As expected, the first results of the season have come out from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (Delhi and Kolkata).
A total of 1100 calls have been made this time for 220 seats (160 in Delhi campus and 60 in Kolkata campus) which is almost similar to last years figure of 1029 which was a reduction from the 1224 they had made the year before that.
The entire call list can be accessed here:
http://www.iift.edu/iift/IGD20122010.pdf
The results are put up here:
After going through a few scores on the discussions thread, we can see that there were indeed no sectional cut-offs and also, the overall cut-off is somewhere around 35-36. Marks were awarded for two wrong questions in Quantitative Aptitude and for a wrong question in General Awareness at least. So, the raw score required to fetch a call was around 33-34 marks.
A few people who were expecting a bigger score and failed to make the cut might have missed due to a few differences between the institute keys and the IIFT official key.
What next?
Also, IIFT is known to have a rigorous second stage with the process involving an Essay, a Group Discussion, and and Interview. We had a chat with Rohit Mittal (IIFT Delhi Batch of 2010-12) about how the entire process is. Here is what he had to say:
One different thing about IIFT’s process is the presence of an essay. So essentially there are four parts which are accounted for in the final selection.
The weightages given to the particular stages of the admission process last year were:
Written Exam: 65% (55% before that in 2009)
Group Discussion: 10%
Personal Interview: 15%
Essay: 10%
One important thing is IIFT does not consider profile while giving out calls but is considered later at the time of interview.
After the calls, you are sent a CV form which contains fields about Academic Details, Work ex, co-curriculars, extra-curriculars, hobbies etc. and few subjective, open ended questions to be answered in 100-200 words each.
This form is one of the most important factors in the final evaluation process. The answers should be consistent and should not look artificial.
The IIFT Group Discussion is one of the longest and most tiring of all GDs. If you are not good at GDs and/or are shy and speak less, this is your best chance. Generally the duration is 50-60 minutes with everyone getting 2-3 minutes of exclusive time. Hence everybody gets ample opportunity for speaking which leads us to the point that “Content is the king.” IIFT looks for quality both in terms of the way you speak and your points. Gassing around and hogging most of the airtime wont help much.
Essay is pretty general in nature and no special preparation is required as such.
Personal Interview is cool enough, generally 10-15 minutes. long. Your CV form is the crucial document here. You should be thorough with it and should not contradict what you have written earlier. Hence you are advised to keep a copy of the filled in form with yourself. Other important topics, preparing for which can help in the interview are current affairs, business related news, trade related topics & issues. Also do not forget to read about WTO, IMF, World Bank, ASEAN, SAARC and other multilateral bodies.
The discussions thread for IIFT results has been put up here. Continue there to discuss your scores and GDPI-Essay preparations. There are seniors from IIFT to guide you about the process.
All the best to all the successful candidates for the next stage.