Xavier’s Aptitude Test (XAT) is the last major MBA entrance test for the season and possibly the last chance for most students to get a score that will get them into a good B school. Many good B schools outside the Xavier family, like S.P.Jain, XIMB, GIM, TAPMI, IMT, MICA, etc., accept both CAT and XAT scores for admission to their MBA programs. And, the students who did not do well in CAT, hope for an improved performance in XAT for a realistic chance in these and many other B schools.
While many people tend to describe XAT as CAT + Decision Making, it is not an accurate representation of the paper. CAT is Quant and Mathematical Reasoning heavy paper but XAT tilts the balance in the direction of Language skills. Another major difference between these two tests is that there are NO sectional time limits in XAT. While XAT too has a QADI section, unlike CAT (which has Mathematical Reasoning in its VALR section) the Verbal and Logical Ability section of XAT comprises English Usage, RC and Verbal Logic. Also thethird section, Decision Making, is almost a Reading Comprehension cum Critical Reasoning section.
The GK section and the Essay are the other points of difference in XAT.
Structure of XAT
To understand this paper let us have a look at the XAT 2010-13 ignoring the XAT 2011 paper which was an experiment gone wrong. XAT can be broken into three parts:
Aptitude: comprising QADI, Verbal & Logical Ability and Decision Making
General Knowledge (GK): reintroduced in XAT 2013
Essay:to check your writing skills. It is however evaluated only at the time of interview.
Traditionally, XAT has been a 90-100 question 120 minute aptitude paper with an additional 20 minutes for the Essay. XAT 2013 increased the time for Aptitude Section to 140 minutes and gave an additional 40 minutes for the 30 GK questions and the Essay. XAT 2014 again has a minor change in the structure of the paper, this time XAT is giving 150 minutes for the combined Aptitude and GK section and will as usual give an additional 20 minutes for the Essay.
This change can in effect be interpreted as:
Aptitude 135 minutes for 90-100 questions
General Knowledge 15 minutes for approximately 30 questions
Essay 20 minutes
Sectional vs. Overall Cutoffs
The score in Aptitude is used by all the institutes for shortlisting the candidates for the 2nd stage. While XLRI has sectional and total cutoffs, most of the other institutesthat use XAT score for shortlisting students for their MBA program do it on the basis of the total XAT score only.
Last year GK and Essay scores were considered only by XLRI and that too at the interview stage only. However, students who got calls despite very low GK scores could not make it to the final list of XLRI. Other institutes ignored (or did not have) the Essay and GK scores
This year with the merger of Aptitude and GK into a single section,it is possible that XLRI will have a sectional cutoff for GK as well and, the shortlisting by other institutes will be on the basis of total score comprising Aptitude and GK.
If XLRI is not your target institute then you should look at maximizing your overall score without worrying too much about the sectional scores. Spend more time in the section you are good at as it will help you increase your overall score but do spend some time in the other sections as well to ensure that you do not miss out on theireasy questions. It is also prudent to ensure that you score at least 3-4 marks in each section.
Let us now go deep into each of the components of XAT.
Part 1: Aptitude and General Knowledge
This part of XAT has roughly 90-100 questions on English, Quantitative Aptitude & Data interpretation and Decision Making. The sectional break-up in the last few papers has been:
Section
XAT 2013
XAT 2012
XAT 2011
Qs
Marks
Qs
Marks
Qs
Marks
Verbal and Logical Ability
30
30
32
35
30
30
Decision Making
25
25
25
30
30
30
Quantity Ability
36
36
28
35
40
40
Total Aptitude
91
91
85
100
100
100
General Knowledge
30
30
-
-
-
-
Negative Marking: In the past,XAT has experimented with differential negative marking, but in the last 2 years it has stuck to a 25% negative marking for incorrect answers and I would assume the same will continue. However, do read the instructions carefully before starting the paper since XAT mentions the quantum of negative marking in the instructions.
Time allocation: Assuming the same break up of questions in XAT 2014 as it was in 2013, my suggestion will be to allocate 15 minutes to the 30 odd questions of GK and 35-40 minutes to Decision Making. Of the remaining 90 minutes, keep 50-55 minutes for your stronger section (QADI or Verbal) and 40 minutes for the last section.
Verbal and Logical Ability:The 30 odd questions in this section consist mainly of questions from Critical Reasoning, Para Jumbles, Sentence Completion (multiple blanks), Sentence Correction and Reading Comprehension.Vocab based questions have also appeared in this section. Except for XAT 2013 which had 17 out of 30 questions from RC, most of the XAT papers had around 10 RC questions.
In this section it is advisable to first attempt Para Jumbles, Sentence Completion, Vocabulary and RC before moving on to the difficult part – Critical Reasoning and Sentence Correction.
