What to Expect in XAT 2023's QA-DI Section

By Team InsideIIM

No matter what your percentile was in CAT 2022, there's still one beast you need to focus on conquering: XAT 2023, the gateway to not just XLRI but also other leading business schools. One of the more challenging sections of the XAT exam is QA-DI, which was a nightmare to solve in 2021 but less challenging in 2022. So, what should you expect in 2023? What are the most tested QA topics on the XAT exam? Here, we take a look at the topic-wise and sub-topic-wise breakdown of questions that have appeared on the XAT exam's QA-DI section in the last five years.

Geometry, Numbers Questions Almost Certain to Appear in XAT 2023

Based on the past five papers, questions from Geometry and Mensuration as well as Numbers are most likely to appear on the XAT exam. In the past, Geometry questions have been combined with other concepts to slightly increase the difficulty level. At least one question on Numbers has appeared on the XAT exam in the past five years.

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Percentages, Profit and Loss, as well TSD are frequently tested QA topics as well. If you've prepared well for CAT 2022, you may want to brush up on fundamentals of these.

Notably, XAT also tests topics around topics not asked on the CAT exam like statistics, clocks, and Trigonometry. So, knowing the basics of these topics may fetch you a few extra marks, though it must be noted that these topics have been tested just once or twice in the past five years.

Geometry, Algebra, Arithmetic Likely to Dominate XAT 2023's QA-DI Section

In terms of overall topics, Geometry (including Co-ordinate Geometry) and Mensuration is by far the most tested topic on the XAT exam. Next is Algebra, with questions from Quadratic and Simple Equations, Inequalities, Progressions, and Functions appearing in XAT 2022 and earlier exams.

Questions around clocks have been tested just twice in the past five years, and questions around Logarithms have been asked just once. Probability has featured in the past two years, so might be worthwhile brushing up on the fundamentals.

Also Read → 7 XAT Toppers Share Tips And Strategies To Crack The Decision Making Section

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Fluctuating Difficulty Level of the QA-DI Section in the Past Five Years

In terms of difficulty of QA questions, there's not much insight to be drawn. While XAT 2022's QA-DI section was moderately tough, it was very tough in 2021 and very doable in 2018.

But what's notable is that out of the 16-20 questions that appear in this section, a significant chunk of questions are moderate-level questions that are doable. Except 2021, there's likely to be at least 1-3 easy questions as well that you should keep an eye out for.

The the breakup of the DI section hasn't been included in this analysis since the format of graphs and charts varies almost every year, with reasoning based, maths-based, bar chart and pie-chart and other formats appearing in the past five years.

In terms of difficulty, there's usually at least one set that's doable in every single XAT paper in the past five years, except XAT 2021 (where everything was challenging).