All About
XAT 2015
How to Prepare &
What to Expect
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Contents
Introduction3
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Introduction
re you an MBA aspirant who is dreaming to make it big by gaining admission in a reputed B-School like XLRI Jamshedpur, which is one of the oldest management institutes in India, XAT or Xavier Aptitude Test is the gateway to this
premium institute. Not just XLRI Jamshedpur but other top B-schools like XIMB, SPJIMR Mumbai, LIBA Chennai,
Goa Institute of Management etc. accept XAT scores as well.
This special E-book brought to you by Careers360 will bring to you All About XAT 2015 exam which you need to know
to crack the exam scheduled on Sunday, January 4, 2015. You will not only get all the fast facts about the exam but also the
exclusive interviews of the XAT 2015 Convenor Dr. Munish Thakur and the last year XAT toppers, preparation tips, past 10
years analysis and trends and the top B-schools accepting XAT scores and their cutoffs. Read the E-book and know all you
need to know about the exam.
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AT 2015- Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT), conducted by XLRI Jamshedpur, is a national level MBA entrance exam.
XAT 2015 scores will be used by XLRI Jamshedpur and other Xavier Associate Management Institutes and over 120
B-schools across the country for admission.XAT 2015 will be held on Sunday, January 4, 2015.
XAT 2015 Admit Card: XAT 2015 Admit Card will be available on
the XAT website from Thursday, December 18, 2014 till Wednesday,
December 31, 2014.
XAT 2015 Exam Pattern: The 3-hour duration XAT 2015 is a paperpencil based test, comprising 2 papers.
Paper 1, the objective, multiple choice question type, contains 3 sections
Quantitative Ability, English Language & Logical Reasoning, and
Decision Making with duration of 2 hours 20 minutes.
Paper 2, partly subjective and partly objective type, comprises 2 sections
General Knowledge and Essay Writing. The General Awareness section
will have 30 questions. The duration for this paper will be 40 minutes.
XAT 2015 Cutoff: Overall cutoff for XAT 2014 declared by XLRI was
88 for HRM and 94 for BM. The XAT 2015 cutoff will be announced
by XLRI after the result is declared.
XAT 2015 Participating institutes: 123 B-schools across India as
per XAT 2015 bulletin
Address: XLRI
Admission Office C.H. Area (East) Jamshedpur 831001
Jharkhand India
Phone: +91 657 665 3203/3204/3205
Fax: +91-657-2227814 Email: admis@xlri.ac.in
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Step 1 Registration
Visit the official website of XAT 2015 and click on the tab
XAT Registration. Enter your basic information such as
name, parents name, date of birth, category and contact
details. Click here to apply for XAT 2015.
You will receive the XAT ID through email. The next step
would be to login through these credentials to proceed with
the XAT 2015 application procedure.
The registration window will also display your XAT ID
along with sending the email. The message displayed in the
page says, Use this XAT Registration No. and password
entered by you in the previous screen to login and complete
the remaining XAT registration process.
After you login, you will be given the option to view your
profile, edit contact information and add educational information.
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Step 3 Payment
The XAT 2015 application fee is Rs. 1000 for all candidates.
Select the mode of payment among the following modes:
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Demand Draft
Credit/Debit Card
IDBI Net-Banking
After you select the payment mode, you will receive instructions which you must read carefully and abide by. Click on I
Agree and Pay Now tabs to move further.
Work Experience
After successful transaction, print the page for your reference and remember to quote your Transaction Number in all
future communications regarding payment along with your
XAT ID. Click on Save & Continue tab for the next steps.
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After you make the payment, you will be led to the next page
for uploading your photograph and signature. You have to
ensure that the photograph and signature are clear In case
the images uploaded are not clear, your candidature is likely
to be cancelled. The size of the files should not exceed 50 KB
and they should be in JPEG formats.
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Number of Questions
Last year, the total number of questions was 103. The Verbal Ability, Decision Making and Quantitative Aptitude had
83 questions and 20 questions were asked in the General
Awareness section.
Marking scheme
Paper 2 will comprise General Awareness and Essay Writing sections. The duration of this section will be 40 minutes.
