Mumbai: Hailed for being an exam like no other, Xavier Aptitude Test(XAT) is to be conducted on Sunday, January 8, for the academic intake of 2023-24. Conducted by the Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur, the XAT tests students for their decision-making skills, general knowledge, and writing abilities alongside their aptitude in Math, English, and Logical Reasoning. This year onwards the XAT will be held in the afternoon slot, from 2:00 to 5:10, instead of mornings and evenings.
The 190-minute exam awards students 1 mark for every correct answer and deducts 0.25 for every wrong answer. Interestingly in XAT, one will be allowed to omit only eight questions without any penalties after which 0.10 marks will be deducted for every blank question.
To help candidates crack this challenge, The FPJ interviewed Rutvik Lingayat, former XAT topper and exam coach, who revealed his best tips on getting through this challenge.
Verbal & Logical Ability
This section presents 26 questions and tests students for their critical thinking and ability to comprehend a passage of literature. It is important that students remember to understand what a passage is really trying to say instead of hasting their way through the section. Understanding it superficially will not fetch marks.
One can expect questions with jumbled clauses and paragraphs in the grammar section. In the days preceding XAT, it is vital to have all your grammar concepts cleared out. Students should also refer to word lists present for other entrance exams like SNAP and NMAT, to strengthen their vocabulary. We have often noticed that exams like XAT and CAT use articles from websites like aeon.co as reading passages in their exams.
Decision making
The Decision Making section is a first for many students. It consists of 21 questions that pose various dilemmas that range from business problems to troubles faced on a day-to-day basis. The best thing for students to do is a gain-loss analysis and select the most balanced and ethical answer. In this section, no answer is technically wrong, but one only scores marks by selecting the ‘most’ correct option of the lot. Solving previous XAT papers is the best way to get the hang of this section.
Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation
With 28 questions, the QA section has moderately tough mathematical problems based on topics like geometry, number system, modern math, and algebra. The Data Interpretation section only has bar graphs and tables which are quite straightforward to understand, the catch is that the arithmetic calculations they present are much heavier.
Since XAT does not have a sectional time limit, students should not spend too much time over questions they find tough. Going through your math concepts and revising them is the best thing you can do before the exam.
General Knowledge
With 25 questions, the GK section marks the beginning of Part B in XAT. GK questions will quiz students on both, their knowledge of static general knowledge and dynamic general knowledge. Dynamic GK refers to the incidents that have made the news in the last six months while static refers to incidents older than that. Awards are the first thing a student should look up while preparing for GK, from film to sports, all awardees are relevant. Looking at famous books and authors from the previous year is also a good place to start. For XAT 2023, make sure you know what happened at the FIFA World Cup.
Essay Writing
This section can be a make-or-break part for many in Xavier Aptitude Test. The essay topics can range from a single abstract word to entire statements, and might even delve into subjects that are considered controversial. It is in your best interest to write essays in a standard format of introduction, body, and conclusion, without making them very wordy. If you are trying to write an opinioned essay, it is vital to back it up with facts, statistics, and examples. It is advisable to avoid bringing your personal biases into the essay unless you back them up enough.
Students will be scored on the basis of their creativity, style, coherency, and grammatical soundness. The way you have presented your ideas and the anecdotes you present matter too. Make sure you have two or three minutes to spare and go through your essay while looking for syntax and spelling errors. Though the last question of essay writing is given a great weightage. While considering applications to XLRI colleges, other B-schools are more concerned with the aptitude part of XAT. Try picking up any four topics every day and write down essays in order to prep for XAT 2023.
XAT is to be administered in 80+ cities throughout the country. In addition to XLRI and XAMI Institutes, over 160 other B-schools nationwide recognise these exam scores.
