IIFT 2018ANALYSIS AND EXPECTED CUTOFF

1 IIFT 2018

INDEX

Introduction

IIFT 2018 Analysis

IIFT 2018 Analysis by T.I.M.E.

IIFT 2018 Analysis by IMS Learning

IIFT 2018 Analysis by Career Launcher

IIFT 2018 Expected Cutoff

2

3

6

11

14

20

2 IIFT 2018

Introduction

IIFT 2018 was held on December 3, 2017, in 20 cities across India. According to

the experts and test takers, IIFT 2018 was a tough test in comparison to the last

two years. According to the experts from different coaching institutes, the

expected cutoff this year is likely to go down by 8-10 marks. The exam was

divided into six sections - Data Interpretation, Logical Reasoning, Verbal Ability,

Reading Comprehension, Quantitative Ability and General Awareness. Until the

result of IIFT 2018 comes out, the test takers look for the IIFT 2018 analysis to

know what to expect in the result. In this E-book, Careers360 brings to you the

overall and sectional IIFT 2018 Analysis along with the expected cutoff as

predicted by the experts from top coaching institutes. It’s expected that more than

50,000 candidates appeared for IIFT exam this year. Read on to know more about

the exam.

3 IIFT 2018

IIFT 2018 Analysis

IIFT 2018 Exam Structure

S.No. Section Number of Questions

Marks per question

Total marks

Negative Marks/Ques-tion

Section I Data Interpretation (DI)

20 0.75 15 0.33

Section II Logical Reasoning (LR)

20 1.00 20 0.25

Section III General Awareness (GA)

18 0.5 16.5 0.17

Section IV Verbal Ability (VA) 20 1.00 16 0.33

Section V Reading Comprehension (RC)

16 1.00 15 0.33

Section VI Quantitative Aptitude (QA)

20 1.00 12.5 0.33

Overall 114 - 100 -

Careers360 presents here the complete IIFT Analysis 2018. The exam pattern

was changed this year. Instead of four sections, the test had six sections this year

while the difficulty level of IIFT 2018 as per the experts can be termed as tough.

The objective type test had a total of 114 questions. According to Arks Srinivas,

Director, Career Launcher, the difficulty level of the exam was tough in comparison

to the previous years’ tests and the expected cutoff is likely to go down by 8-10

marks".

The table below brings to you the exam pattern and structure of IIFT 2018.

4 IIFT 2018

IIFT 2018 Analysis – Section-wise

Here is the section-wise analysis of the exam.

Verbal Ability

The VA section was difficult this year. It had lengthy, tricky and confusing

questions. Many candidates whom Careers360 spoke to, could attempt around

12 questions out of 20. The section had questions from Grammar, Verbal Analogy,

Jumbled Words, Passage Improvement, Phrase/Clause Identification, Prefix,

Suffix etc. The expected cutoff for this section is likely to be around 3, as per the

experts.

Reading Comprehension

The RC section was lengthy this year. Three out of total 4 passages were from

Business and Economics. The questions were not difficult but time consuming.

Out of total 16 questions, 12 were fact-based. Candidates with good reading

speed could have easily attempted 12-14 questions.

The exam had separate marking scheme for each section. The exam had negative

marking scheme as well. For each incorrect answer, there was a deduction of

one-third of the allotted marks to a question. The sections appeared in the

following order – DI, LR, GA, VA, RC and QA. There was no specific time limit for

completing a section. All the questions in the exam were to be answered within

two hours.

5 IIFT 2018

Logical Reasoning

The LR section was rated as easy to moderate on the difficulty scale by test

takers. A total of 20 questions were asked in this section. The section was

decently lengthy. Apart from the 5 questions on matrix (MBA students), which

was lengthy, and one of the sets between input-output and football the rest of the

questions were easy to moderate. All other sets were easy in nature and could

have been attempted. All singlets were very easy and must have been attempted

all in order to maximize. A good candidate could have attempted 12-13 questions

in 25-30 minutes to get through the cutoff.

Data Interpretation

DI section was tougher than the last year. 5-6 questions with 80 per cent accuracy

would be considered very good and students who had attempted just about 2-3

questions with 100 per cent accuracy should get through the cutoff.

Quantitative Ability

The section was difficult than the last year and the difficulty level increased

significantly this year. It had a total of 20 questions. The section was evenly

distributed among Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry. Few questions required

knowledge of Trigonometry. A well-prepared candidate could have attempted

11-12 questions in 28-30 minutes.

