XAT 2024: Registration, Exam Dates, and Preparation Tips

Thousands of management aspirants! A few hundred B-schools. Competition for admission- very high. Remedy?

A national-level management entrance exam.

Each year, thousands of students in India go for an MBA as a postgraduate degree to have a career with multiple opportunities and professional growth. There are hundreds of colleges/universities that presently offer management courses in various specialisations. And so this calls for an exam that can examine the calibre of students who are eligible to be part of the management programme.

XAT or Xavier Aptitude Test is one such national-level management entrance exam held once a year, conducted by one of the top B-schools in India-  XLRI Jamshedpur which enrols students on the basis of their XAT scores. The XAT exam assesses the candidate’s ability to think critically in a short amount of time and their ability to compete with thousands of brilliant minds strategically. Different sections of the exam challenge the nature of the student at different levels and so, it is one of the most sought-after management exams in India to take admission in the top business schools.

What is the XAT Exam?

The full form of XAT Exam is the Xavier Aptitude Test which is the national-level entrance exam held for management courses. It is conducted by XLRI Jamshedpur and other reputed MBA colleges which makes students eligible to take admission into PGDM/MBA programmes.

In India, thousands of B-schools accept students on the basis of the XAT scores for admission to their MBA programmes. For aspiring students, the XAT exam is soon to be conducted on the 7th of January, 2024, after which they can take admission into their dream B-school if they score well in the management entrance exam.

Towards the end of January 2024 probably, the result of the exam may be released and in February, the cut-off will be out for the students to start preparing for the admission process.

Highlights & Exam Pattern of the XAT

Name of the Exam	Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) 2024
Conducting Body	XLRI
Exam Level	National
Degree	Postgraduate
Exam Frequency	Once a Year
Mode of Exam	Computer Based Test
Sections	Part 1: – Decision Making – Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning – Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation Part 2: – Mock Keyboard Testing Part 3: – General Knowledge – Analytical Essay Writing
Number of Questions	Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning – 26 Decision Making – 22 Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation- 28 General Knowledge- 25 Analytical Essay Writing- 1
Marking Scheme	+1 marks for each correct answer -0.25 mark for each wrong answer -0.10 marks for more than eight consecutive unanswered questions
Exam Duration	3.5 Hours
Total Questions	100 MCQ’s
Total Marks	100
Medium of Exam	English
Official Website	https://xatonline.in/

Eligibility Criteria for XAT Exam 2024

The following requirements have to be met to be eligible to take the XAT exam:

• The candidate must have an aggregate of 50% (45% for reserved categories) in any discipline during their graduation degree from a UGC-recognised university.
• Candidates in their final year of examination can also apply but will need a signed document serving as proof of their completed graduation issued by the principal of the institution.
• Candidates who have completed a professional degree course such as CA/ CS/ ICWA/ Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of India (FIAI)) are also eligible for the exam.

Registration Process and Fee

The following formalities have to be completed to register for the XAT exam:

• Visit the official website of XAT
• Register yourself and fill in all the details asked
• After registration, you will receive your user ID and password for future logins
• Fill out your detailed form consisting of your personal details, academic details, program, city preferences, work experience., etc.
• Upload your photograph and signature
• Lastly, complete the fee payment and your registration process will be completed

Application Fee

Category	Registration Fee
All Categories	INR 2,100

Note: Candidates interested in XLRI programmes need to pay an additional amount of INR 200.

Exam Day Requisites

For the admit card:

• Since the exam is to be conducted soon on 7th of January , 2024, the admit cards can be downloaded from the official website from the download admit card tab.
• You will need to enter your login credentials that you will have received during the registration process and then you can simply download the PDF of your admit card and take out a printout of the same.

Additional Documents:

You will also need to carry the following documents along with your admit card to the allotted centre for the verification process.

• An identity proof like Aadhaar card/ voter ID card/ passport/ driver licence/ university ID
• No other printed material or any sort of document is allowed inside the examination hall
• Electronic gadgets are also not allowed to be taken to the examination centre, otherwise, you will be departed from taking the exam

XAT Syllabus and Preparation Tips

Sections	Key Points
Decision Making	This section challenges your quick and deep thinking skills. You do not have any special book and material to refer to, rather you can find the previous exam papers or answer keys and some sample test exams to prepare for this section.
Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning	This section is to check your analytical and critical reasoning, your comprehension skills, your clarity of grammar, vocabulary, etc. There are a lot of reading materials available for this section that you can refer to and can also take various online tests available for the same.
Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation	This section contains algebra, geometry arithmetic, modern maths problems, etc. that will analyse your numerical skills and your swiftness in solving the numerical queries.
GK	Like every other GK section on an exam, this portion of the exam has all the different questions related to society, culture, politics, geography, business, sports, economy, etc. This section makes a whole lot of difference among the shortlisted candidates.
Analytic Essay Writing	This section is just about writing an essay about one topic out of the three in about 250 words. This section is also evaluated separately for shortlisting the candidates

Test Structure and Marking Scheme of XAT Exam

Sections	Total Questions	Marks
Decision Making	22	22
Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning	26	26
Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation	28	28
GK	25	25
Analytic Essay Writing	1	Evaluated later for shortlisting candidates

Marking Scheme

• For every time they answer, the student is awarded one mark.
• For every wrong question, a deduction of 0.25 marks is done.
• If a student has not answered eight questions consecutively, a deduction of 0.10 mark is done.
• There is no negative marking in the general knowledge section and the scores are also not considered for calculating the final XAT score.
• The scores of essay writing are also taken into consideration just at the time of shortlisting the candidates.

