XAT exam 2025 was held today and the paper was of moderate difficulty level. Check here XAT 2025 student reactions and reviews as shared with Shiksha.
Candidates talk about XAT 2025 exam
XAT 2025 exam was held today. The exam was of moderate to high difficulty level. Shiksha visited a XAT exam centre to speak with candidates who appeared for the exam. XAT 2025 test takers told Shiksha how the paper was and what are their expectations from it.
XAT 2025 score is accepted by over 800 B-schools in India, apart from XLRI Jamshedpur. This year, over 1 lakh candidates are expected to have appeared for the exam. Definite number of test takers is expected to be released by XLRI later. XAT 2025 result will be announced by the third week of January 2025.
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XAT 2025 Student Reactions and Reviews
Prateeksha told Shiksha, “My XAT 2025 exam went okay for me. Not so great, not so bad. Decision Making was quite lengthy as we had to read lengthy paragraphs and to choose the right answer was quite difficult. Quant was fine. I had not prepared for GK section so it was not good for me and I found English section good. I appeared for CAT 2024 also. Time management was easy in XAT, but Quant questions were bit tough and Decision Making was not there in CAT. “
Priyanka told Shiksha, “XAT 2025 was moderate to difficulty level. Reading Comprehension passages were lengthy. Some questions of Quants section were easy in the beginning but the difficulty level rose later. Decision Making was moderate. GK questions were okay. If you knew recent current affairs then you could handle GK. If I compare XAT 2025 with mock tests, then I can say the main exam was easy. I have appeared for CAT 2024, SNAP 2024 and NMAT 2025. XAT’s difficulty level was a bit lower than CAT.”
Q: Is there any negative marking in the XAT exam?
Yes, the XAT exam has negative marking of -0.25 marks for wrong attempt. Unanswered questions have no negative marking but if there are 8 consecutive unanswered questions, 0.10 marks will be deducted. Thus, the candidates must select questions to solve very carefully in the XAT exam. They should solve only those questions which they know they can solve accurately. The XAT exam has sectional time limit too, so you may not want to waste time on a question that you cannot solve accurately. You stand to lose both time and marks. So be careful in selecting questions in the XAT exam. The sectional cut off for XAT is usually 80 percent accuracy. Practice a lot of mock tests to develop this skill.
Q: Is there a sectional time limit in XAT?
Yes, there is sectional time limit in XAT. As per the latest exam pattern, the XAT question paper 2025 will be divided into two sections – Part 1 and Part 2. Candidates have to complete the questions of a given session within the time limit only. Since, XAT is an online test, there will be on screen clock indicating the time and as soon as the time of one section will be over, the screen will automatically move to the next part. Candidates need to ensure that they have answered the required number of questions and saved them within the time limit. Here’s how the XAT question paper is divided as per section and time duration.
Part 1- Verbal and Logical Ability, Decision Making and Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation (170 minutes)
Part 2- General Knowledge (10 minutes)
Q: How many questions were there in XAT 2025?
As per the latest XAT exam pattern, there will be 95 questions in XAT 2025 in MCQ format.
- Verbal Ability section of XAT will have 26 questions
- Decision Making section of XAT will have 21 questions
- Quantitative Ability section will have 28 questions
- GK section will have 20 questions
There will be no essay writing this year. It will be conducted during the selection process.
It is not mandatory to solve all the questions. Candidates should solve only those questions which they can solve correctly as there is negative marking in XAT. During the exam preparation, focus on the chapters from which majority of the questions are added. This will help them in achieving the sectional and overall cut offs are required.
Tanya told Shiksha that here exam went well. “In Quant, the difficulty level was moderate to difficult. Decision Making, I would say, was between easy to moderate. English too was easy to moderate. The XAT 2025 question paper was not difficult but lengthy as usual. I appeared for SNAP 2024, MAT 2024 and NMAT 2024 too. SNAP and MAT were easy but I felt NMAT was a bit difficult than XAT,” she added.
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Shreya shared with Shiksha, “XAT 2025 was pretty good. I found the DM section, which is hyped as difficult, to be quite easy. Quants was manageable. However, the DI section was pretty interesting and VA was slightly challenging but doable. GK was very easy. Some questions were from events that happened few weeks back, like who won the World Chess Championship. Surprisingly, DI was dominant. We are used to see quant heavy XAT but it was different this time. Arithmetic and mensuration questions were dominant."“
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Q: What is the XAT section wise weightage?
XAT exam is more Quantitative Ability and Verbal and Logical Ability based. Which is why these two sections have more weightage than rest of the section. And between these two, Quantitative Ability has more weightage. In terms of marks too, the Quantitative Ability has maximum weightage, i.e. 28 marks, followed by Verbal and Logical Ability with 26 marks, General Knowledge carries 25 marks and Decision Making carries 22 marks.
XAT Sections | Number of Questions | Total Marks |
|---|---|---|
Decision Making | 22 | 22 |
Verbal and Logical Ability | 26 | 26 |
Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation | 28 | 28 |
General Knowledge | 25 | 25 |
Essay Writing | 1 (out of 3 options) | To be evaluated at the time of shortlisting |
Q: What is the marking scheme of the XAT exam?
XAT is an MCQ based test and all questions carry equal marks. The total marks of the exam is 100 and every question carries 1 mark. Decision Making carries 22 marks, Verbal and Logical Ability carries 26 marks, Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation carries 28 marks and General Knowledge carries 25 marks.
There is negative marking too in XAT, that you should be aware of. Check below the marking scheme of XAT.
- One mark is awarded for each right answer
- 0.25 marks is deducted for each wrong answer
- 0.10 marks is deducted for more than eight unanswered consecutive questions
- There is no negative marking in General Knowledge section
- Scores of General Knowledge section will not be considered for calculating XAT score
- The score of Essay Writing will be taken into consideration at the time of PI shortlisting
Q: Which section of XAT 2025 exam paper will have the maximum number of questions?
The Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation section of Xavier Aptitude Test 2025 will have the maximum number of questions that is 28, followed by Verbal and Logical Ability with 26 questions. General Knowledge will have 20 questions while Decision Making will have 21 questions in the Xavier Aptitude Test. For more details, you may visit the Shiksha Xavier Aptitude Test exam pattern page. (https://www.shiksha.com/mba/xat-exam-pattern). I hope this will help you.
Q: What is the weightage of the GK section in the XAT exam?
The General Knowledge section of XAT 2025 will have 20 questions, each carrying one mark. Students are advised to attempt the General Knowledge section in 10 minutes as that is the time limit given for it. Since the questions are memory based, it will not take more time than that to solve the questions. For more information, you may visit the Shiksha Xavier Aptitude Test exam syllabus page. (https://www.shiksha.com/mba/xat-exam-syllabus). I hope this will help you.
Q: Is there in any change in XAT exam 2025?
No change has been announced in the XAT exam. The test will be administered just like yesterday. The duration of the exam will be 210 minutes and the questions will be in MCQ format. There will be a total of 100 questions on Decision Making, Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation, Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning and General Knowledge.
There will be one essay-based question too. XAT 2025 will have a sectional time limit which means candidates will have to complete a section of the test within the given time limit.
Marking scheme is also the same as last year. For each correct answer, candidates will get 1 mark and for each incorrect attempt, 0.25 marks will be deducted. The XAT result will be based on several correct and incorrect entries. The essay will be evaluated for PI selection process only.
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Paavni said, “XAT 2025 was good. Quants was easy, VARC was a bit subjective. It was more interpretation based. DM questions were a bit tougher than last year but still manageable. GK was relatively good. Previously, more questions were asked from Static GK, this year, there were more current affairs questions. I appeared for CAT 2024, and XAT 2025 was easier than that. I am hoping for 90-95 percentile. “
Another aspirant named Tanya told Shiksha that XAT 2025 was moderately difficult. “My Quant is little weak so I couldn’t attempt a lot of questions. My critical reasoning is very good, according to me (I am not sure of answers I have marked on the paper), so I would say it was okay.DM and VA were okay. This was my second attempt on XAT. If I compare, the DM questions were more difficult last year, and this year because I was prepared more to so could understand DM elaborately. XAT is an adaptive test and it test your logic”, she added.
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Student Forum
Anything you would want to ask experts?Answered 16 hours ago
XAT 2025 exam had only 2 sections in the question paper, Part 1 had Quantitative Aptitude, Decision Making and Verbal Ability. Part 2 consisted of General Knowledge section. Essay Writing has been removed from the entrance test. It is a part of XLRI PI selection process. The total time duration of X
P
Beginner-Level 2
Answered 16 hours ago
XAT 2025 exam was of moderate difficulty level. The students who had appeared for the exam last year, said the XAT 2025 question paper was not much different. Section wise, Quantitative Aptitude questions were on the tougher side, Verbal Ability and Decision Making were easy to moderate and GK was e
S
Beginner-Level 2
Answered Yesterday
Best would to be to use the free college predator tool in Shiksha.com.
https://www.shiksha.com/college-predictor
Fill your details and it provides detailed results and it also gives you option to filter colleges according to your preferances.
G
Contributor-Level 8
Answered 3 days ago
Dear Sanjevani,
A XAT percentile of 7.2471 is approximately equivalent to a score of 17-18 out of 100. This score is below the typical cutoff for most top MBA colleges that accept XAT scores. For instance, institutions like XLRI Jamshedpur and MICA Ahmedabad generally require a minimum percentile o
A
Contributor-Level 9
Answered 6 days ago
Yes, it is possible to crack XAT exam in first attempt. But for that, one needs to have a proper plan and start the preparation about 9-10 months before the exam. XAT is a high difficulty level exam and one needs to cover the exam syllabus end to end to be able to score well. Covering the entire XAT
A
Beginner-Level 2
Answered 6 days ago
Candidates can take reference of subjects and topics from CAT study material for Verbal Ability, Data Interpretation and Quantitative Aptitude, but XAT preparation has to be exam specific and must include exam specific study material. Aspirants can use CAT sample questions too for practice purpose,
E
Beginner-Level 2
Answered 6 days ago
XAT syllabus for Verbal Ability, Data Interpretation and Quantitative Aptitude are same as CAT syllabus. Decision Making and General Knowledge syllabus are not a part of CAT syllabus. Thus, XAT aspirants have to study more than CAT aspirants, which is why one needs to have a XAT specific preparation
N
Beginner-Level 2
Answered 6 days ago
There are no non-MCQs in XAT. All the questions are in MCQ format with four options to choose the correct answer from. There are neither Type in the Answer and nor subjective answer type questions. Earlier, there used to be essay writing which required candidates to type a short essay on screen.
S
Beginner-Level 2
Answered 6 days ago
As per the latest XAT exam pattern, the question paper has only 2 parts. Part 1 consists of VALR, DM and QA DI questions. Part 2 consists of GK questions. Essay Writing is not a part of the online test. The total time duration is 180 minutes or 3 hours. Part 1 is of 170 minutes and Part 2 is of 10 m
P
Beginner-Level 2
Answered a week ago
XAT score calculation process is simple as the marking scheme is pretty straightforward. The total marks of XAT 2025 is 95. The test has 95 questions each carry 1 mark. Section wie distribution is:
VALR: 26 marks
DM: 21 marks
QADI: 28 marks
GK: 20 marks
However, since GK marks are not to be included in X
S
Beginner-Level 2
How was XAT 2025 different from XAT 2024?