(This analysis was revised on 23rd November 2015 - Cutoffs for GK and Quant were lowered based on student data)
IIFT 2015 Paper Pattern
No of Questions : 124
No of Marks : 100
No of Sections : 4 (Cutoffs exist for each section)
Marking : Differential
Negative marking : 1/3 rd of the mark allotted for a question
Total No of Sets : 4 sets (A B C D)
While the paper the same for everyone, the order of the sections changed for person to person. Given below is the paper pattern of SET C. However, the order of the questions for a given section for all the sets was the same.
| Section | Part | No. Of Questions | Marks/Question | Total |
| (A) | (B) | (C) | (D) | (E) = (C) * (D) |
| Section -1 | Part – 1 (RC) | 16 (Questions 01-16) | 1.00 | 16 |
| Part – 2 (VA) | 20 (Questions 17-36) | 0.75 | 15 | |
| Section - 2 | (GA) | 28 (Questions 37-64) | 0.50 | 14 |
| Section - 3 | (QA) | 22 (Questions 65-86) | 1.00 | 22 |
| Section - 4 | Part – 1 (LR) | 20 (Questions 87-106) | 0.75 | 15 |
| Part – 2 (DI) | 18 (Questions 107-124) | 1.00 | 18 | |
| Total | 124 | 100 |
IIFT 2015 Paper Analysis
The IIFT 2015 was definitely easy and very similar to the IIFT 2013 paper! In fact, compared to the IIFT2014 paper, this year’s paper could be called a cinch. Hence, clearly the cutoffs would be higher and more importantly, the overall cutoff would be much higher than that of the last year (which was 38.5)
The paper pattern was very much on the predictable lines. Also, the patterns of the questions also were significantly similar to the previous IIFT papers and much easier than IIFT 2014 paper.
It looks like IIFT is taking a leaf out of the IIMs book. They too seem to want more diversity and hence are hell bent on making the paper easier. The Quant section was heavy with Arithmetic questions (10 out of 22) and the Logical Reasoning area was a cake walk!
There were TWO glaring errors (apart from a minor error in the paper). Both these errors are in the DI section.
- In the set “Ellen Inc which sells Five products A,B,C,D,E. The second graph should have the legend ‘Product Sales (in Rs Crores)’ on the Y axis instead of ‘No of Units Sold’. If one were to waste time trying to figure out the relationship between the Table given and the Scatter Graph, then they wouldn’t find any! But, with the above change the questions could have been solved.
- In the last set of the DI section, the second Bar graph has a similar issue. The Y Axis wrong numbers printed. However, a student may be able to figure out the error and solve it.
Despite whatever we say, the challenge in an IIFT paper is less to do with the difficulty of the questions and more to do with using the time effectively by giving sufficient time for each section!
124 questions in 120 minutes is definitely a challenge, even considering that there are 28 GK questions!
Since CAT is just ONE week away, IIFT 2015 has been a good omen for most of the students who would have enjoyed writing the paper!
Some students have reported that despite the paper being easy, they have goofed up on one section or the other owing to bad time distribution.
The OVERALL cutoff may be higher as students would maximize scores in that section to which they have given longer time.
Summary of the Expected Cutoffs!
| S No | Section | Cutoff |
| 1 | Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension | 9 |
| 2 | Logical Ability & Data Interpretation | 9.5 |
| 3 | Quantitative Ability | 7.66 |
| 4 | General Knowledge | 1.8 |
| OVERALL | 46-47 |
Expected Overall Cutoffs
General Candidates 46-47
OBC Candidates 42-43
SC/ST Candidates 37-38
Analysis of Individual Sections
Section I – Reading Comprehension and Verbal Ability (36 Q – 31 Marks)
The Verbal and RC section normally is the easiest to tackle in IIFT and this year it was no different.
The RC passages, though long, were pretty straight-forward and the questions following these passages were also quite direct. Any student who would have given about 20 odd minutes to the RC area would easily attempt at least 3 passages and get about 10 questions correct!
The verbal part too was very direct and easy and any student who would have given about 10 to 15 minutes could have pretty much answered almost all questions. Though the verbal questions carry lesser marks (0.75), scoring in this year’s verbal would be much easy.
In about 35 minutes, one could have answered around 27-28 questions (including three of RCs)
Expected Cutoff : 9
Section II – Logical Reasoning & Data Interpretation (38 Q - 33 Marks)
The Logical Ability area in this paper was truly a traditional LA paper! The paper had FOUR sets, one each of Distribution, Linear Arrangement, Order Sequencing and Network & Routes. With Five individual questions, direction sense, syllogism (deductions), Logical Connectives, Operator based question AND a question on number series, the LR part of the LRDI was definitely doable and most students would have attempted the LR part by giving a skip to the DI part. Only the Linear Arrangement set could be termed a bit average in difficulty while the rest were easy.
In Data Interpretation, IIFT makes students cry! Not only are the tables and sets with a lot of data, the questions following them require one to calculate quite a bit. Unlike CAT, which allows usage of an online-calculator from this year, students writing IIFT do not have such a luxury!
Of the four Sets in DI, the set on Competitiveness Factors (Bar Chart) had easier questions and were doable! The set on ‘Website Traffic and Advertisements’ was innovative and interesting. In this set, however, there was a problem with the markings on the Y-AXIS for the second graph (Graph C).
Students normally would give up just by seeing the huge data or the number of graphs! Any student who persists and gives about 15 minutes to DI could have easily 4 to 5 questions.
Attempting around 18-20 questions in around 30 minutes would be a very good attempt.
Expected Cutoff – 9.5 marks
Section III – Quantitative Ability (22 Q - 22 Marks)
The Quant section of the IIFT 2015 paper was definitely not as tough as it was last year. Having said that, this section continues to give long questions and hence students get afraid to even read some of the questions.
The composition of the section was as under
| Area | No of Questions |
| Arithmetic | 10 |
| Algebra | 4 |
| Probability/P&C | 4 |
| Geometry/Mensuration | 2 |
| Venn Diagram | 1 |
| Heights & Distances | 1 |
Arithmetic area had questions in Equations, Percentages, Mixtures, Time & Work and Time & Distance. The Algebra area was primarily Progressions, Indices and Logs.
The Venn Diagram, Geometry and Mensuration questions were also of average difficulty at best.
A student who could give about 35 minutes for this section would have ended up solving at least 12-14 questions and that too with a good strike rate
Expected Cutoff – 7.66
Section IV – General Awareness (28 Q - 14 Marks)
There were no surprises in the GA section of the paper too. There were quite a few Static GK as well as Current Affairs questions.
By giving about 8 to 10 minutes, one could easily go through all the 28 questions and probably get enough to cross the cutoff.
Students who have the habit of reading the Newspapers on a regular basis OR following the online news portals would have found this section very much doable. However, traditionally the cutoff in GK has been ranging between 1.5 to 3.
Expected cut off – 1.8 marks
Expected Overall Cutoff
IIFT (General Category) : 46 - 47
(This analysis was revised on 23rd November 2015 - Cutoffs for GK and Quant were lowered based on student data)
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IIFT 2015 Answer Key can be found here
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