XAT 2012 – Analysis
Written by Jigar
Sunday, 08 January 2012 09:07 - Last Updated Monday, 09 January 2012 10:09
{tab=First Take}
XAT 2012 – First Take
XAT 2012 came up with a number of changes. First, this time one had to mark the answers on
the OMR sheet with a pen; so no chance of changing an answer at the last moment. The total
number of questions came down from 101 to 85. The break-up is: 28 questions of Quant & DI
and total marks for the section was 34; 32 questions of VA & LR and total marks for the section
was 35; 25 questions of Decision Making and total marks for the section was 30. This time the
Decision Making Section had no Analytical Reasoning questions and this was the trickiest
section. The questions had differential marking of 1, 1.5 and 2 marks.
The essay topic this year comprised two statements:
- Poverty is a big menace in India. Due to its complexity and magnitude, most of the
government initiatives fail.
- Poverty is a consequence of failure of government policies due to the fact that
governments do not target the root causes.
One had to select one of the statements and justify it with proper examples.
Overall, XAT 2012 was an easier paper compared to other years because VA and Quant was
manageable but Decision Making was quite time-consuming and tricky.
{tab=Analysis}
XAT 2012:
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XAT 2012 – Analysis
Written by Jigar
Sunday, 08 January 2012 09:07 - Last Updated Monday, 09 January 2012 10:09
STRUCTURE OF THE TEST:
Total Duration of the Exam
120 minutes + 20 minutes for essay
Total Number of Questions
85 (28-QA/ 32 – VA & LR/ 25 – DM)
Number of Sections
3
Number of choices per question
5
Sectional timing
No sectional timing
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XAT 2012 – Analysis
Written by Jigar
Sunday, 08 January 2012 09:07 - Last Updated Monday, 09 January 2012 10:09
Marks per Question
Mentioned beside each question
Negative Marking
1/4th of the allotted mark/s
Mode of marking the ovals
Black / Blue Ball point pen
The test had three sections:
Section
No. of Qs.
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XAT 2012 – Analysis
Written by Jigar
Sunday, 08 January 2012 09:07 - Last Updated Monday, 09 January 2012 10:09
Total marks for the Section
1 mark
1.5 mark
2 mark
A
Quantitative Ability
28
35 marks
19
4
5
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XAT 2012 – Analysis
Written by Jigar
Sunday, 08 January 2012 09:07 - Last Updated Monday, 09 January 2012 10:09
B
English Language Ability and Logical Reasoning
32
35 marks
27
4
1
C
Decision Making
25
30 marks
16
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XAT 2012 – Analysis
Written by Jigar
Sunday, 08 January 2012 09:07 - Last Updated Monday, 09 January 2012 10:09
8
1
The major changes noticed in XAT 2012 were:
- The test taker had to mark the choices on the OMR sheet with a pen instead of a pencil,
so no scope for last minute changes
- The Decision Making section had only case studies. Unlike previous years, there were no
logical reasoning type of single questions.
- The differential marking pattern of last year was followed but this time the questions
carried either 1, 1.5 or 2 marks. Last year, there were 3, 4 or 5 markers also.
SECTION A: QUANTITATIVE ABILITY
The level of difficulty of the questions in Quantitative Ability varied from moderate to slightly
tough with the overall level of difficulty easier compared to the previous years papers
.Questions were disrtributed across areas like Number properties ( 2 questions),Arithmetic ( 11
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XAT 2012 – Analysis
Written by Jigar
Sunday, 08 January 2012 09:07 - Last Updated Monday, 09 January 2012 10:09
questions distributed across topics like TSD,Ratio& Proprtion ,Mixtures,Simple interest,
Statistics etc),Geometry ( 7 questions),Algebra ( 3 questions based on Algebraic equations)1
on Modern Maths ( i.e Venn Diagrams) and 5 questions on Data Interpretation.One can easily
that out of all the questions ,3- 4 questions based on Geometry were most challenging in this
section .Data Interpretation unlike previous years papers had very less data to read and
comprehend and were not very calculation intensive either. However ,the set with bar diagram
had two questions with errors..
In 40 minutes, a good attempt would have been 19-21 questions with a possible score of
10+ marks.
SECTION B: ENGLISH LANGUAGE ABILITY AND LOGICAL REASONING
This section was easier compared to earlier XAT papers. While the focus was once again on
inferential logic and critical reasoning, the grammar based and word based questions were quite
easy and could be solved by an average student also.
Reading Comprehension:
There were 3 RCs of varying length. One was just a short paragraph, the other two were of
moderate length..
Topic of RC
No. of Questions
Difficulty Level
The increasing number of SEZs in India
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XAT 2012 – Analysis
Written by Jigar
Sunday, 08 January 2012 09:07 - Last Updated Monday, 09 January 2012 10:09
4
Easy to moderate
‘Agency aspect’ and ‘well-being aspect’ of a person
5
Difficult
Theory of technological evolution
2
Moderate to difficult
The passage on SEZs was a must-attempt as it was easy to read and the questions were
mainly direct and partially indirect ones. There was one question which could be very easily
answered by just looking at the dates given in the passage. The passage on ‘agency aspect
and ‘well being aspect’ of a person was the most difficult to understand and the questions were
of inferential type. In case of time constraint, one could have left this passage. The passage on
theory of evolution was also quite intricate but the questions were manageable if one
understood the crux of the passage.
