All About XAT 2015 - How to Prepare & What to Expect.pdf

8/9/2019 All About XAT 2015 - How to Prepare & What to Expect.pdf

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CAREERS360

ALL ABOUTXAT 2015

HOW TO PREPARE &WHAT TO EXPECT
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A Career is a Life ALL ABOUT XAT 2015 HOW TO PREPARE & WHAT TO EXPECT

2 http://www.bschool.careers360.com

CONTENTS

Introduction 3

XAT 2015 Fast Facts 4

XAT 2015 Eligibility Criteria 5

XAT 2015 Application Form. 6

How to fill XAT 2015 Application Form Step by Step Procedure 7

XAT 2015 Admit Card 10

XAT 2015 Exam Pattern 11

XAT 2015 Syllabus 12

XAT 2015 Important Dates 13

XAT 2015 Result 13

XAT 2015 Convenor Interview 14

XAT Topper Interview Maulik Gandhi 16

XAT Topper Interview Ancy Verghese 19

XAT Trends Over 10 Years and Preparation Tips 21

Expert Tips on How to Crack XAT 24

XAT Last Minute Tips and Tricks 26

Top B-schools Accepting XAT Scores and Cutoffs 28
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A

re you an MBA aspirant who is dreaming to make it big by gaining admission in a reputed B-School like XLRI Jam-

shedpur, which is one of the oldest management institutes in India, XAT or Xavier Aptitude Test is the gateway to thispremium institute. Not just XLRI Jamshedpur but other top B-schools like XIMB, SPJIMR Mumbai, LIBA Chennai,Goa Institute of Management etc. accept XAT scores as well.

This special E-book brought to you by Careers360 will bring to you All About XAT 2015 exam which you need to knowto crack the exam scheduled on Sunday, January 4, 2015. You will not only get all the fast facts about the exam but also theexclusive interviews of the XAT 2015 Convenor Dr. Munish Thakur and the last year XAT toppers, preparation tips, past 10

years analysis and trends and the top B-schools accepting XAT scores and their cutoffs. Read the E-book and know all youneed to know about the exam.

INTRODUCTION


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XAT 2015- Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT), conducted by XLRI Jamshedpur, is a national level MBA entrance exam.XAT 2015 scores will be used by XLRI Jamshedpur and other Xavier Associate Management Institutes and over 120B-schools across the country for admission.XAT 2015 will be held on Sunday, January 4, 2015.

XAT 2015 FAST FACTS

Exam Name: Xavier Aptitude Test

Commonly known as:XAT

Exam type: National

Exam category: PG Exam

Conducting institute: XLRI Jamshedpur

XAT 2015 Eligibility:The graduates in any discipline from a recognized

university are eligible for XAT 2015. Those final year students, who can

submit their final marks by June 10, 2015, can also appear for XAT 2015

exams.

XAT 2015 Application Procedure:XAT 2015 Application Form is

available from August 12, 2014. Candidates will have to fill up the online

application form and make payment via Cash, Net Banking, DemandDraft, Credit Card or Debit Card. The applicants have to upload passport

size color photograph along with signature not exceeding 50 KB.

XAT 2015 Application Fee: The application fee for XAT 2015 is Rs.

1000 for all candidates.

XAT 2015 Admit Card:XAT 2015 Admit Card will be available on

the XAT website from Thursday, December 18, 2014 till Wednesday,

December 31, 2014.

XAT 2015 Exam Pattern:The 3-hour duration XAT 2015 is a paper-

pencil based test, comprising 2 papers.Paper 1, the objective, multiple choice question type, contains 3 sections

Quantitative Ability, English Language & Logical Reasoning, and

Decision Making with duration of 2 hours 20 minutes.

Paper 2, partly subjective and partly objective type, comprises 2 sections

General Knowledge and Essay Writing. The General Awareness section

will have 30 questions. The duration for this paper will be 40 minutes.

XAT 2015 Selection Procedure:XLRI and other participating

institutes will shortlist the XAT takers on the basis of their XAT 2015

scores and the B-School cut off marks. In final selection process,

the shortlisted candidates will be appearing for the GD, PI and other

rounds conducted by the B-schools.

XAT 2015 Important Dates: The XAT 2015 important dates are

as follows:

Date of commencement of application: Tuesday, August 12,

2014

Last date of applying:Saturday, November 22, 2014

Last date to change test city:Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Downloading Admit Cards:Thursday, December 18, 2014 to

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

XAT 2015 Exam: Sunday, January 4, 2015

XAT 2015 Result:By Saturday, January 31, 2015

XAT 2015 Result: Last week of January, 2015

XAT 2015 Cutoff:Overall cutoff for XAT 2014 declared by XLRI was

88 for HRM and 94 for BM. The XAT 2015 cutoff will be announced

by XLRI after the result is declared.

XAT 2015 Participating institutes:123 B-schools across India asper XAT 2015 bulletin

Address:XLRI

Admission Office C.H. Area (East) Jamshedpur 831001

Jharkhand India

Phone: +91 657 665 3203/3204/3205

Fax: +91-657-2227814 Email: [email protected]


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XAT 2015 ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

According to the XAT 2015 eligibility criterion, anyMBA aspirant who is a graduate in any disciplinefrom a recognized university or deemed university

are eligible to take the test. XLRI Jamshedpur conducts theMBA entrance exam XAT 2015 for the admission of MBAaspirants in over 100 B-schools across the country.

The XAT 2015 application form is now available fromTuesday, August 12, 2014 and the last day to register is Satur-day, November 22, 2014. The XAT 2015 Admit Card will beavailable for download from Thursday, December 18, 2014to Wednesday, December 31, 2014. Before you apply, ensurethat you fulfill the eligibility criteria.

XAT 2015 Eligibility Criteria

According to the XAT 2015 officials, the candidates musthold a recognized Bachelors Degree in any discipline orcomplete their graduation by June 10, 2015.

The candidates, who secured less than 50% in aggregate

in the graduation final year examinations, can also take thetest. Final year graduation students can also take the test pro-

vided they can submit the marks within the stipulated time

frame by the participating B-schools, which is June 10, 2015.Unlike many other national level MBA entrance exams, theXAT aspirants need not score more than 50% aggregatemarks or equivalent CGPA in the graduation.

As far as the XAT 2015 eligibility criteria is concerned, the

final year graduation students, participating in this test, willhave to submit aggregate percentage obtained in previousyears of the degree course they are pursuing.

Being uniform for all categories of candidates General,SC, ST, OBC and DA XAT 2015 eligibility criteria also

has no variation in respect of religious backgrounds of theparticipating candidates.

XAT 2015 will be held on Sunday, January 4, 2015 from

10.30 am to 1.30 pm. The XAT 2015 exam pattern includesmultiple choice objective type questions on Quantitative

Ability, English Language & Logical Reasoning, DecisionMaking and General Knowledge. The exam also includesEssay Writing of 20 minutes duration. The XAT 2015 result

will be declared by January 31, 2014.

