XAT Exam Analysis 2026: Quantitative Section Tough, VARC Lengthy; Check Section wise Difficulty Level, Type of Questions, Cutoffs

XAT 2026 Exam was held on Sunday, January 4, 2026 from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm. XAT Exam Analysis 2026 was released by MBAUniverse.com soon after the exam. Check details below: 

XAT 2026 Overall Paper Analysis (Comparison with last year)

• XAT 2026 was tougher than 2025 for most students
• XAT 2026 seen as lengthy and calculation intensive 

XAT 2026 Section wise Analysis: Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation

• Quants tougher than usual, very lengthy

• Quants tougher than 2025 for most students. 

• Optimization (max/min, possible values) dominated. 

• Geometry was the largest share of QA. 

XAT 2026 Section wise Analysis: Verbal & Logical Ability

• VARC/VA easy and doable for most
• RCs engaging, easy to comprehend, more global + local questions
• Students reported better comfort with grammar this year

XAT 2026 Section wise Analysis: Decision Making

• DM easy, relatable, and largely doable
• Elimination worked well in most questions
• 2 options close in some questions, adding slight ambiguity
• Many students who took XAT exam 2026 say that DM section was their best section

Other insights from XAT 2026 Section wise Analysis

• Geometry heavy paper in QA and DI sets. Algebra and DI questions fewer than previous years
• DI sets included rectangle perimeter/area, land area + loan/interest calculations, and sunburst/pizza charts
• Focus on efficiency and accuracy over blind attempts noted by students

There was no change in XAT 2026 exam pattern. as given in the table below. XAT 2026 paper was divided into two sections with 75 questions in part A and 25 questions in part B. Quantitative Section was tougher than previous year paper, and lengthy.

Table: XAT Exam Pattern 2026 

Overall, XAT 2026 exam paper was more difficult than last year’s paper. XAT 2026 Quantitative Section was tougher than previous year paper, and lengthy. Other sections had balanced difficulty level. However, a few challenging questions are expected. Decision-making is expected to be most challenging and time-consuming section. Check XAT exam difficulty level (expected) in the table below. 

Table: XAT Exam Difficulty Level 2026

For XAT exam, good attempts depend on accuracy than on the number of questions attempted. Candidates who maintain balanced attempts across all sections will have a better chance of clearing cut-offs. Check XAT 2026 good attempts in table below.

Table: XAT Exam Good Attempts 

Read complete XAT exam analysis 2026 by IMS Coaching, shared with MBAUniverse.com. 

XAT 2026 Pattern and Good Attempts by IMS Coaching

IMS XAT 2026 Exam Analysis: Difficulty Level 
Overall, XAT 2026 was similar in difficulty level to XAT 2025. The DM Section was on par with the same last year with a few questions in DM being difficult. The VALR section was similar in difficulty to XAT 2025. In the QA DI section, the QA portion was more difficult than XAT 2025, and the DI portion was also more challenging than XAT 2025.

IMS XAT 2026 Exam Analysis: Section-wise 
Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning Section 
There were 15 Reading Comprehension questions, 2 poem-based questions and 9 Verbal Ability/Reasoning questions. The Verbal ability/Verbal Reasoning questions were a fair mix of grammar, vocabulary, and reasoning-based questions (Critical Reasoning and Jumbled Paragraphs). The RC questions were distributed among five passages and one poem. The five passages were of 300 - 550 words each approximately; they had a mixture of mostly medium to difficult questions. Many of the questions were inferential and application-based.

Decision Making
This section consisted of 21 questions. Just like 2025, there was no Quantitative DM set in this year’s test. The section consisted of 7 sets of 3 questions each. As usual, some questions had a fair deal of ambiguity – in that either no answer seemed correct or more than one option appeared correct. Overall, the questions were of medium difficulty. Therefore, the choice of sets/questions to attempt would have depended mainly on your personal preferences and strengths. 

Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation   
Out of the 28 questions in the section, 19 were on Quantitative Ability and 9 were on Data Interpretation. In Arithmetic 1 question was on Profit & Loss, 1 question was on Time Speed and Distance, and 1 question was on Race in a Circular swimming pool. The only question in Algebra was based on equations. In Geometry, 1 question was on Concentric circles, 1 question was on Circle and Tangent, 1 question was on Triangle & Rectangle, 1 question was on Triangle and Square, and 1 question was on Height and Distance. In Modern maths, 1 question was on Probability, 1 question was on Function, and 1 question was on 3D Venn Diagram. There were 7 questions from Numbers. One quant question on Divisibility was of Data Sufficiency type. Quite a few questions had been framed based on the maximum or minimum possible values. 

There were three sets of Data Interpretation with 3 questions in each set. The DI sets were lengthy and tricky. One set was based on a combination of Numbers, Geometry, and Logic. One set was based on a Sunburst chart, involving multiple levels of segregation of a company’s employees and their locations, etc. The third set was a Logical DI involving a data table. As a whole, the QA portion was more difficult than XAT-2025, especially the DI portion was really challenging.

Following is the break-up of the questions in the section:

General Knowledge
The 20 GK questions comprised 11 current affairs questions and 9 static GK questions. As usual, the questions covered a wide range of areas and gave no special advantage to specialists in any one area.

IMS XLRI BM Program Cut Offs (Predictions)

IMS XLRI HRM Program Cut Offs (Predictions) 

Read XAT previous year exam analysis in the following section.

Xavier Aptitude Test 2025 was conducted on January 5, 2025, between 2 PM and 5 PM. Detailed section wise analysis is given below. .

