Students’ Speak: 3 tips to ace XAT 2020

By: Akila Narayanan

Management entrance exams are nearing and the candidates, who are aspiring to do their postgraduation in this area, have started preparing for the upcoming competitive exams in full swing. One of these exams is the Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT). Conducted once a year, XAT 2020 will be held on January 5 next year.

With less than one month’s time, it is important to concentrate on the topics that you need to prepare for. Almost all the competitive entrances have similar exam pattern.

I would suggest a candidate leave the questions without attempting if they are not sure with the exact answer as wrong answers would lead to negative marking. Since it is last-minute preparation, you will be able to assess the skills that you have learned to date through online mock tests. There is no limit for attending mock tests. You can take any number of mock tests to know how you have been preparing. Start taking up mock tests only closer to the date of the exam, like now. This is when you will be able to assess your performance.

Students should never get through any new topic before the day of the exam. You should only revise the topics that you have covered earlier. The most tricky questions in the exam are the ones from decision-making. It can get difficult and confusing. The questions will be completely based on real-time applications and you need to put forth your strongest side instead of correcting the weakest area.

Keep on revising the topics that you have been learning from the past few months. This will help you retain the knowledge for a longer duration. XAT is completely a challenging exam because of the high difficulty level when compared to the other competitive exams.

Also, keep a tab on the day-to-day general knowledge topics that are happening around the world.

Minimum questions you must answer:

In verbal and logical section, out of approximately 26 questions, you should target attempting 18-20 questions. If this section is your strength then you can target up to 26 attempts. However, do not attempt for the sake of attempting. If you are not sure of the answer, especially in Critical Reasoning and Sentence Correction, leave them without answering.

In the decision-making section, out of 21 questions, a candidate should target attempting 17-18 questions. Mostly this section will consist of behavioral- and mathematical situation-based questions.

In quantitative ability, the questions will appear from basic mathematics such as algebra, arithmetic, number systems and geometry. Out of 25 questions, a candidate should attempt 17-20 questions.

In general knowledge section, there will be 25 questions in total and a candidate has to attempt 7-10 questions maximum to get the targeted score.

Strategy to maximise your score:

The candidate should be clear when answering a question. Only when it is known correctly they should give an attempt. There are some candidates who attempt all the questions randomly and that’s when all the correct answers also go wrong and their final marks or percentile comes down. XAT exam should be worked out in a smart manner. Instead of attempting all the questions, even if a candidate attempts a few questions which they are familiar with, it is more than enough to get or score maximum marks in XAT.

About the Author:

Akila Narayanan is pursuing MBA from Thiagarajar School of Management, Madurai, with an interest in Marketing and Finance. She has completed her graduation from Velammal College of Engineering and Technology, Madurai. Her hobbies include playing guitar, badminton and reading books. She has also been awarded the first prize for a social welfare project titled “The Life Saving Block Detector”.