XAT Analysis 2022

XAT 2022 has just been completed. In total, XAT 2022 candidates had 190 minutes to complete 100 MCQ questions and an essay writing question.

The Verbal and Logical Ability sections were simple, and the decision-making component was likewise straightforward. The Quantitative Aptitude test was simple, as was the Data Interpretation section. The overall structure of the paper was similar to that of XAT 2021, with the exception that an essay paper was introduced just a few days before the exam.

Summary of XAT 2022

The 2022 Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) was held on January 2, 2022, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:40 p.m.

The exam was broken into two sections. The first section was the standard XAT paper, which was divided into three sections:

• Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning (VALR),
• Decision Making (DM), and
• Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation (QADI).

As previously mentioned by XAT officials, the total time given for answering these questions was 165 minutes. The second section included 25 General Knowledge questions and one essay writing question. This part was given a total of 25 minutes.

Each question in Part A was worth one mark, with -0.25 points deducted for each erroneous attempt and -0.1 points deducted after eight unattempted questions. Part B was not marked negatively.

XAT Analysis 2021

XAT (Xavier Aptitude Test) 2021 was conducted online on January 3, 2021

XAT 2021 came back to its usual form which was similar to what was seen in 2017 and 2019. Thus, in terms of level of difficulty one can say XAT 2021 was an exam with Moderate difficulty level.

Sectional Analysis

Part-I

Verbal and Logical Ability Section (26 questions)

The Verbal and Logical Ability section of XAT 2021 was comparable to XAT 2019. There were 17 Reading Comprehension questions and 9 Verbal Ability/Reasoning questions in the XAT exam this year. The Verbal ability/Verbal Reasoning questions were a balanced mix of grammar, vocabulary, and reasoning based questions(Critical Reasoning and Jumbled Paragraphs). The 17 RC questions were distributed amongst four passages and one poem. The poem was a short one (like last year) but was relatively less conceptual/difficult. The outlasting four passages were of 250-300 words each; they had a mixture of medium to difficult questions. Nearly all the questions were probable. The options were close and the directions indicated to choose the ‘best’ one among them.
An attempt of about 20-24 questions in this section in about 55 minutes, with about 75-80% accuracy would be considered a good attempt.

Decision Making (21 questions)

This section consisted of 21 questions, and had moderate level of difficulty again comparable to that of 2019/2018 paper. This section consisted of 7 sets of 3 questions each. Most of the passages were short and easy to read. As usual, some questions had a fair deal of ambiguity – in that either no answer seemed correct or s more than one option appeared correct. Overall, the questions were of medium difficulty. Therefore, the choice of sets/questions to attempt would have depended mainly on your personal preferences and strengths. Overall the section was more difficult compared to last year's test.

In about 55 minutes, an attempt of about 14-15 questions with about 75-80% accuracy would be considered to be good.

Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation (28 questions)

This section was marginally easier than last year’s QADI section.  Out of the 28 questions in the section, 19 were on Quantitative Ability and 9 were on Data Interpretation.

In Data Interpretation, there were 3 sets comprising 9 questions in total - 1 based on scatter plot, 1 logic based, and the last one based on Ratio and proportion.

The QA and DI section was dominated by questions on Arithmetic (7 questions), followed by Geometry (4 questions). An attempt of about 17-18 questions (with about 80 percent accuracy) in about 55 minutes would be considered a good attempt. Assuming that there are negative marks of -0.25 for all incorrect responses.

Part-II

There was no break between Part-I and Part-II.

General Knowledge

The 25 GK questions comprised 7 current affairs questions and 18 static GK questions. Overall the GK section was similar to the previous year’s test. As typical, the questions covered a wide range of areas and gave no special advantage to specialists in any one area. The topics were assorted between Science, History, Geography, Business, Economy, names of political personalities, etc.

As there was no negative marking for wrong responses in this section, all questions should have been attempted. A score of 7 - 8 would be a good score in this section in the exam.

Strategy to ace XAT Exam:

1) Know your exam: XAT Exam Analysis will get a good idea about the what and the how of the questions asked. So the first step would be to go through previous years’ papers of XAT and get a brief idea about what is asked.

2) Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation: Data Interpretation can be covered by practicing questions on Charts, Graphs, and Tables. Keep revising tables, squares, cubes, percentage values, etc. for an increased calculation speed. Start learning shortcuts for the topics that you have a good grip on.

3) Verbal & Logical Ability: For acing reading comprehension, try to make your comprehension speed as fast as your reading speed. This means that reading a passage once should be enough for you to get a complete idea about what is given. Reading and scanning it again would take up valuable time. Practice Filling in the blanks, Sentence Correction, Verbal Analogies, and Vocabulary usage-based questions as well.

4) Decision Making & Analytical Reasoning: Questions range from Employee Management problems, Ethical dilemmas, and Finance/Sales problems to General management and revenue problems. The more you practice decision-making questions, the quicker you will get at solving them.

5) General Knowledge: The marks obtained in this section will not be used for selections in the first round of admissions. It will be considered in the PI rounds and during final admissions. This section tests the student on Current Affairs and Static GK. Make sure that on the day of the exam, you are well-versed with the current affairs of the previous 6 months. Focus more on Business & Economics. Also, do not forget to go through different Awards and their recipients, Famous personalities, Geography, Indian Government, Political events, and Science.

6) Essay Writing: Topics in this section are usually abstract. No straightforward topics. Therefore, practice writing some essays in your spare time. This will help you to increase the speed with which you express your thoughts and ideas on paper.

7) Mock Tests: Take as many mocks as you can. Analyze these mocks, right down to each and every detail. If the time spent analyzing the mocks is more than the time spent giving the mock, then you are on the right track.

8) Plan well: Plan out a schedule and stick to it. When preparing for XAT, it is easy to get overwhelmed by the different sections, the difficulty levels, and the vast syllabus. Going as per a schedule will make sure that you cover everything. At the same time, it will balance your preparation.

Get Mocks for XAT

XAT Analysis 2020

XAT (Xavier Aptitude Test) 2020 was conducted online on January 5, 2020

XAT-2020 was more or less the same as last year at the difficulty level. VARC and DM Sections were on par with last year with a few questions in DM being difficult. The cut-offs are likely to be a bit lower compared to last year.

Sectional Analysis

Part-I

Verbal and Logical Ability Section (26 questions)

The Verbal and Logical Ability section of XAT 2020 was marginally more mild compared to last year. There were 14 Reading Comprehension questions and 12 Verbal Ability/Reasoning questions in the XAT exam this year. The Verbal ability/Verbal Reasoning questions were a balanced mix of grammar, vocabulary, and reasoning based questions(Critical Reasoning and Jumbled Paragraphs). The 14 RC questions were distributed amongst four passages and one poem. The poem was a short one (like last year) but was relatively less conceptual/difficult. The outlasting four passages were of 250-300 words each; they had a mixture of medium to difficult questions. Nearly all the questions were probable. The options were close and the directions indicated to choose the ‘best’ one among them.
An attempt of about 16-18 questions in this section in about 55 minutes, with about 75-80% accuracy would be considered a good attempt.

Decision Making (21 questions)

This section consisted of 21 questions, and like last year, none of the questions were quantitative. This section consisted of 7 sets of 3 questions each. Most of the passages were short and easy to read. As usual, some questions had a fair deal of ambiguity – in that either no answer seemed correct or s more than one option appeared correct. Overall, the questions were of medium difficulty. Therefore, the choice of sets/questions to attempt would have depended mainly on your personal preferences and strengths. Overall the section was more difficult compared to last year's test.

In about 55 minutes, an attempt of about 14-15 questions with about 75-80% accuracy would be considered to be good.

Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation (28 questions)

This section was of moderate level of difficulty, slightly more difficult than that in XAT-2019. Out of the 28 questions in the section, 22 were on Quantitative Ability and 6 were on Data Interpretation.

There were two sets on Data Interpretation with three questions each. Both sets were easy to medium in terms of Level of Difficulty. One set involved a Table while the other set had multiple graphs. The set on multiple graphs also had slight logical angle to it.Out of 22 questions on Quantitative Ability, 20 were standalone questions and 2 questions were in the form of a set on Venn Diagrams. The questions on Quantitative Ability in this section consisted of a few sitters as well as a few really lengthy questions. As a result, the selection of right questions to attempt was very important. Some questions, especially the questions on Geometry involving circles and quadrilaterals were on the difficult side. However, option elimination could have been effectively used to answer these questions.

