Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) is a national level entrance test conducted by XLRI Jamshedpur. Through this exam, more than 150 renowned B-Schools in India offer admission in their management and allied courses.
As it is considered to be the most sought-after exam, every year lakhs of students dream of qualifying XAT. Some succeed in their endeavours while others lose hope or re-apply for XAT.
Through this article, we wish to help XAT aspirants to prepare for XAT in a very systematic yet easy manner. We will help you with the pattern of the XAT, which are the areas that need to be focused more and preparation strategy which will guide to crack the XAT in 30 days.
Let’s Begin!!
XAT Exam Pattern: –
XAT exam will be of two parts with first part consisting of 3 sections which need to be answered in 170 minutes and the other part consisting of General Knowledge and Essay writing with the minimum of 300 words. The first part has a limit for unanswered questions.one can leave minimum 12 unanswered questions, beyond which every unanswered question will attract a penalty of ¼ (0.5) marks. One mark for each correct answer and 0.25 marks for each wrong answer.
Difficulty Level of XAT:
The difficulty level of XAT is considered to be similar to CAT, but the General Knowledge and decision-making Sections make XAT a bit difficult than CAT.
Section-I: Verbal & Logical Ability: –
From the past, Reasoning & Reading Comprehension areas have historically dominated.
The focus is on reasoning skills. Question-based on pure vocabulary are seldom asked.
This section requires a very fine balance between quick reading and comprehension skills
This section contains 26 questions which occupy 33% of total questions
Section-II: Decision Making & Analytical Reasoning: –
Most of the questions will be on areas like ethical dilemmas, financial issues involving sales, and revenues etc. of a company, employee management issues, and general management scenarios.
By using comprehension skill and common sense you will feel this section interesting and easy to attempt
This section contains 23 questions which occupy 30% of total questions
Section-III: Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation: –
You should mainly focus on Table, Combination, tables, Trigonometry, Graphs, Arithmetic, Heights & Distance, Direction Sense & Time, Clocks and Data Interpretation as you may find a number of questions from these areas.
This Section contains 29 questions which occupy 37% of total questions.
30-Day Preparation Strategy for XAT
Preparation of XAT demands enough time and especially the Quant section which is the toughest among all other MBA Entrance exams. So, if you are preparing for the toughest paper you have to do what it takes to crack the paper by determination and focus.
Divide your time and organize it efficiently so that you can utilize most of the time efficiently which is most important. The syllabus for this examination can be broadly classified into 5 sections, namely:
- Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation (QA and DI): Geometry, Mensuration – 2D and 3D, Probability, Algebra Functions, Profit and Loss, Interest, Percentage, Speed & Distance, Statistics, Table, Trigonometry, Graphs, Arithmetic, Heights and Distance, Mixtures, Direction, Time, Clock, Table, Combination
- Decision Making: Pure Logic, Financial Issues, Managerial Issues, Ethical Dilemmas.
- Verbal and Logical Ability: Grammar, Para Completion, Vocabulary, Para Jumble, Critical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, Arguments
- General Knowledge: Politics, Nation and states, History, Literature, Sports, Awards and Recognitions, Business, Economics, International Relations, Society, Merger, and Acquisitions
- Essay Writing
Day->1-7: –
Be Confident, solve full-length mock XAT paper. Then check the answers and observe the time you are spending on each section.
Revise once every day all the formulas and check if you are familiar with all the necessary formulae.
Day->8-15: –
Take a Full-length XAT Mock test paper and solve it in one go. I mean treat this mock test as real test. After solving the XAT Mock test paper in the required time slot, now start checking your solutions. How many problems you have solved correctly and how many mistakes you have done, take note all of that and calculate marks scored by you in the mock test paper.Now check the solutions of all the unattempted questions you have solved too. Now learn from your mistakes and revise the formulas.
Day16-22: –
You would have a solved and gone through a fair amount of past question paper and mock papers for Quantum ability and Data Interpretation. Examine the papers and analyze the frequency of questions asked for each topic and rank them in order of frequency and start solving 50-60 questions under each topic as done before
Day22-27: –
Keep concentration on General Knowledge and easy writing. Your essay will be evaluated on the basis of language skills, thought process etc. The evaluators not only look for language skills, but also for the thought process involved, ideas, and your knowledge of the topic at hand. Having a knowledge on the contemporary topics will give you an edge. So keep practicing reading newspapers, especially the editorial columns, is highly advised.
Day27-30: –
In this three day’s practice more previous question papers by monitoring the time and rectify the mistakes. Make sure to maintain time during practicing the papers and writing easy. Practicing more number of previous question papers, we can avoid a number of mistakes. Most students face problems in Decision-Making section. You can go through the best mock series on XAT.
No preparation can be complete without proper Study Material
Dear candidates, you can follow below books mentioned for XAT preparation-
- Books List Quantitative Ability-
Target – XAT Past Papers General Awareness Question Bank
XAT Xavier Aptitude Test: Solved Papers
- Books for Analytical Reasoning & Decision Making
An Analytical Approach for Comprehensive Reasoning by Dr.M.B.Lal& Ashok Gupta
Analytical & Logical Reasoning by BS Sijwali/Ajay Singh
Analytical Reasoning by M K Pandey
- Books List for Logical Reasoning:
Logical and Analytical Reasoning by A.K.Gupta
Logical and Analytical Reasoning by R. Gupta
Books List for Verbal Ability:
Verbal Reasoning by R. S. Agarwal
- Books for Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning:
A Communicative Grammar of English by Geoffrey Leech
Business English and Communication by Clark
How to Prepare for the Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension by Arun Sharma &Meenakshi Upadhyay
Thesaurus of Synonyms and Antonyms In Dictionary Form by Peter Mark RogetBooks List for Data Interpretation:
Just kick start your preparation and follow the points which are mentioned above to achieve success in XAT. Try to avoid last-minute preparation, refer to the important points well in time to analyse and practice after knowing your strengths and weaknesses.
We wish you All the Best!!