XAT 2021 Analysis and expected Cut off

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 were Moderate in terms of 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.

Overview of XAT 2021

Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) 2021 was conducted on January 3, 2021 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The test was divided into two parts. The first part was the usual XAT paper which consituted three sections:

• Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning (VALR),
• Decision Making (DM), and
• Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation (QADI).

As stated by the XAT authorities earlier, the total time allotted for attempting these questions was 165 minutes.

The second part consisted of General Awareness questions. The total time allotted to this section was 15 minutes.

Each question in Part A, carried 1 mark each and attracted -0.25 marks for every incorrect attempt and -0.1 marks per question after 8 un-attempted questions. Part B had no negative marking.

The detailed analysis of all the sections is as follows:

XAT 2021 Analysis: Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning:

Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning was similar in types of questions and level of difficulty to that of the VALR section in XAT2019. The section had 15 questions in RC with 6 passages. In addition to the RCs, a customary poem with 2 questions (a hallmark of XAT exam) also was given. The poem was of moderate level of difficulty. The 2 paragraph jumble questions were of moderate level of difficulty. FIB and Grammar were easy.

Good students would have attempted anything between 20 to 24 questions. Since XAT has ample time (165 total minutes and one can solve any section in any order without time limits), many students would have attempted closer to the 25-26 mark. This is also due to the fact that un-attempted questions beyond 8 would attract a negative mark of -0.1.

The breakup of the VALR section was as follows:

XAT 2021 Analysis: Decision Making and Analytical Reasoning

The level of the Decision Making was again similar to that of the DM section of XAT 2019/XAT 2018. Decision Making sections in XAT have usually been extremely interesting to solve purely because of the cases that come in the section.

There were no singlets and it made the task of reading and solving easier. There were no questions from Mathematical/Analytical Reasoning too. While the certainty of answers when one has Analytical reasoning would have been higher, the time utilized would be lesser in this year’s paper as all questions were simple situations requiring some decision making.

The breakup was as follows:

XAT 2021 Analysis: Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation:

The section on Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation was marginally easier than last year’s QADI section. There were 19 questions of QA and the remaining 9 questions were from DI. With 7 Arithmetic questions and a few Numbers and Algebra questions, the section had enough questions to attempt for a non-quant oriented student also.

In Data Interpretation, there were 3 sets comprising 9 questions in total - 1 based on scatter plot, 1 logic based, and the last one based on Ratio and proportion.

In a nutshell, one could have attempted 4-5 DI questions and 16-17 Quant questions in about 65-70 minutes.

The break-up was as follows:

XAT 2021 Analysis: General Knowledge:

The level of difficulty of the General Knowledge section was similar to last year. This section comprised 25 questions. Most of the questions were single-statement based. The key areas from where the questions were asked were static GK (Economy, Geography, Science and Technology) and Current GK (Business economy, personalities, and awards). Overall the difficulty level of the GK section was moderate.

An attempt of 12-14 questions fetching a score of 7-8 can be considered good.

Expected XAT 2021 Cutoffs

The expected cutoffs as per our team of experts and AI-driven predictions are as follows. These have been given below along with the actual cutoffs of the previous years. In XAT, there is a special and reduced cutoff for women and the scores required for them would be 2 to 3 marks lower than for a Male. Interestingly, there was a passage in the English section that the XAT 2021 paper contained which talks about Women not being considered as a separate category in the whole of history and whenever humankind/mankind is discussed women do not have a separate mention/attention/place. XAT (and also IIFT and a few IIMs) give special significance and attention to women making their chance of getting into the XL portals a tad easy!

*XAT 2021 Cutoffs are the expected cutoffs