From DNA
The Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) 2013 will be conducted on January 6, 2013 in 38 cities across India and three cities outside India. Registrations begin from August 20.
XAT is conducted by XLRI School of Business and Human Resource, Jamshedpur for admission to this and some other reputed management institutes across India.
While there is increase in the test centres this year, some new small towns are added in the centres’ list to provide an opportunity to candidates from such areas.
Similarly, outside India, the test will be conducted in Kathmandu, Dhaka and Dubai.
The test continues to be in the traditional paper-pencil format to help even disadvantaged candidates who are not comfortable with computers.The last date of registration is November 30, 2012, according to the XLRI website.
Showing posts with label XAT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label XAT. Show all posts
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
XAT to be pen-based and a good XAT score not enough to secure admission
From PagalGuy.com
The XLRI School of Business and Human Resources, Jamshedpur (XLRI) has decided to reduce cut-offs from the 90s to the 80s to attract a good mix of students. XLRI’s Admissions Chairperson Soumendra Bagchi told PaGaLGuY that to ensure an efficient admission process, the XAT (XLRI Admission Test) scores are not shown to the panelists during GDPI. This means that a good XAT score may not be enough to secure admission at XLRI. Prof Bagchi answers a few more questions on the admission process, the cut-offs and the XAT paper.
Reduced cut-offs
XLRI experimented with reduced percentile cut-offs for calling candidates for the GD/PI process last year. The success of that experiment in getting a diverse pool of applicants – in terms of geographical diversity, as well as different work experiences – has been encouraging. Based on this, there are plans to reduce the cut-offs to percentile scores of 80s from the 90s.
Is the GD/PI process really independent of the XAT score?
The group discussion/ interview process is independent of XAT. The XAT score is not informed to the panel and the panel refrains from asking about XAT scores. This is to ensure that the interview score is not biased by the XAT scores. The issue we face is that candidates often end up bringing their XAT scorecard to the interview in a bid to influence the panel. But this information is dis-regarded by the panel and the interview scores are based on the interview performance only.
That means a candidate with a high XAT score can get eliminated in the GD/PI process?
While this is a very general statement, with exceptions, this highlights that a high XAT score is not enough to guarantee a place in the school. The interview process is carried out independent of the scores. The panel members ignore the data even when the candidates tries to bring it to their notice during the interview. Therefore we have found that high XAT scorers sometimes get eliminated in the interview process, if they perform poorly – candidates with lesser XAT scores can get selected if the interview process goes well.
Admission for XLRI programmes
The registration process for XLRI is separate from the registration process of XAT. XAT is the common examination, after which candidates have to register for institutes of their choice. This is determined by the candidates themselves based on their interests, location etc. Due to this we often see interesting situations. Last year, the topper was a girl had a B.Com background. Despite she being the topper, we could not take her as she had not applied to XLRI.This has happened earlier too. It is also possible that people underestimate their capabilities. On the day of examination, anything can happen, and good performers can lose out. The same happens for other students as well as every year we get requests after the XAT results are announced. By that time the registration process for XLRI is over. This year XLRI’s registration process is on till December 31, for people to decide.
Who are likely to do well in XAT?
The people who normally do well in XAT are a mix of two categories of people. The first category is the eccentric brilliant and the second category - the steady performers. The analysis of XAT data as well as XLRI interview data indicates that majority of rank-holders in the merit list come from the second category of steady performers. This category of students is the one that holds its nerves on the day of examination, picks out the doable questions and score on them, without taking undue risks. In the interview as well as in the academic performance during the two years of MBA programme, generally it has been observed that the steady performers often perform better than the eccentric performers.
Preparation for XAT
Candidates should be well grounded in their basics. It is matter of practice which allows quick identification of scoring questions and which ones to leave. Further candidates need to score in a balanced manner across sections. This can only be achieved through practice. A high level of practise carried out in simulated exam-like conditions, would prepare them for the stress on the day of the examination. Since one of the advantages of paper-based examination is all candidates get exactly the same paper, there are no issues regarding tough and easy questions.. The candidates should also get into the habit of reading newspapers on a daily basis which helps them not only in the verbal and reading comprehensions, but also during the interview and group discussion stages.
