Xavier Admission Test, carried out annually by XLRI is for the admission of candidates to post graduate management program. The qualified candidates are admitted in XLRI and many other top notch institutes in India. Earlier this exam is considered as the screening test for the admission of students to MBA in XLRI. But now the XAT scores has been accepted as the qualification criteria for admission by various top business schools in the country. The minimum education qualification for this exam is a graduation from reputed institutes.

Structure and Syllabus for XAT Exam

XAT is more or less similar to the CAT. There is no specified syllabus for this examination. The test is organized for identifying the candidate’s aptitude ability and mainly the interest and skills in management fields. The question structure generally includes the following topics

• Verbal ability
• Quantitative Ability
• Logical Reasoning
• Analytical Reasoning
• Data Interpretation
• Decision Making Ability

The syllabus for the quantitative ability is mostly on the basic Mathematics as studied in 11th and 12th.

Question Pattern of XAT Exam

The duration of this examination is 140 minutes. The paper comprises of 200 objective questions and last an essay part of around 300 words. The candidates have to attempt both objective questions and essay questions. The multiple choice questions includes three sections

• The first section includes questions on general English. There will be 80 questions on this section.
• The next is the reasoning and quantitative ability. It consists of 60 questions. This section is generally based on simple Mathematics and reasoning questions.
• The last part is the general awareness. This also includes 60 questions based on the current affairs and general knowledge.

The duration for each section is 40 minutes. The candidates have to pick out the right answer from the multiple choices provided for each question. Each correct answer is awarded 1 mark and for each wrong answer 1/3rd mark is reduced.

There will be an essay question for the last 20 minutes. Candidates have to answer the question based on the given topic in not more than 250 or 300 words.

Preparing for XAT Exam

The preparation for XAT is important as other entrance tests. This examination is a bit difficult to crack. But a systematic preparation will be very helpful for one to qualify this. The candidates must be proficient in English as well as they should develop the reasoning and analytical skills. Solving out as many previous question papers will give an idea about the question pattern and by this one can identify the strength and weakness in the specific areas. Another important factor is the time management. So while preparing one should also develop speed and accuracy in answering the questions.