CEREBRAL HEIGHTS :: XAT 2008 Analysis

XAT 2008 was on expected lines tough, with differential negative marking and most important expected to throw low cut offs. The question paper had 2-3 questions which were erroneous. The overall difficulty level as expected was high and considering the fact that the time allocated was 2 hrs for the main test it was in every sense tough exam.

Exam Snapshot

Total Duration of the exam 120 minutes + 20 minutes for essay

Number of Questions 120

Number of Sections 3

Number of choices per question 5

Sectional timing No sectional timing

Marks per question 1 Mark (assumption)

Negative Marking ¼ for first 6 wrongs & ½ thereafter*

Test Structure

Section	Topics	Number of questions	Possible Attempts	XLRI Cut-offs
1	Verbal & Logical Ability	38	18-20	13-15
2	AR and Decision Making	38	15-18	10-11
3	QA & DI	44	12-15	8-10
	Total	120	45-50	36-38

Sectional Analysis

Section I – Verbal and Logical Ability

This section was a reading intensive one and the focus was more on reading and reasoning. Questions based on grammar concepts were absent. There were 20 questions based on four reading comprehension passages and 10 questions based on 6 caselets.

5 questions based on contextual usage of words of Fill in the blank type were also there. To round of the section there were 3 para jumble questions. The questions were difficult with close options. Only the caselets were easy. Overall one would do well to attempt 20-22 questions.

Section II-Analytical Reasoning and Decision Making

In this section of 38 questions, 28 were on Analytical Reasoning and 10 on Decision Making Ability. Some of the AR sets were very time consuming. On the other hand, the Decision Making Ability questions were relatively less time taking. Overall, the section had a high difficulty level. 15-18 attempts with an investment of 40 minutes would have been ideal.

Section III QA and DI

No. of Questions : 38

This section turned out to be the most difficult for the test takers and the cutoffs are expected to be lower. The DI sets pertaining to the line graphs were easy and should have been attempted. The DI sets on the Tables involved very complex calculations and should have been avoided. The arithmetic section had very few easy questions and locating them and solving them was the key in salvaging this section. The geometry questions were very tough. The general reasoning questions were easy.

Overall attempts of 12-14 with scores of about 10 would be considered decent in this section.

Likely Cut-Offs for institutes:

Institute	Cut-off
Expected cut-off XLRI	35-36
Expected cut-off SP Jain	30-32
Expected cut-off XIMB	30-32
Expected cut-off GIM/BIM	27-29
Expected cut-off LIBA	24-25