This section was dominated by questions on Arithmetic (7 questions), followed by Geometry (6 questions).An attempt of about 17-18 questions (with about 80 percent accuracy) in about 55 minutes would be considered a good attempt. Assuming that there are negative marks of -0.25 for all incorrect responses.

Part-II

There was no break between Part-I and Part-II.

General Knowledge

The 25 GK questions comprised 5 current affairs questions and 20 static GK questions. Overall the GK section was easier than the previous year’s test. 18 questions were based on national events, 5 questions were based on international events and the other 2 questions were general. As typical, the questions covered a wide range of areas and gave no special advantage to specialists in any one area. The topics were assorted between Science, History, Geography, Business, Economy, names of political personalities, etc.

As there was no negative marking for wrong responses in this section, all questions should have been attempted. A score of 7 - 8 would be a good score in this section of the exam.

XAT Analysis 2019

The XAT 2019 did not show many surprises this year, whereas talking of the difficulty level for a student who prepared well for CAT and done well would not have found it difficult, it was pretty doable. But overall when compared to previous years Decision Making did have some tricky questions. Though a lot of people predicted even XAT would incorporate TITA or Non-MCQ Questions, it didn’t have any such change.

The test was divided into two parts. The first part was the Objective Aptitude XAT paper which had questions divided into three sections Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning, Decision Making, and Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation. As stated by the XAT authorities earlier, the total time allotted for attempting these questions was 165 minutes. The second part consisted of General Awareness questions. The total time allotted to this section was 15 minutes.

Related: GDPI Courses for top B-Schools

Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation

The overall section was moderately difficult with basic questions of Arithmetic while the paper focused on Algebra and Geometry. Geometry also included questions from coordinate Geometry and Trigonometry. Data Interpretation had one set which was tricky, the rest was doable in fact data sufficiency was pretty easy.

Verbal ability

Was slightly more difficult than the usual Verbal Section, Reading comprehension dominated the paper, though the areas of RC were familiar psychology, social sciences, and arts-based, despite that it was difficult, especially the Poem comprehension posed a lot of concerns for the students. Critical Reasoning and the Fill in the Blanks also were difficult whereas the para jumbles were easier. People who did not invest time in these road blocker questions have done well. Vocab usage questions were a relief and not too difficult in the form of antonyms and analogies.

Increase your reading well in Reading speed and score Comprehension in XAT

Decision Making

This is always the trick area with close answer options making the student's life difficult. But this time this indeed was not difficult as compared to the previous year. The situational conventional type of decision-making questions dominated the section, the best part is there were no mathematical calculative questions, nor any singlets in all cases which made the time utilization well balanced.

General Awareness

XAT Analysis 2018

With XAT going Online, it posed a series of glitches at various centers with the exams getting started an hour late and most people stuck with systems hanging, disappointing for the students who already have the fear of XAT with these to top it with technical glitches. XAT has always been known to be a difficult exam with tricky questions and time-consuming, unlike CAT. However, the paper was easier than always. The number of questions being reduced was good for the students to have better attempted, as XAT has always been an exam to be tested with the skill of leaving out the difficult questions and focusing on High Accuracy.

Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation

The overall section was moderately difficult with basic questions of Arithmetic and modern Maths like progressions, time speed distance, and Geometry. Definitely easier than the last few years, however, the geometry questions were tricky. Data Interpretation had 2 sets only, but they were difficult one being tricky and the other being calculation intensive.

Verbal Ability

It was slightly more difficult than the usual Verbal Section, the Reading comprehension dominated the paper, coming from the philosophy section, while the critical reasoning was moderate to do as long as the temperament of the students was calm. People who did not invest time in these road blocker questions have done well. Grammar easy questions from the spot the error, to vocab usage in fill in the blanks were easy. Para jumbles were a little time-consuming but manageable

Decision Making

This is always the trick area with close answer options making the student's life difficult. But this time this indeed was difficult as compared to the previous year. The situational conventional type of decision-making questions dominated the section with 18 questions and just 3 based on a numerical, analytical approach. This was easy to crack, unlike last year's calculation-intensive set.

