XAT 2025 Exam Analysis: Very Lengthy and Moderately Difficult Paper; Cut Offs to drop marginally
XAT Exam Paper Analysis 2025: XAT Exam was held on January 5, 2025. XAT 2025 was a very lengthy paper with a slightly higher difficulty level paper compared to XAT 2024. Decision Making section was particularly lengthy and tricky. VARC and DI sections were of higher difficulty level too. Check complete XAT Exam Analysis, Section-wise Topics, Type of Questions, Difficulty Level in the article below. XLRI XAT Cut Off are expected to drop marginally.
Table of Content
1. XAT Exam Analysis 2025: Key Coverage Areas
2. XAT Exam Pattern 2025
3. XAT Exam Analysis 2025 – Difficulty Level and Type of Questions
4. XAT Marking Scheme 2025
5. XAT Score vs Percentile 2025
6. XAT Cut Offs for XLRI Jamshedpur
7. XAT Exam Analysis 2024: Sectional Composition & Scoring Pattern
8. XAT 2024 Sectional Analysis
1. XAT Exam Analysis 2025: Key Coverage Areas
This XAT Exam Analysis 2025 covers all the important areas of XAT exam as below:
- Exam Pattern & Key Changes
- Variation as compared to last year in Topics, Type of Questions for each section
- Any Surprise elements in Exam paper
- Exam Difficulty Level: Overall & Section wise Analysis
- Required Good Attempts: Overall and Section wise
- Sectional Cut off Predictions Slot wise as per the difficulty level
- XAT Score Vs Percentile 2025 estimates
2. XAT Exam Pattern 2025
XAT 2025 was a difficult paper, and also very lengthy. All sections required a lot of reading. Decision Making section was particularly very lengthy and tricky.
XAT Exam Pattern 2025 was divided in four sections: Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning; Decision Making; Quantitative Aptitude & Data Interpretation and General Knowledge. Total number of questions in XAT 2025 Exam were 95. Exam duration was 3 hours, 10 minutes. Overall, XAT 2025 exam pattern was quite different from CAT exam and tougher.
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Exam Sections
|
Number of questions
|
Overall Time & Scoring Pattern
|
|
Part-1
|
75 Total MCQs
| 170 Minutes. Max.75 Marks(+1 Mark for each Correct answer; -0.25 Negative Marking for each wrong answer) |
|
Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning
|
26
| No Sectional Time Limit. +1 and -0.25 (Max 26 Marks) |
|
Decision Making
|
21
| No Sectional Time Limit. +1 and – 0.25(Max 22 Marks) |
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Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation
|
28
| No Sectional Time Limit. +1 and – 0.25 (Max 28 Marks) |
|
Part-2
|
20 Total MCQs
| 10 Minutes |
|
General Knowledge
| 20 | Complete in 10 Minutes. +1; No Negative Marking (Max 20 Marks) |
|
Total questions (Part 1 + Part 2)
| 95 MCQs | Max 95 Marks |
3. XAT Exam Analysis 2025 – Difficulty Level and Type of Questions
XAT Exam Difficulty Level
Overall, XAT-2025 was more difficulty that XAT 2024. The DM Section had a few questions which were more difficulty and tricky. The VALR section was more challenging than the same section in XAT 2024. In the QA-DI section, the QA portion was at par with XAT-2024, but the DI portion was more difficulty than XAT-2024. Overall, XAT 2025 was a slightly tougher paper than XAT 2024.
XAT Exam Analysis 2025 – Type of Questions in Each Section
Here is the XAT exam analysis 2025 for each section.
a) Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning Section
There were 17 Reading Comprehension questions and 9 Verbal Ability/Reasoning questions. The Verbal ability/Verbal Reasoning questions were a mix of grammar, vocabulary, and reasoning-based questions (Critical Reasoning and Jumbled Paragraphs). The RC questions were distributed in five passages and one poem. The poem-based RC was difficult. The remaining five passages were of 300 – 450 words each approximately. They had a mixture of medium to difficult questions. Many of the questions were inferential and application-based.
| Area/Questions | No. of Qs | Level of Difficulty |
| Grammatically correct sentence | 2 | Medium |
| Fill in the blanks (4 blanks) | 1 | Medium |
| Jumbled Paragraphs (5 statements) | 2 | Medium |
| Critical Reasoning | 3 | Medium |
| Main idea/message of the given image | 1 | Medium |
| RC Passages – 5 (300-450 words) | 15 | Difficult |
| Poem-based passage | 2 | Difficult |
b) Decision Making
This section consisted of 21 questions. The section consisted of 7 sets of 3 questions each. As usual, some questions had a fair deal of ambiguity – in that either no answer seemed correct or more than one option appeared correct. Overall, the questions were of medium to high difficulty. There was no Quantitative based DM set in this year’s test.
c) Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation
Out of the 28 questions in the section, 16 were on Quantitative Ability and 12 were on Data Interpretation.
