XAT 2018 Analysis and expected Cut off

The newly green XAT packed a few punches; a few that landed on target and a few other were below the belt. Apart from some really difficult Verbal questions and some really tricky DM questions, the exam was marred by reports of technical glitch and server errors. It is the second time XAT has squandered the online exam.

Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) 2018 was conducted on January 7, 2018 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 Ability and Logical , 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 40 minutes.

The Verbal and Logical Ability Section had 26 questions, 2 more than last year. The section on Decision Making comprised 21 questions and the Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation section had 27 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 8 such questions. The paper, though slightly easier, was still quite challenging.

XAT 2018 Exam Pattern

Section	No. of Questions	Optimal Time in Mins	Difficulty Level	Good Attempts	Expected Cutoff
					BM	HR
Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning	26	55	Difficult	17-19	8-8.5	7-7.5
Decision Making	21	45	Moderate	16-17	8.5-9	7.5-8
Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation	27	70	Moderate	18-19	12-13	9-10
Total	74		Moderate - Difficult	54-55	39-40	34-36

The detailed analysis of all the sections is as follows:

XAT 2018 Analysis: Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning:

Verbal ability and Logical Reasoning was tough. The section was dominated by Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning. The 2 para jumble questions were easy and so was the lone grammar question. The FIB questions were difficult and some of the CR questions were really difficult. The vague reasoning used in some RC questions made life difficult for the candidates. The RC passages were from familiar areas of Philosophy and Logic.
A serious candidate could have attempted 17-19 questions with 70% accuracy. It was definitely time consuming and a student could have taken around 50-55 minutes for the section.

The breakup was as follows:

Topic	Number of questions	Difficulty	Good Attempts
Reading Comprehension	13(4 passages, 3, 3, and 4 )	Moderate - Difficult	8-9
CR	5	Difficult	3-4
Poem Comprehension	2 (1 poem)	Bizarre	1
Grammar - Correct the sentence	1	Easy	1
Para-jumble - 5 sentence	2	Moderate	1-2
FIB - 3 blanks	3	Difficult	1-2

XAT 2018 Analysis: Decision Making and Analytical Reasoning

The level of the Decision Making was slightly easier as compared to last year. There were no singlets and it made the task of reading easier. The length of the caselets was shorter than usual. Hence, the paper seemed to be easier. Situational decision making dominated the section with 18 questions. There were only three questions from Mathematical/Analytical Reasoning. This set on trains and stations was easier than the poor-sabzi set of last year. There were 5 caselets with 3 questions each and 3 caselets with 2 questions each.

The breakup was as follows:

Topic	Number of questions	Difficulty	Good Attempts
Situational	18	Moderate	13-14
Mathematical + Analytical Reasoning	3	Moderate	2-3

XAT 2018 Analysis: 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 sets was slightly tricky. There were 19 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 caselet questions based on sports.

In Data Interpretation, there were 2 sets comprising 6 questions in total. There were a few questions which were a little ambiguous.There were 2 DS questions which were slightly complex as well.

In a nutshell, one could have attempted 4-6 DI questions and 14-16 Quant questions inabout 65-70 minutes.

The break-up was as follows:

Topic	Number of questions	Level of Difficulty
Arithmetic	4	Easy
Algebra	6	Easy
Modern maths	2	Easy
Geometry	4	Easy-Moderate
Number System	3	Easy-Moderate
Data Sufficiency	2	Easy
DI (Game based)	3	Easy
DI (Mixed Graph)	3	Easy-moderate
Total	27	Easy-moderate

XAT 2018 Analysis: General Knowledge:

The level of difficulty of the General Knowledge section was slightly higher than 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, sports and miscellaneous). 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	Difficult
Geography	3	Moderate-Difficult
Economy & Business	6	Moderate-Difficult
Current Affairs	3	Moderate
Personality & Awards	4	Moderate
Science & Tech	2	Easy
Polity	1	Difficult
Miscellaneous	2	Moderate-Difficult
Sports	2	Easy-Moderate
Total	25	Moderate- Difficult

XAT 2018 Analysis: Essay Writing

The essay topic was : Ethical Practices and Sustainability: Do they co-exist?
The topic was from a familiar area. The question of profit vs. moral values has assumed a tremendous significance in the recent days. So, the student was supposed to be ready with the topic. It was definitely expected

Cutoffs

	XLRI			XIMB		SP Jain	GIM	IMT	Great Lakes
Topic	BM	HRM	GMP	BM	HRM
VA	7+ (80%ile)	6.5+ (77%ile)	-	6.25+ (75%ile)		6.25+ (75%ile)	-	-	-
DM	7.5+ (77%ile)	7+ (70%ile)	-	7.25+ (75%ile)		7.25+ (75%ile)	-	-	-
QA	12+ (88%ile)	9+ (72%ile)	-	9.25+ (75%ile)		9.25+ (75%ile)	-	-	-
Total	35+ (96+ile)	31+ (92.5+ile)	20+ (70+ %ile)	30+ (90%ile)	29+ (88%ile)	32+ (93%ile)	27+ (85%ile)	30+ (90%ile)	24+ (80%ile)

Disclaimer: All information on cut-offs, analysis, answer key and scores are based on independent analysis and evaluation made by Career Launcher. We do not take responsibility for any decision that might be taken, based on this information.