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:

The total number of questions in this section were 27, with 17 from the quantitative section and 10 from Data Interpretation. Two sets out of three were of a difficult level. On an overall basis, there were 10 questions. About 17-18 questions on an overall basis in this section can be considered a good attempt.

General Knowledge and Essay:

About 25 questions were there in the General Knowledge Section. The majority of them were from static GK and only a few from the current GK. The section was of a medium difficulty level. The difficulty level on an overall basis was lower than that of the last year. The overall cutoff is expected to be around 32-34.

XAT 2017 Paper consisted of 2 parts:

Part1- Verbal and Logical Ability, Decision Making, and, Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation

Part 2- General Knowledge and Essay Writing

Analysis of Part- 1

Section I- Verbal & Logical Ability

According to the feedback's from the test takes, this section was considered to be as the tougher than expected. There were a total of 26 questions in this section: 12 Verbal Ability/Reasoning questions and 14 Reading Comprehension questions.

A student should be able to attempt 18 of the questions in this section (with about 75-80% accuracy) in about 45-50 minutes.

Section II- Decision Making & Analytical Reasoning

All of these were easy to read and short, and most of the questions were of the medium level of difficulty. In 40-45 minutes, students should have solved about 5 sets and attempted 14-15 questions confidently (about 75-80% accuracy), out of the 23 questions.

Section III- Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation

Questions on Quantitative Ability were dominated by Geometry and Arithmetic. At least two questions on Arithmetic also combined the concepts of Geometry. There were four questions on Numbers, out of which one question was incorrect. Further, there were three questions on Modern Mathematics. There was no question on Logarithms, Permutation-Combination or Probability. One question was on Logical Data Sufficiency.

There were two Data Interpretation sets, one with 4 questions and the other with 3 questions. The set with 4 questions on salaries involved a complex combination of a box plot and line graph with medium to difficult questions. The other set with 3 questions on crops had a table and was characterized by Easy to Medium level of difficult questions. The set on the table should have been attempted while the set on box plot should have been attempted at the end.

Analysis of Part- II

General Knowledge

There were 25 questions in this section and there was almost an equal distribution of current and static questions and national and international news based questions.

There were hardly 2-3 easy questions. The section was such that it required the student to possess extremely good general knowledge ability in multiple areas to be able to score well. Secondly, the topics of the questions were very diverse encompassing subjects such as Geography, Business and Economy, the budget, names of personalities and new inventions such as the Rasberry PI.

Considering that students would spend 15-20 minutes on GK, and there was no negative marking all questions were to be attempted without fail. A score of 8-10 would be considered a good score in this section.

Essay Writing

Topic: “Technology and nature are natural enemies.”

Students were free to agree with the topic, disagree with it or give a balanced view of pros and cons from both sides. 

As usual, the essay should have been written in a structured manner – with an introduction, main body consisting of one or two paragraphs followed by an effective and forceful conclusion. Relevant examples would have resulted in more marks. 

Writing both for and against the topic was not advisable because of time constraints and the relative difficulty of being able to conclude effectively.