XAT 2021 Analysis: Decision Making Tricky, Quant Moderate; Check Difficulty Level, Cut offs

XAT 2021 Analysis is given below! The XAT 2021 got over at 12.30 PM on Sunday, January 3, 2021 with many substantial changes introduced in the exam. This year the Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) began at 9.30 AM with a time duration of 3 hours instead of earlier three and half hours as a computer based test.

XAT 2021 has been reported a bit more difficult exam with tricky Decision Making and it is expected that XAT cut offs may remain low in view of the difficulty level of the exam.

XAT 2021 was the fourth computer based test conducted by XLRI in the history of 60 years of conducting XAT. Although the technical glitches were minimal in the computer based XAT, a bit of problems were reported at some of the centres which were overcome promptly.

XAT 2021 was conducted in 72 test cities in India and did not have any test city abroad. Earlier the exam was conducted in 49 test cities including 2 test cities abroad.

While there was no surprise element in the test structure of XAT 2021 Exam, it had number of changes.

Overall XAT 2021 Exam Analysis:

• Total questions increased to 100 from 99 last year
• No Essay Writing test
• NAT Questions without negative marking introduced
• Decision Making section remains tricky
• Quant section is of moderate difficulty
• Many Candidates could attempt less than 50% questions
• Test timing changed - 9.30AM to 12.30PM from 10AM to 1 PM
• All questions were of MCQ type
• GK section not counted for percentile calculation
• Negative Marking of 25%.
• RC passages rated moderate
• Visually impaired candidates with scribe were given additional 25 minutes only for Part 1 of XAT.
• Marks for every correct answer : 1
• No Negative marking for General Knowledge section in part-2
• All the MCQ type questions had five options with one correct option
• Expected XLRI cut off to remain 33-35 marks

XAT 2021 Pattern: Exam Divided in Two Parts
XAT 2021 was divided in two parts. The 3 sections in Part one are counted for percentile calculation to prepare the merit list while the score in GK in part two is kept out of preparing the merit list:

Candidate were allowed to go to Part 2 in XAT 2021 after completing the time duration of 165 minutes in Part 1

No Negative Marking Questions in XAT 2021
Few questions without negative marking were introduced in XAT 2021 in each section. This will provide level playing field for the candidates who are weak in one section and strong in other section as they need not fear the penalty of negative marking in the exam. Last year XLRI proposed to introduce these type of NAT questions but could not do it. This year the same has been introduced. Procedure for answering a numerical answer type (NAT) question was to enter a numerical answer by making use of virtual numeric keypad that appeared below the question. Step-wise procedure to answer the question was as under:

• To enter a numerical answer, candidate had to use the virtual numeric keypad that appeared below the question
• A fractional number in the decimal notation (e.g. -0.3 or -.3) could be entered as an answer with or without '0' before the decimal point.
• To clear the answer, click on the Clear Response button was required.

XAT 2021 Sectional Analysis
Part-1 in XAT 2021 had 75 questions divided in three sections which included MCQs. Part-II in XAT 2021 had 25 GK questions. Here is Section wise XAT 2021 Exam Analysis:

Section-1: Verbal and Logical Ability- 26 questions

• Similar to Last year Question paper
• The Section had 17 Reading Comprehension questions based on 6 RC passages and one poem
• The poem was a short one as was last year, but was abstract
• The six passages were of 150 - 350 words each
• The section had 9 Verbal Ability/Reasoning questions
• The Verbal ability and Verbal Reasoning questions were based on grammar, vocabulary,   reasoning including Critical Reasoning and Jumbled Paragraphs
• RC Passages were of medium to high difficulty level
• Almost all the questions were inferential and application-based
• The options were close and the directions emphasised to choose the best option among them

Good Attempts: An attempt of about 14-15 questions in this section in about 50-55 minutes, with about 75% accuracy would be considered a good attempt.

Section-2: Decision Making (DM) - 21 Questions

• Out of 21 questions in this section, no question was based on quant 
• DM section had 7 sets of 3 questions each
• Most of the problem sets were short and easy to read
• Some questions were tricky and ambiguous as no answer seemed correct and more than one option appeared correct
• Questions were of medium difficulty
• The section was more difficult compared to last year

Good Attempts: An attempt of about 11-13 questions with about 80% accuracy in 55 minutes would be good to cross cut offs.

Section-3: Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation - 28 questions

• Out of the 28 questions, 19 were on Quantitative Ability and 9 were on Data Interpretation
• One question in the question was based on logic
• There were three sets on Data Interpretation with three questions each
• The set on Venn Diagram was Difficult
• Other two sets based on table, based on scatter plot were of medium Difficulty Level
• There were a few sitters which should have been attempted
• The section had many time consuming questions
• This section was of moderate difficulty level

Good Attempts: An attempt of about 16-18 questions with 80 percent accuracy in 55-60 minutes would be considered a good attempt.

Part-2: Section-IV – General Awareness: 25 Questions

• No break between Part-I and Part-II of XAT question paper
• 25 GK questions were divided into 15 current affairs questions and 10 static GK questions
• GK section was more difficult than last year
• 14 questions were based on national events
• 10 questions were based on international events
• 1 question was based on general science
• Questions covered a wide range of diverse areas including Science, History, Geography, Business, Economy, Who’s Who, books, authors
• One could have attempted 15 questions very well
• Since there was no negative marking in this section, all the questions could be attempted
• 7-8 Marks in this section would be a good score

Expected Cut Offs: Overall & Section-wise

• XAT 2021 was similar to 2019 exam in difficulty level.
• VARC and DM Sections were like last year

Based on the various parameters and difficulty level of XAT 2021 exam, following are the expected cut-offs for XLRI BM and HRM programs:

XLRI PGDM-BM 2021-23 Cut offs

XLRI PGDM-HRM 2021-23 Cut offs

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on XAT 2021