Eligibility Criteria of XAT is as follows:

• Graduate or bachelor degree - Candidate should be a graduate or should have a bachelor's degree in any discipline from a recognized institute or university in order to apply for this exam.
• Candidates have to complete their graduation by June - Candidate should have completed their graduation by the month of June only then he/she can apply for XAT exam.
• Final year students of graduation -  Candidates who are in final year of graduation are eligible for applying to XAT.
• The eligibility for XLRI programmes like Human Resource Management (HRM), Business Management (BM) is similar. Candidates with three years of work experience will be given preference in Global Business Management.

Note: There's no specific age limit for XAT exam.

Programme-wise Eligibility Criteria:

PGDM:

The steps that have to be fulfilled for XAT Registration are as follows: personal details, payment details and other enclosures that would have to be provided with the XAT Application.

To register for the exam candidates need to follow the below steps:

• Visit xatonline.net.in click on Register, create a new account with your personal email id, you will receive a unique XAT ID and registration link.
• Click on the link and create your own password. (Next time you will be allowed to log in with this XAT ID and password).
• Select your Citizenship (Indian/ Foreign / NRI).
• If you are interested to apply for XLRI, select the program of your choice Business Management (BM)/Human Resource Management (HRM)/Global Business Management(GBM)/General Management Programme (GMP). Candidates not interested in any of the XLRI programs can skip this step.

Admit card can be downloaded from official website of XAT once the admit cards are released by the authorities. The admit card carries all the personal information of the candidate along with the informations related to exam date, test center and the timings of the exam.

Steps to Download XAT Admit Card:

• Visit the official website
• Click on the ‘Download admit card' tab
• Enter details like XAT 2018 Registration Number and DOB in DD/MM/YY format and enter submit
• Download the admit card
• Take a printout of the admit card

It would be ideal if you take note of that your XAT Admit Card is a mandatory document required to be carried to the exam centre. In the event that you don't have the printed copy of your XAT Admit card appended with your photo on it, you won't get an entry to the XAT exam center.

XAT Exam is not tougher than CAT, it's almost same as CAT.

Here are some of the quick Preparation Tips: 

• XAT is not a tougher exam than CAT, it simply requires a different mindset.
• Keep the different sections of the exam in mind and check the XAT selection procedure properly.
• It is a pen and paper test, there are no individual section time limits. Make sure you give enough time to your core strength areas so that you can score more.
• Do not spend excessive time on GK questions and be ready to leave the questions you are unsure about. Guesswork in this area can be risky.
• XAT Decision Making and Analytical Reasoning is the toughest part of the paper.
• The kind of questions that are asked is Ethical Dilemmas, Financial Case Studies, and General Management Circumstances.
• The answers should be well-thought out logically, without favoring anyone and no bias can be incorporated at arriving at a decision.
• The Important Areas for Quantitative Ability are Geometry, Number Systems, Probability and Functions.
• General Knowledge was initially introduced in 2013. Out of 30 Questions, 12 were on Current Affairs and 18 on Static General Knowledge.
• XAT 2018 is usually conducted on the First Sunday of the year.

XAT is an online test consisting of two papers

Paper I: It is an objective type paper covering three sections- Quantitative Ability, English Language and Logical Reasoning, and Decision Making.

Paper II: This paper comprises of General Knowledge and Essay writing questions.

The time duration for completing the three sections and general knowledge is 210 minutes. 

XAT exam is a pen and paper based examination. XAT exam pattern has four important sections. The sections are: Quantitative Ability, English Language & Logical Reasoning, Decision Making, GK and Essay

It is crucial that aspirants are well aware of the complete syllabus to prepare strategically and obtain a good score. Here is section- wise topics and subtopics that need to be prepared for each section:

Quantitative Ability:-

• Elementary Mathematics 
• Arithmetic: - Number System, Ratio, and Proportion
• Additional Topic in Arithmetic: - Problems on Trains, Clock and Calendar, and Mixtures and Allegation
• Unitary Method: - Time and Distance
• Commercial Maths: - Profit and Loss, Interest
• Geometry: - Triangles, Circles
• Mensuration 
• Algebra: - Permutation and Combinations, Sequence And Series
• Trigonometry: - Heights and Distance
• Linear Programming 
• Coordinate Geometry: - Cartesian Plane and lines
• Probability 

Data Interpretation:-

XAT 2018: The D-day paper pattern

Part 1

Part 2

Verbal section:

The total number of questions in the section were 24 out which half of them were based on Para jumbles, vocabulary, fill in the blanks, Grammar usage, and critical reasoning. The difficulty level of this section was low in comparison to last year. There were in total 4 sets of Reading Comprehension out of 3 were easily attemptable and a reasonable attempt of about 17-18 questions was considered on an overall required for this section.

Decision making and analytical reasoning:

The total number of questions from this section was about 21. Out of the total count of questions, 18 were situational based cases and one set comprised of 3 sections based on Mathematical calculations. The difficulty level of this section varies from easy to difficult. The level of difficulty was the same as last year.

Data interpretation and quantitative ability:

XAT cut off will be declared soon after the XAT result is out. College with the highest cutoff is XIMB with 95% cutoff, cut offs of XLRI varies from 88 to 93 and colleges like IMT GZB, Great Lakes Institute of management has 90% cut off.

XAT is a standout amongst the most prominent and competitive exams in our nation. There are numerous A+ evaluated establishments which acknowledge XAT scores. The most well-known among these are XLRI, Jamshedpur, and XIM Bhubaneswar. The Selection procedure begins with the entrance test i.e. XAT. In the light of XAT cut offs, candidates are required to give the GD and PI round. The criteria for conclusive determination incorporating the XAT score are candidate' scholarly record, the general profile of the candidate, work experience and so forth.

List of institutions accepting XAT scores and their cut-offs for the general class:

XAT score is considered to shortlist candidates for the further selection process. There are two steps in which the admission procedure can be divided.

XAT Admission Procedure – Shortlist

The candidates will be shortlisted on the basis of the performance of XAT. While some B-schools will only consider the score of Paper 1, i.e. the objective type part, some other B-schools will consider the scores of Paper 2 as well as Paper 1.

XAT Admission Procedure – Final Selection

The final selection process for XAT will vary from B-School to B-School. However, the common process is to conduct Group Discussion (GD) and Personal Interview (PI). Some institutes such as MICA conducts Group Exercise in lieu of GD. 

Group Discussion: Each group consists of 8-15 candidates. All the groups typically are required to speak for about 15-20 mins on a topic.  The topics would be related to current affairs, politics, social issues such as women's rights and emancipation or any other issue concerning advertising, education, technology or business.