XAT is an annual entrance exam conducted by the Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur to select the most appropriate students for its management courses. Every year a large number of management aspirants take the XAT to get admission in to XLRI or other good institutes where XAT scores are considered. It has become the most popular entrance exam for management aspirants after CAT and MAT. It however differs from other management entrance examinations as candidates are also expected to write an essay on a given topic besides the usual objective type questions. The essay is considered only for admission to XLRI, Jamshedpur. 

The section on verbal and logical ability tests the depth of the student’s understanding of the language, context and their ability to use reasoning to spot the logic.

The RC passages in XAT are usually based on offbeat topics (one of the passages in XAT 2010 was in the form of a conversation from the film – Matrix). The passages, though short, will be quite difficult to comprehend.

It would be advisable for students to revise concepts pertaining to RC, sentence correction; vocabulary-based questions (words confused), para formation, Logical reasoning questions (especially on FIJs and inference based questions).

Students should also focus on figures of speech, as there have been questions on identifying the metaphor, personification, oxymoron, etc in the XAT papers earlier.

For the section on quantitative ability and data interpretation, the preparation done for CAT should be sufficient. Students should brush up on their mental maths concepts, as some of the questions in DI tend to be calculation intensive.

In addition to these areas, XAT also tests essay-writing skills. Last year’s topic was ‘Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need but not every man’s greed.’

Overall, while most of the areas tested are similar to CAT, the difficulty levels of all the three sections has traditionally been tougher.

This emphasises the importance of question selection. Finally, make sure to take All India mock XAT to boost preparation.

The Management programmes offered by XLRI.

Two Flagship Programmes that XLRI Offers: 

1. Two-year full-time programme in business management (BM).
2. Two-year full-time programme in personnel management and industrial relations (PMIR), which equips students with the knowledge and skills required for managing HR in a way that contributes to the development of individuals and organisations.

Duration: Two years
Intake: 120* (BM) + 120* (PMIR)
Fees: Rs12 lakhs*

* Can be revised this year

XAT cut-offs for both programmes are given below:

XAT 2011 (Overall cut-off):
BM - 92 percentile
PMIR - 91 percentile

There is sectional cut-off. Those who clear the all the sectional and overall cut-offs are called for the GDPI round.

Hence, it is critical that students allocate time wisely and do well in all sections of XAT.

Sectional cut-offs in XAT 2011 were:

BM: VA-70 percentile, QA- 90 percentile, AR- 80 percentile
PIR: VA-85 percentile, QA- 70 percentile, AR- 75 percentile

Important Dates

• Date of commencement of application: September 20, 2011
• Last date for applying: November 30, 2011
• Downloading of admit cards: December 15 2011 onwards
• Date of exam: January 8, 2012

Related Articles:

Click here to know the "Important Dates and Eligibility for XAT 2012" 

Source: HTEducation (Ramnath Kanakadandi, course director, TIME) 

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