Cracking XAT will help you to get admission into one of the top leading B-schools of India. Usually conducted in the first week of January every year, XAT is taken by approximately 1 Lakh candidates all over India. It is an online Computer-Based test of 3 hours. It consists of four sections, namely Verbal & Logical Ability, Decision Making, Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation, and General Knowledge. XAT exam also becomes the last hope for MBA aspirants whose other MBA entrance exams did not go well as per their expectations. So, candidates need to shift their focus on preparing for XAT and give in their best to nail the exam.
When it comes to comparing the difficulty levels of Indian MBA entrance exams, XAT is considered to be the toughest MBA entrance exam. However, a strategic XAT preparation plan is the key to crack the XAT exam. In this article about How to prepare for XAT 2022, we will walk you through the XAT preparation strategies, which will cover the entire aspect of the exam. But before we answer your question on how to prepare for XAT, let us walk you through the XAT exam pattern.
XAT exam pattern
In the XAT exam, there will be 99 questions, and the time duration will be 3 hours. For every correct answer, one mark will be awarded. For every wrong answer, 0.25 marks will be deducted. There is no negative marking for leaving eight questions unattempted. However, after that, there will be a negative marking of 0.05 marks per unattempted question. There is no sectional time limit. The candidates will get 15 minutes to attempt the General Knowledge section. There will be three main sections, namely Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning, Decision Making, Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation in the first part. In the second part, there will General Knowledge. You will get 165 minutes for part 1 and 15 minutes for part 2. There is no sectional time limit. The following table will give you an idea about the number of questions per section-
Section | No. of Questions | Time allotted (in minutes) |
Quantitative Ability and DI | 27 | 165 |
Decision Making | 21 | |
Verbal and Logical Ability | 26 | |
General Knowledge | 25 | 15 |
Total | 99 | 180 |
How to prepare for XAT?
Now that you are clear about the XAT exam pattern let’s begin with the XAT preparation strategy and tips one by one-
Now, let us give the preparation tips section by section.
XAT Verbal and Logical Ability
XAT throws a comparatively tougher VA section for the candidates. It particularly focuses on testing a candidate’s complete language proficiency by throwing questions related to Reading Comprehension, Assumptions, Critical Reasoning, Para jumbles, and much more. Here are the tips for improving XAT Verbal and Logical Ability section-
XAT Decision Making
The Decision-Making section of XAT is the make or break section. If you perform well in this section, then half of your job is done. It is the scoring section of the XAT exam. But not many practice questions are available for this section, which makes it a bit difficult to crack. Here are the tips for scoring well in the XAT Decision Making section-
XAT Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation
This section requires you to get a good hold of your concepts. Moreover, you need to be good with your calculations since the DI questions make a significant chunk of this section. Also, there is no on-screen calculator available in XAT. Here are some of the tips which can help you guide your way for XAT Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation preparation-
XAT General Awareness
This particular section is not taken into account during the selection of candidates for the second stage. However, this section’s marks are taken into account in the final selection of candidates. So, it is also an important section. In order to excel at XAT General Awareness, you need to read newspapers daily. Keep an eye on all the current affairs happening around the world. Moreover, you can daily spend some time on general awareness questions related to Awards, Books, Literature, Recent Happenings, Science, Films, International Affairs, Banking, Economics, History, Geography, etc. Past year questions are also a way to understand the type of questions asked in the exam.
You should keep in mind that the XAT has quite a stringent marking scheme, and the level of difficulty is also higher. Moreover, it has a completely new section named Decision Making. Therefore, proper preparation will help you to nail the exam and get an admit to your dream B-school.