XAT 2009-2010 Overall Analysis And Cutt Off Marks

XAT 2009-10 Analysis

XAT happens to be the second most preferred MBA entrance exam after CAT (and this time it happened to be the most challenging exam of the season). XAT generally characterizes a time challenge as you get to do more questions in less time as compared to CAT. Hence, you have to be even more selective while attempting questions in case of XAT. For instance, in XAT 2008-09, a score of mere 32 bagged over 98 percentile. This further emphasizes another specialty of XAT – Its marking scheme. The fact that first few wrong questions in each section will penalized less and anything beyond that would suffer a higher fine ensures that the test takers must not take many chances.

XAT 2009-10 challenge was quite different from last year’s. It seems that XAT test setters have decided to make it another test with high level of uncertainty in the difficulty level and marking scheme. Overall, the test was of moderate to higher level of difficulty, a level that was marginally above that of Last year’s. The tough decision making was accompanied by an ever challenging reasoning section this time and they together did the maximum damage. However, the saving grace were questions from Quant. Verbal was also do-able except for a little more challenging RC as compared to last year’s. Another reliever for the test takers was the change in the marking scheme. The initial negative marking of 20% for initial 5 wrong answers (last year it was 25% for first 6 wrong answers) followed by a 25% penalty (down from a whooping 50% in XAT 2008-09) for the rest of the mistakes in each section was quite a welcoming move. However, the sheer difficulty level of LR & DM section stood as the greatest obstacle in utilizing this opportunity. Nevertheless, Verbal and Quant helped the takers maximize their attempt and so the score. A 32+ score would highly likely to get at least one call.

Overall Analysis:
1. No of Sections: 3
2. Marking Scheme: 1 Mark per Question
3. Negative Marking: Progressive 20% for first 6 wrong answers in each section 25% for the rest
4. No of options per Question: 5
5. Sectional Cut-offs: Yes
Please try to score at least 82+ percentile (50+ in case of Rural Mgmt) in each section
Prefer over 90 percentile in Verbal & 96+ percentile in Quant+ DI if you are targeting the Top 3 B-Schools
6. Expected Cut-offs: 32+Question wise distribution of XAT 2009-10

XAT 2009
Question-wise Distribution

Expected Scores in XAT 2009-10

As you can see the test structure and pattern was almost the same as the XAT 2008-09 (shown below). The major differences were found in the difficulty level of the exam. Accordingly, Experts at suggest a little different time management strategy for the XAT 2009-10 which would have helped maximizing the score.

Therefore, the expected cut offs for the Top 300 seats would be a little low as compared to last year’s. Consequently, the sectional cutoffs are also expected to vary a little as compared to last year. Following are the expected cut-offs for the major B-schools in this year’s XAT.