IBA admissions is one of the most competitive exams. Over 10,000 people sit for the exam and only around 120 people make it through. Luck is a huge factor that plays into it; and so does hall pressure, unpredictable question patterns, or even just a bad day. So, it is incredibly risky to prep solely for IBA. Fortunately, there are quite a few very good backup options that require similar, or minimal extra prep, that can be a good landing pad in case of, you know, the off chance that IBA doesn’t work out. 

Of course, you have your basics: BUP BBA GEN, NSU BBA, DU FBS (or DU C unit), DU B unit and BUP FBS. Then there’s BBA in any other university. There will also be a few of you who are prepping for Engineering, Medical, or A unit. 

BUP BBA GEN (25 English, 40 Math+Analytical, 10 GK) and private university prep work out well enough with IBA prep. You generally don’t need to do much else except go through a few general knowledge books. Jubayer’s capsule might be the only booklet you’ll need. It comes out a few days before the BBA Gen exam and going through it oi koydine is enough. You won’t remember much even if you memorize a ton of general knowledge age theke. 

DU FBS (Bangla, English, ICT, Higher Math/Statistics/Economics)- 60 marks mcq and 20 marks written. You can cover ICT and Bangla with your prep for HSC and SSC, it’s mostly grammar questions. For English you have IBA prep to rely on. Math too. Ek week prep nilei hoye jay. As long as you don’t panic in the exam hall, you’ll be fine.

DU B Unit (Bangla, English, Gk)- 60 mcq, 20 written. Bangla ar English more or less the same as C unit, just ektu harder and you get a few questions from Bangla first paper as well. So prepare accordingly. GK I would say is Pretty hard because it’s just a lot of memorization. It’s where most people fail arki. Written o much harder than C unit since you get translation and sentence making questions that are ektu confusing. But a few weeks of preparation should be enough if your basics are strong.

JU IBA (Math, English, Gk), similar to IBA and mostly recent GK. 

BUP FBS (English, Math, GK)- again, similar to IBA but easier. Math e econ, stats and analytical questions included. So oitay ektu extra pora. But nothing that requires too heavy prep.

That’s about it for the alternatives you can handle alongside IBA prep that have similar educational paths. 

For people who are trying to juggle Engineering + IBA or Medical + IBA,

It’s not impossible. It’s actually quite common for engineering aspirants to get into IBA. But for that, you need to have a very good hold on your fundamentals from school and college. That, along with some sort of proficiency in English, would make preparing for both IBA and Engineering a little less troublesome for you.

Engineering prep nile ar having strong basic knowledge makes maths and analytical quite easy for you. Again this is assuming tumi SSC ar HSC te Onek monojog diye bhalomoto porashona korso. But if that’s not the case and you’re not Confident, taile it’s better to just prep for one thing. 

For Med preppers, it’s probably a bit more difficult as there’s a lot of theoretical porashona involved. So you would have to prepare for IBA completely separately. Which is Extremely difficult considering that admission season is one of the most chaotic times of our lives. But again, not impossible. A lot of people get into IBA without any prep at all. But exceptions are not examples, and you can’t rely on miracles.

You get to learn a lot about plan B’s as you navigate admissions. It’s something you should think about, but not worry about (of course, unless you’re juggling two things at the same time. In which case, do give it a lot of thought and strategize properly).

Give a few tests to see how well you do. Figure out what suits your interests and prepare accordingly. Best of Luck!

By Adhara Annanya Ittela,
34th Batch, DU IBA