XAT 2024 Analysis

XAT 2024 paper was lengthier & moderate than XAT 2023. This time ‘Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation’ section was moderate to difficult. The RCs in verbal section, as usual, had close options.  Essay writing was included in part II of the paper. This year, the number of MCQs were 75 for part 1 & 25 (GK) in part II. Total time for this section was 175 minutes for part I and 30 minutes for part II. There was penalty for un-attempted questions (after 8 questions) and it was only of 0.10 marks. However, this feature is not going to affect the overall score significantly. There were no NON-MCQ (TITA) questions. The essay of only shortlisted candidates will be assessed. Primarily GK & essay writing is considered by XLRI & a few top colleges for selection. The overall feel of the paper was moderate.

The paper had two parts: Part I and Part II. Part I was main question paper and Part II was based on General knowledge. Part I had three sections A, B and C with 26, 21 and 28 questions respectively, a total of 75 questions. The three sections of Part I were followed by Part II that had 25 questions on General knowledge.  One was expected to answer first three sections in 175 minutes and General knowledge & Essay in 30 minutes. It was required for students to answer questions from all sections and expected to maximize score in each section. Marks in Part II can be used by selective institutes at the time of final selection. These scores will not be used for shortlisting candidates for Interview/GD. The three sections were as follows:

Evaluation: The Verbal section was easy to moderate but lengthy as there were six RCs. There were 15 questions based on comprehensions & 11 questions based on verbal ability. The surprise element was paired passage and a question based on it. The questions were based on Reading Comprehension, Critical reasoning, Sentence Rearrangement, & grammar. There were 6 RCs including one based on a poem. The length of the passages was moderate except one or two which were lengthy.  One of the RC based on ‘vaccine’ was easy but passage based on the ‘beaty’ was tough. There was one RC based on short a poem based on solitude. The RCs had essence of philosophy in them. The options in the RCs were very close therefore this section was a little time-consuming. Almost half of the questions in RCs were based on inference. The grammar questions were based on finding correct or incorrect out of the given sentences. In order to answer the questions correctly it was imperative for the candidates to identify the traps set by the examiners. The section was dominated by reading comprehensions and conventional critical reasoningThe overall feel of this section was easy to moderate

Evaluation: All Decision-Making questions carried equal marks. Decision Making consisted of 21 Questions based on contexts. The level of this section was comparable to last year’s section. There were 7 sets of 3 questions each. The few sets had lengthy content in them. Most of questions were doable but options in a few sets were too close. The questions were based on Case lets and Case Studies taken from various areas like business organization, small business units, promotion and context-based problem and solution. The cases ranged from placement/recruitment,burglary, cab fares, services to be provided,to gas leak situations.  The cases primarily moved around ethics. Overall difficulty level of the section was moderate.

The level of Quant and DI was moderate to slightly difficult. In Quant there were 15 question and 13 questions based on DI.The surprise element this time was one RC like question, which seemed to be difficult but was actually a sitter. Also, there were questions based on statistics such as mean, median etc. This time the level of DI was comparatively easier than Quant. The Quant questions were evenly based on conventional areas. Although arithmetic based questions were more in number in comparison to other areas.   There were 2-3 questions based on Geometry. Some questions in Quant had close choices. In DI there were 3 blocks of 3 questions each& 2 blocks of 2 questions each. One DI block was easy (on covid) while another was difficult (multiple graphs). The best strategy would have been to maximize the attempts in DI. Again, selection of question would have played very important to score decent marks in this section.

There were 25 questions in General Knowledge consisting of Static GK based questions covering Books, Geography, art forms of states, History etc. and Current Questions based on Science and Technology, Economic Data and General terms etc. The level of this section was moderate to slightly difficult. Since there was no negative marking in this section so by using guesswork or by elimination of options, one could have got 6-7 questions correct in addition to what one already knew.

The students have to select one topic from three given topics. One of topics was ‘stringent regulation on social medial to curtail faker news and other was on ‘more important things should not be left on the mercy of less important things. The third one was about ‘Models of tech fail because we do not admit that future is unpredictable. The essays required critical reasoning to analyses the topics. However, all the topics were manageable in terms of understanding them and then to reflect on them in writing.

*Disclaimer: All the above given information is based on personal opinion of Hitbullseye Expert faculty. Several factors have been considered before giving these cut-offs. However, it has nothing to do with original cut-offs.