The nation-wide test for admission to the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) held on November 25 came as a breather for the aspirants, with the level of difficulty being lower than that of last year. Unlike 2011, the presence of sectional cut-offs was clearly mentioned. There were a total of four questions (LR-2, DI-1 and Verbal-1), where the options did not match. To boost the overall score you had to attempt more questions from the sections having one mark per question to minimise negative marking, which was 1/3rd of a mark for every wrong attempt.
Section 1:
(a) Verbal ability:
This section covered a range of questions from vocabulary to grammar to figures of speech. The questions were easier and time-saving as compared to last year
(b)Reading comprehension:
The paper had four descriptive and diverse reading comprehension passages. Each passage had four questions each out of which at least three were easy to interpret and answer.
Section 2:
(a) Logical reasoning:
Compared to last year, there were fewer verbal reasoning questions. In addition, the paper had two questions from the input-output topic, which are generally asked in the Common Management Aptitude Test (CMAT) and Narsee Monjee Aptitude Test (NMAT). Answers to a few questions were not given in the options. However, overall, the section was very simple and the easiest of the lot.
(b) Data interpretation:
IIFT maintained its long running practice of setting tedious, time-consuming and calculation-based data interpretation questions, with very close options, but it was easy. The catch was to not attempt all the questions from a particular set, as each set had a few speed breaker questions. All the questions from the set based on car models, minerals and metals could have been attempted and one or two questions per set from the remaining sets were doable.
(b) Data interpretation:
IIFT maintained its long running practice of setting tedious, time-consuming and calculation-based data interpretation questions, with very close options, but it was easy. The catch was to not attempt all the questions from a particular set, as each set had a few speed breaker questions. All the questions from the set based on car models, minerals and metals could have been attempted and one or two questions per set from the remaining sets were doable.
Section 3:
Quantitative ability
This section some questions were based on Pythagoraian triplet, ratio and proportion, surds, last digit, time and work, time speed distance and area of geometrical figure were among the simple ones. The key was to attempt majority of the questions in this section, because the weightage was one mark per question and in doing so you could increase the overall score.
Section 4:
General awareness
This section had static general knowledge questions based on summer Olympics, coastline of India, demographic history of India, god particle, 4th BRICS summit, Greenwich Mean Time, dates, 2012 Olympics, cricket, Indian rivers and a few questions on business. Those who have been consistent in their awareness building efforts would have managed well.
Jaimin Shah is faculty, CPLC Pvt Ltd