Structure

Section Wise Test Structure

Sections

Sections

SECTION – 1

Part A: Reading Comprehension

There were 4 passages in this section. Two of these were very lengthy, about two and a half sides long. Two were much shorter, about a page long. One long passage was on independent directors and their role alongside the managerial class in an organization. It was argumentative in the sense that the author recommended several measures to improve the working and transparency in organizations. The questions were mostly direct but one needed to read the passage well. The second long passage was on global warming and its causes. This was analytical in nature. One short passage was on economics- trade cycles. The other short passage was about sugar and sugarcane plantations. It was actually a discussion between people, thus mostly in the form of direct speech. The questions were very easy and reading relevant data would have helped you answer them. The questions for each passage were mostly direct, but a few were partially inferential. Most options had sentences directly lifted from the passage but worded differently. Therefore, one had to read the options as well as the passages very carefully, especially the two longer ones. It was advisable to attempt one small passage and one large one. The small passage on sugarcane was a must-attempt. Overall, it was a time-consuming but scoring section.

Part B: Verbal Ability

The Verbal Ability questions appeared along with the Reading Comprehension questions but they were segregated into 2 parts. There were 25 questions in this set, which were a mix of easy and moderately difficult ones. The details of each construct is given below:

Sentence Correction

There were 5 questions in this set and this was a tricky set because some of the sentences were pretty lengthy. So reading the sentences and then arriving at the correct answer was time consuming. In some questions the options were close and the negation depended on logic rather than grammar. In one case, one had to consider the rules of punctuation. In one question, the sentence had left out an important word that made it ambiguous.

Contextual Usage - Synonyms

This was a comparatively easy set. The context gave us the clue for identifying the correct answer. Some of the words were quite easy and familiar ones like ‘bemused’, pedantic’ etc. Some words were a bit difficult like ‘stentorian’, genuflect, etc.

Contextual Usage – Antonyms

In this set some of the questions had very close options. A careful reading of the sentences would have helped one to identify the correct answer. A student with a good vocabulary would have found this set quite easy.

Fill in the Blanks (Paired)

This set required one to read the sentences carefully before arriving at the correct answer. In some cases the words were repeated in the options, which made selection of the correct answer a tricky job. Some of the words were also little difficult like ‘stupefying’, serendipity, faux pas, etc.

Jumbled Paragraph (4 sentences)

This was an easy set because in most cases the introductory sentence almost stood out. Establishing the links was not at all difficult. Individual sentences were also not too lengthy; except in two sets. But in some of the questions the sequence mentioned in the options included only three sentences instead of four. This created a lot of ambiguity.

SECTION 2

Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning

This Section had calculation intensive DI sets, which included percentage change, ratio comparison etc. LR set on Matrix Arrangement was on easier side, with 3 X 3 matrix arrangement. Input-Output caselet had simple logic but required many steps to arrive at the answers. Single LR puzzle type questions had mix of easy and difficult questions.

The break-up of the questions is given below:

SECTION – 3

Quantitative Ability

This section was of moderate difficulty level but had many questions which were time consuming, firstly to understand and later to solve. The emphasis was on Arithmetic topics like Time and Work, Time Speed Distance etc. and unlike CAT papers, there were no questions on topics like Number Systems, Quadratic Equations etc. However, there were 3-4 questions, which could have been solved within few seconds.

 SECTION - 4

General Awareness

The section had a good mix of static and dynamic information. The section mainly had questions on Business Awareness and Current Affairs. There were no questions on subjects like Sports, Entertainment etc. A student who has been seriously preparing for GK section would have found the questions easy. A student who has been following our GK website GQuest, would have found some questions very familiar. Given below is a list of some of the questions that can be mapped to information provided in GQuest:

Answer Key

Paper and expans

Question paper: click here to view question paper

EXPANS: Click here to view the expans of IIFT 2009 SET B