Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) – 2017

Read in detail about XAT 2018 Exam.

Introduction

XAT or Xavier Aptitude Test is an annually held entrance exam for admission to Management programs at Xavier Association of Member Institutions (XAMI), a group of 100+ institutions that accept XAT scores. The XAT exam was first conducted almost 60 years ago for MBA admissions at Xavier’s Labor Research Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur.  Since then, the XAT exam has evolved on the pattern, also adding valuable members to the XAMI family.

Currently, the exam is one of the major management entrance exams in India after CAT and MAT.

XAT Exam: Toughness

The XAT exam is currently, the toughest management admission test at PG level in the country. If you think I forgot CAT, then folks, you’re actually living in a bubble. So what makes XAT such a headache? Let me list out few of the reasons in this respect.

1. The Level of questions at XAT >> Level of questions at CAT or MAT.
2. Negative marking for unattempted questions.
3. Essay Writing still a part of the XAT exam.
4. General knowledge is also asked.
5. Uncertainty over the Exam Pattern every year.

List of Contents

1. Mode of Answering.
2. Date of Examination.
3. Language of Examination.
4. Eligibility Criteria.
5. Courses at XLRI.
6. How to Apply?
7. XAT application procedure.
8. Admit Card.
9. Exam Pattern.
10. XAT results.
11. XAT scorecards.
12. XAT Cut-offs.
13. Important Dates.
14. Important Links

Mode of Answering

The mode of answering in the XAT exam will be ONLINE or Computer-based beginning from 2017.

XAT Exam Date

The XAT exam is usually held in first week of January every year.

In the case of XAT 2018, the exam was held on 7^th January 2017 (10:00 AM – 1:35 PM).

Language of XAT exam

The XAT exam is conducted strictly in ENGLISH language only.

XAT Exam Eligibility Criteria

1. Graduation: Applicant must be in possession of a bachelor’s degree in any discipline of minimum 3 years duration.

2. Final Year Students: Applicants who complete their final year exams on or before 10^th June 2017 are also eligible to apply.

Courses at XLRI, Jamshedpur

1. Business Management.
2. Human Resource Management.
3. General Business Management.

XAT Exam Application

The application portal for XAT Exam 2018 is currently open. The portal will close down by 30th November 2017.

Registration Fee

The registration fee for XAT exam will be Rs 1,650 in 2018.

But in the case of applicants who were willing to apply for XLRI courses too, the application fee was Rs 1,650 + Rs 300 (per course).

For candidates who applied after the last date i.e. 30^th Nov 2017, the XAT exam application fee was Rs 2,000 + Rs 500 (per course for XLRI).

The XAT exam application fee can be paid through either of the following methods:

1. Online Methods – Credit Card/Debit Card, IDBI Net Banking.
2. XAT Pay-In-Slip to be deposited at any IDBI bank branch.
3. Demand Draft in favor of “XLRI Jamshedpur A/c XAT” payable at Jamshedpur.

Documents required during application filling

Following documents had to be kept ready before filling the application fee.

1. Scanned recent colored photograph – JPEG/JPG/PNG format – less than 50 Kb in size.

2. Scanned signature on a white paper – 200 dpi scan – JPEG/JPG/PNG format – less than 20 Kb in size.

Application Procedure of XAT Exam

The application portal for XAT 2018 is currently open.

However, the steps of registration followed were as follows:

1. The application form begins at the registration step. The candidate has to follow the link http://xatonline.net.in/ and go to “Register” to begin registration. At this juncture, the candidate had to enter his Email ID only, after which he would receive a XAT ID and a registration link on his ID.

2. The candidate, then, has to click on this link and reset his password and remember it for all future logins.

3. Now the candidate had to select a preferred test city, enter his/her name, upload his photograph and signature.

4. At this stage, the candidate was needed to select XLRI programs (if he wanted to apply).

5. After this, the candidate had to enter all his/her personal details including his work experience till 31^st March 2017.

6. At step 6, applicants had to select a mode of fee payment (above-mentioned ones) and also pay the same.

7. Finally, the candidate had to download his/her confirmation page, which was to be kept with great care for all future endeavors.

XAT Admit Card

Candidates, who will successfully apply for XAT exam 2018, will be able to download the admit card starting from 20^th Dec 2017.

XAT Exam Pattern

Before introducing our readers to the XAT exam pattern, I would like to remind candidates that XAT exam is the toughest management exam in the country, even tougher than CAT exam.

XAT exam 2017 was 3 ½ hours long test. The whole XAT exam had 2 tests – General Aptitude test (Objective test) and GK + Essay Test (Objective + Subjective test).

Suggested: Get to know about the books to buy for CAT preparation.

Paper -1: General Aptitude Test

The general aptitude test is usually 2 ½ hours long. It consisted of following 5 sections:

Section 1: Decision Making.
Section 2: English Language & Logical Test.
Section 3: Quantitative test.

Each of the questions in paper 1 carries 1 mark. In the case of a wrong answer, the candidate would lose 0.25 marks.

However, unlike other entrance tests like CAT or MAT, XAT exam deducts marks for every un-attempted question after leaving 12 questions un-attempted. In other words, after leaving 12 questions un-attempted, a candidate would start losing 0.05 marks for every un-attempted question from the 13^th question onwards.

Paper -2: Essay Writing and GK test

The paper 2 of XAT exam is usually 30 minutes long.  Paper 2 or the Essay and GK test consisted of following 2 sections:

Section 1: Essay Writing.
Section 2: General Knowledge.

Each question in the GK section carried 1 mark. However, unlike the previous paper, there was no negative marking in this section.

Note: Every year the numbers of questions in the XAT exam vary in number. There is never an official notification from XLRI on what the total number of questions are going to be or what number of question would each section have.

XAT Result

The XAT exam results for the year 2018 will be published on 31^st January 2017 on http://xatonline.net.in/index.html.

XAT exam Score Card

The scorecard of the XAT 2017 exam was declared on 1^st February 2018 on the official website of XAT exam.

XAT Cut off

XAT Important Dates

The application portal for XAT 2018 is currently online and will remain so until 30th November 2017.

For other information, read our article on XAT 2018 Important Dates.

XAT Important Links

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