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Updated By Mahima Gupta on 22 Feb, 2022 16:46
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The Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) 2023 exam pattern is prescribed by XLRI Jamshedpur, the conducting body of the exam. The exam will be conducted on January 1, 2023. There has been no change in the XAT exam pattern. It will be the same as last year with 4 sections in the question paper - Verbal & Logical Ability, Decision Making, Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation, and General Knowledge. Each section will have 22-27 MCQs with four options. The exam duration will be 180 minutes.
The XAT question paper will be divided into two parts and four sections. The exam pattern of XAT and the difficulty level is slightly different from other management entrance exams like CAT, MAT, CMAT. Those who successfully clear the XAT exam 2023 are invited for further selection rounds, which include Group Discussions and Personal Interviews.
The detailed section-wise exam pattern and marking scheme-related details for XAT 2023 are given below on this page.
The medium of the XAT exam is English.
The exam is divided into two parts and 4 sections.
All four sections have Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs).
The total duration of the exam is 180 minutes.
The exam will have 100 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
A total of 100 marks have been allotted to the paper.
+1 mark will be awarded for every correct answer
0.25 marks are cut for incorrect answer
No negative marking is there in the GK section
0.10 marks will be deducted for more than 8 un-attempted consecutive questions
XAT exam pattern is the same as last year and no changes have been introduced this year.
Name of Section | Total Number of Questions | Question Type | Difficulty Level |
Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning | 26 | Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) | Moderate-Very Difficult |
Decision Making | 21 | Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) | Moderate-Difficult |
Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation | 28 | Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) | Moderate-Difficult |
General Knowledge | 25 | Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) | Moderate-Difficult |
Total | 100 | ||
The number of questions in each part of the XAT question paper is fixed. However, the number of questions per section changes every year. The following information is as per the previous year's pattern of XAT. The actual number of questions in each section of XAT 2023 may be different than what is specified below.
| Part | Sections | No. of Questions | Time Allocated |
| Part 1 | Decision Making | 21 | 165 minutes |
Verbal and Logical Ability | 26 | ||
Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation | 28 | ||
| Part 2 | General Knowledge | 25 | 15 minutes |
TOTAL | 100 | 180 minutes | |
It is important for the candidates to have a clear understanding of the XAT marking scheme before they take the examination. For every correct answer, candidates will be awarded one mark. A negative marking of 0.25 marks or 1/4th marks is applicable for every incorrect response. There will also be a penalty of 0.10 marks for every unanswered question if the number of unattempted questions exceeds 8.
XLRI Jamshedpur incorporated certain changes in the XAT exam pattern. Given below are some of the recent changes made in the exam pattern for XAT last year:
XLRI introduced Numerical Answer Type (NAT) questions in XAT, which have to be answered using a virtual keypad that appears on the computer screen. The candidates have to enter the numerical answer using the virtual keypad.
From the year 2021 onwards, candidates are being penalized with a 0.10 mark for each question that is left unattempted after 8 unattempted questions. No negative marking will be applicable till 8 unattempted questions after which each unattempted question will carry a negative marking of 0.10 mark.
According to the revised XAT exam pattern, there will be no descriptive question.
From 2020 onwards, the candidates are given only 3 hours to complete the entire paper. Earlier, the candidates had three and a half hours for completing the paper.
Visually impaired candidates are allotted an extra 25 minutes for the completion of the first part of the paper. However, no time concession will be given to complete the General Knowledge section.
As per the latest news, the section having Essay Writing in XAT has been scrapped and there will be only MCQs.
The popular management entrance exam will have four sections only - Decision Making, Verbal & Logical Ability, Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation, and General Knowledge.
Like 2018, the XAT question paper will be divided into two parts, where Part 1 will comprise of sections including Decision Making, Verbal and Logical Ability and Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation; while Part 2 will consist of sections like General Knowledge.
Now that the essay writing bit has been removed, the XAT question paper will be divided into four subjects as given in the section-wise exam pattern.
Year | No. of Questions & Marking Scheme | Duration |
XAT 2018 | 74 MCQs, 25 GK & 1 Essay 1 mark for every correct answer 0.25 negative marking for every wrong answer Negative Marking of 0.05 mark per question is applicable if the maximum of 8 questions left unattempted | 210 minutes |
XAT 2017 | 72 MCQs, 25 GK, 1 Essay 1 mark for every correct answer 0.25 negative marking for every wrong answer Negative Marking of 0.05 mark per question is applicable if the maximum of 12 questions left unattempted | 210 minutes |
XAT 2016 | 78 MCQs, 25 GK, 1 Essay 1 mark for every correct answer 0.25 negative marking for every wrong answer Negative Marking of 0.05 mark per question is applicable if the maximum of 13 questions left unattempted | 210 minutes |
XAT 2015 | 84 MCQs 1 mark for every correct answer 0.25 negative marking for every wrong answer | 140 minutes |
XAT 2014 | 83 MCQs, 20 GK, 1 Essay 1 mark for every correct answer 0.25 negative marking for every wrong answer | 150 minutes |
Want to know more about XAT
Dear Student
CAT and XAT are two most popular management entrance exams conducted for admission to the top management colleges of India. Although both the exams are conducted for admission in MBA and PGDM Program, there are some differences in both the exams. We have listed some major differences between both the entrance exams below.
XLRI is conducted by XLRI Jamshedpur while CAT is conducted by IIMs
The syllabus of XAT exam comprises GK section and Decision-Making section while CAT exam does not have any GK or DM section
The difficulty level of the XAT exam is comparatively higher than …
Dear student,
Listing down the difference between MBA & M. COM below. You can then take a decision basis your interest and skill-set.
| Master of Commerce (M. Com) | Master of Business Administration (MBA) |
| Specialised degree offering in-depth information on a specific subject(s) | General degree - offers knowledge on many areas/ subjects |
| M. Com is academic and theoretical in its content and approach (gives you a solid base in Accounting, if that's your forte) | MBA is a professional, job-oriented PG programme |
| Main focus academically - Accounting and Finance | Main focus on all aspects of the business - Finance, Retail, Logistics, HR, Marketing, Entrepreneurship etc. |
| More … |
Dear student,
That depends on your interest! What do you want to do in life? What is more important to you - a stable, comfortable life or a high-energy, busy life? Govt. jobs will be relatively relaxed as compared to a job that you get after completion of your MBA or even while you are pursuing your MBA! Back to back classes, projects, researches, group studies, tutorials - life is going to be very busy during MBA or after that. So really, you will need to ask yourself, at this moment, what is it that you really feel like doing? …
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The XAT exam will be conducted in the English language.
All the questions coming in the XAT exam will be in MCQ format. Each question will be provided with 4 options.
Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation section of XAT 2022 will carry maximum number of questions i.e 28. Besides this, 21, 25 and 26 questions will be asked in Decision Making, General Knowledge and Verbal and Logical Ability sections respectively.
No, the maximum marks for each section will be different. It will depend on the number of questions covering in the section.
A total of 100 questions will be asked in the XAT exam. Each question will carry one mark.
XAT is divided into 4 sections namely Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning, Decision Making, Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation and General Knowledge.
The total duration of the XAT exam is 180 minutes. No extra time will be allotted to any candidate.
1 marks will be awarded for each correct answer and 0.25 marks will be deducted for each incorrect answer in XAT 2022.
There will not be any negative marking until 8 unattempted questions. After that, 0.05 mark will be deducted for each incorrect answer.
Yes, 0.25 marks will be deducted in case the candidate answer any question wrong. The negative marking will be the same for all sections.