XAT Pattern
All business schools are looking for people with well-rounded aptitude as well as personality. Further we have been observing that engineers/ people from the science background, who end up as high scorers in XAT often do so by the virtue of their quantitatively oriented courses in their graduation, and they may not be the persons who would score high in group discussion/ personal interview.
To ensure that we have candidates with well-rounded aptitude apart from just quantitative skills, this year’s XAT has been totally restructured with regard to the difficulty level. Apart from being different and being extremely do-able, this year’s XAT stresses more on a commonsensical approach rather than a pure formula-based approach. This restructuring has been done to ensure a far more level playing field, not only for the non-engineers, but also for the steady performers, without being biased towards/ against anybody.
Are there any advantages to paper-based exams, considering that the world in going online?
1. It allows an equal playing field for people who do not have familiarity with computers vis-a-vis those who have a high level of comfort with computers.
2. The major issue of different levels of difficulty in different question paper sets. This problem can lead to good candidates losing out because they faced a tougher question paper. The problem of normalisation is subject to statistical errors and XLRI, which has been conducting XAT for large number of years, feels that XAT scores should be free from such errors.
3. Systems related problems – slow computer terminals etc., are eliminated to a large extent.
4. XAT was the first to consistently have a written test as a part of its evaluation, and that is being followed by other big b-schools now – the use of managerial decision situations which had been introduced in XAT in 2007, is a section which other institutes have copied.
Further plans by XLRI
There are plans to award financial assistance to students joining in XLRI’s BM and HRM programmes, based on performance in the total selection process. The assistance is planned to be in form of waiver of a certain percentage of first-year fees, for select number of students, based on the ranking in the final list. The exact details are still to be finalised but the broad plan is in place.
A few reputed schools have stopped taking XAT, is the exam on the decline?
The number of schools taking XAT has increased to 100 plus this year and we had new institutes taking in XAT candidates. So your question does not actually hold as per the facts.
Can XAT answer sheets be seen by the candidates?
XAT question papers are taken back by the candidates in which the candidates usually mark what they have attempted. So candidates, de facto, have their answers with them. In case of any situation where a candidate disputes the scores and wants to see the OMR sheet, we keep the OMR sheets and they can be seen any time. However so far we have not faced any requests for wanting to have a copy of the OMR sheet. This year we are moving away from pencil-based answering in OMR sheet to pen-based answering on OMR sheet. That will allow us to be more confident of the entire process. Though this process requires that candidate answer correctly the first time as no change is possible. Furthermore, the paper-based exam allows us to audit the question paper, individual questions or answer sheets any time we want. That way it is far more robust and transparent than the computer based test.
The XLRI School of Business and Human Resources, Jamshedpur (XLRI) has decided to reduce cut-offs from the 90s to the 80s to attract a good mix of students. XLRI’s Admissions Chairperson Soumendra Bagchi told PaGaLGuY that to ensure an efficient admission process, the XAT (XLRI Admission Test) scores are not shown to the panelists during GDPI. This means that a good XAT score may not be enough to secure admission at XLRI. Prof Bagchi answers a few more questions on the admission process, the cut-offs and the XAT paper.
Reduced cut-offs
XLRI experimented with reduced percentile cut-offs for calling candidates for the GD/PI process last year. The success of that experiment in getting a diverse pool of applicants – in terms of geographical diversity, as well as different work experiences – has been encouraging. Based on this, there are plans to reduce the cut-offs to percentile scores of 80s from the 90s.
Is the GD/PI process really independent of the XAT score?
The group discussion/ interview process is independent of XAT. The XAT score is not informed to the panel and the panel refrains from asking about XAT scores. This is to ensure that the interview score is not biased by the XAT scores. The issue we face is that candidates often end up bringing their XAT scorecard to the interview in a bid to influence the panel. But this information is dis-regarded by the panel and the interview scores are based on the interview performance only.
That means a candidate with a high XAT score can get eliminated in the GD/PI process?
