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XAT 2023 Paper Analysis

Xavier Aptitude Test

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Exam Dates: 7th Jan 2024

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Exam Dates: 7th Jan 2024

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About Preparation Tips Eligibility Selection Procedure Important Dates Syllabus Study Material Exam Pattern Admit Card Registration Cutoff Paper Analysis Accepting Colleges News Articles

By: Avantika Bhardwaj on May 20, 2021

Analysis of XAT 2021 Exam

Part 1

Sections	No. of Questions	Level of Difficulty
Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning	24	Moderate to Difficult
Decision Making and Analytical Reasoning	21	Moderate to Difficult
Data Interpretation and Quantitative Ability	27	Moderate to Difficult

Sections	No. of Questions
General Knowledge	25
Essay	Globalization and Jingoism always coexist

Part 2

Verbal section:

The total number of questions in the section were 24 out which half of them were based on Para jumbles, vocabulary, fill in the blanks, Grammar usage, and critical reasoning.
The difficulty level of this section was low in comparison to last year.
There were in total 4 sets of Reading Comprehension out of 3 were easily attemptable and a reasonable attempt of about 17-18 questions was considered on an overall required for this section.

Decision making and analytical reasoning:

The total number of questions from this section was about 21. Out of the total count of questions, 18 were situational based cases and one set comprised of 3 sections based on Mathematical calculations.
The difficulty level of this section varies from easy to difficult. The level of difficulty was the same as last year.

Data interpretation and quantitative ability:

The total number of questions in this section were 27, with 17 from the quantitative section and 10 from Data Interpretation.
Two sets out of three were of a difficult level. On an overall basis, there were 10 questions. About 17-18 questions on an overall basis in this section can be considered a good attempt.

General Knowledge and Essay:

About 25 questions were there in the General Knowledge Section.

The majority of them were from static GK and only a few from the current GK.
The section was of a medium difficulty level. The difficulty level on an overall basis was lower than that of the last year. The overall cutoff is expected to be around 32-34.

Know more about XAT Exam Pattern

XAT 2021 Paper consisted of 2 parts:

Part1- Verbal and Logical Ability, Decision Making, and, Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation

Part 2- General Knowledge and Essay Writing

Analysis of Part- 1

Sections	No. of Questions
Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning	26
Decision Making and Analytical Reasoning	23
Data Interpretation and Quantitative Ability	29

Section 1 - Verbal & Logical Ability

According to the feedback's from the test takes, this section was considered to be as the tougher than expected. There were a total of 26 questions in this section: 12 Verbal Ability/Reasoning questions and 14 Reading Comprehension questions.

Area/Questions	No. of Questions	Type of Question	Difficulty Level
Vocabulary and Grammar
Proverb	1	Sentence analogous to proverb	Medium
Analogy	1		Medium
Descriptive Phrase	1	One phrase to describe a no. of words	Easy
Pronunciation	1		Medium
Verbal Reasoning
Poem	1	Essence of the poem	Difficult
Critical Reasoning	3		Medium – Difficult
Relation of 2 Statements to each other	1		Medium
Para Completion	1		Medium
Para Jumbles	2	6 sentences with first and last sentence	Easy Medium
Reading Comprehension
Passage 1 -Two Paragraphs on the limits of markets	3	All were inferential	1 Easy, 1 Medium, 1 Difficult
Passage 2 – One page long passage on game analogies for communication	4	One word based, 3 inferential	1 Easy, 1 Medium, 2 Difficult
Passage 3 – Two thirds of a passage on experimentation in science	3	All were inferential	1 Medium, 2 Difficult
Passage 4 –One third of a page passage on the axioms as the base of knowledge	4	1 direct, 3 inferential	1 Easy, 2 Medium, 1 Difficult

A student should be able to attempt 18 of the questions in this section (with about 75-80% accuracy) in about 45-50 minutes.

