Xavier Aptitude Test 2026 ( XAT )
XAT 2025 exam analysis and review is now available. The XAT exam was of moderate difficulty level. It had quite a few DI questions, which is unusual for this exam. Check out in-depth XAT 2025 analysis and expected cut offs here.
XAT 2025 exam analysis
XAT 2025 exam analysis - The question paper of XAT 2025 exam was of moderate difficulty. Decision Making questions were slightly lengthy but doable. Quantitative Aptitude questions were moderate, VALR and GK were easy.
The in-depth XAT analysis, has been shared below. It includes detailed review of sectional difficulty level, topic wise weightage, types of questions, number of good attempts and expected XAT cut offs for XLRI admission. The XAT exam analysis 2025 will help XAT candidates in assessing their performance and evaluating their admission chances to XLRI and other top B Schools.
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Latest: XAT response sheet 2025 live updates- check date and process to download
XAT 2025 question paper and answer key (memory based) PDF download
Check below key highlights of XAT 2025 exam:
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XAT 2025 exam was of moderate difficulty level. The students who had appeared for the exam last year, said the XAT 2025 question paper was not much different. Section wise, Quantitative Aptitude questions were on the tougher side, Verbal Ability and Decision Making were easy to moderate and GK was easy.
There was one poem for RC as always. Quantitative Aptitude section was dominated by Arithmetic and GK had questions on very recent events.
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Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation section has the maximum weightage in XAT with 28 questions and 28 marks. And GK has minimum weightage. Given below is the sectional break-up of the XAT 2025 question paper.
| XAT Sections |
No. of Questions |
Total Marks |
Level of Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decision Making |
21 |
21 |
Moderate to Difficult |
| Verbal and Logical Ability |
26 |
26 |
Moderate |
| Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation |
28 |
28 |
Moderate to Difficult |
| General Knowledge |
20 |
20 |
Easy |
| Total |
95 |
95 |
Moderate |
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Check below section wise number of good attempts in XAT exam 2025:
| XAT sections |
Number of good attempts |
|---|---|
| VALR |
13-14 |
| Decision Making |
11-12 |
| QA DI |
18-19 |
| GK |
10-11 |
There were no Quant based DM questions this year. There were 7 sets of 3 questions each. Some of the questions were tricky and inference based. The difficulty level can be considered as moderate. About 11-12 questions with 75-80% accuracy will be considered good in this section.
As per the XAT 2025 exam analysis, this section was moderately difficult. Out of 26 questions, 17 were Reading Comprehension based and 9 were Verbal Ability/Reasoning based. There were 5 RC passages including a poem. The poem-based RC was difficult. Check below the break of VALR section of XAT question paper 2025.
| VALR Section |
No. of Questions |
|---|---|
| RC Passages – 5 (300-450 words) |
15 |
| Grammatically correct sentence |
2 |
| Fill in the blanks (4 blanks) |
1 |
| Jumbled Paragraphs (5 statements) |
2 |
| Critical Reasoning |
3 |
| Main idea/message of the given image |
1 |
| Poem-based passage |
2 |
In the QA DI section of XAT 2025 question paper, 16 questions were on Quantitative Ability and 12 were on Data Interpretation. Arithmetic and Mensuration dominated QA, while DI had four sets of three questions each. Check below topic wise break up of XAT 2025 QA DI section:
| Quantitative Aptitude/Data Interpretation |
Total |
|---|---|
| Arithmetic |
3 |
| Geometry |
5 |
| Modern Math |
3 |
| Algebra |
3 |
| Numbers |
2 |
| Scatter Plot / Line Graph (observation) based set |
3 |
| Arithmetic based set |
3 |
| Average based set |
3 |
| Number-matrix based set |
3 |
| Total QA-DI |
28 |
There were 20 easy questions in GK questions. This year, more questions were asked on current affairs. Many questions were on recent events. The break up was:
Current Affairs: 12 questions
Static GK: 8 questions
Given below is the table indicating how much XAT score will convert into how much XAT percentile. XAT cut offs 2025 are expected to be in the same range.