While this is a very general statement, with exceptions, this highlights that a high XAT score is not enough to guarantee a place in the school. The interview process is carried out independent of the scores. The panel members ignore the data even when the candidates tries to bring it to their notice during the interview. Therefore we have found that high XAT scorers sometimes get eliminated in the interview process, if they perform poorly – candidates with lesser XAT scores can get selected if the interview process goes well.
Admission for XLRI programmes
The registration process for XLRI is separate from the registration process of XAT. XAT is the common examination, after which candidates have to register for institutes of their choice. This is determined by the candidates themselves based on their interests, location etc. Due to this we often see interesting situations. Last year, the topper was a girl had a B.Com background. Despite she being the topper, we could not take her as she had not applied to XLRI.This has happened earlier too. It is also possible that people underestimate their capabilities. On the day of examination, anything can happen, and good performers can lose out. The same happens for other students as well as every year we get requests after the XAT results are announced. By that time the registration process for XLRI is over. This year XLRI’s registration process is on till December 31, for people to decide.
Who are likely to do well in XAT?
The people who normally do well in XAT are a mix of two categories of people. The first category is the eccentric brilliant and the second category - the steady performers. The analysis of XAT data as well as XLRI interview data indicates that majority of rank-holders in the merit list come from the second category of steady performers. This category of students is the one that holds its nerves on the day of examination, picks out the doable questions and score on them, without taking undue risks. In the interview as well as in the academic performance during the two years of MBA programme, generally it has been observed that the steady performers often perform better than the eccentric performers.
Preparation for XAT
Candidates should be well grounded in their basics. It is matter of practice which allows quick identification of scoring questions and which ones to leave. Further candidates need to score in a balanced manner across sections. This can only be achieved through practice. A high level of practise carried out in simulated exam-like conditions, would prepare them for the stress on the day of the examination. Since one of the advantages of paper-based examination is all candidates get exactly the same paper, there are no issues regarding tough and easy questions.. The candidates should also get into the habit of reading newspapers on a daily basis which helps them not only in the verbal and reading comprehensions, but also during the interview and group discussion stages.
XAT Pattern
All business schools are looking for people with well-rounded aptitude as well as personality. Further we have been observing that engineers/ people from the science background, who end up as high scorers in XAT often do so by the virtue of their quantitatively oriented courses in their graduation, and they may not be the persons who would score high in group discussion/ personal interview.
To ensure that we have candidates with well-rounded aptitude apart from just quantitative skills, this year’s XAT has been totally restructured with regard to the difficulty level. Apart from being different and being extremely do-able, this year’s XAT stresses more on a commonsensical approach rather than a pure formula-based approach. This restructuring has been done to ensure a far more level playing field, not only for the non-engineers, but also for the steady performers, without being biased towards/ against anybody.
Are there any advantages to paper-based exams, considering that the world in going online?
1. It allows an equal playing field for people who do not have familiarity with computers vis-a-vis those who have a high level of comfort with computers.
2. The major issue of different levels of difficulty in different question paper sets. This problem can lead to good candidates losing out because they faced a tougher question paper. The problem of normalisation is subject to statistical errors and XLRI, which has been conducting XAT for large number of years, feels that XAT scores should be free from such errors.
3. Systems related problems – slow computer terminals etc., are eliminated to a large extent.
4. XAT was the first to consistently have a written test as a part of its evaluation, and that is being followed by other big b-schools now – the use of managerial decision situations which had been introduced in XAT in 2007, is a section which other institutes have copied.
Further plans by XLRI
There are plans to award financial assistance to students joining in XLRI’s BM and HRM programmes, based on performance in the total selection process. The assistance is planned to be in form of waiver of a certain percentage of first-year fees, for select number of students, based on the ranking in the final list. The exact details are still to be finalised but the broad plan is in place.
A few reputed schools have stopped taking XAT, is the exam on the decline?
The number of schools taking XAT has increased to 100 plus this year and we had new institutes taking in XAT candidates. So your question does not actually hold as per the facts.
Can XAT answer sheets be seen by the candidates?
