XAT was undoubtedly the toughest exam of the year, yet again. The paper structure was the same as that of last year, which was as expected. The Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning (VALR) section was tougher than last year. The Decision Making (DM) section was of moderate level of difficulty, which is similar to last year. The Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation (QADI) section was marginally easier than last year.
Similar to last year, there wasn’t any essay writing section as a part of the Paper-2. There were not any non-MCQ questions as well regarding which there were a few speculations among the aspirants
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The XAT Exam is one of the toughest MBA Entrance Exams in India. Therefore it is extremely important for each candidate to understand exactly how to prepare for XAT 2020.
The candidate needs to have some basic information about the XAT Exam when they begin to prepare for XAT 2020. This information is given above in the form of the exam pattern and the syllabus. Based on the XAT 2020 Exam Pattern, the candidate can build a roadmap for their preparation of XAT 2020.
The basic structure of preparing for any MBA Entrance Exam is always similar:
These are a few basic steps that have to be taken so that the candidate can crack the XAT Exam. There is obviously much more that can be done while preparing for the XAT Exam however these basic steps should serve as a guideline to the specific plan that the candidate makes for their own preparation.
Before the XAT 2020 Exam, every candidate speculates about what exam is going to be like. This is where the XAT 2020 Analysis will come into play. The XAT 2020 Exam consists of 2 individual papers. The first paper is the aptitude based paper which has a time limit of 165 minutes. It has the following sections:
The 2nd paper consists of 25 General awareness questions and has a time limit of 15 minutes. In terms of the difficulty of the XAT 2020 Paper and sections, the XAT Verbal and Logical Ability section is expected to remain at the same level of difficulty as the Verbal section of the CAT Exam owing to the increase in difficulty level of the section. On the other hand, the Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation section is expected to be more difficult that in the CAT Exam.
| Sections | Number of Questions | Marks per Correct Answer | Time Limit |
| Paper 1 | |||
| Verbal and Logical Ability | 26 | 1 | No sectional time limit (165 Minutes for Paper 1) |
| Decision Making | 21 | 1 | No sectional time limit (165 Minutes for Paper 1) |
| Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation | 27 | 1 | No sectional time limit (165 Minutes for Paper 1) |
| Paper 2 | |||
| General Knowledge | 25 | 1 | 15 Minutes |
| Total | 99 | 180 Minutes |
The XAT Exam 2019 lived up to its reputation of being one of the toughest MBA Entrance Exams. The Verbal section was quite tough and the Decision Making section had quite a few tricky questions. The XAT Exam Pattern has changed quite a lot in recent times. Some of the changes in XAT Exam 2019 compared to XAT Exam 2018 were:
The level of difficulty was somewhat similar to last year with the benefit that the essay section, as a whole, was scrapped.
| Sections | Number of Questions | Marks per Correct Answer | Time Limit |
| Paper 1 | |||
| Verbal and Logical Ability | 26 | 1 | No sectional time limit (165 Minutes for Paper 1) |
| Decision Making | 21 | 1 | No sectional time limit (165 Minutes for Paper 1) |
| Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation | 27 | 1 | No sectional time limit (165 Minutes for Paper 1) |
| Paper 2 | |||
| General Knowledge | 25 | 1 | 15 Minutes |
| Total | 99 | 180 Minutes |
XLRI released the official cut offs for their Business Management (BM) and Human Resource Management (HRM) on their official website. The overall cut offs for the BM was 96 for Males and 95 for females while the same for HRM was 94 for Males and 93 for females. The sectional cut offs for BM is mentioned in the table given below:
| Section/Gender | Verbal and Logical Ability | Decision Making | Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation |
| Male | 79.46 | 80 | 90 |
| Female | 75 | 75 | 75 |
The sectional cut offs for HRM is mentioned in the table given below:
| Section/Gender | Verbal and Logical Ability | Decision Making | Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation |
| Male | 85 | 75 | 72 |
| Female | 80 | 70 | 67 |
XAT 2018 was conducted online after a gap of 19 years. The paper was majorly similar to XAT 2017 in terms of overall level of difficulty. The Verbal and RC section was more difficult than the previous years paper. However, the DI in the QADI section was far easier than the previous four years. The Decision Making (DM) section continued to be solvable without any guarantee of accuracy. The paper had 74 questions in total.
| Section | Number of Questions | Marks/Q | Total Marks | Cut-offs* (percentiles) | |||
| PGDM-BM | PGDM-HR | ||||||
| Male | Female | Male | Female | ||||
| Verbal and Logical Reasoning | 26 | 1 | 24 | 79.46 | 75 | 79.66 | 75 |
| Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation | 27 | 1 | 27 | 88.7 | 80 | 70.07 | 65 |
| Decision Making | 21 | 1 | 21 | 76.84 | 75 | 71.628 | 70 |
| General Awareness | 25 | 1 | 25 | - | - | - | - |
| Total | 99 | 99 | 94 | 94 | 92 | 92 | |
*The cut-offs in the above table are for XLRI PGDM programs.
XAT 2017 had 72 questions in total, down from 78 questions in 2016. The overall difficulty level fell down by a significant margin, as compared to previous years. For PGDM-HR, the percentile cut-off fell steeply this year by 1.85 percentile points. The reason for this could be the desired expansion of the candidate pool to interview for PGDM-HR. The cut-off marks this year were around 37 for BM program and 33 for HRM.
| Section | Number of Questions | Marks/Q | Total Marks | Cut-offs* (percentiles) | |
| PGDM-BM | PGDM-HR | ||||
| Verbal and Logical Reasoning | 24 | 1 | 24 | 79.46 | 79.69 |
| Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation | 27 | 1 | 27 | 88.7 | 70.07 |
| Decision Making | 21 | 1 | 21 | 76.84 | 71.628 |
| General Awareness | 25 | 1 | 25 | - | - |
| Total | 97 | 97 | 96 | 92.55 | |
*The cut-offs in the above table are for XLRI PGDM programs.
