The question paper and marking changes introduced in XAT, one of the prestigious B-school entrances conducted by XLRI, drew mixed reactions from MBA aspirants who took the test on Sunday.
While the candidates were happy to get more time - the paper this year contained less number of questions - to complete the test, the limit on the number of unattempted questions posed problems for some.
This year, the students had a choice of not attempting a maximum of 13 questions. Beyond this, any unattempted question would fetch negative marking of 0.05. There would also be negative marking of 0.25 for every wrong answer.
"More time meant we could attempt more number of questions. But the new rule of negative marking on unattempted questions was bad," said Aniket Jaiswal, who came from Dhanbad to write the test.
According to XLRI sources, around around 75,000 candidates appeared for the Sunday's exam at 90 centres in 47 cities across the country. In Jamshedpur, around 2,000 candidates wrote the test at DBMS English School, the only centre in the city.
An official from XLRI said that the level of difficulty of the questions had been carefully designed to allow students to attempt more questions and demonstrate all-round skills.
The exam, which started at 10am, comprised two sections. While the first section tested aspirants on quantitative, verbal, reasoning and decision making abilities, the second part comprised general knowledge and essay writing. There was a 5-minute break between the two sections.
"In previous years, students would attempt only half of the questions. Therefore XAT-2016 has been designed in such a manner that the top hundred students will be able to complete the first half in the given 170 minutes. This way, the examination will avoid low-range scores and excellent students will get opportunities to showcase their talent," said an XLRI faculty member.
The XAT is considered to be India's second most premier MBA entrance test after the CAT (common admission test). Organised by the XLRI School of Business and Human Resources, Jamshedpur, the exam serves as the entrance exam for various other B-Schools in India including SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (Mumbai), Alliance Business Academy (Bangalore), Goa Institute of Management (Goa), Welingkar (Mumbai) and XIM (Bhubaneshwar). XAT marks are accpeted by 109 B-schools.
