Detailed Analysis of XAT-10 and Strategy for XAT-11

BASIC STATISTICS

XAT entrance had 101 questions this year .The time allotted for the test was 120 minutes and 20 additional minutes for writing an essay. The maximum marks for the exam was not very clearly specified. We can proceed with the analysis by assuming 1 mark per question which translates to 101 marks for the complete test. There were 5 options for each question. There was progressive negative marking with 0.20 marks for first 6 incorrect answers in each section and 0.25 for each incorrect answer thereafter. There was no sectional time limit mentioned in the paper. There were 3 sections in all with different number of questions in each section.  The key to approaching this paper was to keep cool and follow the tested „Time-Allocation? strategy. Those who left the difficult questions and did not target a „pre-fixed? number of questions would have been able to find the easy questions and have a good, balanced performance in all three sections  The section-wise breakup of questions for XAT-10 is presented below:

SECTIONAL ANALYSIS

ANALYTICAL REASONING AND DECISION MAKING

The breakup of topics is given below.

The section was quite lengthy in terms of complexity of questions asked. Most of the Analytical Reasoning sets were of moderate to high level of difficulty and at least 1 set of 4 questions was definitely manageable during the given time frame. Questions on Groups and Conditionality were simpler and should have been attempted. The Decision Making Ability questions were time consuming. One RC set in the section on Bhola was easy. The caselet of 3 questions on Racket required the use of judgment and complex inferential logic. Overall, in 40 minutes, a good attempt would be around 16 to 17 questions with a good score of 12+ marks.

VERBAL ABILITY AND LOGICAL REASONING

The breakup of topics is given below

The questions ranged between moderate and high in terms of difficulty level. It was a mix of many question types. Critical reasoning questions tested in-depth logical ability. Vocabulary based question needed sharp thinking. In most of the Critical Reasoning questions, a paragraph was given and a question asked related to the paragraph. Five options were given, and two or three of the options in each question were very close. There were 5 FIB questions, 3 with single blanks and 2 with four blanks each. The ones with single blanks were relatively easy and therefore should have been attempted. The sets with four blanks were quite difficult and one had to know the meanings of each word to eliminate the options. The Para jumble questions were quite tough. The passages on "Silver   &  Particles",   "Neo   &  Morpheus", "Kant and Moral worth" and "Fashion" were quite confusing with the confusing options compounding the problem. The questions which should have been attempted were 1 question each in Parajumbles, Vocabulary, and Word Usage, 3 questions in Critical Reasoning, and 4-5 questions in Reading Comprehension passages. The ideal time allocation for this section must be around 40 min with an attempt of 14-15 questions and 10+ marks.

DATA INTERPRETATION AND QUANTITATIVE ABILITY

The breakup of topics is given below.

This section had a mix of easy and difficult questions. The questions covered a wide variety of areas and many of them were tricky and time consuming, to say the least. However, there were some simple questions in the Quantitative Ability section (e.g. circular field, four digit positive number, time and speed) which should have been attempted. The 2 Data Sufficiency questions in this section were of mixed level of difficulty. Two caselets based on Government Bonds and Automobile Company were quite challenging and should have been avoided. The Geometry questions were of mixed difficulty level and at least 2 questions should have been attempted. The caselet on “Sales of Small cars” looked lengthy and contained confusing symbols, but the meaning of the Expected value should have been got after a careful understanding of the set. The case on “Flowers” was very straightforward but calculative. The Ideal time allocation for this section must be around 40 min with an attempt of 18-19 questions and 12+ marks.

ESSAY SECTION

The topic for 2010 was: “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed”. Some of the points that could have been explored in the essay were:

• The impact of mass-production on the environment after the industrial revolution. The growing consumerism and its ill effects.
• An analysis of the history of the various climate/ earth summits and how far they have been successful in striking a balance between growth and ecology.
• The developed countries accounting for a lower percentage of the world?s population and yet consume over 85% of the world?s resources.
• Focus on sustainable development.

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