Sunday, January 04, 2015
The difficulty level of XAT 2015 is almost similar XAT 2014. There was a slight increase in number of question i.e. 84 from 83. Keeping these facts in mind the cutoffs will be almost comparable to those of the last year.
The paper had two parts: Part I and Part II. Part I was main question paper and Part II was General knowledge and Essay Writing. Part I had three sections A, B and C with 28, 23 and 33 questions respectively, i.e. a total of 84 questions. The three sections of Part I were followed by Part II that had thirty questions on General knowledge and an Essay topic. The time available for completing the three sections and general knowledge and Essay writing was 180 minutes. One was expected to answer first three sections in 140 minutes and General knowledge and Essay writing in 40 minutes. It was required for students to answer question from all sections and expected to maximize score in each sections. General knowledge and Essay marks would have been used by all institutes at the time of final selection and not for short listing candidates for Interview/GD. The three sections were as follows:
| Overview of the XAT 2015 Paper | |
|---|---|
| Time allotted | 140 Minutes + 40 Minutes for GK and Essay |
| Total no. of questions | 84 + 30 (For GK) |
| Marking Scheme | All questions carry equal marks |
| Sections | 3 |
| Number of choices | 5 |
| Negative Marking | One fourth of a mark |
| Expected cut-offs * | Score of 28+(approx. 95+%ile) : can expect a call from XLRI(BM), XIMB Score of 25+(approx. 90+%ile): can expect a call from XLRI(HR) ,GIM ,LIBA,TAPMI,IFMR. Score of 21+(approx. 80+%ile): : can expect a call from XIME/XISS, Great Lakes , Welingkar Score of 19+(approx. 70+%ile) : can expect a call from Kirloskar,ISBM etc |
| Overview of Different Sections | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sections | Number of Questions | Difficulty Level |
| Verbal and Logical Ability | 28 | Moderate to Tough |
| Decision Making and Analytical Reasoning | 23 | Moderate to Tough |
| Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation | 33 | Tough |
SECTIONAL - ANALYSIS
SECTION I: Verbal and Logical Ability
| Area Tested | Description | No. of Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Verbal Ability | RC | 13 |
| CR | 9 | |
| Vocabulary | 2 | |
| Sentence Rearrangement | 2 | |
| Sentence Completion | 2 |
Evaluation: Verbal section was dominated by Reading Comprehension & Critical Reasoning based questions. There were questions on vocabulary, parajumbles and sentence completion and rearrangement. In reading comprehension, a few questions were based on critical reasoning. Overall feel of the section was moderate to tough.
Comfortable Attempt: 14+
Achievable Score: 8+
SECTION II: Decision Making and Analytical Reasoning
| Area Tested | Description | No. of Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Decision Making | Decision Making | 23 |
Evaluation: All Decision Making questions carried equal marks and were a combination of Decision Making and Caselet based reasoning questions. Overall the feel of the section was moderate to tough.
Comfortable Attempt: 15+
Achievable Score: 9+
SECTION III: Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation
| Area Tested | Description | No. of Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Quantitative Ability | Algebra and Functions | 4 |
| Number System | 4 | |
| Geometry | 7 | |
| Co-ordinate Geometry | 1 | |
| Arithmetic sequence | 1 | |
| Mixtures | 1 | |
| Probability | 1 | |
| Tables Chart | 4 | |
| Multiple Graph | 4 | |
| Profit and Loss | 1 | |
| Statistics | 1 | |
| Directions | 1 | |
| Interest | 1 | |
| Percentage | 1 | |
| Trigonometry | 1 |
Evaluation: The feel of this section was tough. No direct questions were there. In DI also the graphs were difficult to interpret and the question required intensive calculations.
Comfortable Attempt: 12+
Achievable Score: 8+
General Awareness
There were 30 questions in general awareness consisting of Static GK based questions covering Books Awards, Geography, History etc and Current Questions Based on Sports, Politics, Science and Technology, Economics Data and General terms etc. The difficulty level was tough.
Comfortable Attempt: 12+
Achievable Score: 8+
Essay Topic
A part from this student had to write an essay (Abstract topic), on the following topic.
“Listening is a dying art. We hardly listen to understand, we only listen to refute or reply.”