Section 2 - Decision Making & Analytical Reasoning

Area/Questions	No. of Questions	Type of Questions	Difficulty Level
Case 1 – Single paragraph case on a taxis in a city	2	Strategy situation	2 Medium
Case 2 – Single paragraph case on an MLA and a businessman	2	Strategy situation	1 Easy, 1 Medium
Case 3 – Short passage on a research institute	3	Analytical reasoning	2 Medium, 1 Difficult
Case 4 – Single paragraph case on hairdressers.	2	Strategy situation & number-based business/revenue situation	2 Medium
Case 5 – Case involving tables real estate projects	3	Number-based	1 Easy, 2 Medium
Case 6 – Single paragraph case on a family-owned sweetshop	3	Analytical reasoning	1 Easy, 2 Medium
Case 7 – Single paragraph case on the harmful chemical found in a food product	3	Strategy situation	3 Medium
Case 8 – Single paragraph case on unhappy employees	3	HR situation	3 Medium
Case 9 – Case on scheduling crop cultivation	2	Number-based	2 Medium

All of these were easy to read and short, and most of the questions were of the medium level of difficulty. In 40-45 minutes, students should have solved about 5 sets and attempted 14-15 questions confidently (about 75-80% accuracy), out of the 23 questions.

Section 3 - Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation

Questions on Quantitative Ability were dominated by Geometry and Arithmetic.

At least two questions on Arithmetic also combined the concepts of Geometry.
There were four questions on Numbers, out of which one question was incorrect. Further, there were three questions on Modern Mathematics.
There was no question on Logarithms, Permutation-Combination or Probability. One question was on Logical Data Sufficiency.

There were two Data Interpretation sets, one with 4 questions and the other with 3 questions. The set with 4 questions on salaries involved a complex combination of a box plot and line graph with medium to difficult questions. T

he other set with 3 questions on crops had a table and was characterized by Easy to Medium level of difficult questions. The set on the table should have been attempted while the set on box plot should have been attempted at the end.

Topic	Level of Difficulty
Geometry (Total 7 Questions)
	Easy	Medium	Difficult	Total
Quadrilaterals	0	3	0	3
Triangles	1	0	1	2
Circles	0	1	0	1
Triangles and Polygons	0	1	0	1
Arithmetic (Total 7 Questions)
	Easy	Medium	Difficult	Total
Time-Speed-Distance	0	2	1	3
Clocks	0	1	0	1
Profit & Loss	1	0	0	1
Ration & Proportion	1	0	0	1
Work-Pipes-Cisterns	1	0	0	1
Number Theory (Total 4 Questions)
	Easy	Medium	Difficult	Total
Absolute Value	0	1	0	1
Base System	1	0	0	1
Divisibility	0	1	0	1
Properties of Numbers	0	1	0	1
Modern Mathematics (Total 3 Questions)
	Easy	Medium	Difficult	Total
Functions	0	1	0	1
Progressions	0	1	0	1
Set Theory	0	1	0	1
Logical Reasoning
	Easy	Medium	Difficult	Total
Data Sufficiency	1	0	0	1
Total	6	14	2	22

Data Interpretation (Total 7 Questions)

Box plot on salaries of students placed in campus interview over the years

Total 4 Questions

Medium to Difficult Level

Table on the percentage of shops of different types in the four different regions of India

Total 3 Questions

Easy to Medium Level

Analysis of Part- II

General Knowledge

There were 25 questions in this section and there was almost an equal distribution of current and static questions and national and international news based questions.

There were hardly 2-3 easy questions. The section was such that it required the student to possess extremely good general knowledge ability in multiple areas to be able to score well.
Secondly, the topics of the questions were very diverse encompassing subjects such as Geography, Business and Economy, the budget, names of personalities and new inventions such as the Rasberry PI.

Considering that students would spend 15-20 minutes on GK, and there was no negative marking all questions were to be attempted without fail. A score of 8-10 would be considered a good score in this section.

Essay Writing

Topic: “Technology and nature are natural enemies.”

Students were free to agree with the topic, disagree with it or give a balanced view of pros and cons from both sides.
As usual, the essay should have been written in a structured manner – with an introduction, main body consisting of one or two paragraphs followed by an effective and forceful conclusion. Relevant examples would have resulted in more marks.
Writing both for and against the topic was not advisable because of time constraints and the relative difficulty of being able to conclude effectively.

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