There has been some changes made to the XAT 2016 pattern as has been put up on the official website. XAT has traditionally been known to be one of the most difficult and unpredictable papers of the season with the cut-offs hovering around 15-20% of the total marks in some cases. The following is the communication regarding the XAT 2016 pattern that has been put up on the website.
You can read the XAT 2016 analysis here:
XAT 2016 analysis and cutoffs
In the main question paper the total number of questions has been brought down to 78 and the time allotted has been increased by 20 minutes. The candidates would have 170 minutes to answer the questions.
The level of difficulty of the questions has also been carefully designed. In order to enable students to attempt as many questions as possible and encourage them to demonstrate all-round skills, the difficulty level of the questions has been brought down. In the previous years, students would attempt only half of the questions reducing the range of marks scored among students. However if the examination is made very easy, then many would finish the test before time. If ten thousand students finish the question paper in time and if all of them get most of the questions right then it would be difficult for XAT associated colleges to choose from these ten thousand students. Therefore XAT-2016 has been designed in such a manner that that the top hundred students will be able to complete the test in 170 minutes. This way, the examination would avoid both possible errors: a. low range of scores b. excellent students not getting enough opportunities to showcase their ability because of too easy a question paper.
We also tried to counteract the phenomenon of students leaving too many questions un-attempted. We appreciate the fact that “leaving the question” is also a sign of intelligence but we are also concerned that students are becoming risk averse in attempting to answer difficult questions. We believe that if one aspires to be a good manager, one should be able to take reasonable risk. That is how one “creates future possibilities”. To take care of both this issue, in XAT-2016 students have a choice of not attempting 13 questions. Beyond this, any unattempted question will carry the negative mark of 0.05. There would also be negative marking of 0.25 marks for any wrong answer. We believe this would encourage the risk taking ability of the students while making XAT robust in differentiating a good student from the not-so-good student.
The format of supplementary sections of GK and Essay would remain same with some minor changes. The time allowed to answer both GK and Essay would be 35 minutes. Last year, the GK score of most candidates was on the lower side, and some candidates had complained about the time. Taking this feedback into consideration the number of questions in the GK has been reduced to twenty-five. All the questions would be “General” in nature rather than “specific”. There would be no negative marking in this section.
So, what does this translate into for the aspirants? Let’s see it one point at a time.
In the main question paper the total number of questions has been brought down to 78 and the time allotted has been increased by 20 minutes. The candidates would have 170 minutes to answer the questions.
The good news is that there are fewer questions to tackle and the duration has been increased. This tweak however leads to an improvement in a test which focuses on speed. For example: In an easy paper of say 100 questions, a candidate with good speed will be able to go through 90 odd questions while someone with a safer approach will fall behind by a few marks. In this case, increasing the time available per question eliminates the advantage of speed. But XAT has traditionally been known to be at a higher difficulty level and so, simply giving additional time need not necessarily translate into a significantly higher number of attempts.
In order to enable students to attempt as many questions as possible and encourage them to demonstrate all-round skills, the difficulty level of the questions has been brought down.
This would bring relief to many but would probably hurt those few who are really good with concepts and so, would want to get as much advantage as possible because of the depth of testing. As a strong candidate, one would be looking forward to increasing the gap as much as possible but this step would not really be helpful for these candidates.
Also, 78 questions in 170 minutes is still daunting and so, points towards XAT being at least on par with CAT in terms of the level of difficulty (100 questions in 180 minutes). So, this change doesn’t really suggest much except the fact that the level of difficulty would remain the same but the time provided will be more.
However if the examination is made very easy, then many would finish the test before time. If ten thousand students finish the question paper in time and if all of them get most of the questions right then it would be difficult for XAT associated colleges to choose from these ten thousand students. Therefore XAT-2016 has been designed in such a manner that that the top hundred students will be able to complete the test in 170 minutes.
Now this is something that is quite subjective and it cannot be said with certainty whether 100 or 200 or 10000 for that matter will be able to solve the paper completely. With the awareness levels and degree of content being almost constant among the aspirants, we won’t be surprised if many people end up attempting almost all the questions. XAT would have pulled out a miracle if they indeed manage to keep it down to a 100 students or in this case, outliers.
What we mean by awareness is that, earlier, not many had access to quality material or tests and so, the ones who were able to go through these resources would benefit. Now, almost all the serious aspirants will go through the same blogs, take the same tests, go through the same previous papers thereby improving the overall level of competition. Also, with this communication of the paper being easier and that only the top 100 would crack it, XAT has thrown a gauntlet to the aspirants. Students would be more willing to take risks as the mental block of facing a difficult paper is no longer there.
We also tried to counteract the phenomenon of students leaving too many questions un-attempted. We appreciate the fact that “leaving the question” is also a sign of intelligence but we are also concerned that students are becoming risk averse in attempting to answer difficult questions.
Fantastic stuff! At last someone dared to make things a bit interesting and who could it be but XAT. With consistent papers being thrown at aspirants year after year, the concept of strategy, understanding one’s prep and risk taking has taken a convenient backseat. Way to spice things up a bit. A few would advise you to go for the kill without a fear of negatives but another few would ask you to still leave questions especially because the negative weight is lower and the premise looks as if it is designed to confuse a candidate. We would have loved to see it become more challenging but that is for some other day.
To take care of both this issue, in XAT-2016 students have a choice of not attempting 13 questions. Beyond this, any unattempted question will carry the negative mark of 0.05. There would also be negative marking of 0.25 marks for any wrong answer.
As said earlier, the negative weight attached to unattempted questions is a bit low and not many would change their strategy majorly.
The format of supplementary sections of GK and Essay would remain same with some minor changes. The time allowed to answer both GK and Essay would be 35 minutes. Last year, the GK score of most candidates was on the lower side, and some candidates had complained about the time. Taking this feedback into consideration the number of questions in the GK has been reduced to twenty-five. All the questions would be “General” in nature rather than “specific”. There would be no negative marking in this section.
This won’t make things very different from what it was last year. GK would not take much time anyway and so, candidates can spend more time on the mystery that is the XAT Essay.
Overall
A few welcome changes to the overall structure of the test. This season is turning out to be one of gimmicks and it would be interesting to see the reactions of the students post the test. The negative marking for unattempted questions shouldn’t make a significant difference to one’s strategy but you never know with the thin margins associated with the cut-offs. All in all, the scores are bound to go up this season. So, the preparation would change by a bit. It is advised to focus on core concepts and strengthen the bases before jumping to glamorous concepts. Remember the 80:20 rule. It applies to all the entrance tests as well.
Do let us know what are your views on the XAT 2016 pattern by dropping a comment below.
All the best!