After 10-day extended XAT 2014 registration windowclosed on December 2, the total number of applicants stoodaround 89,400 as compared to 92,000 MBA aspirants who

had registered for XAT last year.A total of 89,400 candidates have registered for XAT 2014

as XAT registration for academic year 2014-2016 closed onDecember 2, said Prof. Vishwa Ballabh, Admission Chair-person of XLRI Jamshedpur, the institute which conducts

XAT.XAT 2015 scores will be accepted by 123 B-schools across

India. The B-schools will declare their own eligibility crite-rion which is expected to be on the similar lines as XAT


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n You have to choose the fee payment mode among the 3modes of payment which are as follows:

1. Online Payment Gateway - Through VISA/MASTERCredit & Debit Cards; IDBI Netbanking (applicable onlyfor IDBI account holders)

2. Cash payment - Take a print out of XAT Pay-In-Slip andvisit nearest IDBI bank and make payment

3. Demand Draft - Get a DD made in favour of XLRI Jam-shedpur A/c XAT payable at Jamshedpur

If you are paying through Modes 2 & 3, update the pay-ment details in the registration page. Unless the update isdone, you will not be allowed to upload the photograph andsignature.

n Upload your scanned digital passport sized photographand signature in jpg format only, not exceeding 50 KB.

n Print the confirmation page for your reference.

n If you have paid through DD, send the DD along with theconfirmation page to XAT office within 15 days from thedate of issuance of the DD.

XAT 2015 Admit Card will be available on the website from

Thursday, December 18, 2014 and candidates may downloadit till Wednesday, December 31, 2014.

XAT 2015 will be held on Sunday, January 4, 2015. Theresult of XAT 2015 will be declared by Saturday, January31, 2015. On the basis of the XAT 2015 cut off of the partici-

pating B-schools, candidates will be shortlisted and GD-PIrounds will be conducted for the final admission.

XAT 2015 Application Form- The application form ofXAT 2015 is available from Tuesday, August 12, 2014.The last day to fill the application form is Tuesday,

November 22, 2014. Through this article, we will share withyou the details on XAT 2015 registration and how to fill theXAT 2015 Application Form.

Candidates will have to fill up the online XAT 2015 appli-cation form and make payment via Cash, Net Banking,Demand Draft, Credit Card or Debit Card. They also have toupload passport size color photograph along with signaturenot exceeding 50 KB.

The application fee is Rs. 1000 for all applicants.MBA aspirants filling up the XAT 2015 application form,

making payment via cash or DD, need to send their DD orPay-in-Slip along with the confirmation page to XAT office,XLRI, Circuit House Area (East), Jamshedpur- 831001,

within 15 days from the date of payment or issuance of DD.XAT 2015 applicants have to go through three steps of

online application. The first step is to create their XAT IDand password by providing personal and payment details.The second step involves payment of fee and the third step isuploading photograph and signature.

Know the step by step XAT 2015 ApplicationProcedure.

n Visit the official website of XAT 2015 and click on XAT2015 Registration. Fill the form with your basic detailsand submit. You will receive your XAT ID and passwordthrough email.

n Login to your XAT account with the XAT 2015 login IDand password and fill the rest of the form which includeseducation and other details and choosing the test city.

XAT 2015 APPLICATION FORM


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HOW TO FILL XAT 2015 APPLICATION FORM

XAT 2015 application procedure has started fromAugust 12, 2014 for the exam scheduled to be held onSunday, January 4, 2015. If you are aspiring to study

in XLRI Jamshedpur or other top institutes accepting XATscores, registering for the exam is the first step towards yourgoal. This article will share with you the step by step registra-tion and application procedure.

Step 1 RegistrationVisit the official website of XAT 2015 and click on the tabXAT Registration. Enter your basic information such asname, parents name, date of birth, category and contactdetails. Click here to apply for XAT 2015.

Enter your password which will be used for your futurelogin.

You will receive the XAT ID through email. The next stepwould be to login through these credentials to proceed withthe XAT 2015 application procedure.

The registration window will also display your XAT IDalong with sending the email. The message displayed in thepage says, Use this XAT Registration No. and passwordentered by you in the previous screen to login and completethe remaining XAT registration process.

Step 2 Fill Application FormAfter you login, you will be given the option to view yourprofile, edit contact information and add educational infor-mation.


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Work ExperienceEnter your organization name, designation and duration ofservice in months and the work experience in years.

Step 3 PaymentThe XAT 2015 application fee is Rs. 1000 for all candidates.Select the mode of payment among the following modes:

n Bank Pay-In Slip

n Demand Draft

n Credit/Debit Card

n IDBI Net-Banking

After you select the payment mode, you will receive instruc-tions which you must read carefully and abide by. Click on I

Agree and Pay Now tabs to move further.

Enter the name of your institute, board/university, streamand percentage of marks obtained for SSC, HSC, Graduationand Post Graduation.

After successful transaction, print the page for your refer-ence and remember to quote your Transaction Number in allfuture communications regarding payment along with yourXAT ID. Click on Save & Continue tab for the next steps.


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Step 4 Upload your photo and signatureAfter you make the payment, you will be led to the next pagefor uploading your photograph and signature. You have to

ensure that the photograph and signature are clear In casethe images uploaded are not clear, your candidature is likelyto be cancelled. The size of the files should not exceed 50 KBand they should be in JPEG formats.

Important Note: Group photographs, side profiles, picturestaken on holidays, photographs without a clear background

are not acceptable. To reduce the size, crop the image ofthe signature in MS Paint or any other Photo Editor. Pleaseensure that only the signature portion is cropped and notthe entire A4 paper on which you have signed, suggests theXAT website.

After you receive the application confirmation, you canprint the XAT Confirmation page.

This will end the XAT 2015 application process. TheXAT 2015 Admit Card will be available for download fromDecember 18, 2014 till December 31, 2014.


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The Admit Card for XAT 2015 will be available forcandidates to download from Thursday, December 18,2014. The last date to download the XAT 2015 Admit

Card is Wednesday, December 31, 2014. This article will giveyou the details on when and how to download the XAT 2015Admit Card.

The Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) 2015 scores are acceptedby XLRI Jamshedpur, Xavier Associate Management insti-tutes and over 100 B-Schools across the country.

The XAT 2015 Admit Card will be available online andstudents must download the Admit cards from the official

website of XAT. It will be available after the XAT 2015 appli-cation procedure is over on Saturday, November 22, 2014.

The XAT 2015 Admit Card will have the following detailsmentioned,

XAT 2015 ADMIT CARD

1. Name of the Candidate

2. Time and Date of the Exam

3. Exam Venue- name and place of the test centre

4. XAT 2015 Roll number

5. Instructions for Exam

It is important for every appearing candidate to carry theXAT 2015 Admit Card at the test venue. Any student whofails to carry the admit card at the venue will not be allowedto appear in the examination. The admit card should be pre-served by the candidates till the admission process is over.


