XLRI

Admission
Test '07
Executive Summary

Thank God for XAT. After the drubbing one got in the CAT paper, XAT was like manna from heaven.

Kudos to XLRI for gifting us the best paper of the season! On the face it is a balanced paper without
any scope of any kind of controversy. Very well drafted paper, with a dash of Management Funda in it!
Once again XLRI has proved its academic rigour.

They have opted for 5 options and continued with their characteristic differential negative marking
scheme.

XAT was a treat for the ‘English starved’s students. Their preparation was vindicated in the XAT paper.
The rigour of their groundwork saw the light of day and sent many a hopes soaring yet again!

The section comprised an interesting mix of all the conceivable ingredients of English and saw the
revival of grammar questions. The trend of logic-driven questions of CAT dominated XAT as well.

Overview

Section Topics Number of Suggested Possible XLRI BM Cut-offs

questions time Attempts
1 EU and RC 41 40 minutes 20+ 12 - 13
LR and Decision
2 40 40 minutes 14+ 10 - 11
Making
3 QA & DI 49 40 minutes 16+ 9 - 10
Total 130 120 minutes 50+ 35 -36

Likely Cut-Offs for other institutes:

Institute Cut-off
XLRI - PMIR 33-34
SP Jain 32-33
XIMB 28-30
GIM/BIM 25-27
LIBA 21-23

Disclaimer: These cut-offs are decided by our expert faculty, who have attempted the XAT 2007
paper. These may not be the actual XAT cut-offs. These calculations are based on our experience and
expertise.

Comparison with XAT 2005 and 2004

 Parameter XAT 2007 XAT 2006 XAT 2005 XAT 2004
Number of sections 3 3 3 3
130 200
Number of questions 127 175
(80+60+60)
Difficulty level (Overall) Difficult Difficult Average Average
Expected cut-off (BMD) 35+ 32+ 70+ 108
Expected cut-off (PMIR) 33+ 28+ 65-68 104
Expected cut-off (QA and DI) 10+ 7-8* 25-27 28 to 30
Expected cut-off (LR) 11+ 10-11** - -
Expected cut-off (EU and RC) 10+ 11-12 27-28 58

Section-wise Analysis

Section I: English Usage & Reading Comprehension

41 questions in 40 minutes ideally. Unexpectedly, the grammar questions were very much there,
which dealt with subjects like punctuation, wordiness etc. These could have been attempted first. At
least three questions could have been attempted. XAT was earlier known for its deadly vocab but
keeping in line with last year’s paper, this year’s questions were based on contextual usage once
again. At least two questions were pretty simple. The comfort zone consisted of critical reasoning
questions and para-jumbles. But there was a difference! Critical Reasoning questions were easier than
the para-jumbles. The para-jumbles were a bit mind- boggling.

Reading comprehension – 5

Passage 1: 'The Right Kind of Education'

Passage 2: Indian Economy
Passage 3: Bayesian Theory
Passage 4: Socialism
Passage 5: The two Poems

Ideally, after a careful scan, one could have started with attempting the passage on 'The Right Kind of
Education'. The passage on Indian economy was comparatively simpler to read as well as to answer. A
clear chronological structure could be identified in the passage with the highest number of questions.
At least four questions were doable. The ‘Two poems’ were easy to read, to comprehend and to
answer. The questions were quite straightforward. The passage on ‘Socialism’ was a bit complicated
and required patient reading. The one on ‘Bayesian theory’ was short but not sweet. It required a high
degree of comprehension. One noticeable change in this year’s XAT paper was the kind of questions.
Most of the questions were inferential along with one ‘title’ and one ‘further application’ question.

The questions, which dealt with contexual vocab, were as follows:

1. The training programme which was introduced by the General was named ‘The Crucible’…..hectic
and tough…The word which will replace ‘crucible’ will be
A cauldron
B nightmare
C Albatross
D Adversity
E None of the above

2……… In the argument the word which substitutes the assumption….

