XAT or Xavier's Aptitude Test is a national level examination conducted by XLRI every year. XAT is a common admission test for the 11 institutes under of Xavier Association of Management Institutes (XAMI) and more than 100 other institutes accept XAT score. It is a paper-based test conducted on the first Sunday of the year in which the program commences. In 2017, it was conducted on 8th January.
XAT is considered to be the toughest MBA entrance exam in the country. What makes it difficult and different from other exams is the paper pattern and areas tested. The XAT paper is divided in two sections. In 2016, XAT introduced some changes like: the total number of questions was brought down to 78 and the time allotment increased by 25 minutes. The first part was objective, consisting of questions from Verbal & LR, Quant & DI and Decision making to be solved in 170 minutes. The second part consisted of General Awareness questions and an essay to be completed in total 35 minutes. A major change was the deduction of 0.05 marks if more than 13 questions were left un- attempted. Also, there was negative marking for wrong answer as well. The difficulty level of the questions has been brought down.