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XAT 2015 Exam Pattern: XAT or Xavier Aptitude Testis an objective type multiple choice exam of 3 hoursduration. The XAT 2015 Exam Pattern is dynamic as

the exam conducting body does not follow a strict patternevery year and there are some or the other change in thequestion paper in almost every year. This article will sharethe details of the XAT 2015 Exam Pattern.

Mode of XAT 2015 examXAT 2015 is a paper-pencil based test comprising 2 papers.

Sections and DurationThe exam pattern has undergone major changes in XAT2013 and XAT 2014. The exam will be divided in two papers,objective and subjective. The total duration of XAT 2015 will

be 3 hours.

Paper 1 will be the objective, multiple choice questiontype, containing 3 sections Quantitative Ability, EnglishLanguage & Logical Reasoning and Decision Making withduration of 2 hours 20 minutes.

Paper 2 will comprise General Awareness and Essay Writ-ing sections. The duration of this section will be 40 minutes.

Last year, the exam pattern was changed. Earlier, General

Awareness and Essay Writing were included in Paper 2 but

XAT 2015 EXAM PATTERN

in XAT 2014, General Awareness was made a part of Paper1 making it completely objective and Paper 2 consisted onlyof Essay Writing question.

The last year exam pattern of XAT is given in the tablebelow.

Number of QuestionsThough not fixed, the total number of questions in XAT 2015is expected to be around 80 to 90. The General Awarenesssection will have 20 questions.

Last year, the total number of questions was 103. The Ver-bal Ability, Decision Making and Quantitative Aptitude had83 questions and 20 questions were asked in the General

Awareness section.

Marking schemeEach question contains 1 mark and each wrong answer willget a negative marking of 0.25 marks.

XAT 2015 will be held on Sunday, January 4, 2015. The

application window is open from Tuesday, August 12, 2014till Saturday, November 22, 2014.

Section Area No. Of Questions Marks

PART ONE Section -A Verbal and Logical Ability 28 28

Section B Decision Making 24 24

Section C Quantitative Ability and DataInterpretation

31 31

Total 83 83

PART TWO General Awareness 20 20

Essay Writing 30


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There is no particular XAT 2015 syllabus prescribedby XLRI Jamshedpur, the B-School which conductsXAT on behalf of the Xavier Association of Manage-

ment Institutes in 48 cities across the country and 2 overseascenters. However, the XAT 2015 Syllabus is is based on thepast years analysis and trends of the exam. In this article we

will provide you the syllabus for XAT 2015. XAT 2015 will beheld on Sunday, January 4, 2015.

The XAT 2015 exam is broadly divided two parts, consist-ing of different sections. Part one has three sections namely,Quantitative Ability, English Language & Logical Reasoningand Decision Making. Part 2 of the paper is subjective andobjective consisting Essay Writing and General Knowledgesections. In the following paragraphs, you will get to knowthe topics of each section and area which are commonlyasked in the XAT exam.

XAT 2015 Syllabus - Verbal and Logical AbilityFor the section, the main topics include probability, phi-losophy, analytics skills and other verbal logical ability thatsupports students to crack this section easily. Other topics

include:

n Vocabulary

n Para completion, Inference

n Grammar

n PFQ

n Reading Comprehension

XAT 2015 Syllabus - Decision MakingThe syllabus pattern for this section has questions testingthe decision making skills of students. Mostly the questions

would be in a case form and students are asked to select themost appropriate decision.

XAT 2015 SYLLABUS

XAT 2015 Syllabus - Quantitative Ability and DataInterpretationThe XAT 2015 Syllabus for this section has questions relatedto numbers and prepares candidates for number systems,numerology and data skills. The main topics of this sectionsinclude the following:

n Arithmetic

n Geometry

n Statistics

n Number system

n Algebra

n P&C

n Probability

n Set theory

n DI caseletsThe Part two of the XAT 2015 Syllabus consists of General

Awareness and Essay writing, which prepares students withessay writing on different topics and general knowledgequestions. This part of the exam cannot be defined with anyparticular syllabus as it is very vast.

XAT is known for its high difficulty level. Hence, the prepa-

ration should be taken accordingly.


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XAT 2015 official announcement has been made. Theapplication procedure starts from August 12, 2014 andthe exam is scheduled to be conducted on January 4,

2015. This article shares the XAT 2015 Important Dates.

XAT 2015

IMPORTANT DATES

The result for XAT 2015 will be announced byJanuary 31, 2015. The XAT 2015 is conducted

by XLRI Jamshedpur for admissions into man-agement programme of Xavier associated institute andB-School.

The XAT 2015 Result will be declared online. All thecandidates who would appear in the exam will have tocheck the result online. The following are the steps to

be followed for obtaining the scores:

1. Visit the XAT official website2. Click on the XAT 2015 Result link3. Enter the XAT ID and Password4. Click on the Submit button

Once the candidates will click on the Submit buttonthe result page would appear and the candidates cancheck the XAT 2015 Result. Both sectional as well asoverall scores will be given along with the percentile.

After the result, the candidates clearing the XAT 2015

Cutoff would be shortlisted to appear for the next roundof Admission process, namely-Group Discussion andPersonal Interview, which will be conducted by eachparticipating B-School.

Last year, XAT was taken by around 89,000 candi-

dates. Out of them 4 candidates were in 100 percentilebracket.

XAT 2015 RESULT

Events XAT 2015 Important

DatesXAT 2015 Notification August 12, 2014

Last Date for XAT Registration November 22, 2014

Download of Admit Cards December 18-31, 2014

Exam Date January 4, 2015

Results by January 31, 2015


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XAT CONVENOR INTERVIEW

Dr Munish Thakur is Convenor of XAT 2015. A fel-low of IIM Calcutta, Dr Thakur teaches strategicmanagement at XLRI, Jamshedpur.In this interview

with Careers360, XAT Convenor Dr Thakur speaks on thepossible changes in Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) 2015 pat-

tern and other dimensions of XAT exam. He also talks onreviewing Personal Interview (PI) process for XLRI admis-sions this year.

Careers360: Congratulations for taking over as Con-venor of XAT 2015?

Dr Munish Thakur:Thank you. I take this with a greatsense of responsibility.

Careers360:What are the key dates of XAT 2015?

Dr Munish Thakur: The XAT 2015 will be held onJanuary 4, 2015. Registration for the exam has already begunand the last date to apply for XAT is November 22. We would

announce the result by the end of January 2015.

Careers360: Is there any change in XAT 2015 exampattern?