6 IIFT 2018

IIFT 2018 Analysis by T.I.M.E.

IIFT 2018 Analysis by T.I.M.E. - Section Wise

The exam pattern was changed this year. It had six sections instead of four like

last two years. And, the difficulty level was also increased. Here is the

section-wise analysis.

Verbal Ability

This section had questions mostly based on English Grammar viz., identifying

various phrases/clauses in the given sentences, Punctuation, and Prefix/Suffix.

There were questions based on Analogies, creating a word out of jumbled letters

and identifying its meaning and replacing a part of a given sentence by the correct

one. The questions on analogies had not-so-common words and needed detailed

thought to identify the linkages and select the answers. There were questions on

adverb, adjective, noun phrases clauses which made it look like a test for the

English language rather than an aptitude test.

The entire section was difficult and the cut-off for this section is expected to be

around 2-3 marks. 8-10 is expected be a good number of attempts to get through

the cutoff.

Reading Comprehension

The passages in the section were lengthy but definitely readable. A person with

good reading skills should not have faced much of a problem in reading the

passages. However, answering the questions of the passages was a bit difficult

task.

7 IIFT 2018

There were 4 passages with 4 questions each. The passages were from

Entrepreneurship, & Business (Groupon), Literature, Financial crisis and Business

Management. The cut off for this section is likely to be around 3-4 marks.

Logical Reasoning

The questions on Input-output were time-consuming and would have needed a

good amount of concentration. One of the questions in this set required the stu-

dents to pay attention to details (input to be mentioned in reverse order). The

questions based on ‘distribution’ in the first set, though not very difficult, were

time-consuming, whereas the second set of ‘distribution’ was relatively easier. The

games and tournament questions might have seemed slightly trickier in the first

glance, however, they were actually pretty easy. The questions on logical deduc-

tions were pretty much straightforward for somebody who has gone through the

basic concepts pertaining to this topic. The data sufficiency questions were based

on coding-decoding and arrangement; they were on the easier side.

This section can be said to be the sole easier section; This section relatively sup-

plied much-needed relief to the students. The overall difficulty level of this section

was moderate. A good number of attempts in this section can be considered to

be 8-10 questions while the cut-off is expected to be 4-5 marks.

8 IIFT 2018

Description of the Set Difficulty Level No of Questions

Distribution (Final placement of the MBA students)

Moderate-Difficult 5

Games & Tournaments (Football tournament)

Easy-Moderate 2

Direction sense (Cricket players) Easy 2

Input-Output Difficult 4

Logical Deductions Easy 1

Data sufficiency Easy-Moderate 2

Arrangements (Seven persons travelling in a train)

Moderate 2

Distributions (Sports telecasted on TV channels)

Easy 2

Total 20

Data Interpretation

This section was definitely a tough nut to crack. There was absolutely no relief to

the students with the large amount of graphs/data. Some of the questions had

huge calculations as well.

There were a total of three sets of five questions each, one set of three questions,

and one with two. All the sets were based on Tables and/or Line Graph. Almost all

the questions were calculation intensive and were very lengthy. 5-8 could be a

good number of attempts in section, while the cutoff is expected to be around 2-3

marks.

9 IIFT 2018

Quantitative Ability

The difficulty level of this section was higher as compared to that from last year.

As has been the case, the questions were lengthier, though mostly moderate to

difficult. This section had a good mix of questions from diverse topics. The

distribution is given as below:

Only three questions in this section could be classified as relatively easy

ones - one from Sequence & Series, one from Co-ordinate Geometry, and another

from Functions. The remaining questions were either moderate or difficult to

handle. A good candidate would have been able to attempt around 10-12

questions. The cut-off is expected to be around 3-4 marks.

Area No of Questions

Algebra 3

Numbers 1

Pure Maths 1

Arithmetic 8

Geometry 6

Venn Diagram 1

Total 20

10 IIFT 2018

General Awareness

GA was certainly one of the most difficult sections in IIFT yet again this year. The

questions were from topics ranging from Sports, Corporate logos, Corporate

entities, Government policies, Stock exchanges, Currencies, etc. Only the candi-

dates who were extremely well prepared could answer the questions in this

section.

The questions were very wordy and going through this text ate away most of the

test time. The 2 RC type questions were to be left out straight away, especially

considering the fact that the mark per question is only 0.5. Some very remote

questions like the one on a not very well known music band bamboozled the

students. As has been the case, historically the sectional cutoff for this section

has really been on a very low side.

