Students’ Speak: What are the next steps if your IIFT performance is not as per your expectations?

By: Abhishek Desai

Studying for an exam is entirely in the hands of students, but getting a good score in it isn’t. There are numerous cases wherein aspirants diligently prepare for the XAT, ending up with a lower than the expected score. One need not worry about the result if they had put in the required efforts.

A sincere MBA aspirant would surely bounce back from such setbacks and make amends by scoring well in the next exams (or next year’s IIFT exam, if they plan to appear for the same).

Upon getting the result, one should take it in their stride and aim for scoring well in the upcoming entrance exams such as SNAP, CMAT, XAT, CET, etc. It is always advised for all the MBA aspirants to keep a backup for an entrance exam and not solely depend upon the outcome of only one exam.

There are numerous examples of candidates in the past, learning from their IIFT experiences and scoring much higher in the forthcoming exams. Since the likes of the aforementioned tests are comparatively easier than IIFT and there are pretty high chances of a candidate getting a high score in them.

Since the syllabus of all the MBA entrance exams remains more or less the same, an aspirant just needs to alter the test-taking strategy (which can be done via mocks) and revise the basic concepts, formulas, and shortcuts thoroughly.

To shortlist the different colleges accepting various percentile ranges, one can refer to the wide and detailed information already available on Shiksha.com. Checkout the sectional and overall cutoff scores of the past years to get more insights over the possible cutoffs for next year. Always keep the placements, rankings, ROI, and the brand name in mind while shortlisting any college. An institute that has a better brand name will always offer great learning exposure in those two years of MBA or PGDM.

As per the scores you have in your recent mocks, you can get a fair idea of which college to be ideally aimed for. Keep a wide range of good backup colleges. The usual cutoff scores of IIFT Kolkata, New Delhi and Kakinada campuses next year could be anywhere in the range of 115-125 marks.

When it comes to giving suggestions on increasing the scores, observe whether you are spending more time than required on a particular question/section or not since most of the upcoming exams would be more speed-based. Keep a tab on the time as well as accuracy during the mocks. Ask your peers and professors for more help if required. Leverage the articles and videos posted on the Internet to the fullest on how to make use of shortcuts to solve a particular type of question (in case you are not aware of).

About the Author:

Abhishek Desai is currently pursuing Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) in e-Business from Welingkar Institute of Management.