XAT registration begins; GK questions to be reduced, clubbed with main paper

XAT 2014 registration opened on August 12 even as XAT officials indicated to a few changes in pattern of the test to be held on January 5, 2014.

According to the XAT officials, the General Knowledge (GK) section which was added to XAT last year only, will now be part of the main paper. Last year, the GK section was introduced into part-II of the test which earlier had Essay Writing as its only feature. Accordingly, the duration of the main paper will also be increased to accommodate the GK questions.

Dr Vishwa Ballabh, admission chairperson, XLRI told MBAUniverse.com that the main test paper for XAT 2014 will also have GK section along with existing sections Verbal, Quant and Decision making. He, however, added that the score of GK will be awarded separately and will only be considered at the final selection stage at XLRI.

He said that the number of GK questions will also be reduced to around 20-22. Last year, the total number of GK question was 30 and time allotted for the same was 20 min.

Though a formal announcement of XAT 2014 pattern is expected to be made soon, Dr Ballabh, confirmed that the expected changes are aimed to add convenience to the candidates.

The GK section will be added to the main paper to avoid filling up an extra OMR sheet for the same during part II of the examination, Dr Ballabh said, adding, this change will save time for test takers and also add more convenience to their testing experience.

The second part of the exam will continue to have Essay Writing with time allotted for the same remaining 20 minutes.
According to Dr Ballabh, the additional section of GK in the main paper will also result in increased duration for the main paper. The duration for main paper will also be increased to 2:30 hrs or a little more, he said. Earlier, the duration for the main paper was 2:20 hrs.The time allotted for the second part carrying GK and Essay Writing sections was 40 minutes. The second part now will only have an Essay Writing which would be of 20 minute duration as earlier.

The number of question will be 85 to 90 in the main sections and GK will carry around 20 questions. Therefore the total number of questions in the main paper will be around 110.

Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) 2014, conducted for admission to XLRI Jamshedpur and many other top B-schools in India, will be held on January 5. The registration window for the same began on August 12 and the same will close on November 22.

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