XAT is an entrance test that is conducted on a National level for admission into the top business schools of India. XAT stands for “Xavier Aptitude Test”. It is a National-level management entrance examination which is conducted by XLRI Jamshedpur. XLRI Jamshedpur, XIMB Bhubaneswar and (Institute of Management Technology) IMT Ghaziabad are the top business schools that accept the score of the XAT entrance exam. Apart from them, many private and self-financed colleges too take the score of XAT into consideration in the admission process in the management programs. So, in small words, It is a gateway to getting admission into top Business Schools.
More than 100 colleges accept XAT scores into consideration for the admission process. Among all the MBA Entrance exams, XAT is known to be the toughest. There are many colleges that do not accept any test score other than XAT. This exam is conducted in more than 70 cities and more than 100 centres. More than 1,00,000 applicants from different streams like Engineering, Commerce, Science and Humanities appear in the exam to pursue a career in management. A thorough preparation of about 4-5 months is required to score a high percentile in the XAT examination. The motive of this test is to separate out the cream of talent in India and help them to enhance their skills more than ever.
The applicant is required to have a bachelor’s degree irrespective of any stream. For the registration process, there is no minimum limit on the marks in graduation. Apart from that, students who are in their final year of graduation are also eligible to apply for the test. A minimum of 15 years of education before the bachelor’s is required for the applicant to apply for the test. The minimum duration of graduation is 3 years.
The XAT, or Xavier Aptitude Test, exam paper consists of five sections-
Section 1 - Verbal and Logical Ability, Decision making, Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation.
Section 2 - General Knowledge and Essay.
The applicant needs to prepare these topics thoroughly in order to pass the test.
The Candidates are allowed to attempt section 2 after a time period of 165 minutes. A more detailed blueprint of the paper is given below:
Exam Sections | Number of questions | Overall time duration |
Section 1 | 75 Total MCQs | 165 Minutes |
Verbal and Logical Ability | 26 | No time limit |
Decision Making | 21 | No time limit |
Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation | 28 | No time limit |
Section 2 | 25 Total MCQs + Essay Writing Test | 25 Minutes |
General Knowledge | 25 | |
Essay | 1 Descriptive topic | 10 Minutes |
Total Questions | 101 |
Along with MCQs, the candidate has to write an essay as well in the given time limit.
This blueprint needs to be kept in mind while preparing for XAT.
It makes a total of 101 questions which are to be solved within the time limit of 3 hours and 10 minutes duration. The questions are multiple-choice questions. 1 mark is rewarded to the student for a correct answer and 0.25 marks are subtracted for every incorrect answer from the total score.
Marking method in XAT test
Each question carries one mark credit, one score for each correct answer along with 0.25 marks of negative marking for each incorrect answer.
Furthermore, if the number of unattended questions present are more than eight then also it will also result in 0.05 scores of negative scoring.
There are a few major phases in the selection process-
Submitting the registration form and taking the test.
Obtaining a score as best as possible to qualify for some renowned business schools in India.
Applying to the top schools that accept the XAT score.
Creating a strong resume to make a great impression with the show of your skills.
On receiving a call letter, some more qualifying rounds will be needed to clear.
The administration authorities of the college will take the final decision about the selection which will be based on your overall performance.
Following are the top most colleges in India that accept XAT scores.
IIIT Allahabad
NIT Rourkela
NIT Durgapur
SIMSREE, Mumbai
XLRI Jamshedpur
MDI Gurgaon
GLIM Chennai
TAPMI
IMT Ghaziabad
CAT, Common Admission Test, is also an entrance exam for the study of business and management. It is administered by the Indian Institute of Managements. The test has three sections- Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Ability.
In terms of difficulty, XAT is considered to be more difficult than CAT. Another difference is the topics they have. Also, in XAT there is essay writing which is not present in the CAT examination.
After taking the test and receiving the scorecard, the XAT score’s validity is one year.
As long as you are willing to, you can apply for the XAT entrance examination. There is no limit on the attempts.
The GK questions consist of static GK such as Economy, Geography, Science and Technology and current GK such as Business economy, awards, sports and miscellaneous.
The applicant has to visit the official website of XAT (Xavier Aptitude Test) for the registration process.