A Hunch
B Conclusion
C Induction
D Doctrine
E None of the above

3…….juvenile delinquency…
A puerile
B naïve
C Tyke
D jejune
E None of the above

4.……excise upon….
A remove
B cut
C impose
D arrange
E compose

5…..spurious…
A counterfeit
B questionable
C contrived
D forged
E misleading

Therefore we can say that words were not difficult as such but the options were very close and
depended entirely on the contextual usage of the words.

The grammar questions dealt with:

• punctuation
• identify the incorrect sentence[s]
• Wordiness – Which is the best way to rephrase the sentence?
• Revision of sentence

The number of attempts could have ranged from 20 to 25 in this section, with an accuracy level of
80%. The cut-off keeping the differential negative marking in mind should hover around 13-14.

A very good attempt in the section would mean an attempt of 25 questions with an accuracy of 80%.
This implies that, a net score of 18.33 would be a very good one in this section. Cut off is likely to be
in the range of 11-12.

Type of question No. of questions Difficulty level No. of possible

attempts
Six sentence para 4 High 2
jumbles
Critical Reasoning 5 Average 3
Grammar 4 Average 3
Reading Comprehension 23 Difficult 12-13 at least

[5 passages]
Contextual vocab 5 Average 3
Total 41 20-25 attempts

Comparison with last 3 year’s XAT:

 Parameter XAT 2007 XAT 2006 XAT 2005 XAT 2004
Overall 41 40 65 80
English Usage 18 16 22 60
Vocabulary: Synonyms 3 0 5 20
Vocabulary: Antonyms/ Inappropriate 2
0 7 10
Usage
Vocabulary: Analogies 0 0 0 20
Vocabulary: Usage-based 0 6 0 0
Fill in the blanks 0 3 0 10
Para Jumbles 4 3 4 0
Critical Reasoning 5 4 6 0
Sentence Correction 4 0 0 0
4 passages
5 passages 6 passages 3 passages
Reading Comprehension + 1 poem
(24 Qs) (31 Qs) (20 Qs)
(23 Qs)
Phrenology 0 0 7 0
Taxonomy 0 0 4 0
Sociology 5 (1 Passage) 6 0 0
4+ 4 (1 Poem,
Philosophy 6 0 0
1, Passage)
Science & Research 4 (1 Passage) 3 0 0
6 (1 Passage) 1 Passage
Business/Economics/Management 7 0
(8 Q’s)

Section II: Reasoning and Decision Making Ability

Total No of questions: 40
(Decision Making: 15, Individual Reasoning Qs: 3 and AR: 22)

Summary:
After CAT, it was XAT’s turn to test your logical skills in depth. In this section of 41 questions, there
were 25 questions of Analytical Reasoning and 16 questions of Decision Making Ability. Some of the
AR sets were worth attempting. One would have done well to have not wasted much time on the
Decision Making Ability sets. Overall, the section was of moderate difficulty. 17-18 attempts with an
investment of 40 minutes would have been ideal. A net score of 12-13 seems to be good.

Analytical Reasoning:
SET 1 (5 questions; Difficulty level: Moderate)
Based upon 3 persons, Bhim, Karan and Arjun, voting against or for 3 Bills (Recreation Bill, School Bill
and Tax Bill) as mentioned in a text format. This set had 5 questions. It was a moderate set to crack.
Ideal way to crack it was to make a table and put tick and cross against each cell. Take it one
question at a time. Possible to attempt the entire set in 5-6 minutes.

SET 2 (5 questions; Difficulty level: Moderate)

Base upon 8 products being launched by a particular company in India. Sequence of launch was given
in the clues. The data was in text format. The entire set was possible to attempt but one need to
spend at least 7-8 minutes.

SET 3 (6 questions; Difficulty level: Moderate)

Based upon 6 models of Mobile sets available in an electronic show room with at least one of the
three mentioned features (Digi Cam, Music Player and Office Doc Viewer). Overall a set which should
have been attempted with due caution. Options were close and confusing. It should take more than
10 minutes to solve.

SET 4 (6 questions; Difficulty level: Tough)

Based upon 7 movie-goers and 3 films (Satyajit Ray’s, Guru Dutts’ Ritwik Ghatak), where each movie
buff watches at least one movie. Each movie is shown exactly once. Additional conditions were also
given. Overall a tough set, students should have avoided this one.

