The registration for country’ second most important MBA entrance test, Xavier’s Aptitude Test, has started. Through XAT, candidates can get admissions in 130+ MBA colleges across the country including XLRI, SPJIMR, IMT, BIMTCH, TAPMI, and XIMB.

XLRI, Jamshedpur will conduct XAT 2018, and has been conducting XAT for the last 60 years. XAT is the second most important MBA exam after CAT, and the validity of XAT score is one year.

XAT 2018: Eligibility Criteria, Tentative Dates and Registration Process

Eligibility Criteria

It is important for the candidate to know the eligibility criteria before applying for XAT. The candidate should have a bachelor’s degree in any academic background from a recognized college, university or institute. Final year candidates who have completed their bachelor’s before June 2017 can also apply for XAT. NRI and foreign candidates can also apply for XAT using their GMAT scores.

Tentative dates XAT 2018

The XAT 2018 registration has started from August 16, 2017, and candidates can apply till November 30, 2017. The candidates can also apply late until December 15, 2017, with late fees. Admit cards will be available on the official website of the XAT from December 20, 2017, onwards. The candidate is required to take the printouts of the admit card issued online as no hard copies of the same will be sent to their postal addresses.

The test will be conducted on January 7, 2018, from 10.00 am to 01.35 pm. The test will be an online computer based test.

XAT registration process

The candidate will first have to make a new account on the official website of XAT using their name, E-mail address, etc., following which a unique registration link will be generated and sent to their E-mail address. The candidate can use the same link to generate the password.

Next, the candidate has to fill the test city, name, and upload a photograph and signature and save it. The next step for the candidate is to select his nationality, following which he will have to select program choice such as business management, human resource management, general management, etc. However, the candidate can skip this step if not interested.

Then the candidate will have to fill the requisite information like name, gender, date of birth, mother’s and father’s name, phone number, address and mailing address. The candidates are also required to fill their academic details starting from class X.

XAT exam syllabus

There is no strict syllabus to be followed for XAT exam. XAT syllabus is based on past trends and according to them there are two parts in a XAT exam paper.

The first part consists of three sections – Verbal ability, reading comprehension and logical reasoning, Decision making, and Quantitative ability and data interpretation. And second part features question to test candidate’s general knowledge and essay writing skills.

XAT exam pattern

According to the previous patterns, three and a half hours are given to the candidate to answer the paper. For each correct answer, 1 mark is awarded to the candidate while one-fourth mark is penalized for every incorrect answer. There is also a penalty of 0.05 marks per question if more than 13 questions are left unanswered.

In the first part, there will be a total of 24, 21 and 27 MCQs in section 1, 2 and 3 respectively. While in part 2, there will be 25 MCQs based on general knowledge and one topic to write an essay on; sometimes there is a choice between two topics.

Top 10 colleges accepting XAT score

The top B-schools that accept XAT score for MBA admissions are:

  1. Department of Management Studies, IIT, Madras
  2. XLRI- Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur
  3. SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai
  4. TA Pai Management Institute, Manipal
  5. Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai
  6. Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad
  7. Xavier Institute of Management, Xavier University, Bhubaneshwar
  8. Institute for Financial Management and Research, Changambakkam
  9. Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal
  10. Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Chennai

With complete information on the steps for XAT registration and tentative dates, a candidate must not wait. He should register himself before the time slips and start preparing for the exam.