Selection process at IIFT: A perspective

Rajesh Beriwal is from the 2012 class at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi. His focus areas for a career include corporate finance and equity research. Rajesh completed his Bachelor’s in commerce from St. Xavier’s College Kolkata and has successfully completed the second level of the professional training for Chartered Accountancy. His MBA ambitions sprung during his college days while simultaneously pursuing his CA studies. At IIFT he is currently the co-ordinator of the finance club ‘Cashonova’. Rajesh shares his selection experience with Serena Kallian.

The test
At the very beginning there is the test. According to Rajesh, the written test at IIFT is really important since a lot of weigtage is accorded to it in the selection process. He scored an overall 45.39 at the test. In 2010, the IIFT cut off was 37 and so owing to his good academic records and scores he was selected in the first merit list. As an encouraging tip to all future aspirants Rajesh suggests that one must focus on the strength areas and leverage the same to increase the over all score. “The verbal section was my strong point. I attempted all the questions in this section and managed to get all of them correct thus raising my overall score. While the quantitative section was slightly challenging I did not spend a lot of my time attempting all the questions but just enough to clear the minimum cut off.” One must also focus on GK questions which are really important for the IIFT test.

Essay, GD and PI
The selection process at IIFT includes an essay, GD and the personal interview. The essay topics usually cover current affairs, business and economics, politics, abstract topics etc. “We had to write a page long essay on ‘Food security in India’ this essentially had to cover inflation and other related issues. The essay carries around 10 percent weightage during admissions.

The next round of selection is the Group discussion. Rajesh explains, “We were a group of 12-13 participants and we were asked to discuss on ‘Effects of reality television shows/competitions involving children’. We had to discuss both sides of the issue. Each of us was given a few minutes to introduce the topic and express our views on it. The floor was then opened for discussion during which time 7/8 of us were asked to moderate the discussion in turns. At the end of the discussion few of us were asked to volunteer to summarise the entire GD. The entire discussion round took more than an hour.”

The GD is followed by the personal interview. In Rajesh’s case the interview was a short one of 10-12 minutes. He was asked basic questions on academics, his MBA decision and ‘Why IIFT’ etc. “My answer to the why IIFT question were two reasons one being the international perspective I hoped to get during the MBA at the institute and the other reason were the excellent credentials of the institute which prompted my choice. There were questions which tested both my vocabulary and general knowledge.” On the whole the personal interview was a success and there was no surprise element feels Rajesh.

‘Take aways’ from the MBA experience so far
“The MBA programme here at IIFT has given me good exposure to diverse profiles in the classroom, opportunities to understand different companies in the market through projects and competitions and also realize my strengths through interactions with my mentors and peers.”