General Awareness

The level of this section was on the tougher side. Since there was no negative marking in this section so by using guesswork or by the elimination of options, one could have got 3-4 questions correct in addition to what one knew actually. There were 25 questions in general awareness consisting of Static GK-based questions covering Books, Awards, Geography, History etc., and Current Questions based on Science and Technology, Economic Data and General terms, etc

The Essay Topic was: Ethical Practices and Sustainability: Do they co-exist?

Strategy to ace XAT Exam:

1) Know your exam: XAT Exam Analysis will get a good idea about the what and the how of the questions asked. So the first step would be to go through previous years’ papers on XAT and get a brief idea about what is asked.

2) Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation: Data Interpretation can be covered by practicing questions on Charts, Graphs, and Tables. Keep revising tables, squares, cubes, percentage values, etc. for an increased calculation speed. Start learning shortcuts for the topics that you have a good grip on.

3) Verbal & Logical Ability: For acing reading comprehension, try to make your comprehension speed as fast as your reading speed. This means that reading a passage once, should be enough for you to get a complete idea about what is given. Reading and scanning it again would take up valuable time. Practice Fill in the blanks, Sentence Correction, Verbal Analogies, and Vocabulary usage-based questions as well.

4) Decision Making & Analytical Reasoning: Questions range from Employee Management problems, Ethical dilemmas, and Finance/Sales problems to General management and revenue problems. The more you practice decision-making questions, the quicker you will get at solving them.

5) General Knowledge: The marks obtained in this section will not be used for selections in the first round of admissions. It will be considered in the PI rounds and during final admissions. This section tests the student on Current Affairs and Static GK. Make sure that on the day of the exam, you are well-versed with the current affairs of the previous 6 months. Focus more on Business & Economics. Also, do not forget to go through different Awards and their recipients, Famous personalities, Geography, Indian Government, Political events, and Science.

6) Essay Writing: Topics in this section are usually abstract. No straightforward topics. Therefore, practice writing some essays in your spare time. This will help you to increase the speed with which you express your thoughts and ideas on paper.

7) Mock Tests: Take as many mocks as you can. Analyze these mocks, right down to each and every detail. If the time spent analyzing the mocks is more than the time spent giving the mock, then you are on the right track.

8) Plan well: Plan out a schedule and stick to it. When preparing for XAT, it is easy to get overwhelmed by the different sections, the difficulty levels, and the vast syllabus. Going as per a schedule will make sure that you cover everything. At the same time, it will balance your preparation.

Get Mocks for XAT

XAT Analysis 2017

Before analyzing XAT 2017 let’s take a brief note about what is XAT. XAT has always been known to be a difficult exam with tricky questions and time-consuming like CAT. However, the paper was easier than always. The number of questions being reduced was good for the students to have better attempted, as XAT has always been an exam to be tested with the skill of leaving out the difficult questions and focusing on High Accuracy.

Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation

The overall section was moderate to difficult with basic questions of Arithmetic and modern maths like progressions, time speed distance, and Geometry. Definitely easier than the last few years. Data Interpretation had 2 sets only, but they were difficult one being tricky the other being calculation intensive.

Prepare for XAT with basic quants

Verbal ability

Easier than usual, the Reading comprehensions were shorter with 2-3 questions, and only one RC was lengthy and was meant to be left. People who did not invest time in these road blocker questions have done well. Grammar easy questions from spotting the error, to vocab usage in fill in the blanks were easy. Para jumbles were a little time-consuming but manageable

Decision Making

This is always the trick area with close answer options making the student’s life difficult. However this time there were 2 different sets one being Table based and one being Calculation based on data. The typical ethical and case scenario questions were Moderate to Difficult.

General Awareness

There were 25 questions in general awareness consisting of Static GK-based questions covering Books Awards, Geography, History, etc, and Current Questions Based on, Science and Technology, Economics Data and General terms, etc. The difficulty level was tough

Essay Topic- “Globalization and jingoism always coexist!”

Strategy to ace XAT Exam:

1) Know your exam: XAT Exam Analysis will get a good idea about the what and the how of the questions asked. So the first step would be to go through previous years’ papers of XAT and get a brief idea about what is asked.

2) Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation: Data Interpretation can be covered by practicing questions on Charts, Graphs, and Tables. Keep revising tables, squares, cubes, percentage values, etc. for an increased calculation speed. Start learning shortcuts for the topics that you have a good grip on.

3) Verbal & Logical Ability: For acing reading comprehension, try to make your comprehension speed as fast as your reading speed. This means that reading a passage once, should be enough for you to get a complete idea about what is given. Reading and scanning it again would take up valuable time. Practice Fill in the blanks, Sentence Correction, Verbal Analogies, and Vocabulary usage-based questions as well.

4) Decision Making & Analytical Reasoning: Questions range from Employee Management problems, Ethical dilemmas, and Finance/Sales problems to General management and revenue problems. The more you practice decision-making questions, the quicker you will get at solving them.

5) General Knowledge: The marks obtained in this section will not be used for selections in the first round of admissions. It will be considered in the PI rounds and during final admissions. This section tests the student on Current Affairs and Static GK. Make sure that on the day of the exam, you are well-versed with the current affairs of the previous 6 months. Focus more on Business & Economics. Also, do not forget to go through different Awards and their recipients, Famous personalities, Geography, Indian Government, Political events, and Science.

6) Essay Writing: Topics in this section are usually abstract. No straightforward topics. Therefore, practice writing some essays in your spare time. This will help you to increase the speed with which you express your thoughts and ideas on paper.

7) Mock Tests: Take as many mocks as you can. Analyze these mocks, right down to each and every detail. If the time spent analyzing the mocks is more than the time spent giving the mock, then you are on the right track.

8) Plan well: Plan out a schedule and stick to it. When preparing for XAT, it is easy to get overwhelmed with the different sections, the difficulty levels, and the vast syllabus. Going as per a schedule will make sure that you cover everything. At the same time, it will balance your preparation.

XAT Analysis 2016

XAT is conducted every year in January. This is done by Xavier School of Management, Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI). A paper-based test, XAT is conducted on a single day. XAT 2016 was conducted on 3^rd January 2016, 10:30 A.M. to 13:30 P.M. XAT scores are used by more than 100 institutes for admissions in MBA courses. It is one of the toughest MBA Entrances Tests. Let’s have a look at the analysis of XAT that was conducted this year.

Total Time: 170 mins; Number of Options: 5; Negative Marking: Yes. 1/4^th of the total marks for a question were deducted.

Note: NO NEGATIVE MARKS for the General Awareness section. XAT 2016 had a major change as compared to 2015. A penalty of 0.05 was deducted for every question that was left un-attempted after the first 13 un-attempted questions.

XAT Authorities had earlier announced a much simpler paper for XAT 2016. However, a lot of language questions were quite incomprehensible. This came as a surprise for most of the students.

Verbal Ability & Logical Ability

XAT Verbal Ability is usually pretty tough, and this year, it was no different. In fact, Verbal Ability seemed tougher than ever this year. This was despite the fact that it contained fewer questions as compared to last year. The questions were brilliantly designed. One would have had to read the question carefully to accurately decipher what is given, and then proceed by eliminating the options.

Eliminating options would have been necessary for certain Reading Comprehension questions. This was true for the critical reasoning questions as well. Para-jumbles were moderate and should have been attempted by all. The Reading Comprehension passage on Experimentation was definitely avoidable. This was due to the difficulty level of the content and the questions. Attempting at least 18 questions with 75-80% accuracy, in 45 mins, was necessary to get a good score. Since, XAT encouraged students to maximize their attempts this year, attempting a few more questions would have helped in the total score.

Decision Making & Analytical Reasoning

Decision-Making section was similar to the previous year. No long passages this year. Question Sets had additional information in the form of sentences and paragraphs. This was a relief for the students. Attempting the sets would have been as per student’s preference. Shorter sets meant that attempts would be higher this year.
Questions demanded students to make practical decisions to select the correct option. The set on HR had a few tricky questions.

Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation

This section was slightly easier than last year. Geometry and Arithmetic dominated this section. Arithmetic questions were moderate. Geometry and algebra questions were a bit tough. Overall, this section was easier than Verbal Ability and Decision Making. Students familiar with CAT would have been prepared for this section. There were in total, 4 questions on Numbers. Out of this 1 was incorrect. Logarithms, PnC, and Probability were absent in this section, this year. Again, eliminating options would have helped to maximize your score. There was 1 question related to Data Sufficiency. A good attempt would be 15-17 questions in 35-40 mins. Data interpretation had 7 questions distributed in 2 sets. One could have attempted around two to four questions in DI in a span of 20-25 minutes.