XAT question papers are taken back by the candidates in which the candidates usually mark what they have attempted. So candidates, de facto, have their answers with them. In case of any situation where a candidate disputes the scores and wants to see the OMR sheet, we keep the OMR sheets and they can be seen any time. However so far we have not faced any requests for wanting to have a copy of the OMR sheet. This year we are moving away from pencil-based answering in OMR sheet to pen-based answering on OMR sheet. That will allow us to be more confident of the entire process. Though this process requires that candidate answer correctly the first time as no change is possible. Furthermore, the paper-based exam allows us to audit the question paper, individual questions or answer sheets any time we want. That way it is far more robust and transparent than the computer based test.
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Status quo for XAT, ATMA; XLRI GDPI in Feb-March: XLRI Director
From MBAUniverse.com
The recent AICTE notification which was issued on December 28, 2010 gave out eight points for regulating the PGDM courses in India. This gave rise to huge confusion in the minds of the management fraternity pertaining to the fact that XAT, the MBA entrance exam conducted by XLRI Jamshedpur would be scrapped off.
Reacting to the notification or the question of the existence of XAT in the upcoming years, the Director of XLRI Jamshedpur, Dr. E Abrabaham said that the AICTE notification does not have any impact on XAT. “AICTE Notification is ambiguous. But it doesn’t have an impact on XAT. XAT is recognized a national management exam, and will continue to function as it is,” Dr. Abraham said.
The XAT exam for this year has already been conducted and the admission will start soon. “XAT 2011 is already over. Next XAT will also be conducted as per regular schedule,” Dr. Abraham informed. XAT is conducted every year in the first Sunday of January.
XAT 2011 results have been declared on Tuesday, January 25, 2011. XLRI is moving forward with its admission process. “Next round is the GD PI. The process will be held from the third week of February to Match for XLRI,” Dr. Abraham informed.
Status quo for XAT, ATMA; XLRI GDPI in Feb-March: XLRI Director
Reacting to the AICTE notification of December 28, 2010 or the question of the existence of XAT in the upcoming years, the Director of XLRI Jamshedpur, Dr. E Abrabaham said that the AICTE notification does not have any impact on XAT.
The recent AICTE notification which was issued on December 28, 2010 gave out eight points for regulating the PGDM courses in India. This gave rise to huge confusion in the minds of the management fraternity pertaining to the fact that XAT, the MBA entrance exam conducted by XLRI Jamshedpur would be scrapped off.
Reacting to the notification or the question of the existence of XAT in the upcoming years, the Director of XLRI Jamshedpur, Dr. E Abrabaham said that the AICTE notification does not have any impact on XAT. “AICTE Notification is ambiguous. But it doesn’t have an impact on XAT. XAT is recognized a national management exam, and will continue to function as it is,” Dr. Abraham said.
The XAT exam for this year has already been conducted and the admission will start soon. “XAT 2011 is already over. Next XAT will also be conducted as per regular schedule,” Dr. Abraham informed. XAT is conducted every year in the first Sunday of January.
XAT 2011 results have been declared on Tuesday, January 25, 2011. XLRI is moving forward with its admission process. “Next round is the GD PI. The process will be held from the third week of February to Match for XLRI,” Dr. Abraham informed.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
XAT 2011 Results declared by XLRI Jamshedpur
From mbauniverse.com
The B schools which consider the XAT scores are XLRI Jamshedpur, XIM Bhubaneswar, XIME Bangalore, GIM Goa, LIBA Chennai, SPJIMR Mumbai and several other B schools in India.
The result of XAT 2011 has been declared by XLRI Jamshedpur, the B School that conducts one of the toughest MBA entrance exams in India on January 25, 2011. The XAT 2011 takers can view their results by clicking on the following link:
Though the declaration of results was scheduled on January 31, 2011, it has been done prior to the schedule.
The exam was held on Sunday, January 2, 2011. The difficulty level of the exam was considered to be quite tough by the test takers and the experts.
Monday, January 04, 2010
XAT 2010 attains glory as the toughest MBA entrance exam; Offers total of 101 questions in three sections
From MBA Universe
The first MBA entrance exam of the year, XAT 2010, held on Sunday, 3 January 2010, was by far the toughest MBA entrance exam.
