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A lot of aspirants find the IBA English section very intimidating. It is very common to see people with excellent quantitative aptitude suffer a lot in the English section. Either they are intimidated by the sheer volume of vocabulary to memorize, or they do not have that intuitive understanding of English from early on in their lives. Many people also advise, “English pere jaba, math e focus koro,” which might be true for some people.
Today, we’ll learn how much weight the English section has, what resources you’ll need for your admission season, and what you can do to approach the common misconceptions people have during admission season.
1) How important is the English section?
It’s just as important as any other section. Yes, that sounds pretty obvious. You’ll have to individually pass in each section (English, Math, Analytical, Writing), so of course, it is important just like any other section.
For most aspirants, English will be the section you’ll have to rely on to pass in total. What do I mean by that?
The marks distribution of IBA is like this:
English - 30
Math - 25
Analytical - 15
Written - 30
Viva - 20
The written script is only checked after you’ve secured the passing bar in each section. However, for you to be called for the viva, you must also pass the total marks cut-off.
Last year, you needed to get 6 in analytical (it was 40% this year, usually the passing bar drops), 7 in Math (28%) and 11.75 in English (39%) for your written script to be checked. The written passing bar last year was 14 (which is more than 40%, students did well in the written section last year).
So let’s say you secured exactly the passing bar in every section. Your total would add up to 38.75. The last person to get into IBA had a total score of 49. Nobody studying in IBA right now has less than 49 in their total (before viva). That was the mark you needed to get called into the IBA viva and have a chance of making it.
So just passing is not enough. You need a section to increase your score. Of course, you need to learn how to pass in every section first, but you still need a “strong section.” For a lot of aspirants, that section is English. It has the most weight (40%+ of the total marks you can get from the MCQ part depends on this section)
In simple terms, what I’m establishing is that the English section has a lot of marks. Most of it is easy. You just need good preparation.
2) What kind of questions will I face in the English section?
IBA questions are really random. You never really know what kind of topics the authority will choose for your batch. It’s pretty random. Of course, there are common topics that students face each year. The topics include:
Vocabulary
Grammar
Reading comprehension etc.
It looks pretty simple and it really is that simple. I personally only solved questions randomly. If I felt like solving error detection questions, I solved them. If I felt like “nah ajke sentence correction kora uchit” that’s what I did. However, if English is not your strong point, there should be more structure to it than just doing whatever you feel like doing.
One topic I always practiced was vocabulary. It’s the most common topic and the only thing you see people studying in their pre-admission phase. Every IBA aspirant carried a WordSmart with them in college.
When I say IBA is random, I mean things like “onek error detection pore gesi exam e ektao error detection ashe nai.” The 34th intake was like that. 32nd intake had no grammatical questions, so people ultra-reliant on their grammar faced a difficult challenge.
However, some common topics and preparing for them will help you do well in mocks and give your English preparation more structure. Overall, you just need to gain the confidence for “exam e jemon question e dek, ami at least pass korte parbo.”
3) What resources should I use?
For the English section, I believe the IBA book alone is enough. The English section is really well structured, and that’s all I used for my preparation. The book and the practice tests on this website. Some other resources are:
Cliffs TOEFL: Base builder. Has comprehensive grammatical rules and focuses on the basics of error detection, sentence correction.
GMAT Official guide for sentence correction
GRE Big Book for Vocabulary questions (Antonyms, Analogy, and Sentence Completion)
Barron’s SAT: Error detection, sentence correction, and sentence completion.
Wordsmart 1,2 for vocabulary
I personally did not use this many resources. The more books or resources I had to check, the more stressful it got.
Many people like me do not like using a book for vocabulary. To replace the books, you can use vocabulary.com. It has a flashcard system. You simply go through the flashcards during your free time. The goal is familiarizing, not memorizing. Try not to make it a resource-heavy preparation. You won’t find “common” questions, so finishing more resources won’t give you the edge over other aspirants until you learn the key concepts behind each mistake.
4) How do I start studying vocab?
This is a common pitfall. Aspirants focus too much on “memorizing”. Of course, memorizing is part of it. However, the real goal should be familiarizing yourself with the words to the point where you can just look at a word and guess the meaning. Or atleast the connotation (vibe) of that word.
For example, when I say “familiarize,” you do not have to think about what that word means. Familiarize means familiarize. I know that sounds kind of stupid, but hear me out. We know what it means cause we’ve seen this word so many times, we don’t have to think about what it means. We just know.