XAT 2016 was deemed to be a tough nut to crack, even by XAT standards. The paper was considered to be significantly tougher than previous years' papers and was the cause of anxiety among many students. The score required to be shortlisted for BM program was around 30 and the corresponding score for HRM was around 27.
| Section | Number of Questions | Marks/Q | Total Marks | *Cut-offs (percentiles) | |
| PGDM-BM | PGDM-HR | ||||
| Verbal and Logical Reasoning | 26 | 1 | 26 | 77.47 | 69.128 |
| Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation | 29 | 1 | 29 | 88.60 | 69.00 |
| Decision Making | 23 | 1 | 23 | 78.042 | 68.978 |
| General Awareness | 25 | 1 | 25 | - | - |
| Total | 103 | 103 | 96 | 94.4 | |
*The cut-offs in the above table are for XLRI PGDM programs
XAT in 2015 was judged to be tougher than CAT 2014 (both for admission to the session 2015-17). The quantitative Ability section was especially tough. Scores of around 29.5 and 27.5 were enough to fetch one a shortlist call for BM and HRM programs respectively.
| Section | Number of Questions | Marks/Q | Total Marks | Cut-offs* (percentiles) | |
| PGDM-BM | PGDM-HR | ||||
| Verbal and Logical Reasoning | 28 | 1 | 28 | - | - |
| Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation | 33 | 1 | 33 | - | - |
| Decision Making | 23 | 1 | 23 | - | - |
| General Awareness | 30 | 1 | 30 | - | - |
| Total | 114 | 114 | 94.23 | 90.04 | |
*The cut-offs in the above table are for XLRI PGDM programs
The XAT 2020 Exam is expected to be held in the first week of January 2020. One of the key documents that each candidate has to produce at the XAT 2020 Exam is the XAT 2020 Admit Card.
The XAT 2020 Admit Card is expected to be released in the third week of December 2019. It can be downloaded from the official XAT website by logging in with the Username and Password that were used for the XAT 2020 Registration. It contains certain details of the candidate for verification at the XAT 2020 Exam Center. Some of these details include:
Some of the details are used to verify the candidateâs identity at the XAT 2020 Exam Center to remove any doubt of foul play.
| XAT Events | Dates |
| XAT 2020 Notification Date | August 23rd, 2019 |
| XAT 2020 Registration Start | August 23rd, 2019 |
| XAT 2020 Registration last date | December 10th, 2019 |
| XAT 2020 Admit Card Download Date | December 20th, 2019 onwards |
| XAT 2020 Admit Card Download End date | January 5th, 2020 |
| XAT 2020 Exam Date | January 5th, 2020 (9:30 AM to 12.30 PM) |
| XAT 2020 Result Date | On or Before January 31st, 2020 |
The XAT Result is usually uploaded on the official XAT website. The declaration of the XAT Result is usually quite prompt in terms of when it is declared. With the XAT Exam is being held on 5th January 2020, the XAT Result can be expected to be declared within three weeks of the XAT Exam.
Before the XAT 2020 Result is declared, XLRI also releases the XAT 2020 Answer key as well as the response sheet. This allows the candidates to get an idea of their performance in the test and how they should proceed going forward.
The XAT 2020 Result is most likely be released in the fourth week of January 2020.
The XAT 2020 Cut Off is the minimum percentile that a candidate needs to attain in order to get a call from the college they have applied to. While the exact XAT 2020 Cut Off can only be speculated since it depends on several factors such as:
Before the XAT 2020 Result is declared, XLRI also releases the XAT 2020 Answer key as well as the response sheet. This allows the candidates to get an idea of their performance in the test and how they should proceed going forward.
The XAT 2020 Result is most likely be released in the fourth week of January 2020.
However, the cut off for the top colleges in XAT 2020 has remained relatively constant over the past few years. The cut off for the BM program at XLRI Jamshedpur is likely to remain over 97%ile while the same for the HRM program is likely to stay at around 94%ile. The reason for the difference between the two percentiles is the fact that there are less candidates interested in the HRM Program at XLRI Jamshedpur.
The official XAT 2020 Cut Off will only be known post the XAT 2020 Result.
The XAT 2020 Colleges that attract most of the candidates are:
Out of these XAT 2020 Colleges, the colleges which are most sought after are XLRI Jamshedpur and SP Jain (SPJIMR). These two colleges are some of the best in the country and XAT 2020 represents a chance to get into these esteemed institutes. XLRI Jamshedpur uses only the XAT 2020 and the GMAT Exam as the qualifying exams while SP Jain is comparatively more liberal by allowing candidates to qualify through CAT 2019, XAT 2020 and the GMAT.
Overall there are over 150 colleges which accept the XAT 2020 Score as the qualifier for their admission processes.
The XAT 2020 Exam is simply the qualifier for candidates and as such there are generally several processes that Business Schools follow before they decide on whether they wish to select a candidate or not.
Some of the most common selection procedures which are followed are:
These are considered to be the staple selection procedures amongst all the B-Schools and especially among the top B-Schools. However this should not be taken as gospel since the B-School has the authority to change the selection procedures as per their wishes.