Tips to Ace DI and LR Section in IIFT 2018

Indian Institute(s) of Foreign Trade (IIFT) are amongst the top business schools of the country. Many Students aspire to take admission in these colleges. But to get admission, one has to clear the IIFT Test which is not an easy nut to crack.

More than 30000 candidates appear for this exam whereas the number of colleges under it is just two. Therefore, if someone wants to take admission in IIFT, he/she must perform well in the written examination.

IIFT tests a candidate’s knowledge on various parameters like Quantitative Ability, Reasoning, GK, English and Data Interpretation. However, two of these 5 parameters- Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation are assumed to be of great importance.

There are several reasons for this, but the main reason is that LRDI has more weightage in the exam. It tends to be the make or break section for many candidates.

Therefore, to make sure that you crack the LRDI section of IIFT 2018, we bring you some tips that are exclusively targeted at this section.

Understanding the LRDI Scenario

IIFT’s examination pattern keeps changing and so does the framing of LRDI section. Sometimes, LR and DI are clubbed under one section, while other times, they are kept as separate sections in the paper. At times, these are clubbed with other sections as well.

The syllabus for LR section mostly includes Analytical Reasoning, Syllogisms, Blood Relations, Linear and Circular Arrangements, Input-Output, Coding-Decoding and Statement-Conclusion.

On the other hand, syllabus for DI includes Tables, Line Graph, Bar Graphs, Pie Charts and other types of charts.

LR is presumed to be an easy and scoring section. On the other hand, DI is assumed to be slightly tougher than LR, making it important to be careful while picking the sets. In IIFT 2016, LR and DI were included in a single section, with 28 questions carrying a total of 33 marks. The sectional cut off for this section was 7.25 marks.

How to start?

If it was known that LRDI is going to be a single section in IIFT 2018, you could have started either with DI or LR. But due to the unpredictable nature of this exam, we advise you to prepare for both the sections simultaneously.

In LR, it is better to solve easy topics first, such as Syllogisms, Blood Relations etc. As these topics can be solved quickly and practicing these topics does not take much time, you should resort to these topics in the initial days. When you are done with these topics, then move to slightly trickier topics like Arrangements, Statement Conclusion and Analytical Reasoning.

For DI, understanding tables is an obvious start as these are the simplest type of data you can have. Slowly, start moving on to other types such as line chart and pie chart.

 

Faster Calculation and Approximation is the key for DI

Data Interpretation in IIFT papers is majorly calculation intensive. Therefore, it is of utmost important that you have a real good calculation speed. Also, you must have the knowledge of doing approximation to eliminate options. Let us see these specifically-

If you are given a pie chart, and the measures are given in degrees, you must know how to quickly convert these degrees into percentages or vice versa. Like 180 degrees is 50%, 108 degrees is 30% and so on.

Also, you should know the conversion of fractions (p/q form) to percentages and vice versa. As data given in percentages may be asked to be converted in ratios and vice versa. For example, 3/20 is 15%, 4/25 is 16% and so on.

Also, if the options are not too close, these tricks can be useful in getting to the correct options very quickly. For example, if you have to find 21% of 5943, and options are 1010, 1248 and 1732, you should be able to deduce quickly that this is close to 20% of 6000 and thus 1248. This can save a lot of your time.

Practice with timer

The thing with DI LR is that most of the questions on these topics are doable. If you are given 10 sets and you have to do them in a day, it is quite probable that you will be able to do all the sets with great accuracy.

But unfortunately, you do not have the whole day to complete the paper. Only 120 minutes are there to solve more than 120 questions. Therefore, you must solve the questions quickly.

For this, it is important to check with a timer whenever you are practicing. Note down the time you take to do a particular set or a particular question. This will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses.

Learn the art of ‘skipping’ questions

This may sound odd but is actually an important point. An obvious fact about IIFT paper is that it is going to be a mixture of easy and tough, time consuming and smart questions. The talent needed here is not that you do all the questions, rather you should be able to spot easier questions and do them quickly.

In IIFT 2016, there was a set based on hexagonal arrangements. As questions related to seating arrangements are easy, many candidates started doing this set and eventually, it turned out to be set with ambiguous information. It is not entirely the mistake of candidates, but many candidates regretted to have wasted this much of time on this set.

The purpose of recalling this incident is to save you from falling into such trap. Be smart enough to leave time consuming questions and be confident enough to do all easy ones quickly.

Use Mock Tests to develop strategy

Having a strategy for such examinations is very important. However, to know if a strategy is feasible or not, you cannot wait until the day of exam. Therefore, we suggest that you take at least 5 IIFT mocks before appearing for the actual exam.

Mocks help in building overall strategy. With mocks, you will be able to test whether your preparation is going in the right direction or not, and also whether your approach towards the examination is proper or not.

T.I.M.E. and Career Launcher’s mocks are good for IIFT preparation. You may also take mocks for IMS and Hitbullseye.

Be ready for anything and everything

Another important thing is that you should not presume anything before paper. Rather, just trust your preparation level and try to give your best. We are saying this is because of two reasons – First, examination pattern in unpredictable, and second, you can face wrong questions in the paper as well.

Many experts say that wrong questions are deliberately put in the exam paper so as to check the candidate’s wit. Therefore, they key is to not panic if you face such questions. If the paper is tough, then it is tough for everyone. Just make sure that you attempt adequate number of questions and maintain your accuracy.

The secret to crack DILR section of IIFT still remains practice. It is practice with which you learn to pick the right sets. With practice, you increase your speed and finally it is the practice which increases your confidence. Therefore, practice as much as you can and stay positive. Good Luck!

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