Xat 2008 Review

XLRI Admission Test '08 Executive Summary In a nutshell, the XAT 2008 paper failed to live up to the promise of XAT 2007. The three sections continued to be largely lengthy, providing the test-taker with no respite at all. A few problems in the Quant/DI section were quite ambiguous. Also, the DI questions with conventional, bulky charts were monotonous. The problems in the AR/DM section were not very exciting, either. The DM cases were simple, though some of the questions could have ambiguous explanations. By and large, the RC passages in the English section entailed time-consuming reading. However, many of the questions were easy. In contrast, the sentence completion questions were fairly simplistic. The paper had its share of critical reasoning questions, and, even here, the language of the questions was often vague and unclear. Overall, the cut-offs can be expected to be close to last year’s level though the paper was nowhere near to being as exciting as last year’s. Section Topics

Number of questions

Suggested time

Possible Attempts

XLRI BM Cutoffs

1

EU and RC

38

40 minutes

21+

11 - 12

2

AR and Decision Making

38

40 minutes

14+

7-7.5

3

QA & DI

44

40 minutes

14+

7.5-8

Total

120

120 minutes

49+

32-33

Likely Cut-Offs for other institutes: Institute

Cut-off

Expected cut-off XLRI – PMIR

30-31

Expected cut-off SP Jain

29-30

Expected cut-off XIMB

29-30

Expected cut-off GIM/BIM

25-26

Expected cut-off LIBA

22-23

Disclaimer: These cut-offs are decided by our expert faculty, who have attempted the XAT 2008 paper and might not be the actual XAT cut-offs. These calculations are based on our experience and expertise. Comparison with Last 3 year’s XAT: Parameter

XAT 2008

XAT 2007

XAT 2006

XAT 2005

Number of sections

3

3

3

3

Number of questions

120

130

127

175

Difficulty level (Overall) Difficult

Difficult

Difficult

Average

Expected cut-off (BMD) 32-33

35+

32+

70+

Expected cut-off (PMIR) 30-31

33+

28+

65-68

Section-wise Analysis Section I: English Usage & Reading Comprehension There were 38 questions, to be attempted in 40 minutes. The questions ranged between average and high in terms of difficulty level. Surprisingly, grammar was not tested. Critical reasoning questions were in the form of case lets. There was an increase in the number of these questions, as compared to the past XAT papers. The Para- jumbles should have been best left alone. A good command over homophones would have been required to tackle the contextual vocabulary questions. Reading Comprehension A good mix of passages! Two passages, viz. the ones on Psychology and Science, were difficult to read and the questions in these, being mostly inferential, would have given one a tough time. The relief was provided in the form of direct vocabulary and fact-based question in the remaining two passages. Overall, an attempt of 21 questions & a score of 12+ was definitely possible.