Xavier’s Aptitude Test (XAT ) is a test organised by Xavier’s Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) on behalf of Xavier Association of Management Institutes (XAMI). XAT 2021 will provide prospective candidates admission to B- schools all across the country. It is an online, computer- based test which is conducted annually on a national level.

• Registration for XAT 2021 will tentatively commence in August 2020 and will last till November 2020.
• Candidates will be able to obtain their admit card with their registration number and password online.
• To apply for the examination, candidates must have obtained a recognized graduation degree in any discipline by June, 2021.
• Applicants from all age groups are welcome to apply for the examination.
• This 180 minute long exam will have two sections. Negative marking is applicable only for section 2 (GK). All questions are of MCQ type.
• Selection process for all 11 XLRI member institutes as well as around 150 other B-Schools is hypothesized to begin around February and March 2021. 

XAT Exam Highlights

XAT 2021 Important Exam Dates

Given below are the tentative exam dates for the XAT exam 2021

XAT 2021 Eligibility

Applicants must fulfil the eligibility criteria in order to take the XAT exam. The eligibility criteria is as follows-

• Applicant must have completed a 3 year bachelor’s degree or a recognized equivalent from any stream.The applicant must not possess any backlogs on their marksheet.
• While candidates with an Indian citizenships can apply for XAT 2021, foreign candidates and NRI applicants may register on the basis of their GMAT Scores. This does not refer to candidates from Dubai and Kathmandu where XAT centers are available.
• Applicants in their last year are also eligible to apply on the contingency that they fulfill the admission criteria before the required deadline
• Candidates from any age group are welcome to apply for XAT 2021 as there is no bar on the age limit for the XAT entrance exam.

Program Eligibility for XAT 2021

Applicants are eligible to apply for multiple programmes in one go. Candidates who apply for more than one program will be informed about the separate dates for their interview rounds and / or group discussions.

Note: There is no reservation criteria that has been mentioned other than the relaxation of 5% in the final overall marks of the bachelor’s degree for the SC/ ST/ PwD applicants.

XAT 2021 Registration Process

The registration of the applicant is the first step to applying for XAT . The following steps must be completed to register successfully.

Step 1- Register

• Go to the official site of XAT when the application forms release in August
• Go to the ‘Registration’ tab and fill in the required details in the form
• The system will generate an ID and password for you which will be sent through mail or SMS.

Step 2- Fill the Application Form

• Open the application form and fill in the required details.
• Submit the form after ensuring that no detail is incorrect or missing

Step 3- Upload Photo and Signature

The candidate must scan a copy of their photo and signature which must be uploaded in the prescribed format

Step 4- Pay the Application Fee

• Pay the application fee through online or offline mode

Step 5- Submit Application Form

• Take a printout of the confirmation page and all other documents
• Send the documents to the given address along with application fee (if paid in offline mode)

XAT Admit Card

XLRI will tentatively issue the XAT Admit Card on the official website by the third week of December 2020. It will include all the required details such as information about the exam center, date and timing of the exam, instructions for candidates regarding the exam center, as well as the candidate’s registration details.

In order to access the admit card, the candidate must input their date of birth as well as their registration number. Candidates must remember to carry two hard copies of their admit card along with them to the exam center as they will not be allowed to sit in the exam without an admit card. The following information will be presented on the admit card:

• Applicant’s name
• XAT Registration Number
• XAT Password
• Date and Time of the XAT 2021 Exam
• Exam Day Instructions for XAT 2021
• Candidate’s Photograph and Signature

Note: In case candidates face any issues/discrepancies in their XAT 2020 Admit Card, they can contact the XAT Helpline Number - 18002674008

XAT Exam Centers

For XAT 2021, candidates will have the option of choosing any 2 test centers at the time of registration. The final center that will be allotted to the candidate will be present on the XAT 2021 Admit Card. XLRI Jamshedpur will release the final list of XAT 2021 exam center cities tentatively in December 2020.

XAT Exam Pattern 

XAT 2021 exam will be conducted online as a computer based test. Each correct answer will be given one mark and each wrong answer will reduce 0.25 marks each.The exam is divided into 2 parts Part 1 and Part 2. Part 1 is for 165 minutes and It consists of 74 questions in total. Part 2 is of 15 minutes and all 25 questions stem from General Knowledge. Any candidate who leaves over 8 unattempted questions will receive a penalty of 0.05 marks on every question.