Prepare for XAT with basic quants and get 99.99%ile

General Awareness

General Awareness was difficult as compared to last year. 2-3 questions could be considered easy. Questions contained a balance of national and international events. Most of the questions were single statements. Questions containing multiple statements had more than one correct answer. Students would have had to know each statement independently. Most of the questions dealt with the events and happenings in 2015. A student with good knowledge of multiple areas would have scored well in this section. The options were pretty close to each other. The student had to be careful in selecting them. The topics covered were Geography, Business, Economy, Budget, famous personalities, and new inventions. Three questions were concerned with The Middle East. No questions on history, sports, and polity. Most of the candidates would have spent 15-20 minutes on this section. A good attempt would be 10-11 questions at the least.

Essay Topic: “Technology and Nature are natural enemies”

An interesting Topic. Students had the flexibility in selecting their viewpoints while writing the essay. A good start to the essay would be with a quote. The structure should usually begin with an introduction. This should be followed by two paragraphs discussing the argument. It should then end with a solid conclusion. The topic was easy as compared to previous years, wherein the topic used to be abstract/philosophical. Despite the topic being a bit easy, the quality of the essay would depend on the language in which it was written. A few examples would have helped in increasing quality.

XAT Analysis 2015

The difficulty level of XAT 2015 was almost similar to XAT 2014. There was a slight increase in the number of questions i.e. 84 from 83. Keeping these facts in mind, the cutoffs are likely to be comparable to those of the last year.

The paper had two parts: Part I and Part II. Part I had three sections A, B and C with 28, 23, and 33 questions, respectively, i.e. a total of 84 questions. The three sections of Part I was followed by Part II which had 30 questions on General Knowledge and an Essay Topic. The time allotted for Part I was 100 minutes and Part II had to be attempted in 40 minutes. All XAT-affiliated institutes use general knowledge and essay marks at the time of final selection and not for short-listing candidates for the GD/ PI round. The three sections were as follows:

Verbal and Logical Ability

The verbal section was dominated by Reading Comprehension & Critical Reasoning based questions. There were questions on vocabulary, Para jumbles, and sentence completion, and sentence rearrangement. In reading comprehension, a few questions were based on critical reasoning. The overall level of difficulty of the section was moderate to tough.

Decision Making and Analytical Reasoning

All Decision-Making questions were of equal marks and were a combination of Decision Making and Case-based reasoning questions. Overall, the difficulty level of the section was moderate to tough.

Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation

Algebra and Functions had 4 Questions, Number System had 4 Questions, Geometry had 7 Questions, Co-ordinate Geometry had 1 Question, the Arithmetic sequence had 1 Question, Mixtures had 1 Question, Probability had 1 Question, Tables Chart had 4 Question, Multiple Graph had 4 Question, Profit and Loss, Statistics, Directions, Interest, Percentage, Trigonometry had one question each.
The feel of this section was tough. There were no direct questions asked in this section. In DI, the graphs were also difficult to interpret and the question required intensive calculations.

General Awareness

There were 30 questions in general awareness consisting of Static GK based questions covering Books and Awards, Geography, History, etc. Current GK questions were from Sports, Politics, Science and Technology, Economics Data, etc. The difficulty level was generally high.

Essay Topic

Students had to write an essay of not more than 200 words, on the following topic: ‘Listening is a dying art. We hardly listen to understand, we only listen to refute or reply.

Strategy to ace XAT Exam:

1) Know your exam: XAT Exam Analysis will get a good idea about the what and the how of the questions asked. So the first step would be to go through previous years’ papers of XAT and get a brief idea about what is asked.

2) Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation: Data Interpretation can be covered by practicing questions on Charts, Graphs, and Tables. Keep revising tables, squares, cubes, percentage values, etc. for an increased calculation speed. Start learning shortcuts for the topics that you have a good grip on.

