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As always the English section was a test of 'pure' English without any focus whatsoever on, 'verbal reasoning'. The quant section too was true to XLRI style, 'mathematical reasoning'.
Section 1: English
Section 2: Quant
Section 3: General Knowledge
Summary
Section I: English
With a total of 80 questions, the composition of this section was similar to that of last year's paper. The time given 40-minute was more than sufficient. An attempt of 65 was on the cards for a majority of the candidates. A few questions looked dicey to attempt. Most of the others were either obvious or could be done through elimination of choices.
| Types of questions |
No. of questions |
Fill in the blanks (about 5-6 minutes)
There were 15 questions based on the story of a man and his four sons. The questions were very simple and all 15 should have been attempted. 12 of the 15 questions were based on the correct form of tense. |
15 |
Synonyms (about 8 minutes)
As has been the case for last 4-5 years, XAT again mixed RC with vocabulary. Two passages in which 10 words each were underlined were given, 7-8 words in each passage were easy while the balance had close choices. The first passage was from Times of India, dt. January 18, 2002 (Andersen) and the second was an extract from the novel Lajja. |
20 |
Analogies (about 7- 8 minutes)
These 15 questions were drawn heavily from any standard word list. For those who had given time to learning the word list, these questions would have been a cakewalk. For the others, there were at least 10 questions that had words occurring in daily usage. Two questions (Demi : Hemi and Pint : Quart ) would have created problems for most of the students. |
15 |
Antonyms (about 5 minutes)
While a couple of questions had close choices, a score of 6 was achievable. |
10 |
Reading comprehension (about 12 minutes)
Passage 1: On XLRI and its mission, about 400 words with eight questions out of which seven were direct. Very easy. Passage 2: An extract from 'King Henry' by Shakespeare. Most of the students would not have attempted this passage because it looked difficult, but the questions were mostly direct. The passage could have been easily comprehended if read slowly.Passage 3: An article from Reader's Digest (September, 2001) of about 200 words with five questions, of which three were direct and two inferential. |
20 |
| Total |
80 |
A relatively easy section, an attempt of 65 was achievable; and for an English whiz kid, even an attempt of 80 was possible. Like last year, a lack of mugging of wordlists did not pose a hindrance to attempting this vocabulary dominated section, with simple words - like sedate, debacle and investigate - being the major chunk in the section. The likely cut-off for the section would be about 55+.
Section II: Mathematical Reasoning
This is the section in which many of the XL aspirants met their Waterloo. An exceptionally difficult section, in comparison to the other MBA entrance exams this year, this was similar to the XAT of 1998. The set of questions on creating words with 'S and A' was there in XAT-1998 also. The paper had six sets of data with 10 questions each, with the exception of the 10 questions on functions and 10 questions on permutation, rest of the questions would have created problems for most of the candidates. However, a closer (and relaxed) look at the questions would have allowed the students to solve the questions on sets and series.
| Types of questions |
No. of questions |
| Permutation and combination: Easy should have been attempted |
10 |
| Functions: Easy should have been attempted |
10 |
| Word formation using elements 'S and A' only: Difficult |
10 |
| Sets and operators: Easy but tedious, one needed to be careful in solving these questions |
10 |
| Matrices: Difficult |
10 |
| Number series: Required some effort but were not very difficult |
10 |
| Total |
60 |
Overall, this was a difficult section and many students would have not been able to solve any question apart from those on permutations and functions. An attempt of about 30 was achievable and the expected cut-off here would be about 22+ for BMD and around 13-15 for the PM & IR.
Section III: General Awareness
A total of 60 questions in this section, the time of 30 minutes was more than sufficient. The paper was of moderate level of difficulty and an attempt of 40 can be considered to be good. The choices in most of the questions were close, and one could not have answered them by the technique of elimination of choices. Guess-work in this paper would have led accumulation of negatives only. A score of about 30 should see one sailing through this section. Like last few years, this year too, the GK section did not have any questions on Labour Laws. This could be attributed to the practice of a common paper for BM and PMIR. The break-up of the types of question is given below:
| Topic |
No. of questions |
| History |
10 |
| Geography |
10 |
| Economics |
10 |
| Current affairs |
10 |
| Science |
7 |
| Books and Authors |
1 |
| Miscellaneous |
12 |
| Total |
60 |
Summary
The table below summarises the expected cut-off for XLRI and XIM-B. For the other institutes affiliated to XAT, the cut-offs could go to as low as 65-70. The cut-offs given below are for open category candidates. For the reserved categories, the cut-offs should be lower than what is given below :
| Section |
Number of questions |
Good attempt |
cut-off for XLRI - BMD |
cut-off for XLRI-PMIR |
cut-off for XIMB |
| English |
80 |
65 |
55 |
55 |
50 |
| Mathematical reasoning |
60 |
30 |
22 |
13 |
15 |
| General knowledge |
60 |
35 |
30 |
30 |
25 |
| Total |
200 |
130 |
110 |
100 |
90 |
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