XAT Selection Criteria

The competition among the candidates is really high and the top B schools usually admit students with more than 90 percentile scores in the exam. Even Tier-II MBA colleges hardly admit any students with a percentile score lower than 70%.

• The minimum cut-off has to be made to be eligible to take admission into a B-School.
• The student then has to appear for a group discussion round and a personal interview round.
• After that, their academic records, work experience, academic and work diversity, any other merit, etc. are taken into consideration for finalising the candidates.

Important Tips for the XAT Exam

The exam is just around the corner and so a student should right now be invested in fully dedicating their time to prepare for the exam to be able to crack it.

• The most important tip is to always refer back to the previous question papers, practise the questions on the same lines, check out the changes in the pattern, and invest time on the section that you find a little more difficult to comprehend.
• Do not panic. Practise more and more mock tests to increase your speed and agility as it will help you to answer more questions in less time.
• Always make health your first priority. Do not overburden or overwork yourself as it may lead to repercussions greater than the exam itself. No exam is ever bigger than one’s health; both mental and physical.
• Remember to take breaks. When you feel too tired or exaggerated, take small breaks and keep doing things that help rejuvenate your energy and keep your mind in a healthy state and free of stress.
• Always remember to focus on yourself and not on others. Whatever anybody is doing has nothing to do with you and so always remember to work hard, not to impress others but to achieve your own goals.

Top Colleges that Accept XAT Scores

• XLRI Xavier School of Management
• BIMTECH Greater Noida
• FLAME university
• XIMB Bhubaneswar
• TAPMI Manipal
• St. Joseph Institute of Management
• Goa Institute of Management
• IRMA-Anand
• Woxsen University
• BITS Pilani
• Xavier Business School, Kolkata
• New Delhi Institute of Management
• MICA  Ahmedabad
• SFIMAR
• FORE School of Management, New Delhi
• XIDAS

XAT Exam Centres

Agra	Guwahati	Patna
Ahmedabad	Gwalior	Pune
Allahabad	Hooghly	Raipur
Ambala	Hubballi(Hubli)	Rajahmundry
Amravati	Hyderabad	Rajkot
Amritsar	Indore	Ranchi
Aurangabad City (Maharashtra)	Jabalpur	Roorkee
Bengaluru	Jaipur	Rourkela
Berhampur	Jalandhar	Sambalpur
Bhatinda	Jammu	Shillong
Bhilai Nagar	Jamshedpur	Shillong
Bhopal	Jorhat	Siliguri
Bhubaneswar	Kannur	Surat
Chandigarh/Mohali	Kanpur	Tejpur
Chennai	Kolkata	Thiruvananthapuram
Coimbatore	Kota	Tiruchirappalli
Cuttack	Kottayam	Tirupathi
Dehradun	Kurnool	Tiruvallur
Delhi-NCR	Lucknow	Udaipur
Dhanbad	Madurai	Udupi
Dibrugarh	Mangalore	Vadodara
Durgapur/Asansol	Mumbai	Varanasi
Ernakulam	Mysuru (Mysore)	Vijayawada
Gandhinagar	Nagpur	Visakhapatnam
Goa	Naharlagun	Warangal
Gorakhpur	Nashik

Learning Resources

The previous year question papers and other learning resources for XAT 2024 can be downloaded from the official website itself.

FAQ’s

Q1. Is the XAT exam tough?

Since the examination is conducted on a national level, the difficulty level is moderate. However, with enough preparation, a student can easily crack the exam And take admission into their preferred B-school.

Q2. What is the difference between XAT and CAT exam?

CAT Exam has only three sections to be attempted while the XAT exam has been divided into four sections. CAT exam is of three hours while 3.5 hours is allotted for the XAT exam. Also CAT does not have any decision-making section.

Q3. What is the average percentile to be scored to take admission in top B-Schools based on XAT exam?

To take admission to the top B schools, one must score above 90 percentile. For boys, the percentile is around 94% while for female candidates, it is around 92%.

Q4. Where can I download my result of the XAT exam?

You can login to their official website, put in your login credentials and download the result from the my result section. The process is the same as downloading your admit card for the exam.

Q5. What is the essay writing section in the XAT exam?

The essay writing section in the XAT exam is not included in calculating the marks, rather for shortlisting the candidates. The candidates have to write on one topic out of the three in 250 words for which they are assessed based on their writing skills.