XAT 2016: Sectional percentile equally important; cut off to apply in top B-schools

Gateway to admission in various PGDM courses for the batch 2016-18 at XLRI and other important 147 B schools as against 121 in 2015, XAT 2016 is scheduled to be held in a single session on Sunday January 3, 2016 in paper pen mode.

One of the most significant changes announced in XAT 2016 is the 30 minute increase in time duration of the test and reduction in number of questions with reduction in level of difficulty. It is expected that by introducing these big changes, XAT 2016 aspirants would be able to attempt more number of questions in all the sections of the test. In fact till now XAT has been considered as an exam with higher difficulty level due to which most of the candidates could attempt only 50% questions.

Maximise attempts
To encourage candidates to maximise their attempts, XLRI has allowed a maximum number of 13 questions that could be left unattempted and beyond this limit a penalty of 0.05 mark would be applied for each unattempted question in XAT 2016.

Each section important
The catch however still remains as you have to score high in each section. According to XLRI, the XAT 2016 convening B-school You are expected to maximize scores in each section and this implies that despite no sectional time constraint in the exam, if you devote too much time on one section, you may not get the required minimum score in all the sections and may lose your chance to get short listed by top B-schools like XLRI, SPJIMR, IMT Ghaziabad, XIMB, TAPMI, Fore, Great Lakes, LIBA among others.

Sectional scores: Important for Percentile calculation
XAT scores, despite having sectional cut-off leave its General Awareness and Essay Writing Part, out of the purview of percentile calculation. A few of the prestigious B-schools like XLRI use the General awareness test before finalising their admissions.

While IIMs pre-declared their minimum qualifying sectional cut offs even before the mandatory CAT 2015 exam, XLRI or any other B-school associated to XAT 2016 has not taken this course and nor any of the other B-schools accepting XAT 2016 scores for MBA/PGDM 2016-18 admission have declared the sectional cut off as the qualifying shortlisting criteria. The difference, therefore, lies in acceptance of lower marks in some section by the institutes associated to XAT 2016.

According to Prof S K Agarwal expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on XAT preparation, aspirants should accordingly prepare and practice more to crack XAT 2016 in next 3 weeks.
The examination pattern of XAT 2016 will remain the same as earlier except for the aforesaid changes. The Test will be conducted in a single session across India in 47 cities and 2 cities abroad.
It has been 60 years for XLRI, conducting yearly XAT in a conventional paper pencil based pattern. The aim to continue the similar approach is that the XAT ensures that all the candidates from varying backgrounds are at par. It believes that single testing session with same difficulty level will provide level playing field to all the test takers without any discrimination.
Around 90 thousand to 1 lakh candidates explore admission opportunities in XLRI and other member and affiliated B schools by registering for XAT every year.