| XAT Percentile |
VA & LR |
DM |
QA & DI |
Overall XAT score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 99 |
16-17 |
14-15 |
16-17 |
42-44 |
| 95 |
13-14 |
12-13 |
12-13 |
35-37 |
| 90 |
11-12 |
11-12 |
11-12 |
30-32 |
| 75 |
8-9 |
9-10 |
7-8 |
25-27 |
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Vipra Shrivastava is MA in English Literature from Delhi University with extensive experience in content writing of over 14 years. She has been handling content for Management, Accounting and Commerce streams for 8
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Anything you would want to ask experts?Answered a week ago
XAT 2026 result will not be sent in email. However, XLRI will send an email to candidates informing them about the availability of scorecard and how to download it. Candidates must keep a check on their email account for result notification.
P
Contributor-Level 6
Answered a week ago
XAT 2026 result date has not been announced by XLRI. However, since the scorecards are released by the third week of January every year, the XAT result 2026 can also be expected to be released by January 17 or 20, 2026.
N
Contributor-Level 6
Answered a week ago
The Bangalore University MBA Cutoff 2025 has been announced for admission to the MBA/PGDM programme via the Karnataka PGCET, CAT, NMAT, XAT, and other accepted exams. According to the Bangalore University Karnataka PGCET Cutoff 2025, students needed to obtain a rank of 3375 for admission to ABBS Ba
N
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a week ago
Every question of XAT carries 1 mark and a score of 38 to 42 usually covert into 99 percentile, so candidates should aim for the same number of correct attempts in the exam. XAT has negative marking so they should not attempt any question, if they are not sure of, otherwise it will affect the overal
N
Contributor-Level 6
Answered a week ago
The CCSU MBA Cutoff 2025 has been released for admission to the MBA programme via the XAT, MAT and CAT entrance examinations. The CCSU XAT Cutoff 2025 was 50 for the Gender-Neutral Candidates under the All India quota. In the case of CCSU MAT Cutoff 2025, the qualfying cutoff percentile was 75 for t
N
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 2 weeks ago
GIBS accepts scores from all major management entrance exams, including:
CAT
XAT
MAT
CMAT
GMAT
ATMA
State CET
This gives students multiple options to apply. Along with entrance exam scores, GIBS also looks at the overall profile, communication skills, and interest in management, which makes the admission pr
A
Contributor-Level 9
Answered 3 weeks ago
Yes, apart from CAT/XAT/MAT/CMAT/ATMA, PIBM conducts its own entrance exam called PMAT (PIBM's Online Aptitude Test). Shortlisted candidates from PMAT then appear for the Written Test, Group Discussion (GD), and Personal Interview (PI) as part of the selection process.
R
Beginner-Level 5
Answered 3 weeks ago
Yes, if you have secured an 82nd percentile in XAT, you can get the scholarships for pursuing an MBA course at FOSSTIMA Business School. The concessions on fees that the school provides are:
A
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 3 weeks ago
No. Scores in CAT/XAT/GMAT is not mandatory for admission into BITS Pilani MBA in Business Analytics. However, those who have appeared for these entrance exams will get their score considered in the selection criteria. Appearing for BAAT exam is mandatory for MBA Business Analytics admission.
D
Contributor-Level 6
Answered 3 weeks ago
The XAT Cutoff 2025 was released for admission to the MBA/ PGDM programme for Gender-Neutral candidates belonging to the All India quota. The Rajagiri Business School XAT Cutoff 2025 was 15 percentile for admission to the PGDM course. Candidates needed to secure at least 15 percentile to avail admis
N
Contributor-Level 10
Yes, XAT is slightly tougher for candidates with non-Engineering background as the Quantitative Aptitude section is of higher difficulty level. However, they can crack it if they work on the fundamentals of Math and practice questions of all difficulty levels. It will take time but they will be able to crack XAT's quant section if they dedicate extra hours to it. Aspirants can find XAT study material online in various online study groups. Students’ groups on Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. share study material with each other. One can also download MBA exam preparation apps to get relevant and useful study material.
The good part about XAT is that, it has different cut offs for candidates belonging to different academic backgrounds. As part of its commitment to academic diversity, the institute has lower cut offs for candidates from non-engineering background than candidates from engineering background.