Test Analysis - Bull XAT 02

 
Overall Brief

On the whole the level of the test was moderate to difficult. Many of the questions were of easy & moderate level barring a few difficult questions so the key to getting a good percentile was selection of questions and to leave difficult questions to save the time for easy and moderate level questions.

 
QUANT & DI
Easy Questions:
25,27-29, 31-33, 35, 37-39, 41,43-45, 51

The Quantitative section was of moderate to difficult level with 16 easy, 9medium and 2 difficult questions. The major areas from Quant covered in this section were Geometry (2 moderate & 2 easy level questions) & Miscellaneous Quant (2 easy, 1medium). While the other topics were Algebra (all 3 easy), Progression & series (2 easy level questions), Function & inequalities (2 easy level questions), TSD (1 medium), Basic Algebra (1 medium), Average (1 easy level question), Profit & loss (1 easy level question) and clocks & calendar (1 easy). The section ended with 3 sets of DI with 1st set on Data caselets having 2 questions (1 medium & 1easy) ,2nd set also on Data caselets having 1 moderate & 3 easy questions while the 3rd set on line graph having 1 easy , 2 medium and 2 difficult questions. Thus, DI was more towards the higher difficulty level. One could have scored 90+ percentile by attempting 18-20 questions with 75-80% accuracy.

 
AR & Decision Making
Easy Questions:
28-35, 37-40, 42-45, 47-48

The section had only 5 sets of AR having 13 questions and remaining 8 questions on Decision Making. Overall, there were 3 easy questions, 6 medium and 2 difficult level questions. The section had a total of 18 easy and 5 medium level questions. In AR, the 1st set had 3 easy questions, 2nd set had 2 easy questions, 3rd set of AR having 4 questions (2 easy, 2 medium), 4th set having 2 questions (1 easy, 1 medium) and last Set of AR having 2 questions of easy level. There were 2 sets of 4 questions each for decision making. 1st set had 1 easy, 2 medium & 1 difficult question and 2nd set had 2 easy & 2 medium level questions. The overall feel of the section was easy to moderate and one could have scored 90+ percentile by attempting 14-17 questions with 80-85% accuracy.

 
Verbal
Easy Questions:
1,6,9,10,17,22,23

The verbal section was moderate to difficult. The first set of questions (1-2 & 20-23) was based on critical reasoning. All the questions were either easy or moderate. Questions (1) were based on assumption, which was easy. Next two medium and difficult level questions (3, 4) were based on Complete Para Jumbling i.e. sentence rearrangement. Another set of questions (5-19) was based on reading comprehension. 1st passage Questions (5-7) talked about expanding the knowledge of human survival beyond necessity of existence. Questions (5, & 7) were moderate but Question (6) was easy and was w.r.t. author. 2nd passage Questions (8-10) talked about cultural idiom and its role w.r.t politics. All the questions based on this passage were easy except Q 8, which was moderate. 3rd passage (11-13) based on romantic environmentalist claims being anti-western. All the questions based on this passage were either moderate or difficult. 4th passage (14-16) gave a general idea that Utilitarian learning cannot lead to creative discoveries. All questions were based on facts and were moderate. 5th passage (17-19) gave a point of view that penetrating research is crucial – hence the need for business schools. All questions were factual and were moderate except Q17, which was easy. Last few questions were based on vocabulary. All the questions were easy except Q24 which was moderate. One has to do 14-15 questions with 80-85% accuracy to get 90%ile.

 
GK
Easy Questions:
54,55,61,62,66,68,72

The section was moderate to difficult. The section had a variety of questions ranging from business and economy, environment, sports, finance and banking, science and technology, books and authors to Current GK. One has to do 16-18 questions with 80-85% accuracy to get 90%ile.

 
Strategy & Tips

The overall feel of the paper was moderate to difficult, though for the students who knew how to manage the time available to the best i.e. not wasting much time in lengthy and difficult questions, could easily manage an overall good attempt. AR and DI were mostly selective in this paper. As far as Quant is concerned most of the questions were from Algebra and Geometry. Decision making section was moderate and in verbal section focus should have been on RCs. To score well in verbal section one should start with non-RC questions as it is easier to select or reject these questions. The selection of the passage should be done carefully to maximize the score. Also one should have strong hold on critical reasoning and vocabulary to get a decent score.

 
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