“XAT2010 was easily the toughest paper of the management exam season so far this year. This was a very difficult paper with all the ingredients of a Bollywood potboiler; lengthy questions, difficult questions, tricky questions and yes, easy questions too. Students would have come out of the exam hall not knowing how well they fared,” said an official from leading prep institute T.I.M.E.
XAT 2010 maintained the difficulty level of XAT 2009. The number of questions was 101 and each question had 1 mark. The negative marking scheme is progressive. There was 0.20 negative marking for the first five incorrect answers in each section and 0.25 marks for each incorrect answer thereafter.
Like last year, the number of sections was three. They were Data Interpretation & Quantitative Ability, Analytical Reasoning & Decision Making and Verbal & Logical Ability. Each questions had five choices. The essay topic to be written within 20 minutes was ‘Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need but not every man’s greed’.
“The key to approaching this paper was to keep cool and follow the tested ‘TIME-allocation’ strategy. Those who left the difficult questions and did not target a ‘pre-fixed’ number of questions would have been able to find the easy questions and have a good, balanced performance in all three sections – which is the key to get the coveted call from XLRI,” mentioned T.I.M.E. in its analysis.
Now let us focus on the sections of XAT 2010.
Data Interpretation & Quantitative Ability
This section had 40 questions. According to T.I.M.E., this was the most difficult section in the entire paper. “The DI sets were almost ‘undoable’ and should not have been attempted,” mentioned T.I.M.E. The Quantitative Ability questions were from a variety of areas. Though most of them were difficult and tricky, some of them were simple. “Locating such easy questions and solving them would be the key to scoring well in this section,” said T.I.M.E.
Verbal & Logical Ability
This section had 31 questions. According to IMS Learning, this section was much tougher than what it was in XAT 2009. “While the focus was once again on inferential logic and critical reasoning, a lot of questions contained long paragraphs, which were difficult to interpret in themselves, apart from the fact that the options were very close,” mentioned IMS Learning. This section consisted of four Reading Comprehension passages which were pretty tough to interpret. “Additionally, there were two Jumbled Paragraph questions, and an FIJ one, both of which were taxing to attempt,” added IMS Learning.
Analytical Reasoning & Decision Making
This section had 30 questions. In the Analytical Reasoning section, there were questions on Data Arrangement and Business Judgement. According to PT Education, the Data Arrangement area had 19 questions with five sets. They were of Moderate to Tough difficulty level. The area of Business Judgement had 11 questions and four sets. This topic was of Moderate difficulty level. “The Decision Making sets though ‘easy’ to read always had two close options which made the process of selecting the right answer a very tedious and time consuming one,” T.I.M.E. stated.
XAT 2010 exam held today
From Samay Live
Click Image to Enlarge 
XAT 2010 exam to select management students for top 60 associated institution was held today in 33 cities across the country.
The XLRI aspirant students will have to crack the XAT 2010 exams.
XAT 2010 Analysis:
XLRI, Jamshedpur is one of the leading management institutes in the country. XLRI, Jamshedpur is believed to be centre of excellence in management studies.
XLRI Jamshedpur is considered as one of the best schools of business and Human Resource.
XLRI is one of the best and admired management institutes in Asia. The students receive good offer from national and overseas companies after completion of course from XLRI.
XLRI can be a good option for the students, who want to make career in management field with quality of education and facilities.
The XLRI aspirant students will have to crack the XAT 2010 exams.
XAT 2010 Analysis:
XLRI, Jamshedpur is one of the leading management institutes in the country. XLRI, Jamshedpur is believed to be centre of excellence in management studies.
XLRI Jamshedpur is considered as one of the best schools of business and Human Resource.
XLRI is one of the best and admired management institutes in Asia. The students receive good offer from national and overseas companies after completion of course from XLRI.
XLRI can be a good option for the students, who want to make career in management field with quality of education and facilities.
Monday, September 03, 2007
XAT 2008 and XLRI - Jamshedpur forms out
From PagalGuy :
XAT 2008 and XLRI - Jamshedpur forms out
By PaGaLGuY.com News Service
Published: September 2, 2007
The Xavier's Admissions Test (XAT) 2008 for admission to 43 B-schools including XLRI - Jamshedpur, XIM - Bhubhaneswar and Goa Institute of Management will take place at 31 cities on January 6, 2008. Registration for the test has begun.
