The standard that was set by XAT 2020 was a little more
straightforward than XAT 2019, since this time's Quantitative ability and data
interpretation is manageable. The most notable change this year was the
fact that lots of questions in just a few sections and even a full section on
Decision Making didn't have negative marks. This was however not mentioned
in the primary instructions, which is why a lot of students weren't able to
benefit from this feature. The number of questions were 75.Total length of
this segment was about 165 minutes. There was a penalty for missed
questions (after eight questions) however it was just worth 0.10
marks. This feature isn't likely to impact the score in any way. This
year's XAT was not able to include essay writing, according to the
announcement. There were no Non-MCQ (TITA) questions, as was suggested
prior to the exam.
The paper consisted of two parts Part I, and Part II. Part I was the primary questions and Part II was based on general knowledge. Part I was comprised of three sections: A B, C and A with 26 and 21 questions each, totaling of 75 question. These three parts of Part I was then followed by Part II which had 25 questions on General Knowledge. The time allowed for the completion of the three sections as well as General Knowledge was 180 minutes. Students were expected to complete the three of the three sections in about 165 minutes and General Knowledge within 15 minutes. Students were expected to respond to questions from every section and to score the highest possible marks in all section. General knowledge marks are utilized by select institutes in the process of final selection. These marks will not be used to shortlist candidates for interview/GD. Three sections of the test were:
Sections | Total Marks | Level |
Logical and Verbal Reasoning | 26 | Moderate |
Decision Making | 21 | Moderate |
Quantitative ability and data interpretation | 28 |
Allotted time | Time 165 mins + 15 minutes for GK |
No total. of questions | 75 + 25 (for GK) |
Marking Scheme | All questions carried equal marks |
Sections | 3 |
A variety of options | 5 |
Negative Marking | A fourth of a pointand for questions that are not attempted when more than eight questions are missed the negative marking in the amount of 0.1 for each question will be put in place (there fourteen questions in verbal, six questions in quant and an the entire part of the 21-question section about DM that didn't have the negative mark.) |
Score of over 42 (approx. 96%ile) : | XLRI (BM) |
Score of greater than (approx. 94%ile) : | XLRI(HR) and XIMB |
The score is 36+ (approx. 85%ile): | Great Lakes, TAPMI, IMT-G |
Scores of greater than 32 (approx. 80%ile): | GIM, LIBA, IFMR, XIM Jabalpur, BULMIM |
A score greater than (approx. 75%ile): | XIME Bengaluru, BIMTECH, SCMS |
Description | No. of Questions |
RC | 14 |
CR | 6 |
Sentence Rearrangement | 2 |
Sentence Completion | 2 |
Grammar | 2 |
The Verbal portion was moderate to hard. The most
surprising thing was that RC questions didn't have negative marking. The
tests were based around various subjects like Reading Comprehension, Critical
reasoning and Sentence Rearrangement. grammar. It was evident that the
length of tests were moderate. The the RCs were inspired by
"Knowledge becoming a commodity" and the other was focused on useless
jobs that were that were not shrinking in spite of market economies. There
was a RC inspired by the poem "fire and ice written of Robert
Frost". One The RC was founded on 'unnatural ways of enjoying
pleasure or habituation, leading to emptyness'. The other one was based on
"terms such as refugees/exiles being treated as positives. The choices
were extremely similar in the reading comprehension section which made it long
and time-consuming. The majority of problems in RCs were based on critical
thinking. In order to answer questions correctly, it was essential that
candidates recognize the traps set by examiners.
Description | No. of
Questions |
Decision
Making | 21 |
Evaluation: All Decision-Making questions carried equal
marks. The time DM also did not receive negative marking. There were
no questions that relied on reasoning based on analytical thinking during this
portion. The section on Decision Making included 21 questions that were
Based on the context. The majority of questions were difficult and there
were too many options. The questions were constructed from Caselets or
Case Studies taken from various fields like business management small business
units, Ethical dilemmas, and problems that are based on context and solutions.
The cases covered a variety of topics like profitability, pollution and supply
chain, e-commerce and business growth. Overall , the difficulty of the segment
was moderate.
Description | No. of Questions |
Algebra and Functions | 3 |
Number System | 3 |
Geometry | 6 |
Time, Speed and Distance | 2 |
Tables Chart | 6 |
Venn diagram | 3 |
Miscellaneous | 2 |
Percentage | 1 |
Time & work | 1 |
Probability | 1 |
Assessment: Difficulty level of Quant and DI was
moderate. In DI the two groups were present of data; one was based on the
revenue of four firms and could be done. The second one was based on GDP
of several countries. It was a bit more mathematical. There were three
questions about Venn diagrams and it was moderate in difficulty. In Quant
the main emphasis was on Geometry with six questions on the subject that were
moderate in nature. The questions that were doable came taken from the
topics Percentage and Functions, TSD, Ratio, among others. There were two
questions which were based upon Algebra which were simple. The overall
feeling of the portion was light.
The test consisted of 25 questions on general awareness,
which comprised of Static GK questions that cover Books Geography, geography,
art forms of states, history. and Contemporary Questions made up of
Science and Technology, Economic Data and General terminology as well. The
difficulty in this segment was medium. Because there no negative markings
in this section, making guesses or through elimination of possibilities it is
possible to get three or four questions right and that's not counting what they
actually knew.
Note: All the above mentioned information is based upon
the expert faculty's personal opinions. Many factors have been taken into
consideration before deciding on these cut-offs.However this information has
nothing to do with the original cut-offs.