IIFT 2017 : Important Dates, Eligibility, Selection Procedure, Exam Pattern & Analysis

The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade ( IIFT ) which is one of the premier B-schools of the country has announced admissions to its prestigious MBA (IB) programme for the academic year 2018 – 2020. The admissions are open for the institute’s Delhi, Kolkata and Kakinada campuses.

This blog post will provide you with all the necessary details about the IIFT – 2017 exam.

IIFT 2017 Exam : Important Dates

Last date for online application	Friday, 8th September 2017
Last date to apply online and submit GMAT score for Foreign Nationals and NRIs	Thursday, 15th February 2018
Date of Written Examination	Sunday, 26th November 2017  10.00 a.m. to 12.00 noon

Click Here To Apply For IIFT 2017 Exam

IIFT 2017 Exam : Eligibility Criteria

• Applicant must have a Bachelor’s degree ( minimum of 3 years ) from a recognized university.
• At least 50% marks in graduation for general category. ( For reserved categories, this is relaxed to 45% )
• Candidates in the final year of graduation are also eligible.
• No age criterion.

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IIFT 2017 Exam : Selection Procedure

The selection for IIFT’s MBA ( IB ) programme is done in the following stages :-

i)   Written Examination

ii)  Group Discussion

iii) Writing Skill Assessment

iv) Personal Interview

IIFT 2017 Exam : Exam Pattern

Some of the key features of the IIFT exam that differentiates it from other MBA entrance tests are listed in the following table.

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.

IIFT 2017 Exam : Previous Year’s Exam Analysis 

This exam needs a smart allocation of time which should be done in the very beginning, as the number of questions & sections is known. Generally, 4 sections are expected. Given the nature of questions, one should allot as much time as possible for Quant & DI. That said, other sections cannot be taken lightly as:

1. Sectional cutoffs apply

2. Marking scheme is different for all questions

3. Some questions might be more scoring than others

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Some key points regarding each of the sections are as follows:

Quantitative Ability

This section is reputed to be on the challenging side. With exceptions of the 2013 and 2015 papers, which were comparatively easy and had a number of solvable questions, this section usually has questions that require in-depth calculations and sitters are few.

Logical Reasoning

The section usually has a good mix of selection-based problems, puzzles, input-output problems and other questions that are known to appear frequently in IIFT. As compared to IIFT 2013, which saw easier caselets, IIFT 2014 was more difficult. IIFT 2015 was again similar to IIFT 2013.

Choosing the right questions is the key to sailing through this section.

Data Interpretation

This section is known for its calculation intensive data sets. These are usually time consuming, however a few questions can always be successfully attempted from each set as the questions are not so difficult conceptually. This is a section where the calculation shortcuts and vedic maths tips actually save a lot of time as the questions require heavy calculations, sometimes to the 3rd place of decimal.

Reading Comprehension and Verbal Ability

The section usually comprises of 4 passages.  The Verbal and RC section normally is the easiest to tackle in IIFT.

The RC passages, though long, are usually straight-forward and the questions following these passages 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

Students who have the habit of reading the Newspapers on a regular basis OR following the online news portals find this section doable. The questions which require matching can be easily been solved by elimination. Traditionally the cutoff in GA ranges between 1.5 to 3.

Further Readings:-

i) Importance of GK section & preparation tips

ii) Read newspapers effectively for exam preparation

iii) Study smarter with adaptive learning

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Hope this helps.

All The Best!