XAT 2021 Analysis
The difficulty level of XAT 2021 was a little high when compared to XAT 2020 .The ‘Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation’ was Moderate to difficult this time. The RCs in the verbal section had close options as usual. There was no surprise element this year as the paper was based on conventional lines. This year the total number of questions was 75. The time value for this section was 165 minutes. There was a penalty for unattempted questions (after 8 questions) and it was only 0.10 marks. Yet this doesn’t affect the overall score significantly. There were no NON-MCQ (TITA) questions this year too. The overall level of the paper was moderate to difficult.
Overview of the Paper:
The paper had two parts: Part I and Part II. Part I was the main question paper and Part II was based on General knowledge. Part I consisted of three sections A, B and C with 26, 21 and 28 questions respectively, a total of 75 questions. This was followed by Part II which had 25 questions on General knowledge. The total time period for completing the three sections and General Knowledge was 180 minutes. The candidate was expected to answer the first three sections in 165 minutes and General knowledge in 15 minutes. Students were required to answer questions from all sections and expected to maximize their scores in each section. General knowledge marks can be used by selective institutes at the time of final selection. These scores are not used for shortlisting the candidates for Interview/GD. The three sections are:
Overview of Different Sections
| Sections | Total Marks | Level |
| Verbal and Logical Reasoning | 26 | Moderate |
| Decision Making | 21 | Moderate |
| Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation | 28 | Moderate to Tough |
Overview of the XAT Paper
| Time allotted | 165 Minutes + 15 Minutes for GK |
| Total no. of questions | 75 + 25 (for GK) |
| Marking Scheme | All questions carry equal marks |
| Sections | 3 |
| Number of choices | 5 |
| Negative Marking | One fourth of a mark for unattempted questions if more than 8 questions are skipped, a negative marking of 0.1 per question is applied. |
Expected Cutoff
| Score of 31.5+ (approx. 98%ile) : | XLRI (BM) |
| Score of 30+ (approx. 96%ile) : | XLRI(HR), |
| Score of 28+(approx. 94%ile) | XIMB |
| Score of 25+ (approx. 85%ile): | Great Lakes, TAPMI, IMT-G |
| Score of 22+ (approx. 80%ile): | GIM, LIBA, IFMR, XIM Jabalpur, BULMIM |
| Score of 18+ (approx. 75%ile): | XIME Bengaluru, BIMTECH, SCMS |
SECTIONAL - ANALYSIS
SECTION I: Verbal & Logical Reasoning
| Description | No. of Questions |
| RC | 11-12 |
| CR | 8 |
| Sentence Rearrangement | 2 |
| Sentence Completion | 1 |
| Grammar | 3 |
Evaluation:
The Verbal section was moderate to tough. The questions were asked based on Reading Comprehension, Critical reasoning, Sentence Rearrangement, & grammar. The length of the passages was average. One of the RCs was based on “number crunching”, and one was based on ‘gender inequality. Another RC was based on a short poem. One RC was based on ‘multitasking & swiftness’. The options were almost similar in the reading comprehension section making it a time consuming process. Half of the questions in RCs were critical reasoning based. The candidates had to identify the traps set by the examiners to answer the questions. The section overall comprised reading comprehensions and critical reasoning. The questions on grammar were on the basis of fundamentals. The overall reaction to this section was moderate as choices were too close and tricky.
SECTION II: Decision Making
| Description | No. of Questions |
| Decision Making | 21 |
Evaluation: Decision Making questions in this section carry equal marks. It consisted of 21 Questions based on contexts. Most of the questions were complicated and options were quite similar. The questions were based on Caselets and Case Studies taken from different areas like business organization, small business units, Ethical Dilemmas and context based problem and solution. Overall level of difficulty for this section was moderate.
SECTION III: Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation
| Description | No. of Questions |
| Algebra and Functions | 5 |
| Number System | 2 |
| Geometry | 5 |
| Arithmetic | 4 |
| Logs | 1 |
| Probability | 1 |
| DI | 3 sets of 3 questions each |
| Quant Miscellaneous | 1 |
Evaluation: The level of Quant and DI was moderate to tough. There were three sets of three questions each in DI. One out of these three sets was achievable. There were a set of 3 questions on the Venn diagram and the level of difficulty was high. The set based on male and female workers was time consuming. In Quant, the key focus was on Algebra & Geometry with 5 questions each. The workable questions were from topics such as simple interest/compound interest, TSD & Ratio etc. Overall this section was moderate to tough in difficulty level.
General Awareness
It consisted of 25 questions in general awareness that included Static GK based questions covering Books, Geography, art forms of states , History etc. and Current Questions based on Science and Technology, Economic Data and General terms etc. The level of difficulty was moderate.Students can answer it by using guesswork or by elimination of options as there was no negative marking in this section. One could easily have scored 6-7 questions correct additionally to what they actually knew.