PART ONE
Section
Area
Section -A
28
28
Section B
Decision Making
24
24
Section C
31
31
83
83
20
20
Total
PART TWO
General Awareness
Essay Writing
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No. Of Questions
Marks
30
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For the section, the main topics include probability, philosophy, analytics skills and other verbal logical ability that
supports students to crack this section easily. Other topics
include:
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Vocabulary
Grammar
PFQ
Reading Comprehension
The XAT 2015 Syllabus for this section has questions related
to numbers and prepares candidates for number systems,
numerology and data skills. The main topics of this sections
include the following:
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Arithmetic
Geometry
Statistics
Number system
Algebra
P&C
Probability
Set theory
DI caselets
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XAT 2015
Important Dates
Events
Exam Date
January 4, 2015
Results
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r Munish Thakur is Convenor of XAT 2015. A fellow of IIM Calcutta, Dr Thakur teaches strategic
management at XLRI, Jamshedpur.In this interview
with Careers360, XAT Convenor Dr Thakur speaks on the
possible changes in Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) 2015 pattern and other dimensions of XAT exam. He also talks on
reviewing Personal Interview (PI) process for XLRI admissions this year.
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India. The new cities added for XAT 2015 includes Agartala,
Indore and Nasik.
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How Maulik Gandhi scored 99.74 in XAT 2014 to get XLRI admission
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XAT 2014?
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Reasoning and Decision Making. For these two areas, I practiced as much as I could. I solved more number of LR sets of
different types and took more time to answer the DM questions. It is also important to manage your time well as you
dont want to leave questions unanswered.
Careers360: What is your advice for the MBA aspirants who will take XAT 2015?
Maulik Gandhi: Practice and Self-belief are the most
important things during the last 4 months of XAT. There will
be times when you will be under immense pressure; do not let
the pressure trouble you, channelize it positively. Do stress
relieving exercises, watch sports on TV, and take walks in the
gardens. Never give up!
Careers360: How important are recreational activities for you? Were you involved in any of the activities
besides preparing for the exam?
Maulik Gandhi: As the head of the trekking club of my
college, I organized various treks to Sahyadri Ranges in
Maharashtra. I used to take walks daily in my colony. A stroll
in the local mall would help me gather my thoughts. Recreational activities are very important to me as I believe that for
every important problem that needs to be tackled, you should
tackle it with a calm mind. If not acted upon well, too much
pressure would ultimately lead to failure.
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XAT 2014?
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month. Besides just reading newspapers and books, following whats going around the world is the best source of
information.
weakness. Practice and continuous exposure through reading helped me with VA. Following information available on
various websites like Vocabulary.com helped in understanding the application aspect of VA and made it a strong section
of the XAT exam.
Careers360: What is your advice for the MBA aspirants who will take XAT 2014?
Ancy Varghese: Along with preparing for the written
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The following table will give you the trend and difficulty level of the paper for the past 10 years.
Year
Sections
Number
of Questions
Duration
Difficulty
Level
2014
Verbal & Logical Ability Decision Making Quantitative Ability & Data
Interpretation General Awareness
28+24+31+20 = 103
3 hours
Tough
2013
30+25+36+30 = 121
3 hours
ModerateTough
2012
28+32+25 = 85
2 hours
30 minutes
Tough
2011
34+24+43 = 101
2 hours 20
minutes
Tough
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Year
Sections
Number
of Questions
Duration
Difficulty
Level
2010
34+24+43 = 101
2 hours
20 minutes
Tough
2009
38+35+31 = 104
2 hours
20 minutes
Tough
2008
38+38+44 = 120
2 hours
20 minutes
Tough
2007
49+40+41 = 130
2 hours
20 minutes
Tough
2006
40+43+44 = 127
2 hours
20 minutes
Tough
2005
75+35+65 = 175
2 hours
20 minutes
Moderate
Marking Scheme
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topics and general analysis which you can expect for XAT
2015.
This section has two types of questions, Reading Comprehension and Verbal Ability or English Usage. This section
also contains logical, critical and analytical reasoning questions. The English Usage questions are on grammar and
vocabulary.
Arithmetic
Algebra
Mensuration
Geometry
Trigonometry
Permutation Combination
Higher Math
Decision Making
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General Awareness
You can expect the following topics for the General Awareness section:
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Business
Sports
Economy
Politics
Trade
International bodies
The above mentioned topics are not exhaustive, but inclusive of all the plausible areas under the broad areas of politics, economy and society.
preferable one business daily. Regularly watch news bulletins to stay updated with the current affairs. For static GK,
read yearbooks of reputed publications.
For the essay writing section, practice is the key. The duration of the essay writing is 20 minutes. The topics of XAT
essay is mostly inferential in nature and not direct, for e.g.
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of
riches; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of
miseries (XAT 2009) and Earth provides enough to satisfy
every mans need but not every mans greed (XAT 2010).
