National Testing Agency (NTA) usually starts registration for IIFT entrance exam in the month of September. However, this year it has been delayed. While NTA is not disclosing any information IIFT 2021 exam, the speculation are that the delay is due to the pandemic and deferring of admission session 2020-21. NTA will be holding IIFT MBA 2021 examination that is going to be conducted for admission in MBA programmes offered in IIFT Delhi, IIFT Kolkata, and Dar-es-Salaam campuses. The qualified candidates after the entrance exam will be eligible for admission to the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) in the 2021-23 batch.
Usually, the timeline of the IIFT entrance exam by NTA goes like this – in the month of September, the application form is released online and remain available till November. The exam is held in December and the scores come out in the month of January in the next year.
Last year the exam was held as per schedule. The entrance test was conducted on December 01, 2019. There was no delay in the result declaration process too, it was out on December 13, 2019.
To apply for IIFT 2021, candidates can register for the IIFT 2021 entrance exam on the official website, iift.nta.nic.in. After registering, they have to login and fill the online application form, upload relevant documents and images. The last step includes paying the application fee according to the category to which the candidate belongs.
The application fee, according to last year’s information, is different for different categories. Candidates belonging to general, general-EWS, ONC-NCL categories are required to pay Rs. 2000 as an application fee. SC, ST, PwD, and transgender candidates have to pay Rs. 1000 for the application process. Lastly, foreign nationals or NRIs have to pay US $150 or Rs.9500 as an application fee. Authorities have also offered candidates different modes to pay the fee. These modes of payment include credit card, debit card, and net banking.
There is no age limit to apply for IIFT 2021 entrance exam. However, candidates must have completed their 3-year Graduation in any discipline with minimum 50% marks. For SC / ST / PwD candidates, the candidates must have 45% minimum marks.
IIFT 2021 will be a computer-based entrance examination of 120 minutes duration. It will have Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQs). The question paper shall be divided into six different sections- verbal ability, reading comprehension, general awareness, logical reasoning, quantitative aptitude, and data interpretation.
There are three basic differences between IIFT and CAT entrance tests. IIFT exam is a speed-based exam whereas CAT is more of a critical thinking capacity based exam. Although both exams have the Quantitative Aptitude (QA) section, the IIFT section is usually lengthy and the CAT QA section requires conceptual clarity. CAT has two types of questions – MCQs and ‘type in the answer’ type of questions whereas IIFT has only MCQ-type questions.