This year, there has been a slight change in the exam pattern for XAT with an increase in the number of questions and time to attempt the exam. XAT 2023 comprised 105 questions divided into three parts. Part consisted of Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning, Decision Making and Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation, to be attempted in 175 minutes. Mock Keyboard Testing, the new section, was included in part 2 with a time limit of 5 minutes. General Knowledge and Essay Writing, moved to part 3 were to be completed in 30 minutes. Thus, the total time of the exam was 210 minutes.
Based on the review of the sections, VA was easy to moderate while the RC questions were moderate to difficult. The logical reasoning section was also moderate. A good score in this section would be 14 marks. Similarly, the Decision Making section was moderate in terms of the level of difficulty and candidates could aim for a score of 11 marks. The level of difficulty of QA was easy to moderate while DI was moderate. The overall level of difficulty of XAT 2023 is moderate with a good score of 35 marks.
Here are a few predictable pointers regarding expected exam patterns that all candidates must remember while preparing for XAT 2023.
Paper |
Section |
Total Questions |
Total Time |
Part 1 |
Verbal and Logical Ability |
26 |
175 minutes |
Decision Making |
22 |
||
Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation |
28 |
||
Part 2 |
Mock Keyboard Testing |
1 |
5 minutes |
Part 3 |
General Knowledge |
25 |
30 minutes |
Essay Writing |
3 |
||
Total |
105 |
210 minutes |
|
The XAT 2023 syllabus is divided into 5 sections along with an essay question. The essay question is not included in the XAT percentile score calculation and is only considered for evaluation after shortlisting. Given below are the main topics that candidates must cover for XAT 2023 preparation-
Section |
Main Topics |
Verbal & Logical Ability |
Vocabulary, Para jumble, Grammar, Fill in the blanks, Analogy, Binary Logic, etc. |
Decision Making |
Data Arrangement, Assumptions, Complex Arrangement, Conclusions etc. |
Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation |
Mensuration, Algebra, Geometry, Caselets, Data charts, Tables, etc. |
General Knowledge |
Economics and Finance, Books, Authors, Constitution of India, Current Affairs, etc. |
Click here for a detailed understanding of the XAT syllabus.
Here is a list of some institutes that are accepting XAT scores for admissions to their MBA programmes.
Colleges Accepting XAT 2023 |
|
XLRI Jamshedpur |
Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad |
XIM Bhubaneswar |
Amity Business School, Noida |
Goa Institute of Management |
LIBA Chennai |
Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai |
IFMR, Chennai |
Alliance School of Business, Bangalore |
T.A. Pai Management Institute, Manipal |
Aspirants who wish to crack XAT and get admission to some of the top B-schools of India can review the previous year cutoffs to establish their goals. Given below is a list of XAT cutoffs 2022-
Colleges |
Percentile Cutoffs 2022 |
XLRI- BM program |
93+ (male) 90+(female) |
XLRI- HRM program |
90+(male non-engineer) 92+ (male engineer) 87+ (female non-engineer) 90+(female engineer) |
XIM Bhubaneswar |
90+ |
Goa Institute of Management (GIM), Goa |
80+ |
Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai |
80+ |
Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad |
90+ |
T.A. Pai Management Institute, Manipal |
85+ |
XIME Bengaluru |
75+ |
XIM Jabalpur |
80+ |
IFMR Chennai |
75+ |
Overall, XAT 2022 aspirants had to face 100 MCQ questions and an essay writing question in 190 minutes. The Verbal and Logical Ability was easy, the decision-making section was also not very ambiguous. The Quantitative Aptitude was easy and the Data Interpretation section was also easy and straightforward.
The overall structure of the paper was similar to XAT 2021 except that an essay paper was introduced in the paper just a few days before the exam.
According to CL experts, the section-wise good score for XAT 2022 would be:
The overall difficulty level of XAT 2022 was moderate. The cutoff for the male-engineer category would be 32-33.
After the nightmare of XAT 2020 and a generally unpleasant year of 2020, XAT 2021 was a welcome change. XAT 2021 came back to its usual form which was similar to what was seen in 2017 and 2019. Thus, in terms of the level of difficulty, one can say XAT 2021 was an exam with a moderate difficulty level.
In terms of sectional difficulty:
VALR (Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning): Similar to that of XAT 2019 but easier to read and comprehend. The LOD for this section was Moderate.
DM (Decision Making): Similar to the DM section of XAT 2019/XAT 2018 which was Moderate in terms of the level of difficulty.
QADI (Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation): QADI section was slightly easier than that of XAT2019 but with a couple of DI sets that were lengthy if not difficult. However, with quite a few Arithmetic questions, the section was Moderate in terms of LOD.
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.
Section |
Number of Questions |
PGDM-BM Cut-offs* (percentiles) |
PGDM-HR Cut-offs* (percentiles) |
||||
Male |
Female |
Male Engineer |
Female Engineer |
Male Non-Engineer |
Female Non-Engineer |
||
Verbal and Logical Reasoning |
26 |
74 |
72 |
79 |
74 |
78 |
73 |
Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation |
28 |
85 |
75 |
75 |
70 |
70 |
65 |
Decision Making |
21 |
78 |
74 |
73 |
68 |
73 |
68 |
Total |
75 |
95 |
93 |
93 |
91 |
90 |
88 |