Take Mock Tests to Prepare for XAT 2012

For the section on analytical reasoning and decision making, it would be advisable for students to revise concepts pertaining to puzzles and decision-making questions with a particular focus on practising the distribution-based puzzle questions.

The section on verbal and logical ability tests the depth of the student's understanding of the language, context and their ability to use reasoning to spot the logic.

The RC passages in XAT are usually based on offbeat topics (one of the passages in XAT 2010 was in the form of a conversation from the film ­ Matrix). The passages, though short, will be quite difficult to comprehend.

It would be advisable for students to revise concepts pertaining to RC, sentence correction; vocabulary-based questions (words confused), para formation, logical reasoning questions (especially on facts, inference, judgement and inference-based questions). Students should also focus on figures of speech, as there have been questions on identifying the metaphor, personification, oxymoron, etc in the XAT papers earlier.

For the section on quantitative ability and data interpretation, the preparation done for CAT should be sufficient. Students should brush up on their mental maths concepts, as some of the questions in DI tend to be calculation intensive.

In addition to these areas, XAT also tests essay-writing skills. Last year's topic was `Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need but not every man's greed.'

Overall, while most of the areas tested are similar to CAT, the difficulty levels of all the three sections has traditionally been tougher. This emphasises the importance of question selection.

Finally, make sure to take some All India Mock XAT exams.

The author is course director, TIME

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1) All About XAT
2) Preparation Tips for XAT 2012
3) Important Dates for XAT 2012

Source: HT Education