About XAT:

The XAT is one of the premier Management Entrance Tests being conducted in India. In terms of toughness, it can be equated with the CAT; in fact many students feel that the XAT is even tougher than the CAT.

The XAT pattern has undergone a complete metamorphosis over the past three to four years and today it resembles the CAT in many aspects.

XAT 2008 had 120 questions (objective type, multiple choice) to be attempted in 2hours along with an essay for which the students were given an additional 20 minutes. The XAT is currently the only examination that imposes a progressive negative marking. Progressive negative marking means that the first six incorrect answers in a section carry a penalty of -0.25 and every subsequent incorrect answer in this section carries a negative mark of -0.5.

Needless to say, the objective behind and the implication of such a marking scheme should be clear to the students!

How should you approach the paper?

Given the nature of marking and the toughness level of the paper, it is evident that question selection will be of primary importance. The students have to consciously devote quality time to a proper selection of questions from the XAT paper. We recommend the tried, tested and proven S-S-S-S strategy, where the 4 S’s stand for Scan, Search, Select and Solve. The first 3 S’s comprise, what is popularly known as ‘Strategy’, which when properly done, will result in effective ‘Solving’ of the questions.

Last year, the required score for a call from the prestigious XLRI Jamshedpur for their BM program was around 40 (out of a total of 120). The implication for the student is that he/she should try and pick up questions from strength areas and avoid random guesses. The individual sectional cut-offs should not be very high and students should look at a minimum score of 7-9 per section to clear the sectional cut-offs

Sectional Strategies:

Verbal and Logical Ability: Normally, this section is graded as ‘Tough’ by most analysts. Questions in this section normally involve complex reasoning and drawing inferences. You can expect to find questions from areas like Critical Reasoning, Paragraph formation, and fill in the blanks, apart from Reading Comprehension. The RC passages in the XAT are typically abstruse and last year we had passages from Consumer Moods and Emotions, Jung and Psychology, Karma, and the claims and experiments of Deborah Mayo, philosopher of science. None of these were ‘easy to read’ passages and this year too we expect no different. Students wishing to locate scoring opportunities should target the questions from the non-RC portion in this section.

Analytical Reasoning and Decision Making: This section would be the ‘easiest’ among all sections - the word ‘easy’ being used in strict relative terms! Last year there were many scoring options from questions on Data Arrangement and if once again this year, you find DA questions, jump at them. Decision Making questions were a novelty and involved making simple ‘business decisions’ on the basis of a situation provided. They should not prove to be too difficult, provided the student can think in a rational manner.

Data Interpretation and Quantitative Ability:

This section can be classified as moderately tough, but there would be an adequate number of questions for everybody to attempt. The questions in QA would primarily be from Algebra (number theory, quadratics, polynomials, progressions) and Geometry whereas DI would have questions that could be answered by observation and some calculations. The key in this section would be how quickly once is able to choose questions from his “strong” areas and leave the “weak” areas.

Overall: with the individual sectional cut-offs mentioned previously, the students desirous of calls from XLRI would additionally have to “max” at least one of the three sections. The primary target of the student should be to achieve a score (net of negatives) of 40+ (out of the expected total of 120 marks)

Finally, do not forget the Essay Writing - that one thing that is the signature mark of the XAT! The focus will clearly be on the content and how you present that, but you need to focus on the Grammar and Language part also. Topics can be from any background - but expect more on Social Issues.

All the Best for XAT

MadeITsimple Team

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