Zollege is here for to help you!!
Need Counselling

IBSAT (ICFAI Business School Aptitude Test) is an aptitude test conducted by IBS Business School to offer admission to MBA and PGDM programs. Candidates score equal or more than cut off marks are considered for admission process.

  • IBSAT 2021 is scheduled for December, 2021 in computer-based mode.
  • The syllabus of IBSAT is based on the curriculum of class 10+2. It evaluates a candidate’s quantitative, verbal/reading, data interpretation and reasoning skills.
  • The paper has 140 MCQs that are to be completed in 2 hours.
  • IBSAT Selection Procedure (GDPI rounds) will be conducted between February 22 to February 29, 2022 at IBS Hyderabad campus.

IBSAT would be conducted in online mode. IBSAT Exam Pattern will have 4 sections - Reading Comprehension, Verbal Ability, Data Interpretation & Adequacy and Quantitative Aptitude. This article focuses on providing the latest preparation tips and tricks to crack IBSAT. Candidates need to focus on individual sections separately rather than trying to cover everything together. 


How to prepare for IBSAT?

As there is little time left for the examination to be conducted, candidates appearing for IBSAT 2021 must be tensed about the strategies and last minute tips to grab as much information as one can. Here are some tips that will be fruitful for candidates to attempt all the four sections of IBSAT 2021 successfully to score decent marks:

IBSAT Reading comprehension

The reading comprehension section comprises 4 passages with some questions to test the candidate’s reading and comprehensive skills. The questions posed to candidates are often easy to attempt. But sometimes candidates are tricked into 100 to 500 words’ passages, hence face confusion related to correct answer.

In order to excel in this section, the only key to successful completion is practice. Taking help from newspapers, articles, editorials, etc. can help a candidate to polish the vocabulary skills.  Candidates must try and solve as many passages as possible. Reading Comprehension section is highly scoring if a candidate has attempted a similar pattern of questions successfully, so brush up your language skills and prepare well for the IBSAT examination. Some tips to prepare for Reading Comprehension section are given below:

  • Read as many newspapers and articles as possible.
  • Focus on keywords and analyze the content to prepare a suitable argument and respond accordingly.
  • Manage the time assigned for each section, do not read the passage at one go, divide and form a structure according to the questions asked.

Also Check IBSAT Sample Papers

IBSAT Verbal Ability

Verbal Ability section is all about the vocabulary and grammar of the candidate. To get a good score in this section, candidate must try and strengthen vocabulary and grammatical skills. Candidate must try and solve the previous year question papers or sample papers to get a grip on what type of questions can be asked in the IBSAT 2019 exam. As per the past record, around 20 to 30 questions are based on vocabulary and grammar section in IBSAT examination. Some important tips for Verbal Ability section are:

  • Work on the concepts related to articles, prepositions and various rule-based topics.
  • Incorporate the usage of concepts and topics you prepare in your daily conversations.
  • Prepare your grammatical base by practicing nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, tenses, punctuations, adjectives, etc.

IBSAT Data Interpretation and Adequacy

Data Interpretation and Adequacy is regarded as one of the toughest sections of all. Candidate has to deal with very tough questions pertaining to graphs, intensive calculations and logic based questions along with percentage, ratio questions.

Candidates need to dedicate a lot of time for preparation of this section. Thorough practice and focus are key to clear this section. Some additional tips to prepare for this section are:

  • Acquire accurate speed to solve calculation based questions. Do not depend on the calculators alone, try improve the speed and accuracy of manual calculations.
  • Additionally, it will be fruitful for candidate to attempt previous year question papers and mock tests.
  • Vedic maths or abacus can be used to perform fast calculations.
  • Solve the questions you find easy before attempting hard questions.

Check IBSAT Cutoff

IBSAT Quantitative Aptitude

The difficulty level of Quantitative Aptitude in IBSAT exam is toughest in the exam. The topics included in this section are Arithmetic, Numbers, Algebra, and Modern Maths. The Quantitative Aptitude section is a notch higher in level

of difficulty from all the other sections.

To prepare well for Quantitative Aptitude section, some tips have been listed below:

  • Candidate must strengthen all the topics covered in this section. All the concepts, fundamentals and formulas must be thoroughly prepared.
  • Candidate must attempt easy questions with simple calculations first. Devoting a lot of time on tough questions must be avoided.
  • Prepare a schedule for your preparation and stick to it. Practice as many mock test papers and sample papers as possible.
  • It is important to be calm and composed while attempting this section. Also, candidate must devote a little more time in preparation of Quantitative Aptitude.

Check IBSAT Paper Analysis


Other IBSAT Exam Strategies

Candidates who are preparing for IBSAT must be in dire need of some valuable tips that will provide a starting point for all the aspirants. Candidates are advised to go through some of these tips mentioned below to have an idea of how to prepare for the entrance exam.

