There are many entrance exams out there that students are constantly preparing for. Ever since students completed their school education, they have entered the world of giving different entrance exams to get into the courses that they want admission to. There are various entrance exams at the graduation level and the postgraduate level. The Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) is one such entrance exam. This exam is for the MBA aspirants who want to take admission in some of the best business institutions out there. The XAT exam has a common perception of being one of the toughest entrance exams for students. Therefore, the knowledge of all the sections of the exam and the structure and the pattern of the XAT exam paper becomes extremely essential for the students. As of recently, the XAT pattern has also changed. Therefore, students should have good enough knowledge when they want to prepare for the XAT exam. One of the unique sections of the XAT exam is the XAT Decision Making section. Through this article we will try to understand the aspects of the XAT decision-making section.
XAT Exam Pattern
As of 2025, there have been certain changes that have been made in the XAT exam pattern. It becomes, therefore, even more necessary for students to study the exam pattern from the point of view of preparation. While students are preparing for an entrance exam, knowing all the details about the exam structure, the typology of the questions, the marking scheme, and the various sections of the exam is of great relevance to the students. The XAT exam is a three-hour online computer-based test which is divided into two parts. Part 1 of the exam consists of three sections which are named as Verbal and Logical ability, XAT exam decision making, Quantitative ability and Data interpretation.There are a total of 75 questions in Part 1 of the exam. Then there is a Part 2 of the exam, which consists of a general knowledge section which has 20 questions. Part 1 of the exam has a 170 minutes time limit for students to solve 3 sections, and Part 2 has a 10 minutes time limit for students to solve 20 questions of general knowledge. There is no sectional time limit for the XAT exam. Students can easily move back and forth between different sections and solve the questions.
What is XAT Decision Making?
The XAT Decision Making section is one of the sections of Part 1 of the XAT exam. In the XAT decision-making questions, there are questions on behavioural and mathematical topics. There is no link of this section to any theological knowledge, but rather it challenges the practical knowledge and understanding of the students. There are real-world problems that the students have to tackle and answer the questions. Students have to choose the most appropriate option that they think will justify the questions.
Mathematical Questions
As mentioned above, the XAT decision-making section is basically divided into two main categories of questions that are asked. The first one is mathematical questions. They're basically in the form of data interpretation or logical reasoning sets. These questions usually have a lot of information that students have to deeply analyse, and students have to manage their time while solving these types of questions because there is in-depth knowledge and extensive information given.
Behavioural and Managerial Questions
In these types of questions there is usually a very interesting blend of situations that are given that students have to decipher and solve. There is a situation provided with multiple courses of action that can be taken, and students are supposed to select the most appropriate or ethical answer in a way in which the situation can be solved better. Students have to really use their minds in order to do well in this section.
Format of XAT Decision-Making Questions
There are different formats in which the questions are seen in the decision-making for the XAT section. There are usually single-question prompts, which means that there are critical reasoning questions where a single paragraph is followed by one question. Generally, these questions can be considered as time-consuming because students have to read the whole paragraph to just answer one question. In the last couple of years, we have also seen that there has been an increase in these questions on the XAT exam. Then there are two or three questions per prompt, which means that these questions consist of a moderate prompt followed by two or three questions. Long caselets have been provided by XAT in which are followed by two or three questions. Then there are four to five questions per prompt, which refers to the fact that there are long caselets that are followed by 4 to 5 questions each. There are multiple perspectives that the students need to keep in mind while solving these questions, and sometimes there are long reading comprehensions also.
Conclusion
While students are preparing for the XAT decision-making section, they have to keep in mind that this is a unique section of the XAT exam. There are not a lot of entrance exams out there that offer this section to the students. Students entirely have to solve this section based on their analytical skills and their reasoning ability. When students are provided with situations, they have to choose the best option that they think will fit the circumstance. In this manner, students will be able to perform well and do good. Students should also not entirely depend on one section and try to prepare every section of the XAT exam very well. Usually the exam is considered to be difficult; therefore, good preparation will help the students to score good percentiles. Students should work hard and make sure that they're able to achieve their goals.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How many sections are there in total for the XAT exam?
There are a total of five sections of the XAT exam.
- How many questions are there in the XAT exam?
As per the updated XAT structure, there are 95 questions on the XAT exam.
