply concepts.

Level 3: Here you can expect the difficulty level to range from high to very high. Level 3 tests are challenging and are aimed at preparing you for the trickiest of all questions.

#Tip: Go from Level 1 to level 3 to reap the maximum benefits.

Register with Oliveboard and start practicing today. We wish you all the best for your exam preparation and the upcoming IIFT examination.