- In Arithmetic 1 question was on Ratio Proportion, 1 question was on Simple Interest, and 1 question was on Averages.
- In Algebra, 2 questions were on Coordinate Geometry.
- In Geometry, 1 question was on Mensuration, 1 question was on Circles, 1 question was on Frustum, and 2 questions were on Quadrilaterals. In Modern maths, 1 question was on Probability and Quadratic Equations, and 1 question was on Logarithm.
- In Numbers, 1 question was from HCF-LCM and 1 question was on Indices.
There were four sets of Data Interpretation with 3 questions in each set. One set was based on Arithmetic, one was based on Averages, one was Number-matrix based and one was Scatter Plot / Line Graph based. Among these 4 sets, two were reasoning based DI sets and one was observation-based set.
As a whole, the QA portion was slightly easier than XAT-2024, but the DI portion was slightly more challenging than XAT-2024.
Following is the break-up of the questions in the section:
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Quantitative Ability (16 questions)
| |
|
|
Total
|
|
Arithmetic
| 3 |
|
Geometry
| 5 |
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Modern Math
|
3
|
|
Algebra
| 3 |
|
Numbers
| 2 |
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Total QA
|
16
|
|
Data Interpretation (12 questions)
| |
| Scatter Plot / Line Graph (observation) based set |
3
|
| Arithmetic based set |
3
|
| Average based set |
3
|
| Number-matrix based set | 3 |
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Total DI
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12
|
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Total QA-DI
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28
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General Knowledge Section
The 20 GK questions comprised 12 current affairs questions and 8 static GK questions.
- MGM Studios acquisition
- Booker Prize-winning book
- Nobel Peace Prize
- Economics Nobel Prize
- Gukesh's opponent
- Table Tennis Asian Championship – first-time medal by any Indian
- Floating National Park
- Commander-in-Chief of Armed Forces
- INS ship commissioned in December (Where was it built?)
- Shrinkflation question
- Matching authors to books: Dune, The Three-Body Problem, A Brief History of Time, The Time Machine, The Martian
- Matching people to awards: Manmohan Singh, Ratan Tata, Zakir Hussain
- Dronacharya Award
- AI app launched by the government
- Chalo India e-Visa
- Airlines matching: IndiGo, Tigerair, AirAsia, Jeju Air
- First woman Prime Minister in the world
- Dhimsa dance
- Volcano eruption
- Country that exited NATO
4. XAT Marking Scheme 2025
XAT 2025 Exam marking Scheme was quite different from CAT Exam. XAT 2025 exam followed a ‘structured marking scheme’ that was designed to reward correct answers, and penalises incorrect responses and excessive skipping of questions. Here are the details:
- Marks per Question: Each question carries 1 Mark.
- Marks for Correct Answers: 1.0 Mark is awarded for every correct answer
- Marks for Wrong Answer: XAT has negative marking for incorrect answers. 0.25 marks is deducted for every incorrect answer.
- Penalty for Skipping Questions: You can skip up to 8 questions without any penalty. For each question skipped after the 8th one, a penalty of 0.1 marks per question will be applied.
- No Negative Marking in GK Section. Marks in GK Section will NOT be included in calculating overall XAT 2025 percentile or XAT cutoff score.
More details will be updated soon. Previous Year XAT exam analysis follows.
5. XAT Score vs Percentile 2025
Overall, XAT 2025 was a difficult paper and also lengthy. Decision Making section was particularly very lengthy and tricky. Cut Offs and XAT Score Vs Percentile requirements are expected to drop marginally. Check first estimates below. They may be updated after more student feedback.
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Score
|
Percentile
|
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35-36
|
99
|
|
30-31
|
95
|
|
25-27
| 90 |
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22-24
| 85 |
|
19-21
| 80 |
|
16-18
| 75 |
Read complete details on XAT Score vs Percentile.
6. XAT Cut Offs for XLRI Jamshedpur
XAT 2025 Cut Offs for XLRI Jamshedpur are expected to be as follows:
XLRI Jamshedpur Business Management Program: 96 percentile (31-32 Marks) for male candidates with an engineering background, while non-engineer males have a slightly adjusted cutoff at 95 percentile (30 marks).
XLRI Jamshedpur Human Resource Management Program: male engineers are expected to meet a 95 percentile threshold, whereas non-engineer males will be considered at a 93 percentile.
Read complete details on XAT Cut Offs for XLRI Jamshedpur. Also check XAT Cut Offs for other XAT colleges.