Dr Munish Thakur: Yes. This year we aim to broadenour multi-dimensional approach in the question paper andenhance fairness in testing for diverse set of test-takers.Taking this in account, we are planning to introduce ques-tions that can be attempted by candidates from differentacademic background. Our thought process towards bringing

XAT 2015 exam pattern may change, XLRI Interviews to be lengthier:XAT 2015 Convenor Dr Munish Thakur


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this change is to maximize the attempts by majority of testtakers. GK and Essay will continue to be the important

component of our testing process.The XAT 2015 exam will continue to be a one-day all India

test in the paper-pencil format.

Careers360:Why is this change in XAT exam pattern?

Dr Munish Thakur: Last year, we observed that manycandidates could not attempt a selected set of questions. Thismight have been because this set of questions would not havegeneric appeal. Therefore, we aim to modify question paperin such a way that most of the questions becomes worthattempting for candidates from varied background.

Careers360: Last year, XAT witnessed decline inregistration numbers. What are your expectations this

year?

Dr Munish Thakur: Last year, we had lesser number ofapplications as compared to the previous year. Still, we hadabout 90,000 registrations. This year, we expect the num-

bers to be in the same range as that of last year.

Careers360: Have you also increased test centers thisyear?

Dr Munish Thakur: Yes, we have added 3 more test cit-ies this year, thus offering XAT in a total of 48 cities across

India. The new cities added for XAT 2015 includes Agartala,Indore and Nasik.

Careers360: How many institutes will be participat-ing in XAT this year?

Dr Munish Thakur:More than 120 B-schools will beaccepting XAT 2015 scores for admission to their manage-ment programmes in the academic year 2015-16, also includ-ing the 4 new B-schools. While most of the B-schools, havealready officially confirmed, a few are in the process.

Some of the top B-schools accepting XAT scores includeIMT Ghaziabad, Great Lakes Institute of ManagementChennai, TAPMI Manipal, XIMB, XIME, IFIM Bangalore,IPE Hyderabad, SPJIMR, SCMS Cochin, Amrita School ofBusiness among others.

Careers360: Are you also introducing any change inXLRI admission process?

Dr Munish Thakur: This year we are planning to changethe format of Personal Interview process. We are also plan-ning to make Personal Interview more elaborate and we aredesigning longer interviews than previous year. Our expert

committee is examining the process and we will evolve theinterview format to integrate both subjective and objectiveassessment during this stage of admission process.

We aim to encourage participation of the candidates whocan take leadership roles in different organizations and bringpositive changes at higher management level.


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XAT TOPPER INTERVIEWS

Maulik Gandhi cracked XAT 2014 with an impressivepercentile of 99.74 and secured admission in XLRIJamshedpur. An engineer, Maulik is currently pur-

suing PGDM- Human Resource from XLRI, Jamshedpur.

In this interview with Careers360, Maulik shares his XATsuccess strategies and preparation tips for the prestigiousentrance exam. He speaks on how he converted his weakareas into one of his forte during his exam preparations. Healso explains his step-by-step strategy for XAT exam along

with key factors that contributed to his performance in XATexam.

Careers360: What motivated you to pursue MBA?What do you aspire for?

Maulik Gandhi: My motivation for pursuing an MBAwas my determination to emerge as a leader in the field ofmanagement. Five years down the line I see myself as anestablished HR in the market for which a professional degreein MBA-HR is a must. A guidance and supervision fromindustry experts would support me to become an independ-ent and a dedicated Manager.

My aim is to contribute my best in the HR profession soas the Indian HR practises are kept as a benchmark for the

world.

Careers360:Apart from XAT 2014, which other MBAentrance exams you took and how was your perfor-

mance?

Maulik Gandhi: The first exam I appeared for was the

September CMAT and scored 252/400 and my All IndiaRank was 593. I took CAT 2013 and my percentile was 96.36,

which was fairly accepted compared to my preparations.

I appeared in NMAT twice, October and November, andscored 219 and 226 in the respective months. I also appearedin the IIFT entrance test in which I scored 49.84.Then SNAPin December and achieved a percentile of 99.79. I cracked theMaharashtra CET in April with a percentile of 99.99.

Careers360: Which other B-schools made final

admission offers to you, and also why did you selectXLRI Jamshedpur?

Maulik Gandhi: My first final convert was IIFT, Delhi.After that, I got admission letters from NMIMS, Mumbaiand SIBM, Pune. However, I was more inclined towards theHuman Resource Management course in XLRI becauseXLRI offers the best HRM programme in India and the avail-ability of highly specialized, corporate faculty. The academicexcellence what you receive at XLRI is impeccable anddevelops you in a totally new personality.

How Maulik Gandhi scored 99.74 in XAT 2014 to get XLRI admission


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Careers360:What was your preparation strategy forXAT 2014?

Maulik Gandhi: I started preparing for XAT 2014 in thelast week of October. I had my Engineering Semester examsscheduled in November and they were supposed to end in thelast week of December. Since I would not have got much timeto prepare after my semester exams, I decided to start earlyand save myself from the last minute jitters.

Before my XAT, Ive appeared in CAT so I was comfortablewith Quantitative Techniques and Verbal Ability. I startedsolving the previous year XAT papers to understand theformat of the paper and decided the topics on which I had to

work hard. I also took 5 mock XATs to review my preparationand have an idea of how the actual exam would be. For essays,since the nature of topics was difficult to predict, I read news-papers daily, especially the editorial section. To summarize,the strategy was practice, find problem areas, implement,practice again, crack the paper.

Careers360: Do you think Coaching or Mentoringis important to crack XAT or any other MBA entrance

tests?

Maulik Gandhi: To be honest, for XAT, I did not take

any special coaching. I had joined coaching classes to pre-pare for CAT as I was finding it difficult to juggle betweenmy preparations, my engineering studies and my positionsof responsibilities.

Finding a good coach or a mentor is important but whatsmore important is the belief that you can achieve what you

have set out to achieve. For any MBA entrance test, practiceand dedication are the two pillars of success.

Careers360: How did you manage XAT preparation

schedule along with your graduation studies?

Maulik Gandhi: I started early because I knew I wouldnot get time to prepare once my semester exams would start.I used to solve 20 Quant Questions, 5 Logical Reasoning sets,3 Decision making sets and 2 Reading Comprehension pas-sages along with 2 Decision making sets a day. I used to spendthe remaining time studying for my end term exams, readingthe newspaper, and exercising.

Careers360: Please share your preparation strategyfor the Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation and

Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning separately?

Maulik Gandhi: Quantitative Ability & Data Interpre-tation: I started my CAT preparations in October 2012. So

by the time I gave the CAT in October 2013, I was well pre-pared with Quant & DI. For XAT, I used to solve 20 QuantQuestions and 3 Decision making sets a day. I used to findmy problem areas and determine which areas needed to be

worked upon. Next day, I would solve questions on thosetopics and try not to make any mistakes.

Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning: For VA, I would answer2 RC passages in a day. Apart from that, I would solve at least10 questions on any 2 VA topics. For Logical Reasoning, I

would solve 5 sets a day as it was my weakest areas. I also gavea lot of online LR tests.

Careers360: How did you plan and work for Decisionmaking and General Awareness section of the paper?

Maulik Gandhi: I solved previous XAT questions onDecision making, 2 sets per day. For General Awareness, Iread the newspaper diligently and also read news summarieson websites.

Careers360: How did you manage your time whileattempting the actual XAT paper?

Maulik Gandhi: I started with the Quantitative Abilityand Data Interpretation section of the paper and finishedit in half an hour which left me with 90 minutes to answerthe remaining two major sections. I required 50 minutes forthe Decision making section as I found it to be more timeconsuming. I answered the General Knowledge section in 5minutes, the Verbal Ability and Logical Ability section in 35

minutes. I had attempted everything I knew before the timefinally ran out.

Careers360:What were your strong and weak areas?How did you prepare and what special efforts did you put

for improving your weak areas?

Maulik Gandhi: My strong areas were QuantitativeAbility and Data Interpretation. My weak areas were Logical


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Reasoning and Decision Making. For these two areas, I prac-ticed as much as I could. I solved more number of LR sets ofdifferent types and took more time to answer the DM ques-

tions. It is also important to manage your time well as youdont want to leave questions unanswered.

Careers360:What is your advice for the MBA aspir-ants who will take XAT 2015?

Maulik Gandhi: Practice and Self-belief are the mostimportant things during the last 4 months of XAT. There will

be times when you will be under immense pressure; do not letthe pressure trouble you, channelize it positively. Do stressrelieving exercises, watch sports on TV, and take walks in thegardens. Never give up!

Careers360: How important are recreational activi-ties for you? Were you involved in any of the activities

besides preparing for the exam?

Maulik Gandhi: As the head of the trekking club of mycollege, I organized various treks to Sahyadri Ranges inMaharashtra. I used to take walks daily in my colony. A strollin the local mall would help me gather my thoughts. Recrea-tional activities are very important to me as I believe that forevery important problem that needs to be tackled, you should

tackle it with a calm mind. If not acted upon well, too muchpressure would ultimately lead to failure.


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XAT TOPPER INTERVIEWS

Ancy Varghese cracked XAT 2014 and CAT 2013 withimpressive scores to get final admission offers fromtop B-schools. She however chose XLRI Jamshedpur

over other top B-schools like IIM Kozhikode, 6 new IIMs,MDI Gurgaon and SIBM-Pune to pursue her MBA dreams.

In this interview with Careers360, Ancy who secured 99.38percentile in XAT 2014 describes the importance of know-ing all about the exam first and later developing a strategyaccordingly. She also shares her techniques of improvisingGeneral knowledge and how besides reading newspapersand books, one can excel in the General Awareness sectionof XAT.

Read how Ancy tackled the most important section of XAT.

Careers360: What motivated you to pursue MBA?

What do you aspire for?

Ancy Varghese: The nitty-gritties of the corporate world,the management and the entire flow had caught my interest.

As I try to understand it more, the more I want to delve in.The interest has come too far from its nascent stages to let go.Having obtained reasonably adequate technical skills frommy graduation period, I found myself with two choices- One

which was to join the company I was placed in and under-stand the intricacies of management, and the second was theroute to an MBA programme that meets my requirements ina concentrated, focussed and time bound fashion.

I decided to pursue an MBA programme where not onlywill I be exposed to different aspects and functions of busi-ness and management but I will also be having the opportu-nities to explore the practical aspect.

Careers360:Apart from XAT 2014, which other MBAentrance exams did you appeared in and how was your

performance?

Ancy Varghese: Apart from XAT, I appeared in CAT,SNAP and NMAT, and scored 98.86, 99.92 percentile and212 respectively. If compared to my preparations, I was satis-fied with my performance.

Careers360: Which other B-schools made final

admission offers to you, and also why did you selectXLRI Jamshedpur?

Ancy Varghese: IIM Kozhikode, 6 New IIMs, MDI andSIBM-Pune made final admission offers to me. Selecting the

best among all for my MBA programme was easy. I zeroeddown to XLRI because of its reputation, pedagogy and thesmall batch size.

Careers360:What was your preparation strategy forXAT 2014?

How Ancy Varghese secured admission offers from 10 top B-schoolincluding 7 IIMs, XLRI, MDI


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Ancy Varghese: My focus mainly was to improve myGeneral Awareness and for that I began to prepare from themonth of November. This helped me with GDs and the PIs

at the latter stage.

Careers360: Do you think coaching or mentoring isimportant to crack XAT or any other MBA entrance

tests?

Ancy Varghese: For an aspirant who is not aware of theseexams, coaching classes do help in getting the person accus-tomed to the format and the other approaches required. Soit is important to understand what the exam is about, how tocrack it, the exam pattern etc., so you can develop a success-ful strategy and then prepare for the entrance exams.

Careers360: How did you manage XAT preparationschedule along with your graduation studies?

Ancy Varghese: I enjoyed studying Quantitative Abilitybecause I was a B. Tech student and was very much familiarwith the pattern and questions. General Awareness was anarea which required much attention in my case. So I madesure I was updated with the recent happenings around theglobe through newspapers, blogs, and discussions with thepeers.

Careers360: Please share your preparation strategyfor the Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation and

Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning separately.

Ancy Varghese: Being an engineer, I did not have to workmuch on QT though I solved few questions from QT books.But verbal was a main concern for which I used Barronsreligiously. Consciously looking for words, associating them

with what I had learnt or prepared and revisiting them againand again helped me with Verbal Ability. I used to play games

on Vocabulary.com which was both fun and educative.

Careers360: How did you plan and work for Decisionmaking and General Awareness section of the paper?

Ancy Varghese: I used to follow the General Awarenessthreads available on various websites. Apart from that, I usedto read blogs and articles on the internet and had subscribedto Civil Services Chronicles to keep myself updated. Year

books also helped me in with my preparations in the last

month. Besides just reading newspapers and books, fol-lowing whats going around the world is the best source ofinformation.

Careers360:What were your strong and weak areas?How did you prepare and what special efforts did you put

for improving your weak areas?

Ancy Varghese:Verbal Ability was both my strength andweakness. Practice and continuous exposure through read-ing helped me with VA. Following information available on

various websites like Vocabulary.com helped in understand-ing the application aspect of VA and made it a strong sectionof the XAT exam.

Careers360:What is your advice for the MBA aspir-ants who will take XAT 2014?

Ancy Varghese: Along with preparing for the writtenexamination, it is equally important to start preparing forthe GD-PI component of the admission process. This shouldideally start during November and one should at least beaware of the happenings of minimum past one year along

with the future projects in and around the world.


