Optimising IIFT score

Just two days before the exam, writing a blog on optimising your IIFT score, I know I am late.  But equally sure I am that most of you would have woken up from post CAT slumber not long ago 🙂

Here, I am going to discuss how I would spend the 120 minutes inside the exam hall.  But before doing that I need to let you know my strengths and weaknesses (pertaining to IIFT exam) as a student so that you can understand the logic behind my course of action.

• I am not strong at any particular section but neither am I weak at any.  Although I prefer Verbal, Logical Reasoning, DI, RC, Maths & GK in the that order.
•  IIFT being a speed oriented test, my order of attempt would differ from my preference. The usual attempt vs. accuracy trade off has to be kept in mind. And out of the two I always choose number of attempts.
• Although it is unclear if IIFT will have sectional cut off, I will attempt each section.  Fortunately or unfortunately, lack of super competence in any section permits me to do that.
• I go with the mindset that if I am finding it difficult at least 99% of the crowd would be finding it difficult.

Now, I would talk about each section in the order I would attempt them in the paper.

Section I GK:  As far as GK is concerned, we all are in same boat isn’t it?? And there lies the beauty; the cut-off is usually low, to the extent of 1.5-2 marks.  Another good part is that there are match the following questions in GK, so even if I can find two correct matches just by working through options I can get to the right the right answers.  I aim to attempt  10 -12 questions in 6- 8 minutes and knowing that even if I get 60% of them right, it is job well done.

Section II Verbal:  Like it or not, IIFT is a speed test and those who are good in English will always do well in a speed test.  I know there is a breed of people for whom verbal is akin to nightmare. Fortunately I belong to the other breed. The verbal section has good mix of vocab, PJ, grammar & other regulars.  I go for a kill in this section attempting all the questions in 20 minutes time.  The aim is to achieve 75% accuracy.  Now for the other breed – a clichéd ‘attempt as many as possible’.

Section III LR:  This section is length but easy to attempt. And again for this section too, most of us would be in same boat.  Most of us like (irrespective of getting them correct) such as seating arrangements & selection question.  My idea in this section would be to attempt 3-4 caselets. I attempt series completion & coding de coding question only if I am left with some time. I would devote 25 minutes to this section and my aim would be to achieve 90% accuracy.

Section IV RC:  Have you heard ‘Khoda Pahar Nikli Chuhiya’, that is how IIFT RC’s are. Lengthy and tiring but having direct questions.  Unlike CAT RCs here I am not required to read each and every word.  I consciously read quickly and my aim is to attempt 8-10 questions in 20 minutes.  I am talking questions and not RCs because I may end up attempting questions from 3-4 Rcs without reading any RC fully. It is completely unlike CAT RC approach – read questions and then search for the answer in the passage.

Section V DI: IIFT DI is usually calculation intensive. Rather than focusing on 1-2 caselets, I scan all the caselets and attempt those questions which are less time consuming. My aim would be to attempt 8-10 questions in this section in 25 minutes.   

Section VI QA: I belong to the breed that does not prefer QA section.  IIFT Quant questions would be 4-5 liners and I am too lazy to read and then formulate them. I read those few two liner questions and my section actually ends with it. I aim to attempt 7-8 questions in whatever remaining time I have with the hope that I do not get more than 1 wrong.

I understand that manner of attempting any paper is subjective and each individual may have different preferences while attempting.  But I believe that way IIFT is normalised 🙂 the approach I suggest should optimise your score.

Siddharth Mehta

XLRI Alumnus Batch of 2006-08