XAT 2025 Exam Date (Announced): Check Registration, Mock Test, Exam, and Result Dates

The XAT application fee 2025 is INR 2,200. The XAT fee is to be paid online at the time of forms submission. The fee is same for candidates belonging to all categories. Unlike other MBA entrance exams, there is no rebate for Reserved category candidates in XAT. If you select XLRI in the application form for admission, you will have to pay INR 200 additionally.

The fee can be paid via debit/credit card, cash card, mobile wallets, or net-banking. It is mandatory to pay the application fee before deadline for successful registration. Candidates can fill the application form and pay the fee later, however they will need to make the fee payment before the registration deadline so that their form is accepted by the examination authority. Until the fee is paid, the XAT application form will remain pending acceptance. Candidates must note that the registration fee is non-refundable. So, they should fill the form without error, otherwise they will have to fill the form again and pay the fee again.

XAT 2025 will be held on the first Sunday of January 2025, which is January 5. The exam date was officially announced by XLRI Jamshedpur on July 15, 2024. The announcement was made at the XATONLINE website. The exam will be held in 110 cities from 2 pm to 5:30 pm. The registration process will go on until December 10, 2024. Candidates are required to fill the online application form before the deadline to be eligible to appear for XAT 2025. 

Online application submission only XAT fee is INR 2,200 for all candidates Fee to be submitted at the time of application form submission Graduation degree must for filling the XAT form (final year candidates can also apply). 

If you are planning to prepare for XAT 2025 exam by self study, you need to start early. At least six months before. XAT exam is conducted on the first Sunday of January every year. So, if you start preparing for the XAT 2025 in June or July, you will have good six months to prepare. Make a preparation plan that includes XAT syllabus coverage, problem solving sessions, mock tests and revision. Get hold of best books for XAT. Consult mentors or previous year toppers for selecting the best books for preparation. Join online study groups where you can get the help of mentors and peers for problem solving and clearing of doubts in topics. Work in tough topics first and then move to easier topics.

Solve a large number and variety of XAT mock tests to master the syllabus. You will need to do a rigorous work on XAT mock tests as for candidates who opt for self study, have to rely on practice.

XAT application form filling process includes three steps – online registration, application form filling and payment of fees. Candidates have to complete all these three steps before the deadline to be eligible for appearing in the XAT exam. Check below a brief description of how to fill the XAT application form.

• Log on to XAT 2024 website
• Click on 'Registration' tab
• Enter details like name, phone number, email ID, password and captcha code
• The XAT ID and registration link will be shared in email ID
• Click on the link to verify registration
• Go to homepage and click on ‘login’
• Enter email ID and password
• You will be taken to the student dashboard
• The XAT 2024 application form will be displayed
• Enter relevant details in mandatory fields
• Cross check the information before saving the form
• Pay the XAT exam fee through credit/debit card, UPI or net banking

Yes, candidates with less than 50 per cent in aggregate in graduation are eligible for admission to PGDM courses in XLRI. Candidates need to have minimum passing marks in Graduation. They must have however, completed their graduation from a recognised university only. Candidates planning to seek admission to an MBA college other than XLRI must check its eligibility criteria as the minimum score requirement of AICTE approved colleges is 50 percent (45 percent for Reserved categories). But having 50 per cent and above score is not a guarantee for getting selected for admission. You will need to clear the admission round which is based on XAT cut off percentile. If you do not meet the XAT cut off percentile you will not be selected for XAT personal interview round, which is the main parameter for MBA admission in XLRI.

XAT selection criteria and admission process of XLRI Jamshedpur includes shortlisting of candidates on the basis of XAT score or GMAT score, group discussion and personal interview. The final selection is based on criteria such as entrance exam score, group discussion, personal interview, academic record, work experience, academic diversity and gender diversity. Meeting the XAT cut off is the minimum requirement to be eligible for XLRI MBA admission. Candidates who do not meet the minimum XAT cut off are not shortlisted for group discussion and personal interview round of the MBA admission process. Along with the XAT score, the institute will also take into consideration candidate's academic record (class 10, 12 and graduation score) for shortlisting candidates.

XAT result cum scorecard is released in online mode and can be downloaded from the official website only. The exam is held in the first week of January every year and the result is announced in the last week of same month. The result download link is activated at the XATonline as well as XLRI Jamshedpur website. To download the XAT result cum scorecard, candidates are required to follow the below given steps.

• Visit the official website of XAT
• Click on 'scorecard' tab
• Enter XAT ID and password
• Enter the security text shown on screen
• Click on candidate scorecard and download a PDF copy

The scorecard is available for download till the limited time only so candidates should download their scorecard and keep a copy of the same saved in a folder or email for future use.