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XAT or Xavier Aptitude Test is the second most popularMBA entrance exam after CAT. Conducted by XLRIJamshedpur, the scores of XAT are accepted by 123

B-schools. Its definitely one of the top choices of MBAentrance exams among the aspirants. The exam is taken byaround 90,000 candidates.

The exam is also known for its high difficulty level andits dynamic exam pattern. If you are all set to take XAT forthe admission in next academic year, which is scheduled onSunday, January 4, 2015, knowing the past 5 years in depthanalysis and trends will enhance your preparation.

The XAT 2015 Convenor Dr. Munish Thakur mentions

that the XAT 2015 exam pattern is expected to change. How-ever, the details of the exam pattern have not been declared

yet apart from the fact that the duration would be 3 hours andthe sections would be Quantitative Ability, English Language& Logical Reasoning, Decision Making and General Knowl-edge and Essay Writing.

XAT as an exam keeps changing its pattern and mould-

ing itself according to the needs of the time and the kind ofstudents the institutes look for. According to Prof. VishwaBallabh, Admission Chairperson, XLRI Jamshedpur, XLRI

believes in change hence it does not follows a static pattern.For e.g. last year XAT had re introduced General Awarenesssection as the institute believes that a good manager should

XAT TRENDS OVER 10 YEARS AND PREPARATION TIPS

not only have good knowledge on their domain but shouldalso be aware of the current happenings around him or her.

XAT is one of the most versatile MBA entrance examswhere each year there is some or the other surprise in storefor the test takers in terms of the exam pattern. Only one

thing has remained constant, which is the mode of conductof the exam. XAT is conducted in the traditional paper andpencil format while the other exams like CAT, MAT, CMAT,

ATMA and IRMA (Issues of Social Concern) have modifiedinto computer based format. This article will give you thetrends and analysis of the past 10 years and preparation tips.

Year Sections Numberof Questions

Duration DifficultyLevel

2014 Verbal & Logical Ability Decision Making Quantitative Ability & DataInterpretation General Awareness

28+24+31+20 = 103 3 hours Tough

2013 Verbal & Logical Ability, Decision Making, Quantitative Ability &Decision Making, General Awareness

30+25+36+30 = 121 3 hours Moderate-Tough

2012 Quantitative Ability, English Language Ability & Logical Reasoning,Decision Making

28+32+25 = 85 2 hours30 minutes

Tough

2011 Verbal Reasoning & Logical Reasoning, Analytical Reasoning &Decision Making, Data Interpretation & Quantitative Ability Logical

Analysis of an argument

34+24+43 = 101 2 hours 20minutes

Tough

The following table will give you the trend and difficulty level of the paper for the past 10 years.


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Year Sections Numberof Questions

Duration DifficultyLevel

2010 Data Interpretation & Quantitative Ability, Analytical Reasoning &

Decision Making, Verbal & Logical Ability

34+24+43 = 101 2 hours

20 minutes

Tough

2009 Data Interpretation & Quantitative Ability, Verbal & Logical Ability,Analytical Reasoning & Decision Making

38+35+31 = 104 2 hours20 minutes

Tough

2008 Verbal & Logical Ability, Analytical Reasoning & Decision Making,Data Interpretation & Quantitative Ability

38+38+44 = 120 2 hours20 minutes

Tough

2007 Quantitative Ability, Reasoning & Decision Making Ability, VerbalAbility

49+40+41 = 130 2 hours20 minutes

Tough

2006 Verbal Ability, Data Interpretation & Reasoning, Quantitative Ability 40+43+44 = 127 2 hours20 minutes

Tough

2005 Reasoning & Quantitative Ability, General Awareness,Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension

75+35+65 = 175 2 hours20 minutes

Moderate

As you can see, the sections, number of questions and evenmarking scheme vary year by year. The General Awarenesssection which was a part of the XAT exam till 2005 wasremoved and again added in the year 2012. Essay Writingsection was introduced in the year 2008. While the pattern

was slightly changed in the year 2011 (Logical Analysis of anargument), it went back to its previous pattern in the next

year itself.The nomenclature and combination of the sections and

areas have varied according to the years as well. A close lookat the above table will give you the names and the combina-tions of the sections and areas.

Marking SchemeAs per the past few years XAT marking scheme, there is 1mark for each correct answer and negative marking. Till2010, XAT followed a progressive marking scheme. Progres-sive marking scheme refers to 0.20 marks for first 5 incorrectanswers in each section and 0.25 marks for each incorrectanswer thereafter.

Till 2009, the progressive marking scheme followed thepattern of for first 6 wrongs & thereafter.

Till 2007, the scheme included 1/3 for the first 5 wronganswers in each section, after that.

Till XAT 2005, there was 1/3 negative marking.

Now let us have a look at the section wise syllabus, question

topics and general analysis which you can expect for XAT2015.

Verbal & Logical AbilityThis section has two types of questions, Reading Compre-

hension and Verbal Ability or English Usage. This sectionalso contains logical, critical and analytical reasoning ques-tions. The English Usage questions are on grammar and

vocabulary.

Quantitative Ability & Data InterpretationThe topics of the questions in this section are as follows:

n Arithmetic

n Algebra

n Mensuration

n Geometry

n Trigonometry

n Permutation Combination

n Higher Math

Decision MakingThe questions of this section appear in caselets and test yourinterpretative, calculative and logical skills.


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General AwarenessYou can expect the following topics for the General Aware-ness section:

n Business

n Sports

n Economy

n Politics

n Trade

n International bodies

The above mentioned topics are not exhaustive, but inclu-sive of all the plausible areas under the broad areas of poli-tics, economy and society.

Preparation Tips for XATIf you have taken or taking CAT or are preparing for otherMBA entrance exams, then your preparation is almost done.The syllabus of the exams for the basic sections like Quan-titative Ability, Data Interpretation, Reasoning and General

Awareness is almost the same.

Kamlesh Sajnani, MD, IMS Learning says, Apart fromthe common sections in CAT, XAT additionally assessesDecision Making and General Awareness type of questions.The preparation for XAT will therefore require you to getoriented to these question types. He also adds, Take 4 to 5mock tests for XAT and analyze the same to thoroughly getacquainted to the test structure and the type of questions.However, the Quantitative section is more logical than direct.Hence conceptual clarity is very important.

For XAT, your language skills are very important as theexam pattern has more weight on the RC and has an exclu-

sive section on essay writing. As Sandeep Manudhane,Chairman, PT Education puts it, The XAT tests you muchmore intensely on the language part and since that happenson a paper-pencil mode, one really gets checked (long pas-sages, for a start).

General Awareness is a section which you cannot complete

the preparation in few days. It is a continuous process. Vinay-ak Kudva, Product Head, IMS Learning says, GK prepa-ration should be a continuous process. The basic and theeasiest way of preparation is to read at least 2 newspapers,

preferable one business daily. Regularly watch news bul-letins to stay updated with the current affairs. For static GK,read yearbooks of reputed publications.