7. XAT Exam Analysis 2024: Sectional Composition & Scoring Pattern
XAT Analysis 2024 with sectional composition and key changes in XAT paper 2024, sectional division of questions in revised XAT test pattern are shared below
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Exam Sections
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Number of questions
|
Overall Time & Scoring Pattern
|
|
Part-1
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75 Total MCQs
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175 Minutes. Max.75 Marks(+1 Mark for each Correct answer; -0.25 Negative Marking for each wrong answer)
|
|
Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning
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26
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No Sectional Time Limit. +1 and -0.25 (Max 26 Marks)
|
|
Decision Making
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21
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No Sectional Time Limit. +1 and – 0.25(Max 22 Marks)
|
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Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation
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28
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No Sectional Time Limit. +1 and – 0.25 (Max 28 Marks)
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Part-2
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25 Total MCQs + Essay Writing Test
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30 Minutes
|
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General Knowledge
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25
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Complete both parts in 30 Minutes. +1; No Negative Marking (Max 25 Marks)
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Analytical Essay Writing (AEW)
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1 Descriptive Topic
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Will be evaluated if you are shortlisted for PI round.
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Total questions (Part 1 + Part 2)
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100+ 1 Essay
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Max 101 Marks; Essay Evaluation after shortlisting is over based on score obtained in Part-1 sections
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8. XAT 2024 Sectional Analysis
Verbal and Logical Ability Section: 26 Questions
There were 15 Reading Comprehension questions and 11 Verbal Ability/Reasoning questions. The Verbal ability/Verbal Reasoning questions were a fair mix of grammar, vocabulary, and reasoning-based questions (Critical Reasoning and Jumbled Paragraphs). The 15 RC questions were distributed among five passages (of 300 – 450 words each) and one poem. Check complete details below.
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Area/Questions
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No. of Qs.
|
|
Grammatically correct sentence
|
2
|
|
Grammatically incorrect sentence
|
1
|
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Fill in the blanks (2 blanks)
|
2
|
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Jumbled Paragraphs (5 statements)
|
2
|
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Critical Reasoning
|
3
|
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Summary
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1
|
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Passage 1 (Beauty)
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2
|
|
Passage 2 (The problem of unrecognized ignorance)
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3
|
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Passage 3 (Simplified moral frames)
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3
|
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Passage 4 (Reductive instinct and realist storytelling)
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2
|
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Passage 5 (Mass vaccination and herd immunity)
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3
|
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Passage 6 (Poem)
|
2
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Decision Making: 21 Questions
There was no Quantitative DM set in this year’s test. The section consisted of 7 sets of 3 questions each. Check complete details below.
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Area/Questions
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No. of Qs.
|
|
1. HR Caselet – Experience credentials
|
3
|
|
2. ABC Business School policies
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3
|
|
3. Competition between taxi drivers
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3
|
|
4. Car sales
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3
|
|
5. Wrongful termination of domestic help
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3
|
|
6. HR Caselet – ‘Symbolics’ IT firm
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3
|
|
7. Deep Sea Natural Gas Extraction
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3
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Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation: 28 Questions
Out of the 28 questions in the section, 15 were on Quantitative Ability and 13 were on Data Interpretation. Check complete details below.
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Quantitative Ability (15 questions)
| ||||
|
|
Easy
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Medium
|
Difficult
|
Total
|
|
Arithmetic
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
2
|
|
Geometry
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
|
Modern Math
|
0
|
2
|
1
|
3
|
|
Algebra
|
3
|
2
|
0
|
5
|
|
Numbers
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
|
Total QA
|
5
|
7
|
3
|
15
|
|
Data Interpretation (13 questions)
| ||||
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Statistics based set
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
|
Average based set
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
3
|
|
Algebra
|
0
|
3
|
0
|
3
|
|
Algebra
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
2
|
|
Set theory
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
|
Total DI
|
6
|
7
|
0
|
13
|
|
Total QA-DI
|
11
|
14
|
3
|
28
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General Knowledge: 25 Questions
The 25 GK questions comprised 16 current affairs questions and 9 static GK questions.
Essay Writing: Three Topics
The test-taker had to select one topic out of three and write an essay in around 250 words. The topics for the essay writing task were:
Tech predictions are not reliable, because of the lack of creativity and human based thinking;
Imposing more stringent rule on social media is necessary to prevent false information
We should not prioritize a thing that matters the most, at the cost of leaving a thing that matters the least.
In summary, XAT exam was held on January 5, 2025. XAT Analysis 2025 reveals that XAT 2025 was a slightly more difficult paper and also lengthy. Decision Making section was particularly very lengthy and tricky. XLRI Cut Offs and XAT Score Vs Percentile requirements are expected to drop marginally. You can save and download this XAT Exam Analysis PDF. XAT 2025 Analysis includes analysis of Exam Pattern, Section-wise Topics, Type of Questions and Difficulty Level, and XAT Score Vs Percentile 2025.
Read other important details on XAT 2025 Exam
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Read other important details on XAT 2025 Exam
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