XAT 2008 and XLRI - Jamshedpur forms out
By PaGaLGuY.com News Service
Published: September 2, 2007
The Xavier's Admissions Test (XAT) 2008 for admission to 43 B-schools including XLRI - Jamshedpur, XIM - Bhubhaneswar and Goa Institute of Management will take place at 31 cities on January 6, 2008. Registration for the test has begun.
The test will be held between 10 am and 12:30 pm. Registration has begun at www.xlri.edu. Besides, the prospectus is available at 112 branches of the State Bank of India.
Click here for the detailed form notification
Registering for XAT, however does not automatically make you apply to XLRI - Jamshedpur or other XAT affiliated institutes. One has to buy the forms of and apply to individual B-schools. The XLRI form has been released separately.
Important links to help you crack XAT
How is XAT different from other management entrance exams and how to prepare differently for it?
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
This years XAT
Analysis by IMS
http://imsindia.com/cat2006/xat_analysis.htm
http://imsindia.com/cat2006/xat_analysis.htm
XAT 2007 - An Overview
The XAT, held on 7th January 2007 differed from that of XAT 2006 in terms of the number and the nature of questions. Instead of 127 questions, this year XAT had 130 questions. A distinctive feature this year was that the questions had 5 options instead of 4.
The highlight of the test was the business judgement component in the reasoning section. There were four business situations [cases], with the options designed in a unique way. One of the cases cleverly combined elements of PS, DI, LR and English. Certainly, those of you who had taken the IMS SimCAT 7, would not have encountered any difficulty in deciding an appropriate attempt strategy.
The three-section format was maintained but Data Interpretation was combined with Quantitative Ability as opposed to a Data Interpretation-Logical Reasoning combination in 2006. The instruction page clearly stated that the questions were not of uniform difficulty and negative marks [1/3 of a mark] may be deducted for the first five incorrect answers in each section and 0.5 [half a mark] for each incorrect answer thereafter.
The test taker had to answer questions from all three sections and was expected to maximise scores in each section, though there was no section-wise time limit.
Overall, the paper was of medium level of difficulty, testing the nuances of language, reasoning, data interpretation and quantitative ability, in an effective way.
Overall Test Structure
Total Duration of the exam | 120 minutes + 20 minutes for Essay |
Total number of questions | 130 + 1 Essay |
Number of choices per question | 5 |
Number of Sections | 3 |
Sectional Timings | No sectional Timing |
Marks per question | 1 Mark (Assumed) |
Negative Marking | Differential (as explained above) |
Mode of marking the ovals | HB pencil |
Section Wise Test Structure
The test had 3 sections.
| Section | Section | Number of Questions |
A | 40 | |
B | 41 | |
C | 49 | |
| Total | 130 |
REASONING ABILITY AND DECISION-MAKING
This section had 40 questions. There were 30 questions of Logical Reasoning with sets of 6 and 5 questions. Overall, the sets were simple to interpret but the options were designed in such a way that every option had to be weighed properly before arriving at the correct answer. This made the sets appear tough. At least two options in every question could be eliminated but the remaining options had to be worked out in order to arrive at the correct answer.
Of the 4 business cases, 3 incorporated typical corporate situations like problems in employee selection strategy and personnel policies and had mostly inferential questions, while one case was a combination of problem solving, logical reasoning, Data Interpretation and English and had questions of a higher level of difficulty.
Type of question | Number of Questions | Level of Difficulty | ||
Easy | Medium | Difficult | ||
Matrix Arrangement (2 Sets) | 11 | 2 | 5 | 4 |
Linear Arrangement | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
Case Study (4 Sets) | 20 | 0 | 7 | 13 |
Single Questions | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
Total | 40 | 8 | 14 | 18 |
A reasonable attempt in this section would be 17+ with an estimated cut-off of 12+ marks.
