So, the first major test of the season is over. The paper had some surprises for the students. DI has traditionally been a low-scoring section, at least in comparison with LR in IIFT, but this year it was the other way round. Similarly, RC was much more scoring than EU (again bucking the trend). EU was mostly vocab and many words there made one feel like a DOUGHBOY!
IIFT 2016 was not a surprise when it comes to the reputation of IIFT in coming with erroneous questions. There were questions in LR in which none of the options was correct. There were typographical errors in almost all the sections. Overall, we feel that the paper was a tad more difficult than IIFT 2015 paper.
Quantitative Aptitude had 2-3 questions which could have been done by just glancing through the options. General Knowledge (GK) section had preponderance of Current Affairs questions. One question was on the currency of Bulgaria (Shivay!), three questions were on cinema and one of these questions made Shraddha Kapoor younger by 2 years!
In Reading comprehension, all passages were of a moderate level of difficulty, and the incorrect answer choices were extremely easy to spot and eliminate. A couple of passages did have numerous facts and figures, but not too many questions were based on these facts. In addition, the main ideas/focus of the passages, save one, were quite easy to spot. Overall verdict – easy to understand passages with easy questions.
Verbal Ability section was dominated by vocabulary based questions, and it seems that students also needed to know some slang to answer some of the questions. Surprisingly, hardly any grammar was tested this year. The difficulty level of this section is subjective as it would depend entirely on the vocabulary preparation of the students.
It is time you thought only about CAT and put your best foot forward, IIFT 2016 is dead (Postmortem would be out on December 15).
A detailed breakup of the section is given below:
| Section | Total no. of questions |
Marks per question |
Total Marks | Good Attempts | Achievable Score | Sectional Cutoff |
Ideal Time (in minutes) |
| General Awareness | 25 | 0.50 | 12.5 | 15 | 7-8 | 1.99 | 15 |
| English Usage | 20 | 0.75 | 15 | 23-24 | 14-15 | 9.67 | 30 |
| Reading Comprehension | 16 | 1.00 | 16 | ||||
| Quantitative Aptitude | 20 | 1.00 | 20 | 15 | 12-14 | 4.01 | 35 |
| Data Interpretation | 20 | 1.00 | 20 | 18-20 | 15-16 | 8 | 40 |
| Logical Reasoning | 22 | 1.00 | 16.5 | ||||
| Overall | 123 | 100 | 51-52 | 120 |
| Topic | Number of Questions | Level of Difficulty |
| Current Affairs | 11 | Difficult |
| Business and Economy | 8 | Moderate |
| Static GK | 4 | Moderate |
| Sports/Cinema | 2 | Easy |
| Part | Topic | Number of Questions | Level of Difficulty |
| Part 1: Reading Comprehension | Importance of the Manufacturing Sector | 4 | Easy |
| Reverse innovation – PepsiCo success story |
4 | Easy | |
| Participation of women in the workforce | 4 | Easy | |
| Robotics- SLAM | 4 | Easy | |
| Part 2: English Usage | Vocabulary | 10 | Moderate |
| Spelling | 2 | 1Easy 1Medium |
|
| Para Jumble | 2 | 1Easy 1Medium |
|
| Idiom/Colloquial usage | 3 | Moderate | |
| Etymology | 3 | Moderate |
| Topic | Number of Questions | Level of Difficulty |
| Figure based analogy | 4 | Easy |
| Puzzles | 3 | Moderate-Tough |
| Arrangement | 4+3+3 | 1 Easy 2 Moderate |
| Series | 1 | Easy |
| Venn diagram | 1 | Easy |
| Based on numbers | 2 | Moderate |
| Syllogism | 1 | Easy |
| Data Interpretation - Table | 5 + 5 | Moderate |
| Data Interpretation - Histogram | 5 | Tough |
| Data Interpretation–Multiple bar graph | 5 | Easy |
| Part | Topic | Number of Questions | Level of Difficulty |
| Quantitative Ability | Arithmetic | 2 | Easy-Moderate |
| Numbers | 3 | Easy | |
| Algebra | 7 | Easy-Difficult | |
| Geometry, Mensuration and Trigonometry | 2 | Easy-Moderate | |
| P&C and Probability | 5 | Easy-Difficult | |
| Set theory | 1 | Moderate |