  • Practice sectional mock tests: Go through the previous year question papers for thorough preparation. This will be a guiding step as they will be able to identify important sections. Since, IBSAT 2021 is online (Computer Based Test), Candidates should try to solve as many online mock papers as possible to build speed and accuracy.
  • Focus on vocabulary and language skills: To improve your competency in Verbal Ability section, read English Newspapers and Magazines. Incorporate some new words and grammatical rules into your daily conversations. If a candidate performs poorly in this section of IBSAT exam, the overall score of the examination gets highly affected.
  • Polish your analytical skills: Analytical reasoning section will have to be prepared by improving logical and critical thinking. Candidates should try to improve their logical thinking process.
  • Time management: Candidates must focus on managing time and try to solve the exam paper within stipulated time of 120 minutes. Sectional division of time while attempting sample papers will be fruitful at the actual examination scenario. Going for short tricks and tips to attempt the IBSAT examination will help in proper division of time for each section.

Study material for each IBSAT section

Some Useful preparation books for aspirants are suggested below.

IBSAT 2021 Preparation Books
Quant Aptitude by Tata Magraw Hill, Arun Sharma
Abhijit Guha's book: Quantitative Aptitude For Competitive Examinations Tips
Quantitative Aptitude for CAT, Pearson by Nishit Sinha
Nishit Sinha's DI LR book by Pearson
TMH’s How To Prepare For The Data Interpretation And Logical Reasoning for the CAT 3rd Edition by Arun Sharma
English Proficiency, IMS India
Business English and Communication by Clark
Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis

Check IBSAT Question Papers


IBSAT Exam Pattern and Syllabus

IBSAT examination is conducted by IBS Business School for 120 minutes. The exam is computer based i.e. online. The questions will be in Multiple Choice, such that, candidate will have to mark one correct answer out of four options.

IBSAT Exam constitutes of four sections:

  • Verbal Ability (50 questions)
  • Reading Comprehension (25 questions)
  • Quantitative Aptitude (25 questions)
  • Data Sufficiency and Data Interpretation (25 questions)

As IBSAT exam has four sectional divisions, there are different topics that are covered under each of them. Here are details of the syllabi covered in IBSAT exam:

Sections Topics
Quantitative Aptitude – Geometry, (Lines, angles, Triangles, Spheres, Rectangles, Cube, Cone etc.)
– Ratios and Proportion
– Ratios, Percentages 
– In-equations Quadratic and linear equations Algebra
– Profit & Loss
– Averages
– Percentages
– Partnership
– Time-Speed-Distance – Work and time
– Number system
– HCF – LCM
– Geometric Progression
– Arithmetic progression
– Arithmetic mean
– Geometric mean
– Harmonic mean
– Median
– Mode
– Number Base System
– BODMAS
– Menstruation
– Allegation & Mixtures
– Work
– Pipes and Cisterns
– Simple Interest & Compound Interest
– Set Theory 
– Venn Diagram 
– Installment Payments
– Partnership 
– Clocks 
– Probability
– Permutations & Combinations 
– Topics like Trigonometry 
– Vectors
– Binomial Expansion
– Coordinate geometry 
– Logarithm
– Calendar
– Maxima & Minima Progression
– Surds & Indices and Complex numbers
Reading Comprehension and Verbal Ability – Comprehension of passage (Poems can also come) – Verbal Reasoning
– Syllogisms 
– Contextual usage 
– Analogies
– Antonyms
– Fill In the Blanks
– Jumbled paragraphs with 4 or 5 sentences
– Jumbled paragraphs (6 sentences with first and last fixed)
– Sentence Correction
– Foreign language words used in English
– Sentence completion
– Sentence correction 
– Odd man out 
– Idioms
– One word substitution
– Different usage of same word
Data Interpretation, Data Adequacy and Reasoning – Data Interpretation based on text
– Data Interpretation based on graphs and tables
– Graphs can be Column graphs
– Bar Graphs
– Line charts
– Pie Chart
– Graphs representing Area
– Venn diagram 
– Critical reasoning 
– Visual reasoning
– Assumption-Premise
-Conclusion
– Assertion and reasons 
– Statements and assumptions
– Identifying valid inferences
– Identifying Strong arguments and Weak arguments – Statements and conclusions 
– Cause and Effect 
– Identifying Probability
– Probably false 
– Definitely true
– Definitely false kind of statement
– Linear arrangements 
– Matrix arrangements 
– Puzzles 
– Syllogisms 
– Functions
– Family tree
– identifying relationship among group of people
– Symbol Based problems
– Coding and decoding
– Sequencing
– Identifying next number in series, etc.

*The article might have information for the previous academic years, please refer the official website of the exam.

Ask your question