Individual Reasoning Qs: 3

3 individual questions were there in this section. Two of them was about truth-lie situation. One of
them was involving 5 persons, who are designated as Guard or Thief. The other question based on
truth-lie situation was about the response of 5 persons regarding their interest in a new project. The
other question was based on calendar, where the day of 1st April in a particular year was asked based
on some given data, that there were 4 Mondays and Fridays each in that month.

Decision Making Ability:

This is the first time, this type of question appeared in XAT. Inputs must have come from Management
Experts. Almost looked like B-School Case Studies.

SET 1 (5 questions; Difficulty level: Difficult)

Based upon journey plan of an individual. Seems to be a Linear Programming problem with further
complication injected in last 2 questions where probability got involved. Best way to treat this set was
to leave it completely!

SET 2 (3 questions; Difficulty level: tough)

An HR based Case study where Sayan becomes Alcoholic in the course of his customer interaction and
fixing sales deal over a peg or two. He sues the company for damage. Questions involved recruitment
decisions of the management and optimal career decision of Sayan. Very subjective and options were
very close. A tough set to attempt.

SET 3 (4 questions; Difficulty level: moderate)

This set involved “Answer” and “Reason” based on a situation described. One Psychology expert hired
by a school board failed to get cooperation from different school-principals. Then he resigns.
Questions were of new type and probed deep understanding of the situation.

SET 4 (3 questions; Difficulty level: tough)

Based upon management decision of putting up air-conditioning facility in the employee canteen by
the top management of a particular company. The perceived benefit did not translated to employee
morale and the questions involved employee survey etc. One could have done couple of questions
from this set.

Section III: Quantitative Ability

Summary

Total number of questions: 49 (32 QA, 4 DS, 13 DI)

This time QA was of normal level of difficulty. At least the questions on progression, series and
functions were doable.

4 DS questions in this section were of mixed level of difficulty with at least 2 of them in the easy
zone.

Keeping in mind the risk of committing more than 5 mistakes in the section, an intelligent investment
of 40 minutes would have yielded 16-17 attempts. Cut-off will most probably hover around 9-10.

Topic-wise break-up:
 Parameter XAT 2007 XAT 2006 XAT 2005 XAT 2004
Overall 36 44 75 60
Number System 5 2 11 0
Arithmetic 5 3 3 11
Simple calculations of fractions etc 0 0 0 5
Average, %ge, SI-CI, PLD 2 1+1 1 1
Ratio proportion, Average 1 0 2 2
Speed Time Distance, Work 2 1 0 3
Algebra 14 20 14 18
Equations & Inequalities 3 6 6 0
4 10
Functions 7 2
(1 Set)
Maxima minima 2 5 3 0
4 8
Series, sequences & progressions 2 3
(1 Set)
Graph 1
Geometry 4 3 8 5
Plane geometry 3 3 4 2
Mensuration 0 0 2 2
Co-ordinate geometry 1 0 2 1
Permutation & Combination 0 1 1 10
Probability 1 3 1 0
Mathematical reasoning 2 2 1 6
Set Theory 1 4 0 0
Higher Math (Limit, differentiation 0
2 8 0
Integration)
Data Sufficiency 4 4 3 0

Data Interpretation

There were 4 sets involving tedious calculation as expected. Diagrams were not properly legible in the
case of the Bar Chart. They could have done with a better quality of printing.
Parameter XAT 2007 XAT 2006 XAT 2005 XAT 2004
Data 13
18 25 10
Interpretation
11 13 10
Table 5
(3 Sets) (3 sets) (3 sets)
Pie Chart 0 5 5 5
Line Chart 0 0 6 0
Table + Bar 2 (1 Set)
0 4 0
Diagram
Essay
As usual, XAT also tests you on essay –writing and 20 min is given at the end of the 2 hour test
period to write an essay in 1-page. The topic of the essay for this year was:

“Economic Growth without environmental damage – a mirage or a reality”