XAT online the MBA Entrance Test conducted by the coveted XLRI announced significant changes to the test. You can read the detailed announcement here. In this post I try to simplify this announcement for you and also discuss the implications for you. So read on
Here are the changes announced and a small discussion on each
1. The total number of Questions has been reduced to 78 and Time allotted increased by 20 min to a total of 170 min.
The reduction in number of Questions is minor – last year the test had 84 questions. However an extra 20 min along with reduction means a student has on an average more than 2 min per question on an average.
Implication
This surely should increase average number of attempts. As you will realise in the next point the test makers are encouraging higher number of attempts from students and are trying to create an environment where students will desist from playing too safe – as has been the behavior in the last few XATs.
2. The difficulty level of the questions has been brought down
First, lets understand the History of XAT. This is one test that has maintained a steadfast (almost arrogant) opinion that only a tough test would separate wheat from the chaff. And so, year after year the XAT has been the toughest nut for all test takers. In my opinion – the last three tests successively stretched this logic to beyond logic. Last year’s XAT was actually weird in its design. It was almost as if someone designed it to disappoint and discourage students.
What has happened over the years is that the test has positioned itself in the minds of the students as – “A mental torture – simply not worth the effort”. The number of students who give XAT a shift despite my explaining to them that they should appear in it is increasing every year. Last year – I was dumbfound in front of a few students who took XAT on my suggestion. They had hat “we told you so” look in their eyes and for a change I had this “XLRI will never understand” sigh as a response.
So here is what the announcement says
“The level of difficulty of the questions has also been carefully designed. In order to enable students to attempt as many questions as possible and encourage them to demonstrate all-round skills, the difficulty level of the questions has been brought down. However if the examination is made very easy, then many would finish the test before time. XAT-2016 has been designed in such a manner that that the top hundred students will be able to complete the test in 170 minutes.”
The statement is cryptic in the typical XAT way and yet it suggests a grudging admission that they might have overdone the toughness levels over the years and that they now understand that students are not just scared but have grown indifferent to the exam itself. This ofcourse cannot be a good trend for XLRI itself and also for institutes participating with XAT for their admissions.
Implication
What this means to me is that the difficulty levels will become manageable now. If I try and give you a feel they will be closer to your netCATs in difficulty levels – ofcourse do factor in that there will be a difference in question types that you must prepare for – so I hope to see you in the Decision Making sessions and also in the essay writing sessions.
3. A 0.05 negative mark for an unattempted question beyond 13 unattempted ones.
Interesting. What the announcement says is that they wish to discourage the overtly risk averse students who do not attempt questions in the test. Ok !! Got the message but really .05 negative marks – that makes it one negative mark for leaving 20 questions over and above 13 that do not carry any negative mark. How much more silly can this get?
What this means is that a student leaving 33 questions unattempted in a test of 84 questions after spending 170 minutes in the test will be penalized by one negative mark and they expect it to make a big dent into the person’s probability of success if he does leave many questions unattempted. I think they completely failed the purpose by this design.
Implication
I think there is no adverse or positive implication for you in this. Don’t waste too much time strategizing for this additional change in XAT. It has almost no impact. Just go and do your thing in the test without worrying about how many should you attempt or leave. Just decide to attempt or leave based on how probable it is that you have achieved the right answer. Do remember that the penalty for a wrong answer stays at 0.25 marks which is much higher than attempting the question to avoid the penalty for not attempting the question.
4. The GK questions shifted to second section along with the essay – Less questions, no negative marks, general not specific
Here is a more substantial change. The questions on GK will now be reduced to 25 in number and also you will get 35 minutes (5 less) to complete this section. More importantly – there are no negative marks for this section. Another cryptic suggestion – the GK questions would be general rather than specific. This could mean anything – but I guess what it should mean is that they would be simpler – more direct and answerable by someone who is reading a news paper regularly and hopefully it would not be as though they expect you to cram up data like a database and then dig it out when asked a question to match four sets of data with their origin (like they expected last year).
Implications
In simple terms It means that – enriCHs & your daily whatsapp GK updates could help you answer many questions in this section. It also means you MUST answer all questions with your best guess. However you will have to practice some time management during this section otherwise you might not leave enough time to complete the essay properly. Here is my suggestion – devote 10-15 minutes on GK questions and then devote the rest of the time to the essay and follow what I plan to explain in the session on Essay Writing.
Conclusion
So those are the “significant” changes in XAT summarized for you. As you can see they are not really significant. One gets the feeling that the torturous levels to which toughness levels in XAT had been brought to in recent years might have resulted in reduced interest of both students and institutes in the exam. And this announcement is probably an admission of guilt and hence a course correction. If so, it is in the right direction and is good for the students. Expect a more CAT like XAT than ever before and hence make a clear change in your approach to the XAT.
At least one thing is clear - that students must try and do more questions in the test than what they had in mind. Students might have carried the perception (not without basis) that in XAT we can spend infinite amount of time to a question as long as we get the answer right and that we do not require very high scores to crack the XAT. This will probably not be true any more. According to the announcement the top 100 students should be able to do all the 84 questions in 170 minutes. So extrapolating this the average XAT taker should be able to do 70% of the questions in the same time and be able to achieve 90+% accuracy. So here is what to target – do about 58-60 questions well spread among sections with about 5-7 errors.
Here are the changes announced and a small discussion on each
The reduction in number of Questions is minor – last year the test had 84 questions. However an extra 20 min along with reduction means a student has on an average more than 2 min per question on an average.
Implication
This surely should increase average number of attempts. As you will realise in the next point the test makers are encouraging higher number of attempts from students and are trying to create an environment where students will desist from playing too safe – as has been the behavior in the last few XATs.
