There
is no doubt that Common Admission Test (CAT) is the
most popular amongst aspirants, but XLRI Admissions
Test (XAT) too has many takers. XAT is an all-India
examination conducted by one the premier B-School, XLRI
Jamshedpur.
XAT scores are also used by many other
B-Schools besides XLRI. There are over 40 other Management
Institutes who select students on the basis of XAT
scores. Some of these associated B-Schools include
Mumbai based S P Jain Institute of Management and
Research (SPJIMR), Xavier Institute of Management
Bhubaneshwar (XIMB), Institute for Integrated Learning
in Management (IILM), New Delhi, Bharthidashan Institute
of Management (BIM), and Tiruchirappalli, Goa Institute
of Management (GIM) etc.
How
is XAT designed?
According to XLRI, “XAT is designed
on multiple-choice questions of two-and-a-half hours
in which the last 20 minutes are given to an essay.”
Like CAT, XAT is also based on the
areas which includes verbal ability and reasoning,
reading comprehension, quantitative skills, data interpretation,
analytical and logical reasoning. In XAT, the additional
areas in comparison to CAT are the general awareness
section and the 20-minute essay writing section.
Overall, XAT has several sections
including Quantitative aptitude (QA) and Data Interpretation
(DI), General Knowledge (GK), English usage (EU) and
Reading Comprehension (RC).
Talking about XAT, Fr N Casimir Raj
S J, former director of XLRI, Jamshedpur says, “XAT
has three objective-type test areas: verbal ability,
quantitative ability and decision-making ability.
We also have questions on values. Students also have
to write essays on a topic based on current value
systems. These questions and essays are considered
more during the interview stage. We read these essays
before taking the interview. With these essays we
try to check the value systems of the aspirants.”
XAT
‘09
XAT ‘09 was termed as a balanced
paper. The three sections in XAT 09 were more or less
balanced in terms of level of difficulty.
Element of toughness was higher than
XAT 08. There were some innovative and tough question
in the Verbal Ability section and some sets of Data
Arrangement in Analytical and Logical Reasoning were
tough. Apart from these the paper was your traditional
XAT paper.
XAT 09 was more of a test of knowledge
than general aptitudes. It was more of a test of knowledge
than general aptitudes.
According to the analysis of XAT 2009
by T.I.M.E, it can be classified as a ‘Very
Difficult’ paper and the cut-offs could witness
a downward trend as compared to last year. Those who
could anticipate the difficulty level upfront and
did not target a ‘pre-fixed’ number of
questions would have been able to stick to the time
limits and have a good, balanced performance in all
three sections – which is the key to get the
coveted call from XLRI. The reduced number of questions
meant that students had a limited set of Qs to choose
from.
The experts of IMS Learning felt that
XAT 2009 was a tough nut to crack! Overall the questions
required considerable use of logic, especially the
VA/RC section and the Analytical/Decision-Making Section.
On the basis of initial reactions one can safely conclude
that both the sectional as well as overall cutoffs
would be significantly lower than those of last year.
Career Launcher says, “As expected
the paper was on the tougher side. Nonetheless it
was balanced across the sections. There were few questions,
which were ambiguous but all in all the paper was
on the expected lines and resembling XAT 2008.”
PT Education’s verdict regarding
XAT 2009 was “This year the test was tough as
compared to last year and designed to primarily check
the decision making skills of the future managers
in a pressure cooker like atmosphere, with its unique
negative marking flavour.
XAT 2009 had fewer questions as compared to XAT 2008,
but the surprise quotient and element of toughness
were higher. There were some innovative and tough
question in the Verbal Ability section and some sets
of Data Arrangement in Analytical and Logical Reasoning
were tough. Apart from these the paper was your traditional
XAT paper.”
How
to Proceed for XAT?
XAT is typically held on the first
Sunday of January. The registration for XAT normally
starts in September and ends in the last week of November.
Candidates having a Bachelor’s
degree by a recognized or deemed university are eligible
for XAT.
Likewise IIMs, XLRI also shortlists
the candidates and they are called for Group Discussion
(GD) and Personal Interview (PI). With this same procedure
you can also apply to more B-Schools who are associated
with XAT.
