In the league of the IIM’s, Xavier’s Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur (XLRI) is considered one of the premium Management Institutes in India. It is an eminent institution more for its MBA in Personal Management and Industrial Relations. XLRI conducts the Xavier Admission Test (XAT), which is accepted by more than 50 institutes.

XLRI itself has 240 seats for its Business Management and PMIR course combined. It is famous for its excellent placement and brand value in corporate India. (Given that majority of the top Human Resource personnel are XLRI graduates) The PMIR (Personnel Management and Industrial Relations) course is considered as among the finest Human Resource Management course in the country closely followed by TISS. Apart from XLRI, XAT scores are also valid for Xavier’s Institute of Management Bhubaneswar (XIMB), Goa Institute of Management (GIM), Xavier’s Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship (XIME) Xavier’s Institute of Social Sciences (XISS) and SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR). XLRI remains the most preferred institute followed by SPJIMR, XIMB and GIM respectively. A score of above 96 percentiles and clearance of sectional cut-off is required to receive a group interview call from XLRI. SPJIMR gives profile based calls while XIMB and GIM have cutoffs in the range of 92-97 percentiles.

Registration for XAT starts in the first week of September and goes on till November end. The exam is held during the first week of January. The registration charges are Rs.900 for the exam, and an additional Rs.1000 for each institute you wish to apply to.

The pattern-The exam is more about making the right choices. Some questions are meant to be left and so you just have to pick out the ones giving the maximum returns at minimum time cost (management at its best). The paper is usually at par or more difficult than CAT. Negative marking adds to the complications of the exam, with negatives increasing with the increasing incorrect answers. The portion for XAT also requires a candidate to prepare for Integration, Derivatives, and Probability in quant. The DI is usually made of logical reasoning and often tricky questions which need to be attempted with a lot of patience. Unlike CAT, XAT has 5 options which make the process of elimination tougher. XAT is not an examination of speed but of selection and being level headed.
It includes-

• 24 questions of Analytical reasoning and decision making which are very tricky and need to be practiced for as the portion of quant is drastically different from other competitive exams.
• 43 questions of D.I and quantitative ability, out of which a few caselets are easy while others range from tricky to downright complex.
• 34 questions of verbal ability and logical reasoning this can be potentially high scoring for anyone with good command over the language and excellent grammar skills.
• A 20 minute short notes type essay question, wherein you give our inference as to what the excerpt given, implies to you. (Please note: This is only used during the interview stage in XLRI if one qualifies for the same).

XAT is always a paper of surprises and twists it is rare to find any candidate (including once who will ace the paper) who will find it easy. In 2011 XAT there were poetry based comprehension questions. The answer marking of the questions ranged from 1 to 5 marks per question. The concept of increasing negatives makes it very interesting as marks maximization and negative minimization is required. On a personal level cracking XAT requires more academic effort than CAT (CAT is more of managing ones nerve and cool). However even majority of the first timers are well accustomed to the examination pressure when XAT comes along (it is held after NMAT, SNAP, IIFT and IRMA).

Even if you are attempting XAT for XLRI only it's a must take test. After CAT it is truly a pan India entrance exam with limited coveted seats. Institutes like XIMB and GIM are good backups which make XAT the second most important MBA entrance exam in the country.