For the essay writing section, practice is the key. The dura-tion of the essay writing is 20 minutes. The topics of XATessay is mostly inferential in nature and not direct, for e.g.The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing ofriches; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing ofmiseries (XAT 2009) and Earth provides enough to satisfyevery mans need but not every mans greed (XAT 2010).

A lot of reading will be required along with logical thinkingability to tackle the essay writing section. Write at least 1essay everyday by assigning 20 minutes time slot. After read-ing the topic, arrange your thoughts and jot down the pointsand elaborate them accordingly. Furnish your essay with lotof examples, facts and figures to add credibility. Last but notthe least, keep your essay crisp and to the point and avoid

beating around the bush.


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Gautam Puri, Vice President, Career Launcher guidesXAT aspirants on the exam pattern and shares prepa-ration tips for the coveted exam. The entrance to

some of the most revered B-Schools in India, which include

XLRI and XIMB, the Xaviers Aptitude Test or XAT, is a farcry from CAT, and in fact from any entrance examinationfor that matter.

Apart from being a pen and paper exam (a fast vanishingmedium of exam taking), XAT is also one of the most difficultB-School entrance exams to crack. If a student is appearingfor XAT, he/she needs to focus on General Awareness alsoand he/she should be well-versed with decision making. Astudent must also hone his writing skills, for he will have to

write an essay along with the objective type questions.

The exam has roughly 90-100 questions on English, Quan-titative Aptitude, LR-DI and Decision Making. GeneralAwareness was also included last year. This year, this part issupposed to be completed in 150 minutes. There will be a teston Essay writing also to be done in 20 Minutes. The numberof questions is distributed evenly between the sections, withthe Quantitative Ability section usually carrying a slightlylarger section of the pie. The distribution of questions in last

years XAT is as follows:

EXPERT TIPS ON HOW TO CRACK XAT

SECTION NO OF QUESTIONS

A: Verbal Ability 30

B: Decision Making 25

C: Quantitative Ability and DataInterpretation

36

The paper has sectional cut-offs decided on the marksscored by all the students. The difficulty level is also at leasta few notches higher than that of most exams. And with theinclusion of the General Awareness section this year in themain examination, unlike in the previous year when it wasclubbed with the essay section, for which another additional30 minutes were allotted, the first-timers might feel over-

whelmed. Moreover in North India, the winter chill has no

intentions of making it any easier for the students.

The marking scheme is most likely to be similar to that oflast year, with all questions carrying equal marks and a pen-alty of 25% of the marks allotted to the question for every

wrong answer. Though XAT has gone with a differentialmarking scheme in the past, there are little chances that itmight be repeated this year.

However, the picture is not all that dismal. There are waysto beat the examination blues this winter. For cracking the


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Quantitative Ability section of XAT, frequently regardedas one of the toughest quantitative ability sections in anyB-School entrance examination, it is absolutely vital for youto get familiar with the kind of questions which make their

presence felt in XAT.

You need to pick your questions wisely, for unlike someexaminations where the imperative is on doing as much aspossible, XAT demands you to attempt the question paperas efficiently as possible. Same is the case with the Deci-sion Making and the Verbal Ability sections. Since ques-tions are many and time is of essence, not to mention the

hiked difficulty levels, someone completely oblivious to theexamination pattern might be caught unawares. So, it is veryimportant that you rigorously solve the actual XAT examina-tion papers at least from the previous five years (one paper in

every 3 days including proper analysis of the same). This willimprove your ability to adapt to XATs type of questions.Moreover, it will help if you try to attempt the examinationpapers with a timed approach, for this will help you gaugethe level to which the time constraint multiplies the dif-ficulty, enabling you to make any changes in your approach,if required.

Another way to ensure that you do well in XAT is to laystress on the Decision Making section, a section unique toXAT. It carries a sectional cut-off and also can be useful inimproving the overall score. Apart from looking up questions

in the previous years papers, you can go to the Harvard Busi-ness Review website (http://hbr.org/) and read sample casesto enhance your knowledge and also to arch your thinking ina way to facilitate better reasoning.

Though the General Awareness section will not be includedin determining the percentiles and the cut-offs in the firststage of the selection process, it still is paramount. Thistime, the General Awareness section will eat into your mainexamination time unlike in the previous years, wherein it wasclubbed with the essay section following the main examina-tion and was a separate 30-minute test. Keeping abreast

with the latest happenings in the business world will helpyour chances of scoring big in this section.

Practicing essays are crucial to doing well in the essay sec-tion, for writing a coherent, crisp 200-word essay in 20-30

minutes is by no means a cakewalk. The evaluators not onlylook for language skills, but also for the thought processinvolved, the spectrum of ideas, and your knowledge per-taining to the topic at hand. Having a fair knowledge of thecontemporary topics will give you an edge. So reading news-papers, especially the editorial columns, is highly advised.

To sum up, XAT surely is difficult but not impossible tocrack. With only about less than a month to go for the D -day,paucity of time becomes the natural enemy. So, the next 10odd days will decide who all get left out and who all emerge

victorious.


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Vistamind CEO ARKS Srinivas shares last minute tipsfor XAT aspirants in this column. While it is a sham togive last minute tips for an exam for which one has to

prepare seriously for more than 3 months if not more, here isan attempt made to only focus on those issues that may makea last minute difference to the outcome of the exam.

Some important factsXAT is a 2.5-hour exam this year with four sections (as givenin the website)

n Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation

n Decision Making & Logical Reasoning

n Verbal & Reading Comprehension

n General Awareness

XAT LAST MINUTE TIPS AND TRICKS

The exam will immediately be followed by 20 minutes ofessay writing making the total examination duration to be2 hrs 50 min. Please note that there is no break between theexam and essay writing. As per the instructions on the hallticket, the exam is from 10:30 PM to 1:00 PM and essay isfrom 1:03PM to 1:23PM.

Also, there is less likelihood of differential marking (as perthe last years pattern), while that cannot be ruled out!

Strategy for XATXAT is more and more becoming like the CAT of yesteryears.It has about 90+ questions (this time it could be closer to120) and 2.5 hours of time to crack it.

Many students dont understand that to crack an exam likeXAT, all you need is around 40% of the total marks available.To add to the fact that there is a difference in the percentile


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levels at which the sectional cut-offs exist, it becomes all themore easier if one plans the way to attempt the exam.

RecommendationsLeave a buffer time of 15 minutes (out of the total time avail-able) and divide the rest of the time between sections.

Assumption 1: The number of questions is in the range of

25-35 in each section.

