Xat 06

ANALYSIS FOR XAT 8TH JANUARY 2006 The XAT entrance test was the most difficult. Not one section served as a better alternative for the other. All the sections were equally difficult. The negative marking was a major factor. The negative marking for the first five questions was 0.33. Thereafter the negative marking was ½ per question. Hence the selection of questions and answering them with utmost accuracy became very crucial. Moreover the answer options had the (d) option as “None of these” which posed a challenge and one had to make an attempt to strike the right option at any cost, especially in case of those questions carrying ½ negative marking. Except analytical reasoning no other section could be attempted successfully, thereby helping in pushing up his score. The paper had three-section paper as follows: 1. Verbal Ability 2. Data Interpretation and Reasoning Ability 3. Quantitative Ability

OVERVIEW OF THE XAT PAPER Time: 2 Hrs Total questions: 127. Negative marking: 1/3rd ( for first 5 questions) ½ (for the remaining questions) Sections

Number of Questions

Difficulty Level

1. Verbal Ability

40

Tough

2. Data Interpretation and Reasoning

43

Above Average

3. Quantitative Aptitude

44

Tough

SECTIONAL BREAK – UP VERBAL ABILITY The Verbal ability section was difficult. The paper was a test of English competency. Presence of mind while solving the questions was a must. The conversation-based questions were a new question type. The reading comprehension section comprised of maximum implied questions.

Area Tested

Description

Reading comprehension

No. of Questions Difficulty Level 23

1. Biotechnology

03

2. Deja vu

07

3. Democracy

06

4. Business Philosophy

05

Vocabularybased

Tough Similar Word that can be replaced in place of the given word in the sentence

02

Word that cannot be replaced in the place of the given word in the sentence

02

Passagebuilding Conversationbased Grammarbased

Tough

Dialogue between American and Japanese managers

03

Average

02

Average

01

Average

Comment: One can score 15+ in this section.

REASONING ABILITY This section comprised questions based on AR and Data Interpretation The five caselets in AR were such that the student had to build on the given information. Hence it was more time-consuming and intricate to solve. In DI interpreting the values was a difficult task. To add to this, the problems had lengthy descriptions thus taking more time to read, in the first place.

Area Tested

No. Of Questions

Difficulty Level

25

Average

i. Lecture schedule

5

Average

ii. Course of Meals

5

Average

iii. Interview Schedule

6

Average

iv. Distribution of Prize Money

4

Tough

v. Packaging of sweets

5

Above Average

18

Tough

i. Number of Votes(Table)

4

Average

ii. GDP based Caselets(Table)

4

Tough

iii. IIP Index sector wise(1 Line graph and 2 Pie chart)

5

Tough

iv. IIP Index year wise

5

Tough

1. Analytical Reasoning 5 Caselets

2. Data Interpretation 4 Caselets

Comment: One can score 13+ in this section.

QUANTITATIVE ABILITY Clarity of the fundamentals of higher mathematics was a major requirement for having a good score in this section.

Area Tested

No. Of Questions

Difficulty Level

1

Average

8

Tough

3.Functions + Increasing/Decreasing

10

Tough

4.Permutation Combination + Probability

4

Average

5. Maxima and Minima

5

Tough

6. Limits + Definite Integral

1

Tough

7. Mathematical Reasoning caselet

5

Average

8.Series

1

Average

9.Compound Interest

1

Tough

10.Equation

3

Tough

11.Log

1

Average

12.Data Sufficiency

4

Average

1.Numbers 2.Geometry Trigonometry, Circles, Coordinate geometry, Triangles, Mensuration etc

Comment: Number of attempts in this section would be 12+ and Reasonable score of 7+.

OVER-ALL CUT-OFF INSTITUTE

SCORE

PERCENTILE

XLRI- BM

38

97+

PMIR

36

96+

S P JAIN

36

95.5+

XIM B

93+

MICA

90+

BIM

87+

GIM

80+

LIBA

78+

XIME

75+

COMMENTS Sectional Cut-Off will be considered SOPs and Work-experience will be given due weightage

They will consider best of CAT Or XAT Score. This cutoff may be lower for BIM Bangalore.