Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) is a national level aptitude test conducted by Xavier School of Management. XAT scores will be accepted by more than 800 colleges for admission into MBA, PGDM, and other management courses. When compared to the CAT exam, XAT is considered to be a difficult exam.
In order to crack any competitive exams, it is mandatory for all the candidates to be aware of the exam pattern. When it comes to XAT, it contains 4 sections with time duration of 3 hours. It contains Verbal and Logical Ability with 26 questions, Decision making with 21 questions, Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation with 27 questions and General Knowledge with 25 questions. So, the total number of questions will be 99. XAT 2019 will be held in 2 sections. General Knowledge will be held in the second section with 15 minutes time and the rest of the parts will have 165 minutes with no sectional timings.
Now let’s have a look at how to crack XAT in the first attempt.
Following are the section wise preparation strategy for the XAT Exam:
- Verbal and Logical Ability:
Generally, the questions in this section will be language focused and so you should have a good command over the English language. Reading comprehensions will not be so long but also not always direct passage based. So, it is important to understand the passage thoroughly rather than mere reading as it will not work out. Also, this section does not contain direct vocabulary-based questions. Try to have a note of passage either by writing its keywords or remembering mentally so that it will be easy to solve the questions. It is advisable to read articles relating to Philosophy, Psychology, Technology, Sociology, Newspapers etc. The other areas covered in this section will be Para-jumbles, Para-completion, Critical Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning, Sentence completion etc. know about the types of questions that would be asked in the exam and prepare accordingly. Para Jumbles can be solved by practicing reading and by the habit of analyzing the flow of the passage. In vocabulary questions, even though the words might seem easy, the familiarity among the words will confuse you.
- Decision Making:
Decision Making is said to be a different section in XAT exam as it cannot be solved using any formulas or shortcuts. It will be purely based on your own perspective of the given problem. The questions will be like how you will solve or behave to take decisions when you reach a decision-making position in your business. In order to learn this, there are no books in the market that can make you a champ in Decision Making. The best way to excel in Decision making is to collect the DM questions from past year question papers and practice it as you can get many questions to practice. The other way is to discuss with your peers and try to solve the questions in a group. With this method, you will be able to know the perspective of each individual and you can also check with the solution. If it is wrong, then you can analyze the answers like where you have gone wrong. Also, the candidates must remember to solve the given questions ethically as the questions will also be tested for the honesty of the candidates.
- Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation:
This section will be mostly focused on Geometry, Number Systems, Functions, Probability, profit & loss etc. Note down the important formulas and topics when preparing for QA & DI. When it comes to Data Interpretation, concentrate more on graphs. Most of the previous year question papers contain questions from graphs only. If you are preparing for other exams like CAT, then it would be easy to prepare for this section. XAT does not focus much on Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning as XAT 2018 had only 2 sets of DI. So, the candidates can concentrate more on numerical ability and data sufficiency questions. Few of the other topics in QA & DI are Number System, Time and Work, Heights and Distances, LCM & HCF, Quadratic Equation, Trigonometry etc.
General strategies to crack XAT exam:
- Work and Study life Balance:
The candidates who are working and studying will find it difficult to spend the time to learn. So it is necessary for them to design their own work/study plan. This doesn’t mean you have to work or study continuously without breaks or sleep. Try to balance your work and studies by having proper breaks in order to be active in work and concentrate on learning.
- Time management:
Practicing time management will help in scoring good marks in any of the competitive exams. The candidates should know how much time to spend on a single question. It can be known only by practicing a greater number of mock tests and sample question papers. Also, you can get guidance from the toppers and experts to know the time management tricks.
- Focus on Exam pattern & Fundamentals:
Once you have complete knowledge about the exam pattern and get your fundamentals thorough it will be very easy to clear the XAT exam in your first attempt. Basics and fundamentals will play an important role in guiding you to attempt even tricky questions.
So, follow the above-given section wise and general tips to clear your XAT exam in the first attempt.
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All the best for your exam!!!