Assumption 2: Time available is 150 minutes

Strategy: 45-35-35-15 minutes as per the above four sec-tion pattern, with a buffer of 20 minutes

Quantitative Ability:

One should give more time to the Quant and DI sections.DI in XAT has traditionally been calculation based tables,charts which would make it easy to solve given sufficienttime.

While there are a few Arithmetic questions, XAT hasalways concentrated on higher algebra and higher mathincluding probability, permutations & combinations andfunctions & graphs.

Concentrate on attempting around 18 to 20 questions inthe given 45 minutes and select the right one.

Decision Making Section:

Many a student makes a mess of this section by trying toattempt too many questions. They appear deceptively easy.Take your pick and objectively and logically deduce anddecide answers.

General Awareness:

Here again, do not attempt too many (unless you are very

sure). Attempt only those that you are very sure of or those inwhich you could eliminate choices and come down to a tossup between two choices.

Verbal & Reading Comprehension

The passages in RC are normally not long. However thequestions are mostly inference based. Hence, decide on thenumber of RCs you would attempt. There are quite a few

Verbal Usage, Grammar & Jumbled para questions in XAT.One has to try reading all questions so that it becomes easierto leave questions that one is not absolutely sure of.

BUFFER TIMEThe last 20 minutes should be used to attempt the section

where you have the best chance of maximizing scores. Asindicated above, the sectional cutoffs are not going to bemore than 30% of the total marks in that section. However,

you have to score around 40% of the total marks in the paperto get a call.

Note: Whether or NOT the General Awareness sectioncounts for the final percentile, giving 15 minutes is all a stu-dent should give (if there are less than 40 questions).

ARKS Srinivas is CEO of VistaMind Education. Mr. Srini-vas who graduated from IIM Calcutta in 1997, carries morethan 15 years of diverse experience in industry, training andacademia.


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The Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) is conducted by XLRIJamshedpur. There are 123 B-schools which haveregistered as the XAT 2015 participating institutes

which includes the Xavier Associate Management Insti-tutes. Careers360 brings to you the XAT cutoff for the topB-schools.

XAT is held on the first Sunday of January every year. Inorder to know where you stand and what your chances toget through a top B-School accepting XAT scores, check thecutoffs in this article.

Here we bring you a list of top B-schools accepting XATscores along with their cut off percentiles, Careers360 2014Rank and Rating. It will also help you prepare for the nextround of selection which includes GD, PI and WAT.

TOP B-SCHOOLS ACCEPTING

XAT SCORES AND CUTOFFS

Here we bring you a list of top B-schools accepting XAT2014 along with their cut off percentiles, Careers360 2014Rank and Rating. It will also help you prepare for the nextround of selection which includes GD, PI and WAT.

Note: The B-schools are arranged according to theirCareers360 ranks allotted to them in the top B-SchoolSurvey 2014. The ranks of the B-schools which have beenreferred as Not Ranked have not participated in the rankingor were not deemed eligible as per the Careers360 rankingeligibility criteria. Some B-schools do not have a particularcutoff score or percentile as they consider the candidateprofile for shortlisting. For them, we have denoted the cutoffas Not Applicable (NA).

B-School XAT Cutoff Percentile Careers360Rank

Careers360Rating

Xavier Labour & Relations Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur PGDBM - 94,PGDM HR - 88

1 AAAA+

Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad 90 3 AAAA+

TAPMI, Manipal 86 5 AAAA

Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar (XIMB) 95 6 AAAA

Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai 90 7 AAAA

Prin. LN Welingkar Institute of Management Developmentand Research, Mumbai

85 13 AAAA

Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship (XIME), Bangalore 80 15 AAA+

Institute of Public Enterprise, Hyderabad 50 16 AAA+IFIM Business School, Bangalore 70 17 AAA+

Amity Business School, Noida 85 18 AAA+

Amrita School of Business 80 19 AAA+

Balaji Institute of Modern Management (BIMM), Pune NA 20 AAA+

Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow 60 21 AAA+

PSG Institute of Management (PSGIM), Coimbatore 75 23 AAA+

ITM Business School NA 24 AAA+

Thiagarajar School of Management, Madurai 65 25 AAA+


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B-School XAT Cutoff Percentile Careers360Rank

Careers360Rating

School of Communication and Management Studies (SCMS), Cochin 60 26 AAA+

Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies (KIAMS),Harihar & Pune

60 + Profile basedshortlisting

28 (KIAMSHarihar)

AAA+

Jaipuria Institute of Management, Noida 60 29 NA

Siva Sivani Institute of Management (SSIM), Secunderabad 80 42 NA

Galgotias Business School, Greater Noida 70 45 AAA+

Lovely Professional University (MBA), Phagwara 85 49 AAA

Vignana Jyothi Institute of Management (VJIM), Hyderabad 50 52 AA+

Indus Business Academy (IBA), Bangalore NA 55 AA+

Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA), Chennai 90 Not Ranked AAAA+

Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS), Ranchi 85 Not Ranked AAA+Xavier Institute of Development Action and Studies, Jabalpur 80 Not Ranked NA

Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Nagpur & Hyderabad 70 Not Ranked NA

Acharya School of Management, Bangalore 60 Not Ranked AA

Alliance School of Business, Bangalore 70 Not Ranked AAA

MYRA School of Business, Mysore 80 Not Ranked NA

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavans Usha &Lakshmi Mittal Institute of Management (BULMIM), New Delhi

80 Not Ranked NA

Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH), Greater Noida 75 Not Ranked AAA+

Goa Institute of Management 90 Not Ranked AAAA

Institute for Financial Management & Research (IFMR), Chennai 85 Not Ranked AAAA+

MICA NA Not Ranked NA

SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai 85 Not Ranked AAAA+

AIMS, Bangalore 60 Not Ranked AAA+

University of Petroleum & Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun 70 Not Ranked NA

Mody Institute of Technology & Science,Faculty of Management Studies, Sikar

70 Not Ranked NA

Asia Pacific Institute of Management, New Delhi 50 Not Ranked NA

KIIT School of Management, Bhubaneswar 85 Not Ranked AAA

Balaji Institute of Management & HRD (BIMHRD), Pune 70 Not Ranked AA

Dehradun Institute of Technology (MBA), Dehradun 50 Not Ranked AA

SRM Institute of Mgmt & Technology, Delhi-NCR Campus, Modinagar 60 Not Ranked NA

Source: Respective B-School admission officials, websites and B-school reports Apply Now

However, there is a caveat. The cutoffs of the top B -schoolsaccepting XAT scores is only an indication of the quality ofstudents the institutes look for admitting. Apart from the cutoffs there are various criteria for shortlisting and selection

such as past academic records, work experience to name afew. Hence it cannot be guaranteed that obtaining the cutoff percentile will ensure a call from the B-schools you haveapplied.

All About XAT 2015 - How to Prepare & What to Expect.pdf

Documents

Transcript of All About XAT 2015 - How to Prepare & What to Expect.pdf