RC passages in XAT are not difficult to read and are also not lengthy (400 to 600 words). You can expect an equal number of specific detail based and inferential questions. Reading the questions and then skimming the passage is possible.
Out of the 30 questions in this section, you should target attempting 18-20 questions in about 40-45 minutes. If this section is your strength area, then you can target up to 25 attempts. However, do not attempt for the sake of attempting, if you are not sure of the answer, especially in Critical Reasoning, leave them unmarked.
Decision Making: This sectionis unique to XAT. It consists of Behavioural and Mathematical decision making questions.
The behavioural questions typically give data in the form of a passage in which a situation is described. The protagonist in the passage typically has a dilemma and needs to take a decision. In the questions that follow, you have to suggest the right course of action to be taken by the protagonist. The questions might even checkout on your understanding of the decision. This is almost like Critical Reasoning or RC. The best way of solving these questions is to eliminate choices based on the parameters of fairness, legality and the desired end result. It is extremely important that you be completely objective and do not let your personal biases influence the decision.
The mathematical decision making questions are easy to handle if you consider them as DI sets or mathematical reasoning sets. These are, however, time consuming (mostly) and should be attempted only ifthey do not appear to be data-heavy.
In the 40 minutes that you devote to this section, an attempt of 15-18 questions is sufficient.
Quantitative Ability: After the difficult Algebra of CAT, this section will come as a relief to many of you. All your preparation of CAT QADI will be useful in this section. Most of the questions in this section are now from Arithmetic, Algebra and DI. While Geometry had a very low representation in XAT 2013, one should not ignore this area since, till a couple of years ago, it contributed to 5-6 questions. P&C, Base System and Mathematical Reasoning that were once the mainstay of this section are unlikely to contribute more than a couple of questions. For practice, use your CAT material but do not go beyond level 2 problems of our Test-Gym.
If QADI is your strong area, then you can target 25 questions in 50 minutes, an average student can target 15-18 questions in 40 minutes. This section has about 15 easy questions, so do not get bogged down by a difficult question. The 3 round approach and SQC techniques will work here. Check this out in the past XAT papers.
General Knowledge: Though the General Awareness section will not be included in determining the percentiles and the cutoffs in the first stage of the selection process, it still is paramount. Your SIS has sufficient resources for this section. The GK compendiums & question banks, GK videos of IIFT/SNAP, Gyandharaetc. are sufficient preparation to get a decent score. A very low score in this section could eliminate you from the final list of XLRI, so do not ignore GK.
Do not spend more than 15 minutes in this section; do not waste time on any particular question, if in doubt, leave and move on to the next question.
Part 2: Essay
Like GK, essay is not used for shortlisting of candidates for the 2nd stage by XLRI, it is evaluated at the time of interview by the panel and unless it is very poorly written, you should not have any problem. Practise writing a coherent, crisp 250 word essay in 20 minutes on topics that XAT has asked in the past. The evaluators not only look for language skills, but also for the thought process involved, the spectrum of ideas, and your knowledge pertaining to the topic at hand. Having a fair knowledge of the contemporary topics will give you an edge. Reading the editorials from your daily newspaper will be useful not only for writing the essay but also for the group discussions and the interviews.
How to Prepare
Familiarity with the question types is extremely important for doing well in any MBA entrance test and hence practising the past XAT papers (available in SIS) is essential for cracking XAT.If you are not taking SNAP then you can solve one paper every 4 days starting with XAT 2008 till XAT 2013 under test conditions as it will help you work out your strategy for the paper. Do not worry about XAT 2011 paper which, as I have mentioned above, was a botched-up experiment. If you are taking SNAP then start solving these papers from 18th December and take a test every third day. Revision of important questions from your CAT/IIFT preparation and practising questions from Test Gym should be done between the two XAT papers.
The last word
Selection of questions is the key to doing well in this paper. It has both sitters and speed- breakers and with low cutoffs, it is your ability to sift out the sitters is usually the difference between getting and not-getting a call. The cutoff for XLRI is usually around 30 marks and a score of 40 leads to more than 99%ile. So, an attempt of 50 is more than enough. The cutoffs for the last two XAT papers for XLRI, given below, should convince you to focus on accuracy and not on attempts. The cutoffs for XIM, SP Jain and other institutes will typically be a couple of marks less than that of XLRI BM.
Suggested Strategy for XAT 2014 and Estimated Cutoffs for XAT 2012 and 2013
Section
XAT 2014 Strategy
XAT 2013
XAT 2012
Time
Attempts
XLRI BM
XLRI HR
XLRI BM
XLRI HR
Verbal and Logical Ability
40-45 min
18-20
8.25
9
11
12.25
Decision Making
40-45 min
15-18
9
9
6.25
6.25
Quantity Ability
50 min
18-20
9.50
6.25
11
6.50
Total Aptitude
135 min
50-55
29.25
27.25
29.25
28
All the best.