Decision Making Section Tests responses to Unstructured Managerial Situations: XAT Convenor Dr Vishwa Ballabh

XAT 2023 exam date is January 8, 2023 and this year XAT will be held in the afternoon session from 2 PM to 5.10 PM. With only a few days left for the XAT exam, the Countdown to XAT 2023 has truly begun and XLRI Jamshedpur is all set to conduct the exam across 70+ centres in India after recording a massive jump of 25% in the number of XAT registrations which have gone up at 98,242 applicants this year.

With a view to bust myths about XAT exam and to address XAT aspirants’ several queries including the XAT difficulty level, exam pattern, unique Decision Making section, last minute tips, MBAUniverse.com reached out to Dr Vishwa Ballabh, Convener of XAT and XLRI Jamshedpur Admission Chair, who has addressed various queries of XAT aspirants in a detailed video interview. MBAUniverse.com is publishing a series of articles and videos to dispel the myths around XAT. 

The first article published in the series was on XAT 2023 Exam Pattern and Difficulty level and here is the 2^nd article on all about the Decision Making section in XAT, what it is all about and how to approach it.  

Out of the 75 MCQs making 3 core XAT exam sections that will contribute to calculation of XAT 2023 percentile in the first stage of shortlisting, 21 will be in unique Decision Making section which is not found in any other MBA entrance exam. The Decision Making in XAT 2023 could be a turning point in getting shortlisted for XLRI admission batch 2023-25. XAT considers Decision making as a more relevant section and as such awards higher weightage to it than to LR questions, and equal weightage as awarded to Quant and Verbal Ability sections. The Problems on Decision Making will form an entire section in XAT 2023 with 21 questions in sets or individual pattern emphasising its importance in calculation of percentile and shortlisting for final admission round.  If you wish to improve and score high percentile in XAT 2023, you cannot run away from it.

The DM section could prove to be the game changer in the exam, said the XAT convener, Dr Vishwa Ballabh and has shared with MBAUniverse.com the why the Decision Making section in XAT is important, why it is included with key tips and his advice for XAT aspirants how to approach and crack this section

Decision Making Problems Test Your Responses to Unstructured Managerial Situations
The Decision Making section is unique to XAT exam and is known as a game changer. It tests how you respond to unstructured managerial situations. Sharing the importance of Decision Making section in XAT, Dr Vishwa Ballabh said, “Making decisions in business environment is something an MBA aspirant should be aware of. This is the reason that XAT emphasises on this module and has developed a separate section on Decision Making” and adds further “XLRI courses are designed to develop and enhance the analytical, problem solving and decision-making abilities to prepare a student for a career in industry and services.”  This has necessitated to include unique DM section. 
 

How to Approach Decision Making in XAT? Advice from XAT Convener

• Decision Making is a unique and important section in XAT and questions are set to assess the decision taking ability in a business situation
• The candidate should be composed and calm to arrive at the best decision in the given situation
• The best way is to think and apply your fine logic to arrive at the right decision which would also be your right answer option
• It is not necessary that you can crack all the questions of all the questions, but read, understand and approach with the logical thought which should be best for your business interest
• Do not make it a question of Do or Die as the difficulty level is same for all

Decision Making has gained more importance since 2012 when the questions on Decision Making were increased from 7-8 to 23-25. Besides, earlier these questions formed the part of other sections, now a complete section has been carved out on Decision Making problems.

Decision Making: A Key contributor to percentile
Out of the 75 MCQs contributing to calculation of XAT 2023 percentile in the first stage of shortlisting, 21 will be on Decision making with high weightage and 28% share of marks.

XAT 2023 will have sectional cut offs also. You may be very good on Quant, on Verbal and may score high in both these sections but if you lag behind in Decision Making section and are unable to clear the cut off, you will not be shortlisted. It is therefore of utmost importance to make sure that you are equally good while attempting the questions on Decision Making problems.

Ignoring the importance of this section in XAT 2023 will not only lead to a substantial dip in XAT percentile but also due to low scores in this section the candidate may not be shortlisted for final admission round.

Experts’ Tips: How to Approach the DM Section in XAT?
In view of the experts and mentors, the approach in arriving at the right answer option in this section, is

• Decisions should be clearly focussed
• You may have to address the problem in multiple ways
• Confusing and wrong decisions should be avoided.

Decision Making Vs Logical Reasoning Questions: Key Difference
XAT has both type of questions- the questions on Logical Reasoning which are clubbed to Quant section and questions on Decision Making section which is a stand alone section. Key difference between questions on Logical Reasoning and Decision Making is:

Decision Making	Logical Reasoning
Decision Making focuses on answering questions about preferences and choice between/among two or more activities, e.g., in the context of an autonomous agent trying to fulfil a task for a human.	Reasoning is related to answering questions from diverse data without human intervention or help. The data is given in some formal system whose semantics is clear
Many times in decision making earlier actions affect later decisions. The decisions taken there involve achieving goals or optimizing some criteria such as plan length, actions’ cost, or future expected accumulated reward.	The problems are to be solved with logic and given data

How to prepare for Decision Making?
The preparation strategy, according to experts, to score more in Decision making section should be:

• Study the material to build the basics on XAT Decision Making questions
• Clarify all your doubts with an expert in this section
• Practice as many questions of different types as possible
• It is never suggested that you should immediately jump to solve the different types of problems. Study the situation, learn to analyse all the pros and cons and then arrive at most appropriate decision.
• XAT 2023 aspirants have to focus on right direction of their study pattern to prepare for Decision Making section.

Format & Type of Decision Making Questions in XAT

• A passage with certain information is followed by a set of 4-5 questions. Each of the questions is again followed by 5 close decision making answer options.
• The questions may be on what should be the decision in the given situation, how it should be taken, why it should be taken-factors influencing the decision or who should take it.
• The passage will have information based on a tricky situation. The test taker is expected to decide the best and preferred course of action to tackle the situation. You will have to identify the reasons leading to the situation and opt for best course of action to defuse and move forward in the given situation.
• The passage will be followed by a set of varying questions. You are supposed to approach the situation skilfully taking decision as a leader with intelligence, determining the priorities of organization while working in a team.

How to tackle Decision Making Questions: Tips & Tricks

• The first and foremost thing is to read and understand the given data, facts, information in the passage.
• It is advised to go through the information with an open mind and read it attentively.
• Now read the questions one by one. Try to get to the core of question as to what is being asked for.
• Then move to get the available information, whether you have all of that or the requirement is more than the availability.
• Now comes the time to analyse the information in right perspective and fit it into a problem solving structure. 
• Once the given data is classified, arriving at the answer will be easier.
• The best way to prepare and crack the problems is to develop the analysing skills by practicing more and more questions

Conducted by XLRI for the last 72 years, XAT is the mandatory entrance exam for XLRI admission. XAT scores are also accepted by 160 B-schools including top MBA colleges like XIMB, MICA, IMI, IMT, IRMA, GIM Goa, Great Lakes among others.

Special Resources for XAT 2023 on MBAUniverse.com
To help you prepare well and get ready for D Day, MBAUniverse.com offers many resources. Some of them are:

• XAT 2023 Exam Pattern will be similar to Last Year’s Paper
• Take XAT 2023 Mock Test
• XAT 2022 Topper Kanika Mehra
• Success mantra by Shekhar Kapoor XAT topper
• XAT Previous Year Question Papers

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on XAT 2023