2. The difficulty level of the questions has been brought down
First, lets understand the History of XAT. This is one test that has maintained a steadfast (almost arrogant) opinion that only a tough test would separate wheat from the chaff. And so, year after year the XAT has been the toughest nut for all test takers. In my opinion – the last three tests successively stretched this logic to beyond logic. Last year’s XAT was actually weird in its design. It was almost as if someone designed it to disappoint and discourage students.
What has happened over the years is that the test has positioned itself in the minds of the students as – “A mental torture – simply not worth the effort”. The number of students who give XAT a shift despite my explaining to them that they should appear in it is increasing every year. Last year – I was dumbfound in front of a few students who took XAT on my suggestion. They had hat “we told you so” look in their eyes and for a change I had this “XLRI will never understand” sigh as a response.
So here is what the announcement says
“The level of difficulty of the questions has also been carefully designed. In order to enable students to attempt as many questions as possible and encourage them to demonstrate all-round skills, the difficulty level of the questions has been brought down. However if the examination is made very easy, then many would finish the test before time. XAT-2016 has been designed in such a manner that that the top hundred students will be able to complete the test in 170 minutes.”
The statement is cryptic in the typical XAT way and yet it suggests a grudging admission that they might have overdone the toughness levels over the years and that they now understand that students are not just scared but have grown indifferent to the exam itself. This ofcourse cannot be a good trend for XLRI itself and also for institutes participating with XAT for their admissions.
Implication
What this means to me is that the difficulty levels will become manageable now. If I try and give you a feel they will be closer to your netCATs in difficulty levels – ofcourse do factor in that there will be a difference in question types that you must prepare for – so I hope to see you in the Decision Making sessions and also in the essay writing sessions.
3. A 0.05 negative mark for an unattempted question beyond 13 unattempted ones.
Interesting. What the announcement says is that they wish to discourage the overtly risk averse students who do not attempt questions in the test. Ok !! Got the message but really .05 negative marks – that makes it one negative mark for leaving 20 questions over and above 13 that do not carry any negative mark. How much more silly can this get?
What this means is that a student leaving 33 questions unattempted in a test of 84 questions after spending 170 minutes in the test will be penalized by one negative mark and they expect it to make a big dent into the person’s probability of success if he does leave many questions unattempted. I think they completely failed the purpose by this design.
Implication
I think there is no adverse or positive implication for you in this. Don’t waste too much time strategizing for this additional change in XAT. It has almost no impact. Just go and do your thing in the test without worrying about how many should you attempt or leave. Just decide to attempt or leave based on how probable it is that you have achieved the right answer. Do remember that the penalty for a wrong answer stays at 0.25 marks which is much higher than attempting the question to avoid the penalty for not attempting the question.
4. The GK questions shifted to second section along with the essay – Less questions, no negative marks, general not specific
Here is a more substantial change. The questions on GK will now be reduced to 25 in number and also you will get 35 minutes (5 less) to complete this section. More importantly – there are no negative marks for this section. Another cryptic suggestion – the GK questions would be general rather than specific. This could mean anything – but I guess what it should mean is that they would be simpler – more direct and answerable by someone who is reading a news paper regularly and hopefully it would not be as though they expect you to cram up data like a database and then dig it out when asked a question to match four sets of data with their origin (like they expected last year).
Implications
In simple terms It means that – enriCHs & your daily whatsapp GK updates could help you answer many questions in this section. It also means you MUST answer all questions with your best guess. However you will have to practice some time management during this section otherwise you might not leave enough time to complete the essay properly. Here is my suggestion – devote 10-15 minutes on GK questions and then devote the rest of the time to the essay and follow what I plan to explain in the session on Essay Writing.
Conclusion
So those are the “significant” changes in XAT summarized for you. As you can see they are not really significant. One gets the feeling that the torturous levels to which toughness levels in XAT had been brought to in recent years might have resulted in reduced interest of both students and institutes in the exam. And this announcement is probably an admission of guilt and hence a course correction. If so, it is in the right direction and is good for the students. Expect a more CAT like XAT than ever before and hence make a clear change in your approach to the XAT.
At least one thing is clear - that students must try and do more questions in the test than what they had in mind. Students might have carried the perception (not without basis) that in XAT we can spend infinite amount of time to a question as long as we get the answer right and that we do not require very high scores to crack the XAT. This will probably not be true any more. According to the announcement the top 100 students should be able to do all the 84 questions in 170 minutes. So extrapolating this the average XAT taker should be able to do 70% of the questions in the same time and be able to achieve 90+% accuracy. So here is what to target – do about 58-60 questions well spread among sections with about 5-7 errors.
Here
is a guess on what XAT 2016 could be like based on earlier XATs
|
Section
|
2016
Expected
|
2015
|
2014
|
2013
|
|
Verbal
& Logical Ability
|
26
|
28
|
28
|
30
|
|
Decision
Making
|
20
|
23
|
24
|
25
|
|
Quantitative
Ability
|
32
|
33
|
31
|
36
|
|
Total
|
78
|
84
|
83
|
91
|
|
General
Knowledge
|
25
|
30
|
20
|
30
|
Do
remember to devote your time to different sections proportionately. Here is a suggestion
on time strategy based on distribution of earlier XATs. (Remember to tweak it a
bit after knowing exact number of questions in the exam hall)
|
Section
|
2016
Expected No. of Questions
|
Suggested
Time Allocation
(min)
|
|
Verbal
& Logical Ability
|
26
|
45
|
|
Decision
Making
|
20
|
50
|
|
Quantitative
Ability
|
32
|
75
|
|
Total
|
78
|
170
|
|
General
Knowledge
|
25
|
10-15
|
|
Esaay
writing
|
|
25-20
|
All
the best. Do write to me for any queries, doubts or Questions.
