XAT 2016: 5 key aspirant friendly changes; Use carefully and add more to your percentile score

Recently announced changes in forthcoming XAT 2016 to be held on January 3, 2016 have made the test and the opportunities related to it more aspirant friendly. It is not only going to be easier exam but XAT 2016 will also offer more opportunities of scoring high to get shortlisted at one of the top rated B-schools. Apart from XLRI other top rated B-schools like SPJIMR, IMT, LIBA, XIMB, XIME, XISS, FORE, Great Lakes, IRMA, K J Somaiya, MICA, TAPMI, IFIM include the list of 148 B-schools who will be accepting XAT 2016 scores for admission to their MBA/PGDM programmes for the batch 2016-18.

Following key aspirant friendly changes brought about in XAT 2016 test structure and content can help you score high by maximising your attempts in the exam. XLRI the XAT 2016 authority has shared that all the changes are meant to improve the performance of the candidates in the exam.

More time for fewer questions: 210 minutes Candidates appearing in XAT 2016 will have three and half hours to attempt the exam with reduced number of questions as against only 3 hours in earlier XAT exams with more number of questions.

Without reducing the time limit or introducing any sectional time constraints, XLRI has reduced the number of questions in XAT 2015 from 84 to 78 in the 3 major sections which constitute to determine the percentile for stage-1 shortlisting.

Not only this, the time limit to attempt 78 questions in all the 3 sections has been increased from 140 minutes to 170 minutes. Candidates will now have the opportunity to attempt a question in more than 2 minutes in XAT 2016 instead of only 1 minute 40 seconds in XAT 2015 or XAT 2014.

Apart from the increase in time for key 3 sections, additional time of 35 minutes will be awarded to solve 25 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) on General Knowledge and descriptive essay writing test. It is expected that the candidate will attempt all the 25 GK questions in 10 minutes and will be able to write a well worded essay in next 25 minutes.

You will also get a break of 5 minutes after attempting first 3 sections and going for GK and Essay Writing sections. According to Prof Munish Thakur Convener XAT 2015 and faculty XLRI Jamshedpur Five minutes is a turn around time from main paper to the GK section, as new OMR sheets have to be distributed.

Level of Difficulty goes down Since not more than 50% questions were attempted in past XAT exams, XLRI has decided to reduce the level of difficulty in XAT 2016 to attract candidates to attempt more number of questions. XAT Centre 2016 shares In order to enable students to attempt as many questions as possible and encourage them to demonstrate all-round skills, the difficulty level of the questions has been brought down.

According to XLRI In the previous years students would attempt only half of the questions, reducing the range of marks, scored among students. However, if the examination is made very easy, many would finish the test before time. It implies that the structure will not be easy for all the questions. Although level of difficulty may not be so low that all the test takers would be able to finish the test in assigned 170 minutes but it has been designed in such a manner that the top hundred students will be able to complete the test in 170 minutes.

The main objective to introduce this change according to XLRI is This way, the examination would avoid 2 possible errors: low range of scores and excellent students not getting enough opportunities to showcase their ability because of too easy a question paper.

Now XAT 2016 in its revised pattern and reduced difficulty level offers more opportunities to score higher than ever before. Still around a month is left to update the preparation for the exam according to the changed pattern.

No sectional time constraint There will not be any sectional time limit to attempt questions in a particular section. Candidates good in Quant or good in Verbal can begin with the section they like most, finish it in lesser time, go to the more difficult section and use the saved time on this section and score high by maximising the attempts in different sections.

Break to relax between 2 parts of exam Usually there is no break during any entrance exam whether CAT, CMAT, GMAT, NMAT, IIFT, SNAP or others. XAT 2016 will be the only entrance exam that will offer you a 5 minute break between 2 parts of the exam. This break will allow you to relax and re-energise yourself.

The first part of the XAT 2016 exam consisting of 3 sections namely Verbal Ability & Logical reasoning; Quantitative Ability, and Decision Making will be over in 170 minutes. Since it is a paper-pen based test, you will have to return the OMR sheets for this section and after collecting the OMR sheets, you will be provided with question booklet and OMR sheet for GK section followed by sheets for Essay writing test. The process will take 5 minutes, during which you have nothing to do with the question paper.

Low negative marking While CAT 2015 had a one-third negative marking for each wrong answer, XAT 2016 will impose only one-fourth negative marking. To encourage the candidates to attempt more questions in the exam, XAT 2016 has offered an incentive of not imposing any penalty for unattempted questions, if they do not exceed 13 in number out of 78.

XLRI has clarified In XAT-2016 students have a choice of not attempting 13 questions. Beyond 13 unattempted questions, any unattempted question will carry the negative mark of 0.05 and in addition there would also be negative marking of 0.25 marks for any wrong answer.

13 out of 78 comes to around 17% and it is understood that none of the candidates would like to leave 17% questions unattempted. The introduced pattern will discourage the candidates to leave more questions unattempted in XAT 2016. This will also help the candidates to improve their speed, although this year exam is going to be easier than earlier XAT exams.

In view of Prof S K Agarwal, expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on XAT 2016 preparation, aspirants who have registered and wish to appear in XAT 2016 are expected to find the examination more appealing and in line with their preparation methodology. Candidates do not have to fight with technical snags and glitches which is a property of computer based on line test.

There are more questions on error corrections and core grammar usage in XAT. Jumbled paragraphs are not so long as in CAT but there is more number of short RC passages having a length of around 500 words. Questions on use of phrases, idioms, figures of speech are more prominent in XAT. Prof Agarwal suggests that XAT aspirants should strengthen their fundamentals further.

In all other respects, XAT 2016 to be held on Jan 3, 2016 will be similar to earlier XAT exams and will continue to be a paper pen based test. It has been 60 years for XLRI, conducting yearly XAT in a conventional paper pen based pattern. The aim to continue the similar approach, according to Dr Munish Thakur is XAT ensures that all the candidates from varying backgrounds are at par. We believe that single testing session with same difficulty level will provide level playing field to all the test takers without any discrimination.

XAT is aimed to select the most appropriate candidates who wish to pursue management education. Around 90 thousand to 1 lakh candidates explore admission opportunities in XLRI and other member and affiliated B schools by registering for XAT every year.

Online registration and application process for XAT 2016 will close on December 10, 2015.