XAT 2009 Exam Analysis

In a nutshell, the XAT 2009 paper was almost the same as the previous year in spirit and essence. The remarkable change was the reduction in number of questions from 120 to 104. The three sections were more or less balanced in terms of level of difficulty. A few problems in the QA/DI section were quite ambiguous. The problems in the AR section were not very challenging. The DM cases were intriguing, thought provoking and should have been avoided by the aspirants. The Verbal and Logical Ability section was challenging. The section was more inclined towards testing the literary skills of a candidate. The questions involving the knowledge of Metaphor, euphemism etc appeared for the first time in XAT and required proper understanding of these figures of speech. Among the 3 RC passages, one was an easy take. The other two had questions, which required deep inferential understanding. It would have been wise to take a shot at critical reasoning questions as they only tested the basic understanding.Overall, the cut-offs can be expected to be close to last year's level.  Following table summarises an ideal situation.

 

Likely Cut-Offs for other institutes:

 

Disclaimer: These cut-offs are decided by expert faculty of Career Launcher, who have attempted the XAT 2009 paper and might not be the actual XAT cut-offs. These calculations are based on our experience and expertise.
Comparison with Last 3 year's XAT:

 

Section-wise Analysis
Section I: English Usage & Reading Comprehension
There were 35 questions, to be attempted. The questions ranged between average and high in terms of difficulty level. It was a mix of all question types. Critical reasoning questions tested the basic fundamentals. There was an increase in the number of these questions, as compared to the past XAT papers. Surprisingly, Vocabulary made limited appearance in the form of a lone analogy question. The paper was on the literary side as it tested various figures of speech.
Reading Comprehension
A good mix of passages! There were three passages. The passages were short but equally challenging. The topics were management, linguistics and socio-politics. A good selection of questions would have helped you to score high in this section as most of the questions were inference-based.
Overall, an attempt of 18-20 questions & a score of 10+ was definitely possible.

Topic Wise Breakup

 

Comparison with last 3 year's XAT :

 

Section II: Analytical Reasoning and Decision Making Ability
Total No of questions: 31
Decision Making: 12, Individual Reasoning Qs: 2 and AR: 17 (in 4 sets)
Summary:
This time it was XAT's turn to test your logical skills. In this section of 31 questions, 19 were on Analytical Reasoning and 12 on Decision Making Ability. Most of the AR sets were of average difficulty level and at least 2 sets are definitely manageable during the given time frame. On the other hand, the Decision Making Ability questions were intriguing. Overall, the section had a high difficulty level. 13-14 attempts with an investment of 40 minutes would have been ideal. 8 to 9 seem to be a good net score.
Analytical Reasoning:
Set 1: It involved data mapping regarding couples participating in a singing competition. The parameters were their names (male member and their female counterpart), the names of their respective teams, and the points earned by them. The array was of dimension 4x4. This set was easy and should have been attempted.
Set 2: It involved data mapping regarding visiting faculty members taking classes on different days of the week on different topics. The parameters were their names, the subjects they taught, the day of the week on which they have taken the class and the exact time in which the class started. The array was again of dimension 4x4. This set was moderately difficult and should have been attempted.
Set 3: It involved data mapping regarding different students studying in various Engineering Colleges having different ratings. The parameters were their names, surnames the names of their respective colleges and their ratings. The array was of dimension 5x4. This set was average to difficult and may have been avoided.
Set 4: It involved data mapping regarding different farmers ploughing different stages in various segments of a circle. These segments are starting from a definite point and ending at a definite point on the circle. The parameters were their Farmers (their identification numbers), stages of cultivation and the points from which those segments are starting. The array was of dimension 5x3.

 

CL extends its best wishes to all XAT aspirants
All the very best!!

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