XAT 2015 Analysis XAT is XAT is XAT and hence is XAT. Paper quality as such stands out. For the fact that CAT was easier and far less intensive, XAT turns out to be a redefinition of an uphill task. Decision making time consuming, Reasoning missing, Verbal Ability time consuming and options misleading and Quantitative Aptitude only saving grace and if that wasn’t enough, a beautiful essay writing topic was staring at the aspirants’ face. All in all a welcome to the new year with a paper that made everyone realise the importance of a preparation. As far as aptitude is concerned, this year’s XAT can be considered a slightly more difficult paper in comparison to XAT’14. Sections-wise analysis is as follows: Verbal Ability Section: It had 17 questions of Reading Comprehension and 11 questions of verbal ability. There were 5 sets of RCs, out of which 3 were easy to moderate and rest 2 were moderate to difficult. 2 of the RCs were around 150 word RCs and hence were easy to interpret and hence won’t be so time consuming. There was one RC that was dense and technical in nature and hence aspirants would have comfortably left it. With the decisions of which RC to do and which one not to do, being easy, the section seemed approachable. Verbal Ability part had a nice mix of 2 parajumbles, 4 vocabulary questions, 2 logical continuations and 3 critical reasoning questions. An above average aspirant should be able to attempt up to 4 RCs and approximately 7 questions of verbal ability in an ideal time of 45 minutes. Given the scenario where he makes around 17 to 18 attempts, a score of around 12+ can be considered a good score and that means a percentile of around 98. Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation: This section had 2 sets of Data Interpretation which in total had 8 Qs. In addition to DI there were 25 questions of quant. Data interpretation was easier than previous year’s DI and as a reasonably well prepared aspirant should be able to solve 4 moderate Qs. Rest 4 Qs were difficult and time consuming. As far as quant is concerned, it again demanded sincere solving. It was dominated by Arithmetic based chapters. About 13 Qs were from this part of quant with nearly equal distribution of easy-moderate-difficult Qs. There were about 8 Qs of Geometry as well; nearly all of them were moderate to difficult. All in all, the difficulty level in comparison to last year has gone down slightly. Careful selection of questions would have given an above average aspirant around 18 attempts and a score of 13+ which can be classified as a good score and a good score means a percentile of around 98. Decision Making and Analytical Reasoning: Not a single question of Analytical Reasoning in this section – was an impressive move by XAT. XAT 2014 had 9 questions of Analytical Reasoning and 16 questions of Decision Making and that wasn’t a really smart move because the aspirants really did not push themselves to solve the Decision Making, they found their way to the cutoffs through AR. This year, it was predominantly Decision Making with just one set which was an application of Set theory & Data Interpretation skills. Almost all sets were time consuming but doable for an aspirant who can sit patiently and solve them. Considering the presence of about 7 easy to moderate questions, in an ideal time of 45 minutes, an above average aspirant would have managed good 16-17 attempts in this section and a score of 9+ can be considered a good score and a good score means a percentile of around 98. General Knowledge: This section was dominated by current affairs and news discussed in newspapers of last year. There were about 7 questions related to national and international on-going issues like Syrian crisis, Crimean referendum, Boko Haram etc. 4 questions were business or economy related. Geography and History had a share of 4 questions and sports was topic in 5 questions. Rest questions were mostly random questions about India. Overall, a well-read aspirant should be able to get a net score of 10+ in this section. Essay: Listening is a dying art. We hardly listen to understand, we only listen to refute or reply. Deep thought. Deeper implications. The topic is extremely contemporary. Be it the media channels or the parliamentarians or the layman on the road. Everyone is busy expressing their opinion without a sound understanding of the topic and hence half baked data or half baked conclusions seem a common occurrence. With a stronger online penetration, the effect seems to multiply and the whole gist has been captured in this one line. XAT, kudos! I feel a sectional score of around 7 in verbal, around 6 in Decision making & 9 in quant will be good enough for a sectional cutoff. This means a total of around 22 would take care of a 93-94 percentile. However for an aspirant to sit comfortable, he would have to sit with a score of around 32+ for him to reach a score of 98+ percentile so that he can cash in during the final admissions stage. College wise cut offs. College Name Expected Cut off Marks* XLRI BM/HR 22+ SP Jain 25+ XIM-B 22+ IMT-G 18+ GIM 17+ LIBA 15+ TAPMI 14+ IFMR 14+ *Assuming that proportional sectional balances have been taken care of.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 13:44:58 +0000
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