XAT Strategy 2025
XAT is the gateway to the prestigious XLRI Jamshedpur and many other top B-schools. That is why quite a few students bank on it. The XAT exam pattern is a bit different from CAT but people who have already prepared for CAT and other competitive exams will need to do some minute tweaking to ace this. The XAT exam is conducted on the first Sunday of January. With the XAT 2025 exam being just a few months away, it’s time to start formulating your XAT strategy.
XAT Exam Pattern
Before getting into the XAT strategy, you must be well acquainted with the XAT exam pattern.
The XAT exam pattern has been changed since the XAT 2022 exam. It is now a 3-hour long exam with two parts. The first part consists of 4 sections with two sub-sections. The first sub-section consists of the Verbal and Logical Ability section, the Decision Making section, and the Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation section. The second sub-section consists of General knowledge. The total number of questions is 95, with 95 MCQ-type.
There is no sectional time limit. Moreover, you will be allowed to move from part 1 to part 2 only after completing part 1 of the exam. Only part 1 will be calculated for percentile.
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A new type of Numerical Answer Type (NAT) questions have been introduced wherein the candidates would have to use a virtual keypad to enter the numerical answer. NAT-type questions do not have negative markings.
XAT Marking Scheme
The marking scheme for this exam is also peculiarly different. While there is 1 mark for every correct answer, every wrong answer bears a negative marking of 0.25 marks. Candidates can leave up to 8 questions total in Part 1 and anything beyond 8 questions would attract 0.1 negative marks per question left.
For percentile calculation, only Part 1 would be considered but students are requested to attempt both the parts seriously as every part becomes a judgemental criterion when it comes to GDPI.
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XAT 2025 Important Dates
Following are the XAT 2024 important dates to keep in mind for the XAT exam before building a XAT strategy.
XAT Syllabus
Being well acquainted with the XAT syllabus is an important aspect of preparing XAT strategy. Check out the section-wise XAT syllabus down below with the iQuanta class hours for each topic.
1. XAT Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning Syllabus
2. XAT Decision Making Syllabus
3. XAT Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation Syllabus
4. XAT General Knowledge Syllabus
XAT Topic Wise Weightage | XAT Exam Analysis
1. Verbal & Logical Ability
2. Decision Making
3. Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation
Section-Wise XAT Strategy
XAT Previous Year Papers. Click Here!
It is very important for an aspirant while building their XAT strategy to have a stronghold on all five sections of the syllabus. For that, the aspirant needs to give their equal focus on each section so they can be more confident while taking the exam.
1. XAT Strategy: Verbal and Logical Ability
This section is a combination of the VARC and the LR portion of the CAT exam. There will be around 26 total questions. Approximately 4 passages are given in this section, 14-16 questions will be asked on the basis of RCs. The verbal ability questions range from 8-10.
Subscribe to a daily newspaper and/or a weekly news magazine. After developing a regular reading habit, you can now start focusing on your speed. Various online sites can determine your reading speed. RCs require more practice in your reading skills. Start by solving 1–2 RCs a day and then gradually them after you start gaining confidence. Try to analyze the tone and the passages. It will eventually come with time. Practice as many previous year’s papers for the verbal section as you can. Practice as many previous year’s papers for the verbal section as you can.
The best XAT strategy for this section would be to put your CAT VARC preparation to use. The passages are way smaller than CAT and often the passages constitute poems. Sometimes, that makes it hard to comprehend. The vocabulary will be put to the test in this section through passages and through the other VA questions which include fill-in-the-blanks with the right choice of words, grammar questions, synonyms, antonyms, and other vocabulary tests. There would be questions from Paragraph Jumbles, Paragraph Completion, Critical Reasoning, Statements-Assumptions, etc. The paper would not consist of difficult sets of LR but the level of Verbal ability would be higher than CAT.
2. XAT Strategy: Decision Making
Decision Making often called Business Decision Making is a section that would be new for the candidates. This is a section that has scenarios of business problems or HR problems and tells you to choose the best option or order the options from most effective to least effective to solve the problem given in the question. It consists of 7 to 8 passages that have 2-3 questions each. The total number of questions is 21. The XAT strategy for this section is more or less practicing the old set of papers as there is no syllabus for this section. In the XAT 2025, using the logic of the question, not your own interpretation helps. Solving Decision-making questions through the lens of Law and practicing lots of questions from the past year’s papers is an important part of your XAT strategy.
