XAT syllabus 2027
XAT is set by XLRI Jamshedpur and it is the only major MBA entrance exam with a Decision Making section. If you are preparing for CAT and treating XAT as a free extra attempt, Decision Making is the 21 questions that will catch you out. Nothing in CAT prepares you for it.
The exam runs 180 minutes in two parts. Part 1 carries 75 questions in 170 minutes and decides your percentile. Part 2 is 20 general knowledge questions in 10 minutes, and those do not count towards your XAT score, though XLRI uses them at the interview stage.
Analytical essay writing has been dropped.
Syllabus by section
| Section | Questions | Stage | Syllabus page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decision Making | 21 | Part 1 | Decision Making syllabus |
| VALR | 26 | Part 1 | VALR syllabus |
| QA-DI | 28 | Part 1 | Quant and DI syllabus |
| GK | 20 | Part 2 | GK syllabus |
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XAT 2027 at a glance
| Conducting body | XLRI Jamshedpur, on behalf of XAMI |
| Mode | Computer-based, at a test centre |
| Frequency | Once a year, usually the first Sunday of January |
| Duration | 180 minutes, in two parts |
| Sections | VALR, Decision Making, Quant and DI, General Knowledge |
| Questions | 95, of which 75 are scored |
| Marking | 1 mark correct, 0.25 deducted for a wrong answer |
| Blank penalty | 0.10 for each unattempted question after the first eight in Part 1 |
| Medium | English only |
| Eligibility | A bachelor's degree of at least three years |
| Essay | Dropped |
| Score validity | The admission cycle it was sat for |
XAT exam pattern 2027
| Part | Section | Questions | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Part 1 | Verbal and Logical Ability (VALR) | 26 | 170 min across all three |
| Part 1 | Decision Making (DM) | 21 | |
| Part 1 | Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation | 28 | |
| Part 2 | General Knowledge (GK) | 20 | 10 min |
| Total | 95 | 180 min |
Each question is worth 1 mark. A wrong answer costs 0.25 marks. There is no sectional time limit inside Part 1, so you can move between the three sections freely for 170 minutes. That freedom is a genuine advantage over CAT and most candidates waste it by allocating time in advance and then refusing to adjust.
The penalty most candidates get wrong: leave more than eight questions in Part 1 unattempted and each unattempted question after the eighth costs a further 0.10 marks. It is a count across the whole of Part 1, not a run - scattered skips add up the same as one long block. The fix is simple: answer everything you can, even with a considered guess, and the penalty never triggers. GK sits outside the penalty and has no negative marking at all, so answer all 20.
What changed recently
- Analytical essay writing has been dropped from the paper
- General Knowledge moved from 25 questions to 20
- The four-section structure and the blank penalty have both held
Preparation material written before those two changes is still circulating. If a mock hands you an essay prompt or 25 GK questions, it is out of date.
Decision Making syllabus
21 questions, roughly a fifth of your scored paper, and unique to XAT. Six or seven caselets, each followed by three or four questions.
- Ethical dilemmas and questions of professional conduct
- HR and people situations: conflict, underperformance, promotion, resignation
- Business and operational problems with competing stakeholders
- Financial and resource allocation decisions
- Data arrangement, grouping, conditioning and complex arrangement sets
- Assumptions, premises and conclusions
The answer is rarely the most ethical option. It is the option a reasonable manager could defend afterwards. The full Decision Making breakdown sets out what marks a correct option and what marks a wrong one.
Verbal and Logical Ability syllabus
26 questions, and harder than CAT verbal for one reason: XAT never stopped asking the things CAT removed.
- Reading comprehension: abstract and philosophical passages, occasionally poetry and literary extracts
- Critical reasoning: assumptions, inference, strengthen and weaken, flaws, paradoxes
- Grammar and usage: sentence correction, error spotting, fill in the blanks, idioms
- Vocabulary: synonyms, antonyms, analogies, contextual usage
- Paragraph questions: jumbles, completion, odd sentence out, summaries
Roughly a third of this section is ground a CAT-only preparation never covers. The full VALR breakdown has the complete topic list and a comparison against CAT VARC.
Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation syllabus
28 questions, the largest section in the paper, and generally rated harder than CAT quant.
| Area | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Arithmetic | Percentages, profit and loss, interest, ratio and proportion, averages, mixtures, time and work, time speed and distance |
| Algebra | Equations, inequalities, functions, logarithms, progressions, surds and indices, binomial theorem |
| Geometry and trigonometry | Triangles, circles, polygons, coordinate geometry, mensuration, trigonometric ratios, heights and distances |
| Number systems | Divisibility, remainders, cyclicity, HCF and LCM, base systems |
| Modern maths | Permutations and combinations, probability, set theory |
| Data interpretation | Tables, charts, caselets, mixed sets, data sufficiency |
Trigonometry is asked directly, which CAT has largely stopped doing. The full quant and DI breakdown has every subtopic and the DI formats that recur.
General Knowledge syllabus
20 questions in 10 minutes, roughly 12 on current affairs and 8 on static GK. It does not count towards your percentile, and you should still attempt all of it, because there is no negative marking and XLRI looks at the score later. The full GK breakdown covers both halves.
How to use the 170 minutes
No sectional clock means the allocation is yours, and it is the biggest single decision in the paper.
- Decision Making, 40 to 45 minutes. The caselets are long and reading time dominates.
- VALR, 45 to 50 minutes. Reading comprehension carries most of it.
- Quant and DI, 55 to 60 minutes. The largest section and the slowest per question.
- A reserve of 15 minutes for whichever section turns out to be the easier one on the day.
Decide the order before you sit down and the allocation during the paper. Candidates who fix both in advance end up finishing a hard section they should have left and abandoning an easy one they never reached.
Common mistakes
- Preparing for XAT with CAT material alone, which leaves Decision Making and a third of VALR uncovered
- Leaving more than eight questions in Part 1 unattempted and triggering the blank penalty
- Leaving GK questions blank when there is no penalty for a wrong answer
- Spending the freedom of no sectional clock on the section you enjoy rather than the one that scores
- Using mocks written before the essay was dropped
XAT compared with CAT and the GMAT
XAT is the longest of the three papers and the only one without a hard sectional clock inside its main part. The CAT syllabus covers three sections in 120 minutes with 40 minutes locked per section. The GMAT syllabus is adaptive, carries no negative marking and dropped geometry in 2024.
| XAT | CAT | GMAT | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sections | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| Questions | 95 | 68 | 64 |
| Duration | 180 min | 120 min | 135 min |
| Sectional clock | No, within Part 1 | Yes, 40 min each | Yes, 45 min each |
| Decision Making | Yes | No | No |
| General Knowledge | Yes, not scored | No | No |
| Negative marking | 0.25, plus a blank penalty | 1 mark on MCQs | None |
| Grammar tested directly | Yes | No | No |
| Trigonometry | Asked | Basic only | Not tested |
Frequently asked questions
Is the XAT syllabus official?
XLRI publishes the pattern and the section names, not a topic list. The topics here come from past papers.
Is there an essay in XAT 2027?
No. Analytical essay writing has been dropped.
Does General Knowledge count towards my XAT percentile?
No. XLRI uses it at a later stage.
What is the blank penalty?
Across Part 1, leave more than eight questions unattempted and you lose 0.10 marks for every unattempted question after the first eight. It is a count, not a run: scattered skips add up the same. GK is not included.
Can I prepare for XAT with CAT material?
For quant and verbal, mostly. For Decision Making, no, and that is a fifth of the scored paper.
How many questions are in XAT?
95 in total, of which 75 are scored.
Is there a sectional time limit in XAT?
Not within Part 1. The three scored sections share 170 minutes. Part 2 is separately timed at 10 minutes.
Is XAT harder than CAT?
Most candidates who sit both find the quant and verbal harder in XAT, and Decision Making is unfamiliar ground regardless of CAT preparation.
How many institutes accept XAT?
XLRI and a large number of other management institutes across India. Check the individual institute, since the list changes each cycle.
Is trigonometry asked in XAT?
Yes, directly. This is one of the clearest differences from CAT.
How long does XAT preparation take?
If you are already preparing for CAT, the additional work is Decision Making, grammar and vocabulary, and GK. That is usually six to eight weeks alongside existing preparation.
Is there negative marking for unattempted questions?
Only once you have left more than eight questions unattempted in Part 1. Eight or fewer cost nothing, however they are spread.