XLRI Bhubaneswar had to release admit cards for its yearly entrance exam, XAT 2018, today. For some reason or reasons unknown, admit card issuance has been postponed by a week to Wednesday, December 27. The institute has not brought forth any explanation for the delay in releasing XAT 2018 admit card. MBA aspirants are advised to not panic due to this. It should not have any significant repercussion on conduct of exam. Exam date of XAT remains as before on Sunday, January 7.

It has been a hectic few months for aspiring management students. There have been MBA entrance exams one after another. CAT was held on November 26 followed by IIFT entrance exam on December 3 and SNAP on December 17. XAT is one exam that most students apply for since XLRI is one of the most sought after colleges in India for postgraduate management studies. Moreover its scores are used by several other colleges to offer admission.


Few of the top MBA colleges where admission is offered on basis of XAT scores include XLRI Jamshedpur, SPJIMR Mumbai, Great Lakes, TAPMI, BIMT, KJ Somaiya. College rankings by various media houses has made XLRI even more desirable. XLRI – Xavier School of Management enjoys rank 3 in India Today ranking, The Week private B school ranking, Outlook private B school ranking, and ranking by Business Today.

XAT is a significantly different paper from other national level entrance exams. Its exam pattern changes year on year. Last year there were ninety-seven multiple choice questions and one essay topic to be attempted in three and a half hour duration. This involved twenty four questions in verbal ability and reading comprehension, twenty questions in decision making, twenty seven questions in quantitative ability, and twenty five questions in general knowledge.

There was one mark for correct answer, and a quarter mark deduction for incorrect answer. Moreover there was penalty of 0.05 per question if more than twelve questions were unanswered. XAT is the only entrance exam that deducts marks for leaving out questions. With such a different paper format, it is best for candidates to prepare using past year XAT question papers.

An important point for test takers of this year XAT is that FAQs on official website says that “the overall pattern remains same as last year”. This means that exam pattern of XAT would be same as last year. There is elaboration upon this point though, whether it means that same number of questions will be asked or just the overall scheme of exam would be similar.

Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) 2018 will be held on January 7, 2018 from 10:00 AM to 01:35 PM. It will be held online. XLRI has partnered with SIFY for conduct of online exam. It is interesting to note that until last year it was an offline pen and paper based test. Thus chances of getting question paper and answer key depends on whether coaching centers publish memory based questions and answers and also whether XLRI publishes official keys.

Candidates who appear in exam will be able to check result before end of same month. As per official calendar of events, XAT 2018 Result will be announced on January 31. Then between February 1 and 25, they can download scorecards.

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