XAT 2025 Exam Pattern

XAT 2025 Marking Scheme 
Part-1 questions invited negative marks of – 0.25 for each incorrect response. In addition, there was a penalty of -0.1 mark for every unattempted question after 8 unattempted questions.

XAT 2025 Exam Difficulty Level        
XAT 2025 exam difficulty was similar to the difficulty level of XAT 2024. Check section wise details.

• Decision Making Section Difficulty Level: The DM Section was on par with the same last year with a few questions in DM being difficult.
• Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning Section Difficulty Level: The VALR section was slightly more challenging than the same section in XAT 2024.
• Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation Section Difficulty Level: In the QA-DI section, the QA portion was slightly easier than XAT 2024, but the DI portion was slightly more challenging than XAT 2024.

XAT 2025 Section wise Analysis: Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning Section 
There were 17 Reading Comprehension questions and 9 Verbal Ability/Reasoning questions. The Verbal ability/Verbal Reasoning questions were a fair mix of grammar, vocabulary, and reasoning-based questions (Critical Reasoning and Jumbled Paragraphs). The RC questions were distributed among five passages and one poem. According to experts, the poem-based RC was difficult. The remaining five passages were of 300 - 450 words each. They had a mixture of mostly medium to difficult questions. Many of the questions were inferential and application-based.

XAT 2025 Section wise Analysis: Decision Making Section
This section consisted of 21 questions. There was no Quantitative DM set in this year’s test.

The section consisted of 7 sets of 3 questions each. As usual, some questions had a fair deal of ambiguity – in that either no answer seemed correct or more than one option appeared correct. Overall, the questions were of medium difficulty. Therefore, the choice of sets/questions to attempt would have depended mainly on your personal preferences and strengths.

XAT 2025 Section wise Analysis: Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation Section 
Out of the 28 questions in the section, 16 were on Quantitative Ability and 12 were on Data Interpretation.  

In Arithmetic 1 question was on Ratio Proportion, 1 question was on Simple Interest, and 1 question was on Averages. In Algebra, 2 questions were on Coordinate Geometry. In Geometry, 1 question was on Mensuration, 1 question was on Circles, 1 question was on Frustum, and 2 questions were on Quadrilaterals. In Modern maths, 1 question was on Probability and Quadratic Equations, and 1 question was on Logarithm. In Numbers, 1 question was from HCF-LCM and 1 question was on Indices. .

There were four sets of Data Interpretation with 3 questions in each set. One set was based on Arithmetic, one was based on Averages, one was Number-matrix based and one was Scatter Plot / Line Graph based. Among these 4 sets, two were reasoning based DI sets and one was observation based set.

Overall, QA portion was slightly easier than XAT 2024, but the DI portion was slightly more challenging than XAT 2024. 

Exam break-up of the questions in the section is as follows:

XAT 2025 Section wise Analysis: General Knowledge
The part two of XAT 2025 paper has 20 GK questions comprised 12 current affairs questions and 8 static GK questions. The questions covered a wide range of areas and gave no special advantage to specialists in any one area.

XAT 2025 Cut Offs for XLRI Jamshedpur 
Based on the test difficulty level and actual cutoffs over the last two years, the estimated cut-offs for XLRI BM and HRM programs were as follow:

XLRI BM Program

XLRI HRM Program

Continue reading this article for XAT 2024 exam analysis. 

XAT Analysis 2024 with sectional composition and key changes in XAT paper 2024, sectional division of questions in revised XAT test pattern are shared below

Verbal and Logical Ability Section: 26 Questions
There were 15 Reading Comprehension questions and 11 Verbal Ability/Reasoning questions. The Verbal ability/Verbal Reasoning questions were a fair mix of grammar, vocabulary, and reasoning-based questions (Critical Reasoning and Jumbled Paragraphs). The 15 RC questions were distributed among five passages (of 300 – 450 words each) and one poem. Check complete details below. 

Decision Making: 21 Questions
There was no Quantitative DM set in this year’s test. The section consisted of 7 sets of 3 questions each. Check complete details below.

Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation: 28 Questions
Out of the 28 questions in the section, 15 were on Quantitative Ability and 13 were on Data Interpretation. Check complete details below.

General Knowledge: 25 Questions
The 25 GK questions comprised 16 current affairs questions and 9 static GK questions.   

Essay Writing: Three Topics 
The test-taker had to select one topic out of three and write an essay in around 250 words. The topics for the essay writing task were: 

• Tech predictions are not reliable, because of the lack of creativity and human based thinking;
• Imposing more stringent rule on social media is necessary to prevent false information
• We should not prioritize a thing that matters the most, at the cost of leaving a thing that matters the least.

Check XAT Score vs Percentile 2024 by MBAUniverse.com.  

Read complete details on XAT Score vs Percentile. 

XAT 2024 Cut Offs for XLRI Jamshedpur were as follows:
XLRI Jamshedpur Business Management Program: 96 percentile for male candidates with an engineering background, while non-engineer males have a slightly adjusted cutoff at 95 percentile. 

XLRI Jamshedpur Human Resource Management Program: male engineers are expected to meet a 95 percentile threshold, whereas non-engineer males will be considered at a 93 percentile. 

Read complete details on XAT Cut Offs for XLRI Jamshedpur. Also check XAT Cut Offs for other XAT colleges.

In summary, XAT 2026 Exam Analysis will be published immediately after the XAT exam on January 4, 2026. XAT 2025 Analysis will include analysis of Exam Pattern, Section-wise Topics, Type of Questions and Difficulty Level, and XAT Score Vs Percentile. Read previous year’s XAT Analysis and other details above. XAT Paper Analysis is helpful for achieving high score in XAT exam.