Out of a total of 18 questions, four questions could be classified as easy ones and

another four as moderate ones. The cut-off in this section last year was 1.99 and

is expected to go lower than this for this year, to around 0.75 to 1.5 marks. 8-9

questions could be considered to be a good number of attempts in this section!

11 IIFT 2018

IIFT 2018 Analysis by IMS Learning

Below candidates can check this year IIFT exam analysis by IMS for a better

understanding:

Section I – Verbal Ability

The VA section was difficult and technical. All the questions in this section were

based on the English Language as a subject rather than reasoning or analysis. It

was more of the English Section. The questions tested the principles of grammar

like “adverbial phrase” etc. as options, and Vocabulary. The vocabulary questions

asked about prefixes, suffixes, anagrams etc. They were also technical. All the

question types in this section were unlike what is generally found in competitive

examinations. None of the anticipated question types like synonym, antonyms,

etc., were present. If last year the test carried questions based on the crossword,

this year there were anagrams questions. Error spotting was also in an unfamiliar

format of a paragraph with several sentences underlined.

Section II – Reading Comprehension

IIFT 2018 Reading Comprehension kept to the general IIFT norm with 4 passages

and 4 questions on each passage. The passages were lengthy but readable and

the questions related to the passages were direct and easy. However, since time

constraint is severe in IIFT, attempts in RC are often moderate.

Section III – Logical Reasoning

This section was slightly tougher than last year. LR section was dominated by

questions on Arrangements. Additionally, in the LR section, there were questions

12 IIFT 2018

on Sequential Output, Data Sufficiency questions on coding and arrangement,

Syllogisms, Directions etc.

Section IV– Data Interpretation

In the DI section, there were a total of 5 sets ( One bar chart and 4 table based

sets) with 2-5 questions each having some tricky questions whereas some having

close options. The DI sets were, as usual, extremely calculation intensive and

time-consuming. Most of the DI sets were difficult. Selection of sets were crucial

in this section. As compared to IIFT 2017, DI sets were a lot tougher.Entrepreneurship,

& Business (Groupon), Literature, Financial crisis and Business Management. The

cut off for this section is likely to be around 3-4 marks.

Section V - Quantitative Aptitude

The section was dominated by Arithmetic & Geometry. Most of the questions

were moderate to difficult. It would have been a good idea to spend the first

couple of minutes going through all the questions and then solving questions

from the areas one is comfortable with. Overall this section was a lot tougher than

the QA section of IIFT of the last 2 years. It would have been a good idea to use

options to solve some of the questions and save time.

Section VI – General Awareness

The GA section this year was difficult. With 18 questions in all with 0.5 marks for

each and 1/3rd (0.17) negative, the questions took long time to read. Many ques-

tions tested knowledge of several things in one question itself using the match the

columns format. Only 5 out of the 18 questions were of the simple MCQ types

13 IIFT 2018

general awareness in the true sense covering all the areas. The GA Section was

thus a good leveller, giving no special advantage to people well-aware in a particu-

lar area.

14 IIFT 2018

IIFT 2018 Analysis by Career Launcher

Before knowing the detailed IIFT analysis 2018 by Career Launcher, let’s take a

look at the IIFT 2018 exam pattern along with the difficulty level, expected cutoff

and more.

IIFT 2018 Analysis

IIFT Exam Analysis 2018 by Career Launcher – Sectional

Verbal Ability

The VA section of IIFT 2018 threw in some major surprises. For starters, the

obsolete grammatical rule-based questions crawled out of some linguistic cave.

There were questions that asked students to identify whether the underlined part

Section No. of Questions

Marks/ Question

Total Marks

Good Attempts

Achiev-able Score

Section cutoff

Ideal Time (mins)

Data Interpretation

20 0.75 15 5 3 1.5 10

Logical Reasoning

20 1 20 13 9 4 23-25

General Awareness

18 0.5 9 5 2 0.83-1 8-10

Verbal Ability 20 1 20 12 8.5 3 15

Reading Comprehension

16 1 16 12 9.33 4.5 22-25

Quantitative Aptitude

20 1 20 12 9.33 3.5 30

Total 114 - 100 -

15 IIFT 2018

was a clause or a phrase. Then, there were excruciatingly lengthy questions on

punctuations and passage improvement. These questions required some

technical knowledge of semantics and sentence structure. Out of 20, 14

questions belonged to this area and no guesswork was logically possible. The

verbal analogy questions were confusing. The three jumbled word questions were

tough. Hence, out of 20, a good student could have attempted 12 questions. The

cut-off is expected to be around 3. However, if a student had some basic

knowledge of the functions of parts of speech, these questions were sitters.

