Introduction
For the first time, Xavier School of Management (XLRI) has conducted XAT test at all India level to select the most appropriate candidate for management education on 6th January 2019 in a single session.
Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) began at 10 AM with a time duration of 3 hours instead of earlier three and half hours as a computer-based test. Overall the difficulty level of XAT 2019 was moderate to difficult. XAT Exam Analysis will explain sectional analysis, Overall analysis, difficulty level and good attempts etc.
Highlights
Highlights of XAT Exam 2019:
- In XAT 2019, NAT questions were introduced.
- The duration of XAT exam was reduced from 3.5 hours to 3 hours.
- Total number of questions was 99.
- Part I was main question paper and Part II was based on General Knowledge (GK).
- Part I had three sections A, B and C with 26, 21 and 27 questions respectively, a total of 74 questions.
- The three sections of Part I were followed by Part II that had 25 questions on General Knowledge.
- There was sectional time limit: The candidates had to finish Part 1 in 165 mins after which they could move to Part 2.
- Visually impaired candidates were given 25 mins extra only for Part 1.
- No Essay Writing Test in XAT 2019.
Note:
Marks for every correct answer: 1.
Negative marking for every wrong answer : 0.25.
Negative marking for every unattempted question beyond 8 unattempted questions : 0.10.
No Negative marking for General Knowledge section in part-2.
A new type of Numerical Answer Type Question (NAT Questions) has been introduced for the first time in XAT 2019. Procedure for answering a numerical answer type (NAT) question was to enter a numerical answer by making use of virtual numeric keypad that appeared below the question.
Step-wise procedure to answer the question was as under:
- To enter a numerical answer, candidate had to use the virtual numeric keypad that appeared below the question.
- A fractional number in the decimal notation (e.g. -0.3 or -.3) could be entered as an answer with or without '0' before the decimal point.
- To clear the answer, click on the Clear Response button was required.
Sectional
XAT Sectional Analysis
Part-1 in XAT 2019 had 74 questions divided in three sections which included MCQs and did not have NAT questions although XLRI had announced to introduce such type of questions this year. Part-2 in XAT 2019 had 25 questions. Here is the Section wise XAT 2019 Exam Analysis:
Total number of questions are 26 questions, same as last year.
As compared to last year, this section was found to be tougher this year. Experts rate this section as difficult.
There were 4 RCs with 3 questions each. There was one poem-based comprehension which has 2 questions and was found to be difficult. The RC passages were from familiar areas of Psychology, Art and Social issues.
An attempt of 16-18 questions with 70 percent accuracy was considered good in this section.
The topics and number of questions are given in the table below.
The level of the Decision Making was similar to last year.
There were no singlets which made the task of reading it quite easy.
This section had more of Situational decision making with 18 questions.
There were no questions from Mathematical/ Analytical Reasoning this time which means candidates could have attempted 2-3 more questions.
There were 3 caselets (Raket, Limo, ice-cream = music), similar to those asked in previous year papers.
The topics and number of questions are given in the table below.
Quantitative Ability section was slightly tougher than last year’s.
There were 21 questions of QA and most of them were pertaining to Geometry and Algebra (including co-ordinate and Trigonometry).
Majority of the questions from Arithmetic were easy (doable) whereas the ones on Geometry were found to be difficult.
In Data Interpretation, there were two sets comprising 6 questions in total.
There were few questions which were seemed a little ambiguous.
One DI question on the proportion of Economists and that of Engineers was incorrect, according to experts.
The Experts also mentioned that one Quant question on roots was incorrect since x was mentioned in the root.
One could have attempted 2-3 DI questions and 13-15 Quant questions in about 65-70 minutes.
The topics and number of questions are given in the table below.
This section consists of 25 questions to be attempted in 15 minutes.
Most questions were single-statement based.
Some of the questions having multiple statements had more than one correct statement.
Maximum questions asked were from static GK (Economy, Geography, Science and Technology) and Current GK (Business economy, personalities, awards, sports).
Overall difficulty level of this section lies in the “moderate-difficult” range.
An attempt of 12-14 questions fetching a score of 7-8 can be considered good.
The topics and number of questions are given in the table below.
Overall Analysis
| Topic | No. of Questions | Difficulty | Good Attempts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading Comprehension | 12 (4 passages of 3 questions each) | Moderate - Difficult | 7-8 |
| CR | 5 | Moderate - Difficult | 3 |
| Poem Comprehension | 2 (1 poem) | Bizarre | - |
| Analogy | 1 | Difficult | - |
| Antonym | 1 | Moderate | 1 |
| Para - jumble (5 sentence) | 2 | Moderate | 1-2 |
| FIB - 3 blanks | 3 | Difficult | 1-2 |
| Topic | No. of Questions | Difficulty | Good Attempts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Situational | 21 | Moderate | 16-17 |
| Topic | No. of Questions | Good Attempts | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arithmetic | 4 | 3 | Easy |
| Algebra | 7 | 4 - 5 | Easy - Moderate |
| Coordinate Geometry + Trigonometry | 4 | 2 - 3 | Moderate |
| Geometry | 4 | 2 | Moderate - Difficult |
| Data Sufficiency | 2 | 1 | Moderate |
| DI (Time Zone) | 3 | 1 | Moderate - Difficult |
| DI (Mixed Graph) | 3 | 2 | Easy - Moderate |
| Total | 27 | 17 - 18 | Easy - Moderate |
| Topic | No. of Questions | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| History | 1 | Moderate |
| Geography | 4 | Moderate-Difficult |
| Economy & Business | 7 | Easy - Moderate |
| Current Affairs | 2 | Easy |
| Personality | 3 | Moderate |
| Science & Technology | 2 | Moderate |
| Polity | 2 | Easy |
| Miscellaneous | 2 | Moderate - Difficult |
| Sports | 2 | Easy – Moderate |
| Total | 25 | Moderate |
- XAT 2019 exam paper was on moderate to difficult.
- Many questions in Decision Making were repeated on last year’s pattern.
- Overall Cut off levels to go down or to remain same as that of last year.
Papers
Check the XAT Previous years Question Papers and answers:
| Year | Question Paper | Answer Paper |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | [Click Here] | - |
| 2017 | [Click Here] | [Click Here] |
| 2016 | [Click Here] | [Click Here] |