In its revamped form, announced by XLRI, XAT 2016 is going to greet the aspirants with easier and fewer questions in the exam on January 3, 2016. According to the changes announced by XAT 2016 conducting XLRI, the exam will now have only 78 questions divided in 3 major sections which will be responsible to determine your percentile for shortlisting. These 78 questions shall have to be solved in 170 minutes instead of earlier 150 minutes allowing an increase of 20 minutes to solve the test paper.
Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) 2016 will be a paper based test and will be held in a single session across the country on Sunday January 3, 2016. The exam scores will be accepted by 141 B-schools including the highly ranked XLRI, Jamshedpur.
XAT 2016: Made easier
In an effort to make the test easier by reducing the level of difficulty and number of questions, XLRI has announced “The total number of questions has been brought down to 78 in the question paper and the time allotted has been increased by 20 minutes. The candidates would have 170 minutes to answer the questions. Besides, the level of difficulty of the questions has also been carefully designed to provide level playing field in the test.”
Changed Sectional composition
XAT 2016 will be divided in 2 parts and 5 sections.
Part-1: It will have 3 main sections with 78 multiple choice questions (MCQs) the evaluation of which will be responsible to determine your percentile scores. Earlier the total number of questions in the 3 sections taken together in Part-1 used to be around 84. The number of questions in each of these sections will however stand reduced as follows-
Section-1: Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning
-- Earlier this section had about 28 questions
-- XAT 2016 is expected to have 26 questions in this section
Section-2: Quantitative Ability including Data Interpretation
-- Earlier this section had 33 questions
-- XAT 2016 is expected to have 30 questions in this section
Section-3: Decision making
-- Earlier this section had around 23 questions
-- XAT 2016 is expected to have 22 questions in this section
Increased time limit
-- Part-1 with 84 questions in earlier XAT exams was supposed to be solved in 150 minutes (2 and half hours)
-- In XAT 2016 as per the announced changed pattern, 170 minutes will be allowed to solve 78 questions.
Part-2: Second part in XAT 2016 will have 2 sections comprising questions on General Knowledge in MCQ form and a descriptive essay writing test.
Section-4: General Knowledge
-- Earlier this section had 30 questions
-- XAT 2016 proposes to have 25 questions on General Knowledge
Section-5: Essay Writing Test
-- There is no significant change in the structure or content of this test. There would be one or two essay topics and XAT 2016 test taker is supposed to write essay on either of the 2 topics.
Time limit for Part-2
The time allowed in earlier XAT exams to solve this part was 40 minutes. However in XAT 2016 it will be 35 minutes. XLRI states. According to XLRI “The format of supplementary sections of GK and Essay would remain same with some minor changes. The time allowed to answer both GK and Essay would be 35 minutes. Last year, the GK score of most candidates was on the lower side, and some candidates had complained about the time. Taking this feedback into consideration the number of questions in the GK has been reduced to 25. All the questions would be “General” in nature rather than “specific”. There would be no negative marking in this section.”
Level of difficulty reduced to maximise attempts
In order to enable XAT 2016 test takers to maximise their attempts in the exam, XLRI clarifies “In order to enable students to attempt as many questions as possible and encourage them to demonstrate all-round skills, the difficulty level of the questions has been brought down. In the previous years, students would attempt only half of the questions reducing the range of marks scored among students. However if the examination is made very easy, many would finish the test before time.”
The aim therefore is not to make the XAT 2016 a cake-walk, but a moderately difficult exam with more time available and without sectional time constraints. On reducing the level of difficulty, XLRI further emphasizes “This way, the examination would avoid 2 possible errors: low range of scores and excellent students not getting enough opportunities to showcase their ability because of too easy a question paper.”
XAT 2016: Original Vs changed pattern
-- XAT 2016 bulletin announced that it would be 210 minutes (three and half hours exam)
-- New announcement has reduced it to 205 minutes
-- If a break of 5 minutes is allowed between Part-1 and Part-2 of the test, it would again be 210 minutes test
The registration and application process for XAT 2016 will remain open till December 10, 2015. The process is online a graduate in any discipline can apply for XAT 2016 to explore admission opportunity in XLRI, SPJIMR, IMT, XIMB, and other top rated B-schools.
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Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on XAT 2016