3) Verbal & Logical Ability: For acing reading comprehension, try to make your comprehension speed as fast as your reading speed. This means that reading a passage once, should be enough for you to get a complete idea about what is given. Reading and scanning it again would take up valuable time. Practice Fill in the blanks, Sentence Correction, Verbal Analogies, and Vocabulary usage-based questions as well.

4) Decision Making & Analytical Reasoning: Questions range from Employee Management problems, Ethical dilemmas, and Finance/Sales problems to General management and revenue problems. The more you practice decision-making questions, the quicker you will get at solving them.

5) General Knowledge: The marks obtained in this section will not be used for selections in the first round of admissions. It will be considered in the PI rounds and during final admissions. This section tests the student on Current Affairs and Static GK. Make sure that on the day of the exam, you are well-versed with the current affairs of the previous 6 months. Focus more on Business & Economics. Also, do not forget to go through different Awards and their recipients, Famous personalities, Geography, Indian Government, Political events, and Science.

6) Essay Writing: Topics in this section are usually abstract. No straightforward topics. Therefore, practice writing some essays in your spare time. This will help you to increase the speed with which you express your thoughts and ideas on paper.

7) Mock Tests: Take as many mocks as you can. Analyze these mocks, right down to each and every detail. If the time spent analyzing the mocks is more than the time spent giving the mock, then you are on the right track.

8) Plan well: Plan out a schedule and stick to it. When preparing for XAT, it is easy to get overwhelmed with the different sections, the difficulty levels, and the vast syllabus. Going as per a schedule will make sure that you cover everything. At the same time, it will balance your preparation.

XAT Analysis 2014

XAT 2014 had the same pattern as previous years. It has 83 questions within 150mins & 20 mins for easy writing. Timings had gone up to 170 mins.

There are two parts, Part A & Part B. In part A, there are three sections and Part B covers GK & essay writing.

Verbal and Logical Ability

Reading Comprehension & Sentence Completion based questions dominated verbal section. There were questions on grammar, para jumbles and verbal reasoning, etc. Overall feel of the section was moderate.

Decision Making and Analytical Reasoning

All Decision Making questions carried equal marks and was a combination of Decision Making and Caselet based reasoning questions. Overall the feel of the section was moderate to tough.

Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation

Algebra and Functions had 2 Question, Number System had 5 Question, Geometry had 9 Question, Average had 1 Question, the Arithmetic sequence had 1 Question, Mixtures had 1 Question, Probability had 2 Question, Tables Chart had 6 Question, Line Graph had 3 Question and Logarithm had one question
The feel of this section was hard. There were no direct questions asked in this section. In DI also, the graphs were difficult to interpret and the question required intensive calculations.

General Awareness

There were 20 questions in general awareness consisting of Static GK-based questions covering Books Awards, Geography, History, Economics, and constitution. The difficulty level was moderate.

Essay Topic

Students had to write an essay of not more than 200 words, on the following topic:“The most beautiful thing can neither be seen nor be touched but can only be felt.”

Strategy to ace XAT Exam:

1) Know your exam: XAT Exam Analysis will get a good idea about the what and the how of the questions asked. So the first step would be to go through previous years’ papers of XAT and get a brief idea about what is asked.

2) Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation: Data Interpretation can be covered by practicing questions on Charts, Graphs, and Tables. Keep revising tables, squares, cubes, percentage values, etc. for an increased calculation speed. Start learning shortcuts for the topics that you have a good grip on.

3) Verbal & Logical Ability: For acing reading comprehension, try to make your comprehension speed as fast as your reading speed. This means that reading a passage once, should be enough for you to get a complete idea about what is given. Reading and scanning it again would take up valuable time. Practice Fill in the blanks, Sentence Correction, Verbal Analogies, and Vocabulary usage-based questions as well.

4) Decision Making & Analytical Reasoning: Questions range from Employee Management problems, Ethical dilemmas, and Finance/Sales problems to General management and revenue problems. The more you practice decision-making questions, the quicker you will get at solving them.

5) General Knowledge: The marks obtained in this section will not be used for selections in the first round of admissions. It will be considered in the PI rounds and during final admissions. This section tests the student on Current Affairs and Static GK. Make sure that on the day of the exam, you are well-versed with the current affairs of the previous 6 months. Focus more on Business & Economics. Also, do not forget to go through different Awards and their recipients, Famous personalities, Geography, Indian Government, Political events, and Science.