You want to put the vocab study into a system. Cramming and memorizing is agonizing, and you will start hating the process within a few days. You want your vocab to be in a system so you don’t have to waste too much mental energy on it. How can you achieve that system?
If you use pc for your preparation, you wanna keep vocabulary.com always open in one tab. So whenever you are using your pc, there’s a reminder that you have to just go through the flashcards at least once. If you don’t know a word, just turn the flashcard around, read the meaning once, see how it’s used in sentences, and move on. Keep doing this process. The goal is to expose yourself to the same words so many times that the meaning feels natural to you. You’ll be like “oh abdicate mane toh eitai hobe” or smth. You get my point.
Or you can use an external app on pc or your phone (I used it). It’s called anki. It’s a flashcard app where you can upload decks of flashcards. People use it for learning a new language, memorizing formulas, and, in our case, memorizing vocabulary. Anki has an in-built system for how many words you’re forgetting and how many you have properly memorized. It lets you do spaced repetition, so you not only learn new words but also retain the words you’ve already learned. You cannot just keep forgetting old words. You have to remember them. Use them like some pretentious fellow in everyday convo. It’s just 3 months; let people call you pretentious.
You might think that this much effort for vocab is stupid. Maybe it is. I heard this story where someone learned 2000 words and found only 5 common in the main exam and his friend learned only 50 words and got 5 common in the same exam. However, the level of confidence that knowing vocab will give you is unmatched. Especially if you already feel confident in the other sections and topics of the exam.
Don’t let your vocab pile up. At the very least, finish WS1, SAT hit parade, and GRE hit parade.
5) “IT SOUNDS RIGHT, SO IT MUST BE CORRECT!!!”
This is for the people who believe that they are naturally good at English and don’t need to study grammar. This is good. You are confident. You feel that you have an advantage over other aspirants. However, this is a common pitfall.
When you start preparing for IBA, you will notice that in the English section, all the options sound good. There isn’t always a way to figure out what’s wrong and what is not by just sensing the “vibes” of an option. This happens because people who are confident in English get a lot of their English proficiency from movies and shows. Native English speakers speak in ways that are not grammatically correct but still convey what they mean pretty accurately. Since it’s spoken English, nobody bothers with grammar much. These grammatical mistakes will carry over to your IBA preparation. You can fix it, though.
A resource I used was the “50+ grammar rules to study on the go by Magoosh”. This helps you notice the grammatical mistakes we often condone in texting or speaking. You can also use the book “Common Mistakes in English” . I used it just a little bit to fix some preposition errors I frequently made and couldn’t spot in error detection or sentence correction questions.
The main goal is to learn mistake patterns, find them in questions, and understand the concept behind them. It doesn’t always have to be right just because it sounds correct.
6) The “eita ashle answer korbo na” pitfall
This is very common. The IBA admission test not only tests your aptitude, it tests how well you can manage time and how well you handle a playing field you aren’t prepared for.
Do not have any preconceived notions. “Reading comprehension ashle answer korbo na” or “vocab ashle answer korbo na”- do not have this mentality. The strongest mentality you can have for the exam is “whatever questions I face in the exam, I’ll manage.”
Prepare for every topic. Don’t skip vocab. Don’t assume reading comprehension questions are going to be very hard. Of course, you’ll be skipping a lot of questions. However, don’t be the person who doesn’t even read a question because “ami ei topic pari na tai answer korbo na”.
Para jumbles, sentence insertion, sentence elimination, etc., are uncommon topics that you’ll face in mocks. The first time you face these topics, you might assume they are too difficult for you and give up. This is a pitfall. You might think that you’ll answer every other topic but what if tomar year e 3 ta reading comprehension dey? Something you were not confident about? Hoitei pare. 32nd er question had no grammatical questions. It was mostly comprehension based questions and vocab. Imagine what the people who thought tara comprehension based question answer korbe na felt in the exam hall. It’s a huge blow to your confidence- something you don’t want in your exam.
Prepare for everything. DO NOT SKIP ANY TOPIC. Expect the unexpected.
That’s about it for the English section. Use resources wisely, understand concepts, and notice patterns. Do not skip vocab; it’s the most common topic in the IBA admission exam. Prepare well. Best of luck.
Farhan Anjum,
IBA BBA 34th batch.