A lot of reading will be required along with logical thinking
ability to tackle the essay writing section. Write at least 1
essay everyday by assigning 20 minutes time slot. After reading the topic, arrange your thoughts and jot down the points
and elaborate them accordingly. Furnish your essay with lot
of examples, facts and figures to add credibility. Last but not
the least, keep your essay crisp and to the point and avoid
beating around the bush.
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24
SECTION
NO OF QUESTIONS
A: Verbal Ability
30
B: Decision Making
25
36
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A Career is a Life
25
in the previous years papers, you can go to the Harvard Business Review website (http://hbr.org/) and read sample cases
to enhance your knowledge and also to arch your thinking in
a way to facilitate better reasoning.
Though the General Awareness section will not be included
in determining the percentiles and the cut-offs in the first
stage of the selection process, it still is paramount. This
time, the General Awareness section will eat into your main
examination time unlike in the previous years, wherein it was
clubbed with the essay section following the main examination and was a separate 30-minute test. Keeping abreast
with the latest happenings in the business world will help
your chances of scoring big in this section.
Practicing essays are crucial to doing well in the essay section, for writing a coherent, crisp 200-word essay in 20-30
minutes is by no means a cakewalk. The evaluators not only
look for language skills, but also for the thought process
involved, the spectrum of ideas, and your knowledge pertaining to the topic at hand. Having a fair knowledge of the
contemporary topics will give you an edge. So reading newspapers, especially the editorial columns, is highly advised.
To sum up, XAT surely is difficult but not impossible to
crack. With only about less than a month to go for the D-day,
paucity of time becomes the natural enemy. So, the next 10
odd days will decide who all get left out and who all emerge
victorious.
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XAT is a 2.5-hour exam this year with four sections (as given
in the website)
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General Awareness
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Recommendations
Leave a buffer time of 15 minutes (out of the total time available) and divide the rest of the time between sections.
Assumption 1: The number of questions is in the range of
25-35 in each section.
Assumption 2: Time available is 150 minutes
Strategy: 45-35-35-15 minutes as per the above four section pattern, with a buffer of 20 minutes
Quantitative Ability:
One should give more time to the Quant and DI sections.
DI in XAT has traditionally been calculation based tables,
charts which would make it easy to solve given sufficient
time.
While there are a few Arithmetic questions, XAT has
always concentrated on higher algebra and higher math
including probability, permutations & combinations and
functions & graphs.
Concentrate on attempting around 18 to 20 questions in
the given 45 minutes and select the right one.
Decision Making Section:
Many a student makes a mess of this section by trying to
attempt too many questions. They appear deceptively easy.
Take your pick and objectively and logically deduce and
decide answers.
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General Awareness:
Here again, do not attempt too many (unless you are very
sure). Attempt only those that you are very sure of or those in
which you could eliminate choices and come down to a toss
up between two choices.
Verbal & Reading Comprehension
The passages in RC are normally not long. However the
questions are mostly inference based. Hence, decide on the
number of RCs you would attempt. There are quite a few
Verbal Usage, Grammar & Jumbled para questions in XAT.
One has to try reading all questions so that it becomes easier
to leave questions that one is not absolutely sure of.
BUFFER TIME
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B-School
PGDBM - 94,
PGDM HR - 88
AAAA+
90
AAAA+
TAPMI, Manipal
86
AAAA
95
AAAA
90
AAAA
85
13
AAAA
80
15
AAA+
50
16
AAA+
70
17
AAA+
85
18
AAA+
80
19
AAA+
NA
20
AAA+
60
21
AAA+
75
23
AAA+
NA
24
AAA+
65
25
AAA+
28
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B-School
60
26
AAA+
60 + Profile based
shortlisting
28 (KIAMS
Harihar)
AAA+
60
29
NA
80
42
NA
70
45
AAA+
85
49
AAA
50
52
AA+
NA
55
AA+
90
Not Ranked
AAAA+
85
Not Ranked
AAA+
80
Not Ranked
NA
70
Not Ranked
NA
60
Not Ranked
AA
70
Not Ranked
AAA
80
Not Ranked
NA
80
Not Ranked
NA
75
Not Ranked
AAA+
90
Not Ranked
AAAA
85
Not Ranked
AAAA+
MICA
NA
Not Ranked
NA
85
Not Ranked
AAAA+
AIMS, Bangalore
60
Not Ranked
AAA+
70
Not Ranked
NA
70
Not Ranked
NA
50
Not Ranked
NA
85
Not Ranked
AAA
70
Not Ranked
AA
50
Not Ranked
AA
60
Not Ranked
NA
29
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