Topic No. of Questions Difficulty Level

Phrase/Clause identification

5 Difficult

Punctuation 3 Difficult

Prefix/Suffix 1 Easy

Verbal Analogy 3 Difficult

Jumbled Words 3 Moderate-Difficult

Passage Improvement

5 Easy-Moderate

Total 20 Difficult

16 IIFT 2018

Topic Number of Questions Level of Difficulty

Passage 1: Groupon 4 Easy

Passage 2: Close Reading 4 Moderate

Passage 3: Currency crisis 4 Easy-Moderate

Passage 4: Analytics Competitors

4 Moderate

Total 16 Easy-Moderate

Reading Comprehension

The RC section had only one surprise. It was lengthy. The last year’s RC pattern

turned out to be an anomaly. Three out of the four passages belonged to the area

of Business and Economics. Ironically, one passage in RC was about how to read.

Hence, it can be safely inferred that someone at IIFT is in possession of a wry

sense of humour. The questions were not difficult. Out of 16 questions, around 12

were fact-based. The options in the majority of the questions were not close.

Hence, a student, who has a good reading speed, could have easily attempted

12-14 questions. Given the nature of the VA section and the overall length of the

paper, RC can turn out to be the saving grace for the majority of the test takers.

Data Interpretation

IIFT showed its true colours with DI in IIFT 2018. An attempt of 5-6 would be very

good and students who had attempted just about 2-3 questions with 100%

accuracy should sail through the cutoff score.

17 IIFT 2018

Topic Number of Questions Level of Difficulty

Mixed Graphs 5 Difficult

Tables 15 1.5 doable sets (Difficult)

Total 20

Logical Reasoning

Apart from the 5 questions on matrix (MBA students), which was lengthy, and one

of the sets between input-output and football the rest of the questions were easy

to moderate. All other sets were easy in nature and could have been attempted.

All singlets were very easy and must have been attempted all in order to

maximize. A good candidate could have attempted 12-13 questions in 25-30 min.

Topic No. of Questions Difficulty Level

Distribution 7 Difficult

Directions 2 Easy

Sport (Football) 2 Moderate

Input Output 4 Moderate

Syllogism 1 Easy

Data Sufficiency 2 Easy

Selection 2 Easy

Total 20 Moderate

18 IIFT 2018

Topic Number of Questions Level of Difficulty

Mixed Graphs 5 Difficult

Tables 15 1.5 doable sets (Difficult)

Total 20

Quantitative Aptitude

The difficulty level of this section increased significantly compared to last year.

The section was evenly distributed among Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry. Few

questions required knowledge of Trigonometry. A well-prepared candidate could

have attempted 11-12 questions in 28-30 mins.

Topic No. of Questions Difficulty Level

Arithmetic 7 Easy

Algebra 5 Easy-Moderate

Geometry, Mensuration and Trigonometry

5 Moderate

P&C and Probability 2 Moderate

Number System 1 Moderate

Total 20

19 IIFT 2018

General Awareness

The section was moderate to difficult. The below given table explains further.

Topic No. of Questions Difficulty Level

Business and Economy 6 Difficult

Miscellaneous 1 Difficult

Brands 6 Moderate

Geography 1 Easy

Personalities 1 Moderate

Sports 3 Difficult

Total 18

20 IIFT 2018

IIFT 2018 Expected Cutoff

Experts from renowned coaching institutes have predicted IIFT 2018 cutoff in

terms of number of attempts or scores which would land them to the qualifying

score.

IIFT 2018 Cutoff by IMS Learning

IIFT 2018 Cutoff by Career Launcher

Category Expected Cutoff

General 37.5-39.5

OBC 35.5

SC 30

ST 30

PH 30

Category Expected Cutoff

General 38-40

OBC 33.35

SC 28-30

ST 20-22

21 IIFT 2018

IIFT 2018 Cutoff by T.I.M.E

VA RC DI LR QA GA

2-3 3-4 2-3 4-5 3-4 0.75-1.5

The overall cutoff score pertaining to the General category is expected to be

around 38-42 marks.