VERBAL ABILITY & READING COMPREHENSION
This section had 23 questions on reading comprehension and 18 questions on verbal ability. Overall this section was moderately difficult primarily because some of the RC passages required intensive reading and strong reasoning ability. The topic-wise beak-up of the reading comprehension passages is given below:
| Topic of RC passage | No. of Questions | Level of Difficulty | ||
Easy | Medium | Difficult | ||
Socialism | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
Understanding oneself | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
Communication between two poets | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
British capital in India after 1850 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
Science – Bayesian Theory | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
Total | 23 | 8 | 11 | 4 |
Simple passages were interspersed with abstruse ones. Most of the questions were inferential with very few direct questions.
Out of the five passages, the one on an exchange between two poets and the other on 'understanding oneself as true education’ were comparatively easier and should have been attempted first before moving on to the other passages.
The verbal ability questions were quite easy. The reasoning based questions were somewhat tricky but not very difficult. Most of the grammar and usage-based questions were easy and should have been attempted at the beginning. The construct-wise break-up is given below:
Type of question | No. of Questions | Level of Difficulty | ||
Easy | Medium | Difficult | ||
4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | |
5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | |
Total | 18 | 13 | 2 | 3 |
Jumbled Paragraph
They were of the 6-sentence type. In two questions the links were not easily discernible. The options were also close, which added to the difficulty level.
Statement with correct punctuation
This was a new variety where the elementary knowledge of punctuation was tested. One had to identify the statement that was punctuated correctly. A must – attempt.
Identify the incorrect sentences
This was another easy question, which tested the basic concept of grammar - another question worth an attempt.
Revision of a wordy sentence
Another question that tested the student’s knowledge of usage and grammar. Here the student had to select the option that presented the idea stated in the stem sentence in most concise and grammatically correct way. Since the other option had obvious errors, one could have easily arrived at the correct answer.
Sentence Combination
It was a variation of a typical grammar and usage question where two independent sentences had to be combined effectively without losing the essence.
Critical Reasoning
Four out of five questions were easy and tested the usual constructs like, which of the following it true would seriously weaken the argument, the information strongly supports, etc. Only the passage on “prediction as the hallmark of natural science” was difficult. There was one passage, which was quite different from the others – it had a dialogue between two friends where one had to find how the second speaker challenged the first speaker’s reasoning.
Contextual Usage
All the five questions were easy. The words were quite simple like: juvenile, spurious, assumption, crucible, etc. While solving this set one had to carefully consider the context and read the instructions carefully.
A reasonable attempt in this section would be 20-22 and an estimated cut-off of 13+ marks.
The number of questions on Quantitative Ability has decreased to 36 as compared to last year’s 44, but the difficulty level was slightly higher. The questions based on functions were solvable. The sets based on 3 x 4 grid and the cryptarithm were tricky and could be solved by working with options. There were two questions based on equations of hyperbola.
One of the data sufficiency questions was arrangement based.
In Data Interpretation, the bar chart on “Electronic Commerce Transactions” was simple. The set on “Queen Airlines” was data-intensive but not calculation-intensive and 2 questions were observation based and could have been attempted. The set based on “Aggregate Financial Ratios” and “Export and Import of Commodities” were calculation-intensive
| Type of question | No. of Questions | Level of difficulty | ||
Easy | Medium | Difficult | ||
| Quantitative Ability | ||||
Arithmetic | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
Algebra | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
Modern Maths | 12 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Geometry | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Puzzles | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
Data Sufficiency | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Data Interpretation | ||||
Tables (3 Sets) | 11 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
Bar Chart (1 Set) | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Total | 49 | 12 | 17 | 20 |
The reasonable attempt in this section would be 15+ with an estimated cut-off of 10+ marks.
After the test, students were given the following topic on which they had to write a one-page essay in 20 minutes:
“Economic growth without environmental damage – a mirage or a reality.”
An overall reasonable attempt will be around 53 questions with an estimated cut-off of 35+ marks.
Expected cut-offs of various institutes:
Institute | Cut-off |
XLRI BM | 35+ |
XLRI PM & IR | 30+ |
XIMB | 30+ |
GIM | 25+ |
Praxis | 20+ |
Disclaimers: Institutes may use other criteria such as academic background, participation in extra & co curricular activities and work experience apart from score in the test to shortlist students for group discussion & personal interview.
We do not take responsibility for any decision that might be taken, based on this information.
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