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XAT 2012 – Analysis
Written by Jigar
Sunday, 08 January 2012 09:07 - Last Updated Monday, 09 January 2012 10:09
Verbal Ability (including Verbal Reasoning):
- Grammar Based (3 qs.): There was one question where one had to identify the
grammatically incorrect sentence. This was a tricky question as the options were very close.
There was one question where one had to identify the grammatically correct sentence and it
deal with pronoun error. Though the sentence was lengthy, the concept that it tested was very
easy. There was one Fill in the Blank type of question where one had to identify the correct pair
of words. This question was based on the concept of tenses and quite easy.
- Vocabulary Based (7 qs.): There was one Fill in the Blank question where knowledge of
commonly confused words and confused spellings were tested. The other Fill in the Blank
question tested pure vocabulary and usage. This was very easy as the words were familiar
ones. There were three questions of synonym-antonym types. Two words were easy; only
‘embezzlement’ could be a problem for some students. There was one question where meaning
of an in idiom was tested. The odd one out question was very easy.
- Jumbled Paragraph (3 qs.): There were either 4 or 5 sentences given in jumbled order.
The sentences were not too lengthy and the paragraphs were easy to understand. So,
arranging the sentences in a coherent manner was not much of a problem.
Verbal / Critical Reasoning (8 qs.): In most of the questions, a paragraph was given and a
question asked alluding to it. Some of the questions were like a cakewalk. Only one question
posed a problem none of the options was exactly similar to the line of reasoning followed in the
passage. There was one question of syllogism type and was very easy.
In 35 minutes, a good attempt would have been 18 to 20 questions with a possible score
of 14+ marks.
SECTION C: DECISION MAKING
Decision making is always the distinguishing element in XAT and it was all the more this year
because the Analytical Reasoning questions were completely done away with. There was no
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XAT 2012 – Analysis
Written by Jigar
Sunday, 08 January 2012 09:07 - Last Updated Monday, 09 January 2012 10:09
single question; one had to read entire case studies to solve the questions.
Case I - Ginger Automobiles:
This was a short passage and had 3 questions, out of which 2 questions were quite tricky
because of very close options.
Case II - Vivekananda Memorial Elocution Competition:
This was a slightly lengthy case but easy to understand and had 2 questions that could be
solved using simple logic.
Case III – Saral Co.:
This was again a very short case and had 2 questions, of which 1 question was difficult because
the options were very close.
Case IV – Tina’s travel by train:
This was a lengthy and difficult case. The case was not difficult to understand but involved a lot
of parameters which made it slightly cumbersome. It had 2 questions which are difficult to solve
because of the close answer options.
Case V – Dev Anand and his choice of driver:
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XAT 2012 – Analysis
Written by Jigar
Sunday, 08 January 2012 09:07 - Last Updated Monday, 09 January 2012 10:09
This was a lengthy case and one had to carefully read the parameters given for each
prospective driver. There were 3 questions of which 2 were quite easy but 1 question was very
difficult as one had to consider multiple concerns before arriving at the answer.
Case VI – Teknik Group of Industries and the ERP project implementation:
This was a lengthy and comparative difficult case and had 6 questions. Solving the question
would take time as one had to considered the nuances before arriving at the correct answer.
Case VII – A short letter to the Chairman:
This was an easy passage and had 2 questions which could be easily attempted.
Case VIII – Naresh and the ethical concerns:
This was the most difficult set and quite confusing because for every question one had to
consider the definition of ‘ethics’ and ‘morals’ given in the case and then analyse the situations.
There were 3 questions and for attempting each one had to read additional information given
with the question. One could have easily avoided attempting this set.
Overall, in 45 minutes, a good attempt would be around 12 to 15 questions with a good
score of 8 to 10+ marks.
ESSAY:
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XAT 2012 – Analysis
Written by Jigar
Sunday, 08 January 2012 09:07 - Last Updated Monday, 09 January 2012 10:09
After the test of 2 hours, the candidates were given 20 minutes to write an essay. This time the
essay topic has two statements:
- Poverty is a big menace in India. Due to its complexity and magnitude, most of the
government initiatives fail.
- Poverty is a consequence of failure of government policies due to the governments not
targeting the root causes.
One had to select one of the statements and then justify the same and substantiate it with the
help of relevant examples.
This was an easier task compared to the essay topic given last year where most students found
it difficult to understand the statement. This was topical theme – poverty in India – and one who
is updated regarding the welfare policies and schemes of government could have written the
essay well.
Overall,the expected cut off marks for XLRI ( BM ) would be in the range of 39 -41
and for XLRI ( HRM ) would be in the range of 36 -38 for the next round of GD –PI
call .
{tab=Answer Key}
XAT 2012 - Answer Key (based on SERIES A)
Section A- Quantitative Ability
Question No.
Question Reference
Correct Answer
Correct Option Stem
1
Ram, a farmer,… should aE customer buy?
Noramal Sphere
2
Tina, Mina, Gina.. BucketEcapacity?
Bina
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XAT 2012 – Analysis
Written by Jigar
Sunday, 08 January 2012 09:07 - Last Updated Monday, 09 January 2012 10:09
3
What has been the… entrire
A trip?
8.00
4
Her car's tank-capacity… D
in Rampur?
1744
5
A sperical metal… incrased
E by:
None of the above
6
A man borrows… of the third
C year.
4155
7
Ramesh analysed… the lowest
A
salaries?
9
8
Gopal sells fruit….in liters,Dis
> 2.5 and 3 and 8.41 fee
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