Competitions

CAT Prep

Upskill

Placements

MBA Co'26

RTI Response

Rankings

Score Vs. %ile

Salaries

Campus Tour

XAT 2024 Exam: 4 last minute preparation tips and strategies | InsideIIM

Jan 5, 2024 | 3 minutes |

Join InsideIIM GOLD

Webinars & Workshops

Compare B-Schools

Free CAT Course

Take Free Mock Tests

Upskill With AltUni

CAT Study Planner

1 Day to CAT 2024 (All the best)

Participants: 28

Final 2 Days to CAT 2024 Test-44

Participants: 380

Final 3 Days to CAT 2024 Test-43

Participants: 318

Final 4 Days to CAT 2024 Test-42

Participants: 355

Final 5 Days to CAT 2024 Test-41

Participants: 372

Final 6 Days to CAT 2024 Test-40

Participants: 351

Final 7 Days to CAT 2024 Test-39

Participants: 345

Final 8 Days to CAT 2024 Test-38

Participants: 317

Final 9 Days to CAT 2024 Test-37

Participants: 328

Final 10 Days to CAT 2024 Test-36

Participants: 290

Final 11 Days to CAT 2024 Test-35

Participants: 508

Final 12 Days to CAT 2024 Test-34

Participants: 336

Final 13 Days to CAT 2024 Test-33

Participants: 298

Final 14 Days to CAT 2024 Test-32

Participants: 279

Final 15 Days to CAT 2024 Test-31

Participants: 367

Final 16 Days to CAT 2024 Test-30

Participants: 298

Final 17 Days to CAT 2024 Test-29

Participants: 312

Final 18 Days to CAT 2024 Test-28

Participants: 343

Final 19 Days to CAT 2024 Test-26

Participants: 338

Final 20 Days to CAT 2024 Test-26

Participants: 307

Final 21 Days to CAT 2024 Test-25

Participants: 253

Final 22 Days to CAT 2024 Test-24

Participants: 268

Final 23 Days to CAT 2024 Test-23

Participants: 180

Final 24 Days to CAT 2024 Test-22

Participants: 227

Final 25 Days to CAT 2024 Test-21

Participants: 226

Final 26 Days to CAT 2024 Test-20

Participants: 278

Final 27 Days to CAT 2024 Test-19

Participants: 233

Final 28 Days to CAT 2024 Test-18

Participants: 235

Final 29 Days to CAT 2024 Test-17

Participants: 247

Final 30 Days to CAT 2024 Test-16

Participants: 284

XAT is a different ball game altogether: Even if you have messed up CAT 2023, this is your chance to redeem in XAT 2024. With less than a week before the XAT 2024,  go through the following XAT 2024 Exam tips & strategies and adopt them during the exam to make it through:

The Balancer (You choose your battles)

You have 76 questions to answer within 175 minutes. The time is good enough if you manage smartly. The ground rules apply:  Do not get stuck on a question, choose question sets (Caselets, decision problem sets, and so on) wisely.  The challenge is balancing between the different sections to clear the sectional cutoffs. Attempt all the easy-on-first-sight questions at first and you will be done with one run of the paper. Mark all the ones you consider difficult but doable and do them in the second run. The XAT has a -0.25 mark penalty for incorrect answers and a -0.10 for unanswered ones up and above 8 questions. Ensure that you meticulously balance the paper to leave only 8 questions unanswered, but do that with extreme caution, and contain yourself to educated guesses: 

The Gyaani (General Knowledge Section)

The GK section has no penalty and you are expected to answer all questions. You are giving an ample amount of time and it requires no special preparation per se. The GK score is largely irrelevant to your selection. Read the questions, recollect all the existing knowledge, and make an educated guess.

Join InsideIIM's Flagship WAT-PI Training Program Today! Check Details Here!


The Tukka Master Gogo (Intelligent guesses)

You must bring the number of unanswered questions as close to 8 as possible to avoid the penalty. There will be a higher probability of instances that require you to guess rather than be sure. Follow the usual process: Eliminate the options, evade the honeytraps (lucrative too good to be true) options, and jump on the bandwagon - Be a Tukka master.

Decision Making (Being as ethical as one can be)

This is the section unique to the XAT. It would help if you were exposed to a few questions of this type to understand the tricks of the trade. You are required to make business decisions and are expected to be ethical. This is where most test-takers fail.

The simple rule book is

  1. Identify all the stakeholders being affected by your decision and choose one that satisfies the maximum number of people or harms the least (This is not a panacea, just a guiding principle and it shall fail in some instances).
  2. Answer logically, do not be swayed away by emotions. Do not choose options that are too harsh or extreme (like firing an employee directly for minor misconduct, choose to warn first).
  3. Please do not focus on increasing or maintaining the profits of the organization (avoid by hook or crook I shall have it).
  4. Do not answer in a way that displays undeterred loyalty to the organization even when the decision is unethical. It is part and parcel of the corporate world is not the mindset you need to have while answering.
  5. Go through the DM section specifically of the official last year's papers. 
All the best for XAT 2024!