Hello Adaanists, 👋

I hope you're holding up well amidst the pressure of admission season. It's Christmas Eve 🎄 here in New York 🗽, and I managed to carve out some time to write this newsletter for you on how to approach the IBA DU exam.

I know you're working hard to master all the content available. However, the IBA DU exam isn't just about knowing the vocab or solving the math problems. It's more about how efficiently you can hit the passing marks in all three subjects within ⏱️ 90 minutes.

What is the IDEAL Passing Bar?

Before diving deep into the passing bars, remember this golden rule of thumb for your exam:

60% is widely considered the passing bar for each subject.

This means if there are 25 questions in English, the passing bar will be 15. If there are 30 math questions, the passing bar will be 18.

But What is the REAL Passing Bar?

The passing bar varies broadly based on 2 factors:

1️⃣ Difficulty of the questions

2️⃣ Performance of other test takers

In my IBA DU BBA exam back in 2021 (Yup, I am old!), I answered:

• 20 out of 25 questions in English,

• 12 out of 25 questions in Math,

• 15 out of 20 questions in Analytical.

I didn’t answer 15 questions in Math, attempting only 48%. I can’t say for sure how many I got wrong because in our batch, IBA didn’t release subject-wise scores.

Despite this, I answered substantially higher in English (around 80%) and Analytical (about 75%). Yet, I didn’t meet the widely accepted 60% passing bar in Math - and I still ranked 94th in my batch.

This isn't just my story. I've heard of people who answered as few as:

• 12 out of 25 questions in English, or

• 8 out of 25 questions in Math,

…and still made it into IBA! 🤯

So What is Going on Behind the Scenes?

To understand this more deeply, let’s take a look at the scores of some IBA students from my batch (IBA BBA 29th).

The scores reported here are the total combined scores obtained by 8 students in both the written test and viva. Here's how the mark distribution worked for our exam:

Written Assessment Test: 100

MCQ: 70

1. English: 25

2. Math: 25

3. Analytical: 20

Written: 30

Communication Test (Viva): 15

Total: 115

I won’t delve too deeply into statistical distributions. Instead, let’s focus on 2 key patterns observed from the table and scatter chart:

Pattern #1: The Cut-off Mark 🚦

• The top three scorers (ranks 1, 2, and 3) scored 80+ out of 115, while the student ranked 125th scored 58 out of 115.

• Since 125 students were admitted to our batch, this means 58/115 was the cut-off mark for admission.

For context, I scored 62.65 out of 115 and ranked 94th. The difference between my score and Rank 1’s score was around 20 points (19.7), while the gap between the highest score and the cut-off mark was 24.35.

🧠 Key Takeaway: There’s a significant spread between the top and mid/low ranks.

Pattern #2: Narrowing Score Gaps in the Mid-Ranks 📉

From Rank 47 to Rank 94, the score differences were very narrow.

For instance:

• The person who ranked 95th scored 62 (if I remember correctly), just 0.65 points lower than me.

• As ranks increase (from 47th to 125th), the score gap continues to shrink.

🧠 Key Takeaway: You don’t need to score extremely high to get into IBA. Your objective is to get admitted - not to rank 1st.

Ranking in the top 10, 20, or 30 often depends more on your performance on the exam day than on your capabilities, knowledge, or skills. If everyone retook the test, I’m confident the ranks would shift significantly. Someone who ranked 80th in the first test can become 1st in the 2nd test.

The Danger of Over-Pushing 🚩

Attempting to rank at the top can backfire. For example:

• After answering enough questions to meet the passing bar, you might feel tempted to try more to boost your rank.

• However, guessing answers or rushing through difficult questions can lead to negative marks and lower your overall score.

What about Individual Passing Bars?

Here’s where it gets tricky. Let me share my scores for context:

Things get blurry for me when I try to explain my detailed scores. IBA didn't release subject-wise scores in our batch. Thus, there is no way for me to tell you how much I received individually in all 3 subjects, in the MCQ, and/or in the written part.

What I can tell you is I answered a total of 47 questions in the MCQ part.

And I got only 48.25 in the entire written test, including both MCQ and written sections, by answering 47 MCQ questions! What does this even mean? If I assume that I correctly answered all 47 questions in the best-case scenario, does that mean I received only 1.25 out of 30 in the written section?

As someone who boasts about his writing skills and received incredible recognition for his writing abilities in various fields, even including politics, I really don't think I received only 1.25 out of 30. I did pretty well in the written part, and I am fairly confident about that.

Therefore, it's difficult for me to make any conclusive conclusion from my written scores.

🎯 However, one conclusion that I can logically make from my experience and numerous other stories is that the passing bar for each subject isn’t always a strict 60%. It's difficult to say what would be the passing bar for Math, English, or Analytical in the upcoming IBA exams, but in my opinion it's safe to at least correctly answer 50% with one caveat.

Let's say, during your exam, you felt the English question was super hard. If the question is difficult for you, it is more likely that the question is difficult for the majority of the students as well. In a hard question, the passing bar is more likely to get lower.

If a section feels especially hard, the passing bar is likely to be lowered to reflect the difficulty.

My Advice

• Aim to answer at least 50% of the questions correctly, but don’t blindly guess to hit 50-60%.

• Focus on doing well in the easier sections to compensate for harder ones during the test. For example, if English feels tough, prioritize Analytical or Math (if they seem easier).

In my case, even though I answered only 12 Math questions, I made up for it by answering more in English and Analytical. So if you are having a rough time in one section, try to compensate for that by doing well in other sections.

Final Tip: Stay calm, don’t push too hard, and avoid careless mistakes that could lead to negative marks.

Best of luck. You got this!