XAT 2017 Analysis and expected Cut off

Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) 2017 was conducted on January 8, 2017 from 10 am to 1:30 pm.

The test was divided into two parts. The first part was the usual XAT paper which had questions divided into three sections Verbal and Logical Ability, Decision Making, and Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation. As stated by the XAT authorities earlier, the total time allotted for attempting these questions was 170 minutes.

The second part consisted of General Awareness questions and a mandatory Essay Writing Section. The total time allotted to this section was 35 minutes.

The Verbal and Logical Ability Section had 24 questions. The section on Decision Making comprised 21 questions and the Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation section had questions. Each question had 5 options and all the questions carried equal marks. There was a penalty of one-fourth marks allotted for every incorrect answer. Also, as mentioned earlier, there was a penalty of 0.05 marks for every un-attempted question after the first 12 such questions. The paper, though slightly easier, was still quite challenging.

 

Exam Pattern

Section	No. of Questions	Optimal Time in Mins	Difficulty Level	Good Attempts
Verbal Ability	24	50	Moderate - Difficult	16-18
Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation	27	65	Moderate	17-19
Decision Making	21	55	Moderate-Difficult	14-16
Total	72	170	Difficult	50-55

 

The detailed analysis of all the sections is as follows:

 

Verbal and Logical Ability

As compared to last year, the overall difficulty level of the English section was comparable to that of 2015 (moderate). One could attempt many questions using elimination. The questions from RC passages were of moderate level of difficulty. On the other hand, in terms of their readability, the RC passages were of moderate level of difficulty as they had asked two poems as well. The Para Jumble questions were difficult and time consuming. Critical Reasoning questions in the paper were few with moderate level of difficulty.

The breakup was as follows:

Topic	Number of questions	Difficulty
Reading Comprehension	14	Moderate
CR	3	Moderate
Grammar	2	Moderate
Para-jumble	2	Difficult
Analogy	1	Difficult
Cloze test	1	Easy
Pronunciation	1	Moderate

 

Decision Making and Analytical Reasoning

The level of the Decision Making was slightly trickier last year’s paper. Like last year, this year did not see any long passages which was a great relief. One set on Cricket, Snakes and Ladders was confusing. The cutoff, this year, could be expected to be slightly lower than last year.

The breakup was as follows:

 

Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation:

The section on Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation was slightly easier than last year’s. However, one of the DI set was quite tricky. There were 17 questions of QA and most of them were from Geometry and Algebra. Majority of the questions from Arithmetic were doable whereas the questions on Geometry were difficult in nature. There were two case let questions based on sports.

In Data Interpretation, there were 2 sets comprising 8 questions in total. There were a few questions which were a little ambiguous.
In a nutshell, one could have attempted 4-6 DI questions and 14-16 Quant questions in -55 minutes.

The break-up was as follows:

General Knowledge:

The level of difficulty of the General Knowledge section was more or less similar to last year. This section comprised 25 questions. Most of the questions were single statement based. Some of the questions having multiple-statements had more than one correct statement. The key areas from where the questions were asked were static GK (Economy, Geography, Science and Technology) and Current GK (Business economy, personalities, awards and miscellaneous). There were no questions from sports and polity section. Overall the difficulty level of the GK section lies in the “moderate-difficult” range. An attempt of 12-14 questions fetching a score of 9-10 can be considered good.

Section	No. of questions	Difficulty Level
History	2	Tough
Geography	9	Moderate
Economy & Business	5	Moderate
Current Affairs	3	Moderate
Personality & Awards	3	Easy
Science & Tech	2	Easy
Miscellaneous	1	Easy

 

Essay Writing

This part of the test consisted of an essay. The topic of the essay was “Globalization and jingoism always coexist”. Like every year, XAT came up with a very interesting topic yet again, on which students could ponder and bring out various perspectives but unlike past years the level of difficulty of the topic was higher. Unlike the abstract or philosophical topics which were asked earlier, this year the topic remained current (Brexit).

 

Cutoffs

Go through the previous year XAT exam analysis to be prepared for surprises

XAT 2018 Analysis

XAT 2017 Analysis

XAT 2016 Analysis

XAT 2015 Analysis