XAT Exam : Guidelines To Ace Xavier Aptitude Test

A majority of the present workforce are related to some kind of Management or Consulting domain. This increased awareness about MBA degrees and the hype created about it has resulted in a large chunk of graduates opting for MBA as their long term career. Amongst the many competitive exams conducted like CAT, GMAT, SNAP to select candidates for the various MBA institutions across the globe, XAT is a pretty famous one. This is conducted by XLRI (Xavier Labour Relations Institute) located in Jamshedpur, India. The quality of this examination is so good that, it is being used as a benchmark by around 100 plus colleges to choose candidates for the MBA courses (PGDM), though it was initially meant to select students exclusively for XLRI.

Every year XAT application form will be made available online sometime in the third week of August and will extend till the month of November. The application will be available XAT’s official website.

 XAT ELIGIBILITY:

Any applicant should have completed a minimum of three years in a degree. Also, those in the final year of their respective programs and anticipating their results can also apply. They should have obtained their degree from a well known university or Deemed University. All Indian candidates need XAT to enter XLRI. NRI candidates can apply via their GMAT score. Based on the examination’s score candidates will be shortlisted by various institutes which use XAT score as their first level in their selection process. Only those from Dubai and Kathmandu can write XAT apart from Indian candidates.

XAT PREPARATION AND SYLLABUS:

To obtain best results in any examination it is important to be extremely familiar with the pattern of the question paper. XAT has two parts A and B. Part A has a total of 83 questions and Part B has 20 questions in addition to an essay. The time allotted for the first section is 140 minutes and for the second one is 10 minutes. The topics tested in Part A are of three types. It tests your Quantitative Ability, English and Logical Reasoning and finally Decision making. The second part is of shorter duration testing your GK and Essay Writing skills. Now, let us see the weightage given to questions in each of these sections. Part A has negative marking. You can choose not to attempt a maximum of 13 questions and for every question unanswered beyond the 13 will cost you a -0.05. And each wrong answer will result in you losing 0.25 marks. This is a pencil-paper test. So, once marked you can’t make changes in your answers. Extra caution should be taken before you answer. A regular preparation of around 6 months prior to your exam and taking up around 3 to 5 mock test would help improve your score to a considerable level.

XAT APPLICATION PROCESS:

The first step starts with registering on their website XAT. After you successfully register you will receive a XAT ID using which you should create a login password for your XAT account. After setting the password, login using your ID and password. You will be directed to a form in which you are required to fill in particulars like educational details and personal information. Following this you will be required to make the payment of the fee. For all candidates the fee is INR 1,000/-. You will have a drop down menu asking you to choose from three modes of payment. Either you can pay VISA, Master Card (Credit or Debit) and IDBI Net banking. The next option is through direct payment of hard cash. The last option is by paying through DD(Demand Draft) addressed in favour of ‘XLRI Jamshedpur A/c XAT’. Now after the payment has been successfully made, you will have to upload your photo and a scanned signature copy in the digital format both under 1 MB.

XAT EXAM, EVALUATION & RESULTS:

On the day of the examination ensure that you carry a hard copy of your admit card which would be available on the XAT official website after the payment of the fee. The admit card would be available for downloading sometime in mid December. You should also carry a ID proof along with your admit card. The exam will take place on time in the test centres allotted to each of you. You are expected to be present 30 minutes before the actual time of commencement of the exams. Results of exam will be displayed on the official XAT website. You can login using your XAT ID and password on the date of announcement of the results. You should click on the line which says XAT scorecard. Once your login is successful you will have your results displayed on that same page. Using this scorecard you can apply to those universities of your interest by following the procedures specific to each University.

XAT CUTOFF & COUNSELING:

The XAT cutoff for XLRI is fixed every year. But for other colleges it is different from the one that XLRI expects.

A cutoff of 90 to 100 is required for top institues like LIBA, Goa Institute of Management and XIM. Universities like XIME, XISS and IFMR expect a cutoff in the range 80 to 90. And most other institutions accept XAT score less than 70. Once you send your scorecards to the respective institutions, wait for their call. Once you get the call for an University, they might test you with additional rounds like GD, personal interview and other such tests before selecting you for the course. Cutoffs vary each year and for each institute.