XAT 2006 analysis

XLRI Admission Test January 08, 2006

We are pleased to present you the detailed analysis of XAT held on January 8, 2006.

The Mathematical Aptitude section was the toughest and had questions from Higher Maths too. In the Verbal Ability sections the path was not sleek and one had to read the directions for each set of questions. The DI and LR part was comparatively easy than the MA and VA part. In the LR part there were five sets of Data Arrangement while in DI there were questions based on tables and Pie charts. Overall the paper was TOUGH.

The weightage of each question was same although it was not declared. 33% negative marking was declared for first 5 questions that one gets wrong in every section and there after 50% for the rest of the questions going wrong. Thus, while taking the test, students had to concentrate more on accuracy.

It was clearly instructed in the paper that candidate has to answer questions from all the three sections and expected to maximize the score in each section, that means there were sectional cut-offs in the paper. Comparing with the last year's XAT

1. Total number of questions reduced to 127 from 175.

2. General Awareness section eliminated.

3. 50% negative marking for more than five questions wrong in each section.

4. Declared that there will sectional cut-offs in the paper.

It was announced by the XAT that the result will be declared in the last week of January.

Bird's eye view:
Total questions 127 Objective type questions + One essay

Total time 120 minutes + 20 minutes

Total marks not declared

Sectional Break-up not declared

Section	Topic	Number of Questions	Difficulty Level
I	Mathematical Aptitude	44	Tough
II	Verbal Ability	40	Tough
III	Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning	43	Moderate
	Total	127	Moderate

Number of Options : Four

Disclaimer:. We are merely reproducing a few of them here in fragments to ensure that the huge community of students eagerly waiting to see an objective comparison of their performance gets the right picture.

Detailed Analysis

SECTION I MATHEMATICAL APTITUDE

There were total 44 questions in these sections. The questions were tough and most of the questions were from Higher Maths, like Definite Integration, Co-ordinate Geometry, Probability, Permutation & Combination, Functions, Inequalities etc. Some questions were on Data Sufficiency and Arithmetic. The topic wise breakup of the questions is as follows.

Topics	Number of Questions	Level of Difficulty
Arithmetic (5)
Numbers	1	Moderate
Compound Interest	1
Time Speed and Distance	1
Mathematical Reasoning	2
Geometry (8)
Co-ordinate Geometry	1	Tough
Trigonometry	2
Circles	2
Triangles	2
Mensuration	1
Algebra (11)
Probability and permutation and Combination	4	Moderate
Maxima and Minima	2
Inequalities	2
Quadratic Equations	2
Logarithm	1
Functions and Sets	15	Moderate
Data Sufficiency	4
Sequence and Series	1
Limits and Definite Integral	1
Total	44

An attempt of 16-20 questions in a time limit of 40-45 minutes with 85% accuracy will be a decent one. Expected cut-off likely to be around 10 marks (if one mark is given for each correct answer).


SECTION II VERBAL ABILITY

The section comprised 40 questions on Reading Comprehension and English Usage. 24 questions from RC and 16 questions from EU. There were five passages of which one was based on a conversation. In English usage there were questions on Para Jumbling, Identify the type of passage, Phrases, Critical Reasoning and Fill in the Blanks. Two new types were introduced, identification of the type of passage and the other was Vocabulary based. The bird's eye view of the section is as follows

Topics		Number of Questions	Level of Difficulty
Reading Comprehension (24)
Passage I	Difficulties in patenting of the discoveries of different bacterium	3	Moderate
Passage II	Authentic Democracy	6
Passage III	Report on a book	7
Passage IV	Cosmological Episodes	6
Passage V	Conversation between an American and a Japanese	2
English Usage (16)
Identify the type of passage		1	Moderate
Meaning and replacement of word		3
Meaning of a phrase		1
Synonyms		2
Fill in the blanks		2
Para Jumble		3
Critical Reasoning		4
Total		40

An attempt of 20-22 questions in a time limit of 35-40 minutes with 85% accuracy will be a decent one for this section. Expected cut-off likely to be around 13 marks (if one mark is given for each correct answer).