6) Essay Writing: Topics in this section are usually abstract. No straightforward topics. Therefore, practice writing some essays in your spare time. This will help you to increase the speed with which you express your thoughts and ideas on paper.

7) Mock Tests: Take as many mocks as you can. Analyze these mocks, right down to each and every detail. If the time spent analyzing the mocks is more than the time spent giving the mock, then you are on the right track.

8) Plan well: Plan out a schedule and stick to it. When preparing for XAT, it is easy to get overwhelmed with the different sections, the difficulty levels, and the vast syllabus. Going as per a schedule will make sure that you cover everything. At the same time, it will balance your preparation.

XAT Analysis 2013

XAT 2013 was different from XAT 2012 in terms of difficulty level as well as in a number of questions. The numbers of questions were reduced to 85 from 101. As announced earlier, the difficulty level was comparatively easier than last year’s paper.

Verbal Ability

Verbal section predominately consisted of critical reasoning and reading comprehension along with few questions on vocabulary, grammar, para jumbles etc. The overall feel of the section was easy.

Decision making

There were 16 questions of 1 mark each, 8 questions of 1.5 marks each, and 1 question of 2 marks each. Thus the section had 30 as the maximum marks. Last year Decision Making and AR section were combined while this year’s decision-making section was made separate. There were no AR blocks in the whole paper making the paper comparatively easier this year. In Decision Making the students found (Tina, a blast furnace expert) block tough and calculative. Rest of the decision making questions required thorough and repeated reading. The choices were very close. One should have attempted this section with much caution.

Quantitative Ability

There were 19 questions of 1 mark each, 4 questions of 1.5 marks each, and 5 questions of 2 marks each. So this section had (1 × 19 + 1.5 × 4 + 2×5 = 35) 35 as maximum marks. The 1 mark questions were easy as compared to 1.5 & 2 marks questions. There were no higher math questions this year in this section. The right selection of questions was important as there were random traps in this section.

Essay Topic

• The government is not addressing the root cause of poverty.
• The government is not able to implement the policies properly due to the huge magnitude of poverty.

Strategy to ace XAT Exam:

1) Know your exam: XAT Exam Analysis will get a good idea about the what and the how of the questions asked. So the first step would be to go through previous years’ papers of XAT and get a brief idea about what is asked.

2) Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation: Data Interpretation can be covered by practicing questions on Charts, Graphs, and Tables. Keep revising tables, squares, cubes, percentage values, etc. for an increased calculation speed. Start learning shortcuts for the topics that you have a good grip on.

3) Verbal & Logical Ability: For acing reading comprehension, try to make your comprehension speed as fast as your reading speed. This means that reading a passage once, should be enough for you to get a complete idea about what is given. Reading and scanning it again would take up valuable time. Practice Fill in the blanks, Sentence Correction, Verbal Analogies, and Vocabulary usage-based questions as well.

4) Decision Making & Analytical Reasoning: Questions range from Employee Management problems, Ethical dilemmas, and Finance/Sales problems to General management and revenue problems. The more you practice decision-making questions, the quicker you will get at solving them.

5) General Knowledge: The marks obtained in this section will not be used for selections in the first round of admissions. It will be considered in the PI rounds and during final admissions. This section tests the student on Current Affairs and Static GK. Make sure that on the day of the exam, you are well-versed with the current affairs of the previous 6 months. Focus more on Business & Economics. Also, do not forget to go through different Awards and their recipients, Famous personalities, Geography, Indian Government, Political events, and Science.

6) Essay Writing: Topics in this section are usually abstract. No straightforward topics. Therefore, practice writing some essays in your spare time. This will help you to increase the speed with which you express your thoughts and ideas on paper.

7) Mock Tests: Take as many mocks as you can. Analyze these mocks, right down to each and every detail. If the time spent analyzing the mocks is more than the time spent giving the mock, then you are on the right track.

8) Plan well: Plan out a schedule and stick to it. When preparing for XAT, it is easy to get overwhelmed with the different sections, the difficulty levels, and the vast syllabus. Going as per a schedule will make sure that you cover everything. At the same time, it will balance your preparation.