XAT 2017: Score of 32 to get you 94 percentile; be ready to get XLRI, SPLIMR at low scores; indepth XAT exam analysis

XAT 2018 Exam Analysis - Live
Check your XAT Score & Percentile

XAT Analysis: Technical glitches reported, Exam at Gurgaon centre rescheduled; 98 questions divided in 5 sections

XAT 2017 paper pattern was exactly as announced. No surprises there! As usual it was administered as two parts. The first part consisted of Verbal & Logical Ability, Decision Making and Quantitative Ability & DI. Only the first part is taken towards calculation of percentile. This percentile is used for shortlisting by all institutes that take the XAT scores. Check your XAT 2018 percentile
The Second part had the General Knowledge Section (no negative marks) and an Essay section which is used mainly by XLRI at the time of the Interview and final selection.
Difficult verbal, easy Quant
Prof Arks Srinivas, CEO, VisaMind Education while commenting on XAT 2017 test paper indepth sectional analysis and cut offs at top B-schools shared Many students would be opening dictionaries to figure out what Jingoism is! Though the importance of Essay in the selection to XL and other Institutes would come much later, this was the first thing on their minds when they came out of the XAT exam! Last year, the dean of XLRI had said that the XAT paper would be more inclusive and ensure that there is more diversity in the campuses. Well, he seems to have delivered the same one year late!

The Quant section, normally the bte noire for many a student, was surprisingly easy and may have given many smiles to students who wrote XAT. Especially because, students would not be able to assess their performance in the Verbal and Decision Making sections AND the fact that Quant has gone well, would leave a good feeling after the exam!

Part I
No of Questions : 72
Time available : 170 minutes
No of Marks : 72
No of Sections : 3 (Cutoffs exist)
Marking : All questions carry equal marks
Negative marking : th of the mark deducted
Part II General Knowledge and Essay
Time Available : 35 minutes
General Knowledge : 25 questions
Essay : Technology and nature are natural enemies
Test Pattern

Section
Area
No. Of Questions
Marks
PART ONE

Section -A

Verbal and Logical Ability
24
24

Section B
Decision Making
21
21

Section C
Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation
27
27

Total
72
72
PART TWO
General Knowledge
25
25

Essay
Tricky XAT 2017: Paper Analysis
XAT 2017 was Tricky. Though the Quant section was easy, the Decision Making Ability Section AND the Verbal Ability & Logical (typically critical reasoning) were definitely of a higher order of difficulty!
At first glance, the overall cutoffs may go up and the sectional cutoffs may remain similar to that of the last year with marginal increase in the Quant cutoff.

XAT 2017 paper was very similar to the XAT 2015 paper in terms of structure of the paper as ell as the difficulty level. However, the number of questions have drastically reduced in XAT 2017 while the time available has increased over the XAT 2015 paper!

XAT scores are taken for admission into not only XLRI but also XIMB, GIM, LIBA, XISS, XIME and a host of other member and associate institutes. Check your XAT 2018 percentile
Sectional Analysis of XAT 2017

Verbal and Logical Ability (24 Questions)
Of the 12 questions in the Verbal Ability & Logical Section, there were enough questions which were doable. The question(s) on Vocab, Grammar and Critical reasoning were doable. There were two poems (again an XL speciality) which required one to infer from the same.

The Para Jumbles questions were of moderate level of difficulty and one question was easy and should have been solved.
Except for the passage on Existentialism, the other three passages had easy questions and a careful reading of the passage would have been enough to get the answers right!
The section as a whole can be termed as a section of medium to high level of difficulty section.
A good student could have attempted around 17 to 20 questions in about 50 minutes in this section.
A quick view of the pattern of this section will clarify what is meant above

Sno
Question Type
No of Questions
Difficulty Level

1
Vocab based Analogy
1
Medium

2
Sentence Correction/Grammar
2
Easy

2
Fill-in-the-blanks
2

Medium to High

3
Critical Reasoning/Inference


3
Medium to High

4
Poems
2
High

5
Para Jumbles

2
Medium

6
Reading Comprehension (4 sets)
12
Moderate to High

Total
24
Medium to High

Cutoff for the section 6.75 (80 percentile) & 7.5 (85 percentile)
Decision Making (21 questions)

The Decision making section is probably the most interesting section of almost all MBA entrance exams. Decision Making has been a regular feature of XAT for quite a number of years now.
The composition of the section included 7 sets with about 18 questions and 3 sets which had individual questions in them. Of the 7 sets, 4 sets had 3 question each and the rest of them had 2 questions per set.
There were individual questions which were easy, however, there was No One Set which could be said as easy in the section, A good student would have attempted around 17 to 18 questions from the 21 that were available.
Cutoff for the section 6.5 (80 percentile)

Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation
The QA and DI section probably was easier than the other two. Of the 16 questions in Quant area, Algebra and Pure Math accounted for 13 questions. The section had only 4 questions of arithmetic and a question each in Venn Diagrams, Functions, Trigonometry and a miscellaneous (logic) question.

Around 12 to 14 questions could be solved by anyone who has a basic grounding in math.

Data Interpretation and Data Sufficiency area was challenging. While the set on Production and Selling of Kurtas (Table) was easy, though lengthy, the Scatter Plot set was pretty easy but difficult to understand. Any student who could understand the Data and Interpret the same, it was very easy! The set on T20 (data sufficiency) was of moderate level of difficulty and was solvable.
The break-up of the entire section with their sub-topics is given below.

Area
Topic
No of Questions
Arithmetic
4

Equations (in the garb of T&D question)
1

Percentages, P&L
1

Time & Distance
1

Time & Work
1

Algebra/Pure Math
13

Polynomials
1

Numbers
1
Progressions
1

Probability & Permutations, Combinations
2
Geometry
|
3
Mensuration
1
Functions & Graphs

1
Trigonometry
1
Venn Diagram

1
Miscellaneous

Overall the section was easy and a good student could have attempted around 12 to 14 questions in about 60 minutes.
Cutoff for this section 9 (80 percentile) & 11 (90 percentile)

Overall Cutoff
XLRI has three programs, the HRM, the BM program and the Global MBA Program. The HRM program typically has a lower cutoff than the BM program.
With a score of 29 you could get 90 percentile while with 32 your percentile would go up to 94 in XAT 2017. Check your XAT 2018 percentile
VA & LA
DM
QA &DI
Total

XLRI (HRM)
7.5 (85%ile)
6.5 (80%ile)
8 (70%ile)
29 (90%ile)

XLRI (BM)
6.75 (80%ile)
6.5 (80%ile)
11 (90%ile)
32 (94%ile)

XLRI (Global)
6.75 (80%ile)
6.5 (80%ile)
11 (90%ile)
29 (90%ile)

XIMB
6.75 (80%ile)
6.5 (80%ile)
9 (80%ile)
28 (88%ile)

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