Barely a week away, XAT 2016 on January 3, 2016, will be the second largest national level MBA/PGDM entrance test offering admission opportunity in 2016 to XLRI and other 147 highly ranked B-schools. Although CAT 2015 got 2.18 lakhs registrations with 1.80 lakhs appearing in the exam, XAT 2016 is also going to have a good number of candidates going to take the test on January 3, 2016 across the country.
XAT 2016 has much more to offer as against CAT 2015 in terms of availability of more time to solve fewer questions, more aspirant friendly changes in the paper pen based XAT 2016, exam content to be brought to easier pattern and more number of B-schools accepting XAT 2016 scores than the number of B-schools accepting CAT 2015 scores in academic session commencing 2016.
Thousands of CAT 2015 test takers who are perturbed due to their not very good and uneven sectional performance in the exam and are not expecting a very high sectional percentile score are getting depressed as they think that their chances of getting shortlisted by top rated IIMs or other B schools may not be so bright as they had earlier expected. The candidates are in a jeopardy whether they will be shortlisted for admission by highly ranked B schools for admission 2016.
Utilize the CAT 2015 experience in XAT 2016
The fear of not getting a good B-school is unfounded as you forget that the experience in preparing for CAT 2015 will come handy to maximise your attempts in XAT 2016 thereby helping you to improve your percentile, is the view of Prof S K Agarwal, expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on CAT 2015 and XAT 2016 preparation.
The fact of the case is that most of the candidates who appeared in CAT 2015 have registered for XAT 2016 also and it appears that their well planned preparation strategy to take XAT 2016 got a set back after dismal performance in changed pattern of CAT 2015.
But, according to the expert, if you analyse your performance in CAT 2015 and on its basis the expected performance in XAT 2016, you are in for a pleasant surprise. The need is to judicially utilize the opportunity and synchronise your stock of preparation and level of performance to get best out of XAT 2016. Prof S K Agarwal shares how you can utilise best your experience in CAT 2015 to increase your score in various sections in XAT 2016.
Revisit the common topics
On a scale of 100 if you performed at level of 60 in CAT 2015, you have all the opportunity to perform at 100 in XAT 2016 in the changed pattern and on the basis of your well prepared stock of topics on Quant, Verbal, Data Interpretation and logical reasoning which are common to both the exams. The additional section that needs your attention is Decision Making which stands alone in XAT 2016 but had no role in CAT 2015.
A bit more practice on Decision making can help you ace this section which is expected to be easier in XAT 2016 with 23 questions as against the earlier XAT exams after announcement of significant changes by XLRI in the exam format of XAT 2016. How to ace Decision Making in XAT 2016 can be understood by reading http://www.mbauniverse.com/article/id/9189/XAT-2016.
Less efforts in XAT 2016 with CAT 2015 experience
XAT 2016, the paper pen based test, will have 3 core sections namely verbal and Logical Ability with 26 questions; Decision Making & Analytical Reasoning with 23 questions; Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation with 29 questions, making a total of 78 questions to be solved in 170 minutes without any sectional time limit that will account for calculation of sectional as well as overall percentile scores.
The scores in these sections will be used to prepare the merit list for shortlisting the candidates at XLRI, SPJIMR, XIMB, IMT, TAPMI, XIME, Great Lakes, LIBA among other highly ranked B-schools. All the questions in these sections will be in MCQ format.
The similarity of question pattern in all the 3 sections in XAT 2016 to that of CAT 2015 will give an edge to the candidates who had prepared for CAT 2015 and have appeared in the exam. You have already prepared and are ready to take XAT 2016 with your CAT 2015 experience and the this will help you further to improve your scores in the exam.
Quant & DI: Clubbed section
XAT 2016 has good news for the test takers. The section on Quantitative Ability will have questions on Data Interpretation (DI) clubbed to it. Usually DI questions are considered more time consuming and in CAT 2015 the questions on DI were clubbed to Logical Reasoning making it more difficult for the test takers to crack more of them due to time constraints.
But it will be a win-win situation for XAT 2016 takers. You can devote time to Quant as well as to DI questions as per your convenience. If you can attempt more of Quant questions and almost negligible DI questions, it may not have any adverse affect on your sectional cut offs. Besides, there is no time constraint to toggle among the sections. It will offer opportunity to maximise your attempts to the preferred section and increase your score in XAT 2016. You may attempt more in Quant or more in DI. The sectional percentile will based on overall sectional score and not on individual score in Quant or DI.
Quant section will have total 29 questions in XAT 2016 as against 34 questions in CAT 2015. All the questions in Quant section in XAT 2016 will be in MCQ form as compared to CAT 2015 which had 24 MCQs and 10 non-MCQs that required you to write the answers on computer screen.
Logical Ability: Part of Verbal Ability
The 26 questions in Verbal Ability section in XAT 2016 will consist of few questions on Logical Ability also. Again, unlike CAT 2015 which had 16 MCQs and Non-MCQs only on Logical Reasoning and were more time consuming, XAT 2016 will have around 5-6 questions on Logical Ability. Instead of long question sets, XAT prefers to ask short questions on Logical Ability. Most of the questions are based on Statements and you can find easy direct links to answer options.
Your preparation on Logical Reasoning for CAT 2015 will be a great tool to crack questions on Logical Ability in XAT 2016. The best part is that you are not bound by time constraint to attempt the section nor your sectional percentile will adversely be affected if you choose to attempt more questions from Verbal Ability than from Logical Ability or vice versa.
However, please remember CAT 2015 did not have questions on sentence correction, grammar usage, vocabulary, idioms, phrases, figures of speech, errors in usage among others, but XAT 2016 will have all such questions although 1 or 2 of each type. Although you have prepared them also, you will need a few hours practice to brush up and update your preparation level.
Decision Making: Needs practice
23 MCQs in Decision Making section need your more time in the testing hall. Scores in Decision Making Section in XAT 2016 could be a turning point in getting shortlisted for XLRI admission batch 2016-18.
Question in Decision Making section are in sets. A passage with certain information is followed by a set of 4-5 questions. Each of the questions is again followed by 4-5 close decision making answer options. The best way to prepare is to develop the analysing skills by practicing more and more questions in next 4-5 days.
If you prepare well for this section and are able to crack maximum questions with accuracy in this section in XAT 2016, you can reap multiple benefits like you will be able to ace the PI round of top B-schools who put you to solve caselets, ask you to take decision in a piquant situation and the like. Out of 23 questions in this section, if you are able to crack 10-12 questions with accuracy, you could be the winner.
35 minutes to GK & Essay Writing
These 2 sections in XAT 2016 will be of qualifying nature and the top B-schools like XLRI will use the score of these sections while preparing final merit list before making final admission offers to the candidates.
General Knowledge (GK) section in XAT 2016 proposes to have 25 questions in MCQ format which are supposed to be solved in 10 minutes. Rest 25 minutes in view of the expert should be utilized to write a well worded essay of around 300 words on the given topic. Please make sure whatever you write in your essay, you should be able to clarify and explain the points in it, as questions may be asked on them in XLRI or other top B-schools PI round.
XAT 2016 equally important
In fact, most of the top rated B schools, except IIMs and a few others, will also use XAT 2016 scores along with CAT 2015 scores to short list candidates for admission in PGDM batch 2016-18. The list of member and associated B schools to XAT 2016 has 148 management institutes and you will not be able to avail this opportunity after January 3, 2016 the date of XAT 2016 exam.
Related Article
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Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates and tips on XAT 2016