XLRI Jamshedpur releases the XAT cut offs every year in the month of February after the result announcement. The XAT exam is held on the first Sunday of January and the result is announced in the last week of January. And within a week of result announcement, the XAT cut offs are released.

The XAT cut offs are released at the official website of XLRI Jamshedpur and are available for download without login. The XAT cut offs are released for PGDM-HRM and PGDM-BM gender and academic stream wise. The document contains sectional and overall cut off percentiles for male, female, male non engineering and female non-engineering categories. Selection of candidates for the Personal Interview and Group Discussion round of XLRI admission is done on the basis of these category wise cut offs.

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

It depends upon each candidate which section of XAT exam paper they find lengthy. It also depends on the questions chosen for the exam in that particular year. However, it has been seen that Data Interpretation questions are usually lengthy. Overall, the Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation section has the maximum number of questions i.e. 28 and candidates have to solve at least 22-24 questions to meet the desired cut off. So, this section may appear lengthy to the candidate. 

To some candidates, the Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning section appears to be lengthy, because of dense reading comprehension passages and reasoning questions based on analogy, series, etc. The fact that both these sections are from the Part 1 of the XAT exam which is of 175 minutes makes it manageable as along with Decision Making, one can solve a decent number of QA-DI and VA-LR questions in 175 minutes.

XAT syllabus includes all important topics related to Verbal and Logical Ability, Decision Making and Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation and General Knowledge. You can check below subject wise important topics included in the XAT syllabus. Majority of the questions are asked from these topics.

XAT Verbal and Logical Ability syllabus: Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary, Analogy, Antonym/Synonym, Parajumble, Para Completion, Grammar, Critical Reasoning, Series Completion, Fill in the Blanks, etc.

XAT Decision Making syllabus: Data Arrangement, Conditioning, Grouping, Complex Arrangement, Caselets, Assumptions, Premises, Conclusions, etc.

XAT Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation syllabus: Arithmetic, Geometry, Mensuration, Percentage, Surds and Indices, Algebra, Mensuration, Bar Diagrams, Pie Charts, Tables, Data Interpretation, etc.

XAT General Knowledge syllabus: Science, Economy, Business, Politics, Static GK, Sports, Prize and Award, World, Government, Constitution of India, etc.

If you are planning to appear for the XAT exam by self study, you must start early as the syllabus is vast and tough. To cover the XAT syllabus by self study, candidates must refer to the books recommended for XAT preparation. You can take help from the following books to cover the XAT syllabus but do join a study forum to get help from mentors and peers when need be:

• How to Prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for CAT by Arun Sharma
• Quantitative Aptitude Quantum CAT Common Admission Tests for Admission into IIMs by Sarvesh K Verma
• Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Examinations by Abhijit Guha
• Data Interpretation and Data Sufficiency by Ananta Ashisha/Arihant
• Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis
• Objective General English by Dr RS Agarwal and Vikas Agarwal
• High School English Grammar by Wren & Martin
• Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning by Gautam Puri
• Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation for the CAT by Nishit K. Sinha
• Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency by Ananta Ashisha
• How to Prepare for Data Interpretation for CAT by Arun Sharma

XAT question paper is similar to other MBA entrance exams, i.e. it has a limited number of MCQs. Check the table below for th pattern of XAT question paper 2025:

Candidates must check out previous years' XAT question papers to have an understanding of the paper pattern, topic-wise weightage and types of questions.  These official XAT question papers are available in PDF format for free download. They can download the question paper PDFs for practicing XAT questions.

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.

There is no set time limit to prepare for XAT exam, but you need a minimum of six months for preparation. Ideally candidates need to start XAT preparation by April, however, if they start by June or July too, they can complete the syllabus within time and have ample time for practice of sample papers and mock tests. In order to utilize six months that you have for XAT preparation, do the following:

• Make monthly, weekly and daily time tables to study and don’t deviate from that routine.
• Start with subjects which you are your weak spots. We suggest start with studying Quantitative Aptitude and English.
• For Reading Comprehension, read editorials of newspapers and magazines every day. Read fiction, non-fiction, autobiographies, etc. for strengthening English vocabulary and comprehension.
• Download MBA exam preparation apps on your phone so that you can revise topics, solve reasoning or English puzzles anywhere when you get time.

XAT 2025 result will be announced in the last week of January 2025. The XAT scorecard will be released at the XAT website and can be downloaded by using application number and password created at the time of XAT registration. The candidate response sheet and answer key will be released on separate dates. The XAT response sheet will be released within a week of the exam and the XAT answer key will be released 3-4 days after.

 The final XAT answer key 2025 will be released only if any of the objections raised by candidates will be found valid. Following the release of final (updated) answer key, the XAT 2025 result and scorecard will be declared. The final answer key will be released in a downloadable PDF form.