3. XAT Strategy: Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation
This section consists of the Quantitative Ability as well as Data Interpretation Questions. There would be 3-4 DI sets and the rest would be Quants. The total number of questions is 28. The Syllabus for Quants and DI would be similar and of the same level as CAT. This section might not need additional preparation. Just more and more practice will sort it out.
To start your XAT preparation for Quantitative Skills, make sure you start from the very basics. Begin with focusing on calculation. Practice speed maths and Vedic maths. You can refer to the following videos for some fast calculation tips:
Start preparing from the elementary level Mathematics and then work your way up to the tougher questions. Here at iQuanta, both Live and Conceptual classes are conducted so that the students can learn the concept behind a topic and then apply them to the questions. Try to not rely on the calculator for basic calculations.
There are two approaches to solving a question: general and shortcut way. If you apply the general method, you will not be able to solve all the questions in time. Also, you can solve by using options, but it only works when you have practiced lots of questions and have a clear idea of doing it through options. Solve as many questions from every topic, and try to be familiar with all the types of questions by practicing lots of varieties.
All you can do for the DI preparation is to practice as many sets as possible. Solve as many previous year papers as possible and appear for mocks. This will help you gain familiarity with the level of the XAT exam and what you’re going to deal with.
4. XAT Strategy: General Knowledge
The list of topics covered in the XAT GK section of the XAT exam is limitless. For the purpose of calculating the percentile, GK scores are not taken into account. This portion, however, cannot be disregarded. During the PI time, the interviewers examine your grades. You must thus think of it as embracing all the crucial subjects that were examined in the study of prior years.
This is a section of 10 mins where anything and everything can come. It would be from various kinds of current affairs, news, trivia, history, important past events, business etc. People normally spend the least amount of effort on the preparation of this section but it is important that you have a decent score in this section as the professors interviewing you might judge you on this score. The correct XAT strategy for the GK would be practicing more and more from old papers and mock tests.
The Cut-offs and XAT Strategy
One of the key factors of this exam is the sections are not time-bound and you can move across sections. Now, people who are strong in a particular section end up spending more time in that section. So, while they meet the overall cut-off of a particular program, they might fall short on the sectional cut-off. Make sure your XAT strategy helps you make the best out of this. A lot of people fall short of the DM cut-off as they pay less importance to the section or they make too many errors. While the section you find easiest should be done the earliest, a substantial amount of time should be given to the other sections as well. It is suggested that aspirants should write as many mocks as they can in order to judge how much time to give to each section in order to clear the cut-offs of each section. The cut-off goes till 96 because a lot of students in that range fail to meet the sectional cut-offs.
Practice is the Key
The most crucial part of your XAT strategy is to practice. While not much time is usually left after CAT to prepare for XAT, the students need to practice as much as possible. Taking at least 10 mock tests would help the students understand how the pattern is and how he/she can strategize to ace the exam. Once you know how the pattern is and how to work through it, XAT can be aced nicely. Also, people who often falter in the CAT exam find a breather in XAT and many of them end up getting XLRI to shortlist while they could not manage a good score in CAT. So, the key is not to get demoralized if you have had a poor CAT exam. Also, the CAT results are often timed just before the XAT exam. Keep it in mind that XAT is just another test if you aced CAT already or another lifeline if you faltered in CAT. Do not let the CAT result bother you and ruin this opportunity.
Where To Prepare For XAT 2025?
While planning your XAT strategy, it is also important to keep in mind the sources you’re preparing from. Given below are some of the features that make iQuanta the best preparation platform.
1. 24×7 Doubt Solving
As an aspirant, anyone would want their doubts to be cleared immediately as they arise at any time of the day. This is the ideal situation. Immediate doubt clarification could be a great addition to your exam preparation.
This is why we at iQuanta provide free doubts-solving mechanisms on our FB group. Therein, you are able to ask your doubts whenever they arise, i.e., 24×7 doubt solving. All you need to do is post your doubts in the group and it will be resolved within 10 minutes of posting.
To know the steps to 24×7 doubt clarification in detail, click here.
2. Peer-to-Peer Learning in India’s Largest Student Community
A community is very important as having a dedicated community at one place will provide you with the necessary support for your preparation.
In our secret Facebook group and in our public Facebook group, every student studies in a group wherein they learn from each other by asking and solving doubts, sharing strategies, and uplifting each other by providing motivation. A functioning ecosystem is built that is engaging as well as informative.
Click here to learn more about iQuanta’s peer-to-peer learning and how they managed to create an engaging community.
3. iQuanta’s Past Results for XAT
If you are looking to prepare for XAT exam in a structured manner, click on the link below and check out the details and discounts on iQuanta XAT Course.
