Analysis Of Xat-2004

Analysis of XAT-2004 The paper was perceived more or less as a pushover. Due to the jolt given by the Math section last year, most of the test-takers were bracing themselves for staggering questions. There were a sizeable number of single questions unlike caselets that were predominant last year. The English section as usual gave some reasons to relax. The change was brought in by the poetry, which hobbled the performance added by deceptively close options in analogies. The GK section had a mix of questions based on science, management, famous quotes, et al. It was a three-section paper just like last year with sectional timings and had a total of 200 questions to be attempted in two hours followed by a 20minute essay. The optimum number of attempts was in the range of 120 to 130 (for XLRI). As far as the individual sections are concerned, English was the one, which would fetch the maximum score, followed by Maths. Sectional Breakup Section

No. Of Time Questions Limit

English (Verbal Ability + 80 Reading Comprehension) Reasoning & Quantitative 60 Ability General Awareness 60

Difficulty Level

40

Average

40

Average

40

Tough

Section 1: English Verbal Ability Area Tested Analogies Fill in the Blanks Synonyms Total

No. Of Questions 20 10 20 50

Difficulty Level Comments Average Tricky Average Average Average

Reading Comprehension Passage

No. Questions

King HenryIV 7 ‘s speech Hamlet 6 Indians building American 7 economy

of

Difficulty Level Comments average

Poem

average

Poem

easy

Conventional passage Antonyms based questions

Painter

10

easy

Total

30

Average

A total of 80 questions were to be solved in 40 minutes. Here the ideal number of attempts would be 60+ and the cutoff would be 45+(for XLRI)

Section 2 : Reasoning & Quantitative Ability Total of 60 questions to be solved in 40 minutes. Compared to last year, Quantitative ability questions were easier. Caselet type Functions Probability (balls in urns) Spring balance (reasoning) Number Series Pie-chart (DI) Table (DI) Others Total

Number of questions Difficulty level 10 Average 10

Average

6

Average (tricky)

8 5 6 15 60

Tough Easy Average Very Easy Average

Ideal attempts would be 40+ and cutoff would be30+(for XLRI). Section 3: General Awareness A total of 60 questions to be solved in 40 minutes. The ideal number of attempts would be 35+and the cut off would be in the range of 20+(for XLRI). Essay: When asked which of his works was a masterpiece, the 83-year-old architect Frank Llyod Wright replied" my next one." Total cut-off could be safely pegged at 95+ for XLRI.