Part 2 is of 15 minutes and it includes:

XAT 2021 Syllabus

The university has not yet declared the exact syllabus for the test. Candidates can check the University site for more details or any changes. The following are the basic topics on which the test is based

Recommended books for XAT Preparation

Each section has different weightage and different cut- off scores. In order to cover all the sections efficiently and get enough practice over the logical reasoning and decision making correct books are necessary. With the right books one can score 98- 99 percentile in the XAT exam. Given are the XAT Books for Preparation with recommendations based on each section

Decision Making

Must Read: XAT Decision Making Questions With Solutions, Tips, Pattern

Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning

Quantitative Ability

Must Read: XAT Quantitative Aptitude Syllabus, Pattern, Sample Questions, and Preparation Tips

General Knowledge

Newspaper and magazines are a good source to gain knowledge such as The Hindu, The Financial Times, Economic Times, Business Today, Wall Street Journal and Competition Success Review. Read: XAT GK Syllabus, Pattern, Sample Questions, and Preparation Tips

XAT Exam Mock Test/ Sample Paper

XAT 2021 Exam Preparation Tips

To prepare for the XAT exam the candidates must emphasise on the importance of practice and mock tests. The following steps should be followed to study effectively for the XAT exam.

• The preparation for the XAT exam should be in accordance with the time you have before the exam. Divide the sections and syllabus you need to work on in the given days. During the examination a timer will be present on the computer screen for candidates to gauge their time progression. One can replicate the same during their preparation to create a similar environment.
• Quantitative ability has the most number of questions and is tougher than the rest of the sections. You must have conceptual clarity. Find a pattern in answering different questions and check its credibility by solving previous question papers and mock tests.
• For the verbal skills and logical reasoning work on your grammar and reading skills by reciting textual paragraphs out loud. For jumbled works, find connectors and then attach them according to the paragraph. The logical reasoning portion focuses mainly on sets while critical reasoning relies solely on practice.
• For general knowledge focus on current affairs and pay special attention to recent historical events, worldwide geography and political changes.
• Decision making tackles with dilemmas, issues on financial conditions and sales, different management issues etc. Practice previous question papers. The key to answering correctly is finding ethical solutions which also benefit most stakeholders.
• More tips by XAT Toppers:

XAT 2021 Cut Off

XAT cut off 2021 is the minimum percentile that a candidate must score in order to make the merit list. On the basis of the cut off the candidates will be selected for the counselling, group discussions and interviews.

• The cut off will be declared soon after the result declaration and candidates who make the cut will move to the next round.
• Different universities and colleges are also bound to have their own cut- off lists.
• The score normalization process that is utilized in XAT ensures that candidates don’t obtain negative scores or percentile.
• Some of the most prominent institutes that will accept XAT 2021 scores are XILR, XIMB, SPJIMR, Great Lakes Institute and IMT.
• XAT Cutoff is decided by a multitude of factors, most prominently the total number of test- takers, available seats in the participating institutes, level of difficulty of the examination paper, average marks scored in previous papers, and the level of score normalization.

XAT 2021 Result

XAT 2021 result will tentatively be declared on the official site by the end of January 2020. To see the result, candidates must fill in their details i.e. XAT registration ID and password on XAT online.in. Since there is no provision for a hard copy, candidates must download the result and take out two hard copies for the upcoming counselling rounds. The respective authorities will put up a merit list of the candidates who did well in the exam.

After the exam has been conducted, students can utilize the XAT Rank Predictor crafted by collegedunia to assess their rank and percentile based on their performance. Based on the number of questions the candidate has answered correctly, incorrectly as well as the ones left unanswered, the candidate’s XAT 2021 rank and percentile will be determined. The generated system will compare the candidate’s result to those of thousands of other candidates.

Check  XAT Rank Predictor

XAT 2021 Counselling

Candidates will have to appear in person for all rounds of the counselling process in order to gain admission into their desired institutes. Post XAT 2021, there are three stages in the selection process. These stages may vary according to the institute that one applies to, yet most of them will include a group discussion round as well as a personal interview round.

• During the registration process, candidates must be careful and apply separately for institutes that require individual registration such as SPJIMR, IMT, XIMB etc.
• The selection process ensues directly after the candidates obtain their XAT Results. Once the XAT scores and merit list have been released, candidates can submit their results to the b-schools that they have applied to or will apply to.
• The personal interview rounds as well as the group discussion rounds will be organized tentatively during the months of February and March 2021 in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Jamshedpur.
• Group discussions include candidates being divided into groups of 8-10 individuals and being given a topic to discuss for 15-25 minutes. Personal interview rounds for international applicants will be conducted over video call, preferably through a medium such as G-talk or Skype.
• Finally, XLRI will assess the overall performance of every candidate and release a final list of selected candidates. Many other management institutes also follow a similar process while choosing their final candidates.
• Factors such as one’s academic work experience, extra curricular activities, previous academic records will most likely affect a candidate’s final selection.

XAT Top Participating Colleges/ Institutes

Over 150 management colleges accept the XAT scores for admission. Some of the best colleges of management accepting XAT score are: