XAT 2016 Preparation series

Considered as one of the toughest entrance exams for MBA students , we are running a series under XAT 2016 preparation. With the new pattern changes that have taken place this year, it would be beneficial for you to go through these past year XAT actual questions.We have segregated questions and solutions section wise so that you get a fair idea of the difficulty level of the papers over the previous years, as well as the differential marking scheme for each question. The articles will contain 360+ actual XAT questions. You can browse through the posts here.

Answer question numbers. 1 to 3 based on the following information:

Mrs. Sharma has a house which she wants to convert to a hostel and rent it out to students of a nearby women’s college. The house is a two story building and each floor has eight rooms. When one looks from the outside, three rooms are found facing North, three found facing East, three found facing West and three found facing South. Expecting a certain number of students, Mrs. Sharma wanted to follow certain rules while giving the sixteen rooms on rent:

All sixteen rooms must be occupied.

No room can be occupied by more than three students.

Six rooms facing north is called north wing. Similarly six rooms facing east, west and south are called as east wing, west wing and south wing. Each corner room would be in more than one wing. Each of the wings must have exactly 11 students. The first floor must have twice as many students as the ground floor.

However Mrs. Sharma found that three fewer students have come to rent the rooms. Still. Mrs. Sharma could manage to allocate the rooms according to the rules.

1.How many students turned up for renting the rooms?

A.24
B. 27
C.30
D. 33
E. None of these

2.If Sharma allocates the north-west corner room on the ground floor to 2 students, then the number of students in the corresponding room on the first floor, and the number of students in the middle room in the first floor of the east wing are:

A.2 and 1 respectively
B.3 and 1 respectively
C.3 and 2 respectively
D.Both should have 3 students
E.Such an arrangement is not possible.

3.If all the student that Sharma expected initially had come to rent the rooms, and if Mrs. Sharma had allocated the north west corner room in the ground floor to 1 student, then the number of students in the corresponding room on the first floor, and the number of students in the middle room in the first of the east wing would have been:

A.1 and 2 respectively
B.2 and 3 respectively
C.3 and 1 respectively
D.Both should have 2 students.
E.Such an arrangement is not possible.

Read the following case-let and answer the question nos. (3-5) that follow.

Ms. Banerjee, class teacher for 12th standard, wants to send teams (based on past performance) of three students each to district, state, national and international competition in mathematics. Till now, every student of the class has appeared in 100 school level tests. The students had following distribution of marks in the tests, in terms of “average” and “number of times a student scored cent per cent marks”.

Student	Average	Number of times a student scores cent per cent
1	70	7
2	60	15
3	65	8
4	70	1
5	65	6
6	65	10
7	65	4
8	60	12
9	65	3
10	60	8
11	70	1
12	65	6
13	70	2
14	60	20
15	65	5

Ms. Banerjee has carefully studied chances of her school winning each of the competitions. Based on in- depth calculations, she realized that her school is quite likely to win district level competition but has low chances of winning the international competition. She listed down the following probabilities of wins for different competitions. Prize was highest for international competition and lowest for district level competition (in that order).

Competition	Probability of win
District	0.95
State	0.6
National	0.1
International	0.05

All the students are studying in the school for last twelve years. She wanted to select the best team for all four competitions (Ms. Banerjee had no other information to select students).

4.Which of three members should form the team for the International competition?

A.4, 11, 14
B.2,8, 14
C.1,6, 12
D.13, 14, 15
E.1, 3 , 4

5.Which of the following members should constitute the team for the district level competition?

A.4, 11,14
B.1,4, 11
C.4, 5,6
D.4, 11, 13
E. Any team can win the competition

6.Banerjee has to select the team for national competition after she has selected the team for international competition. A student selected for international competition cannot be a part of national competition. Which is the best team for the national competition?

A.1 ,7, 4
B. 8, 9, 10
C.2 , 8, 14
D.3, 6, 1
E. Any of remaining students, as it would not matter

Answer question nos. 7 – 9 on the basis of the information given in the following case.

Dev Anand, CEO of a construction company, recently escaped a potentially fatal accident. Dev had failed to notice a red light while driving his car and attending to his phone calls. His well-wishers advised him to get a suitable replacement for the previous driver Ram Singh, who had resigned three months back.

Ram Singh was not just a driver, but also a trusted lieutenant for Dev Anand for the last five years. Ram used to interact with other drivers and gathered critical information that helped Dev in successfully bidding for different contracts. His inputs also helped Dev to identify some dishonest employees, and to retain crucial employees who were considering attractive offers from his competitors. Some of the senior employees did not like the informal influence of Ram and made it difficult for him to continue in the firm. Dev provided him an alternative job with one of his relatives.

During the last three months Dev has considered different candidates for the post. The backgrounds of the candidates are given in the table below.

Name	Age	Educational qualification	Experience	Expected salary (Rs.)	Remark
Sunder	32	Post graduate	Seven years of driving experience	18000/month	Ex-employers are highly satisfied. Their only concern is about his tendency to switch jobs after every six months.Enjoys the newness in every job but tends to lose interest after six months. Not willing to commit for any more than six months
Mani	23	Studied up to standard IX	One year	8000/month	Claims to have more than one year of experience, but can’t provide any certificate to substantiate it. He has received a hike of A 2,000 last month on account of his good performance as a driver.
Chintan	44	Graduate	20 years	20000/month	Working as a driver for the last one year after losing his previous job of a stenographer. He has been forced to take up the job of a driver.
Bal Singh	40	Literate	More than 20 years	15000/month	Cousin of Ram Singh. Substituted Ram as Dev’s driver whenever Ram was on leave. Currently working as a driver with Dev’s in-laws. Strongly recommended by Ram. His knowledge and contacts in the firm is as good as Ram’s.
Chetan	38	Standard XII	10 years	12000/month	Working as a temporary driver with Dev’s major competitor for the last three years. The competitor has offered Chethan’s service to Dev on a temporary basis. Chethan has also expressed his willingness to work on a long term basis, provided he is given an annual increment of A 500, which is reasonable as per the market

 

 

Dev is primarily looking for a stable and trustworthy driver, who can be a suitable replacement for Ram. His family members do not want Dev to appoint a young driver, as most of them are inexperienced. Dev’s driver is an employee of the firm and hence the appointment has to be routed through the HR manager of the firm. The HR manager prefers to maintain parity among all employees of the firm. He also needs to ensure that the selection of a new driver does not lead to discontent among the senior employees of the firm.

7.From his perspective, and taking into account the family’s concerns, Dev would like to have

A.Chethan
B.Chintan
C.Bal Singh
D..Mani
E.Sunder

8.In order to resolve the conflicting preferences, one of Dev’s friends suggested Dev, his family members and the HR manager to identify their most and the least preferred candidates without considering the concerns of other stakeholders

1.Dev’s most and least preferred candidates: Bal Singh and Chetan respectively
2.Family members’ most and least preferred candidates:  Bal Singh and Chintan respectively
3.HR manager’s most and least preferred candidates: Chethan and Bal Singh respectively

Which of the above three statements is/are in conformity with the information provided in the passage?

A.Option I
B.Option II
C.Options I and II
D.Options II and III
E.Option I, II and III

9.Who among the following five candidates is most likely to be rejected by the GM (HR)?

A.Chethan
B.Chintan
C.Bal Singh
D.Mani
E.Sunder

Answers questions 10-13 based on the given data-

Tina a blast furnace expert , who works as a technology trouble-shooter stays in Jamshedpur . She has got an important assignment in Delhi , which requires six hours to complete. The work is so critical that she has to start working the moment she reaches the client’ s premises.

She is considering various options for her onward and return journey between Jamshedpur to Delhi.

A quick search revealed that t icket from Jamshedpur to Delhi is available in two trains. Trains 12801 and 12443 depart from Jamshedpur station at 06:45 hrs and 15.55 hrs and reach Delhi next day at 04:50 hrs and 10:35 hrs respectively. Trains 12444 and 12802 start from Delhi at 17:20 hrs and 22:20 hrs and reach Jamshedpur next day at 10:35 hrs and 20:05 hrs respectively.

Another option is to reach Ranchi by a three hour road trip and take a flight to Delhi from Ranchi . The distance between Ranchi and Delhi is covered in 105 minutes both-ways by any of the scheduled f l ights. Air India operates two flights, AI 9810 and AI 810, which depart Ranchi at 8:00 hrs and 15:25 hrs respectively. Flight number IT-3348 operated by Kingfisher Airlines departs Ranchi at 19:20 hrs. Return flights operated by Air India, AI 9809 and AI 809, depart Delhi at 5:50 hrs and 11:00 hrs respectively. Flight number IT-3347 operated by Kingfisher Airlines departs Delhi at 17:10 hrs. From Tina’s home Jamshedpur railway station is five minutes drive, and her destinat ion at Delhi is 90 minutes and 30 minutes drive from airport and railway station respect ively. One has to reach the airport at least one hour before the scheduled departure to complete the boarding procedure. At every railway station she loses five minutes in navigating through the crowd.

10. If Tina wants to minimize the total time out of Jamshedpur, the best option for her, from the options given below, is:

A. AI 9810 and return by IT 3347.
B. AI 9810 and return by train number 12802.
C. IT 3348 and return by AI 9809.
D. Train number 12443 and return by train number 12444.
E. AI 9810 and return by train number 12444.

11. Tina gets a message that her work has to be completed between 9:00 hrs. and 17:00 hrs. If she wants minimize the total time out of Jamshedpur, the best option, from the options given below, for her among the following is to go by (1.5 marks)

A. Train 12443 and return by Train 12444.
B. Train 12801 and return by Train 12802.
C. AI 9810 and return by AI 9809.
D. AI 810 and return by AI 9809.
E. IT 3348 and return by IT 3347.
12. Tina has to appear for an exam on 8th of January in Jamshedpur and she can start from her residence in Jamshedpur only after 16:00 hrs of the same day. Choose the option, from the options given below, that will help her to minimize the total time out of Jamshedpur.

A. Go by Train 12443 and return by Train 12444
B. Go by Train 12443 and return by AI 9809
C. Go by IT 3348 and return by Train 12801
D. Go by AI 810 and return by Train 12801
E. Go by AI 9810 and return by AI 9809

13. If Tina decides to minimize the in-between waiting period, the option that she should choose from the options given below, will be:
A. Go by Train 12801 and return by IT 3347
B. Go by Train 12443 and return by Train 12802
C. Go by AI 9810 and return by Train 12802
D. Go by AI 810 and return by AI 9809
E. Go by IT 3348 and return by AI 809

Answers-

1.B
2.C
3.B
4.B
5.D
6.D
7.C
8.A
9.C
10.B
11.B
12.E
13.D

Read all XAT 2016 Preparation posts here.