XAT 2026 — Complete XLRI & MBA Entrance Course

The Xavier Aptitude Test is conducted by XLRI Jamshedpur and is accepted by XLRI itself along with more than a hundred other member and associate business schools. It is normally held in early January, a few weeks after CAT, which makes it the natural second shot for candidates already deep in MBA preparation — but it is not a CAT clone, and preparing for it as though it were is the most common mistake. Test day runs two timed parts totalling 95 multiple-choice questions in 180 minutes. Part 1 is 170 minutes and covers Verbal & Logical Ability (26 questions), Decision Making (21) and Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation (28); it is not sectionally locked, so you move freely among the three in any order. Part 2 is a separately locked 10-minute General Knowledge block of 20 questions, released only once Part 1 ends, with no way back. Two features make XAT genuinely distinctive. The first is Decision Making — 21 questions, roughly a fifth of the paper, found in no other major Indian entrance test, presenting business and ethical scenarios where you choose the best course of action rather than compute an answer. The second is the unattempted-question penalty: your first eight blanks in Part 1 are free, but every blank beyond that costs −0.10. No other Indian entrance exam charges you for not answering, and it quietly rewrites the usual advice about skipping. Eligibility & who can join: • A bachelor's degree of at least three years' duration, or its equivalent, in any discipline from a recognised university. • Candidates in the final year of their degree may apply, subject to producing proof of completion by the date specified by the institute they join. • There is no age limit and no restriction on the number of attempts. • The Analytical Essay Writing test that XAT ran in earlier cycles is no longer part of the timed computer-based paper — essay assessment now happens only for shortlisted candidates at the GD-PI stage. • Always confirm eligibility, member-school lists and dates against the official notification at xatonline.in. How the course is structured: The course is taught in the order the paper is set, with Decision Making treated as a full section rather than as a curiosity — it carries roughly a fifth of Part 1 and is the section where a well-prepared candidate gains the most ground, precisely because most candidates arrive with no framework for it. Verbal & Logical Ability and Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation are taught with topics sequenced by their real share of the paper, and practised as one continuous 170-minute block rather than as isolated sections, since XAT does not lock them. General Knowledge is taught as a running track through the course; it is only 10 minutes on test day and does not affect your percentile, but it matters at the final-selection stage. Every full-length mock reproduces the eight-blank threshold so that attempt discipline is trained under the real rule. XAT is normally held in early January; always confirm dates against the official notification.