The Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) 2024 exam is scheduled to be held on January 7, Sunday in a single shift format, it is considered one of the toughest MBA exams in the country.
With less than a week left for the exams, it is time for the candidates to focus more on achieving the best with what they have got, rather than running behind covering extra syllabus. To help the candidates maximize their efforts in the right place, FPJ talked to XAT 2023 candidate, Arindam Roychoudhury who scored a remarkable 99.99 percentile.
“The people who appear for XAT in the month of January are usually those who have also given CAT in the month of November, thus they already have an ample amount of preparation and can easily ace XAT,” said Roychoudhury. The quantitative section of XAT does tend to favor the engineers, as compared to CAT because there is not much of a time constraint while solving this section. “If a candidate is able to do geometry at a very high level that will come in very handy,” he added. Candidates should practice advanced levels of geometry because the paper specifically asks for it.
Roychoudhury also mentioned that many candidates fret about the general knowledge section being evaluative, but in actual fact, this is not the case. “Focus on getting 40-50 percent of marks in this section. The questions are also not that tough,” he said. Candidates should just be aware of what is happening recently and clear their concept regarding it.
Sharing an anecdote about the 2023 exam, Roychoudhury said that in the paper there was a question on the football world cup because it happened just two months before the exam. Similarly, candidates should focus on recent events for the general knowledge section.
Verbal Ability section
Speaking about the verbal ability section, he mentioned that since the last two to three years, there have been poems in the paper. Dealing with poems is also very different in comparison to dealing with comprehension. Candidates should only attempt the poems if they are confident about it and should add a perspective of what the author is trying to say.
“In XAT, candidates have the luxury to go through each section. Start with the section with which you are most comfortable,” Roychoudhury said. In a three hour paper, if a candidate is able to squeeze in the first 30-40 minutes and are at a good score, then scheduling the rest of the paper becomes relatively easier.
Decision Making section
For the decision making section, he says that candidates should give at least two mocks prior to the exam so they have an idea on the type of the questions that can be asked.
The XLRI, Jamshedpur administers the Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT), a national management entrance test, to candidates seeking admission to MBA and PGDM programs. More than 1,000 B-schools accept XAT scores for admission to their post-graduate management programs, with the exception of XLRI and ten other XAMI member institutes.
