XAT Exam Pattern (Updated): Latest Changes, Marking Scheme, Section-Wise Syllabus

XAT exam pattern 2025 has brought some notable changes to the exam structure. Starting from this year, the Essay Writing will not be the part of main exam and the number of questions in the GK section has been reduced. The total exam duration has also been reduced from 210 minutes to 180 minutes.

According to the updated XAT 2025 exam pattern, the complete exam pattern is divided into two parts, Part I and Part II. In the Part I of XAT syllabus, there are three sections which are DM, VARC, and QA-DI. The second part of the XAT syllabus consists only the General Knowledge section. For the Part I, there will be 170 minutes and 10 minutes for Part II. PwD candidates will get an extra 20 minutes for each part.

For each section, there will be a total of 20-28 MCQs with five answer options to choose from. The scores of the GK section are considered only during the final selection process and they will not be part of the final XAT 2025 result. 

Latest XAT Updates

XAT exam pattern 2025 has been revised and introduced some major changes to the exam structure. Removed the Essay Writing section from the main section.

• Number of Questions Reduced: As per the XAT exam analysis of last year, the number of questions has decreased 95, previously it was 101.
• Reduction in GK Questions: From now on, there will be only 20 questions in the GK section, previously it was 25. Among those 20 questions, 12 questions on current affairs and 8 on static GK. This section assesses your current awareness and foundational knowledge.
• Changes in Exam Duration: The XAT exam 2025 duration has been shortened to 180 minutes, compared to the previous 210 minutes
• Exam Pattern: XAT 2025 is now divided into two parts, Part I and Part II. Part I is allotted 170 minutes, while Part II, which mainly focuses on the GK section, is allocated with 10 minutes.
• GK Score Utilization: The General Knowledge score will be exclusively used by XLRI Jamshedpur during its final selection process.
• Analytical Essay Writing (AEW) has Removed: The AEW section has been removed from XAT 2025 examination. Starting from now, this section has been integrated into the group discussion and personal interview (GD/PI) round.

XAT Exam Pattern: Key Highlights

Check out the table below for the key details of the XAT exam pattern 2025:

XAT Exam Structure	Details
Exam Mode	Online
Number of Answer Choices	Five
Number of Questions	95
Number of Sections	3 (Part-1) + 1 (Part-2)
XAT Time Duration	170 minutes+10 minutes
Total Marks	95

XAT Exam Pattern: Section Wise

XAT features a variable distribution of questions from different sections, which means some sections contain more questions than others. Refer to the table below for the section-wise distribution of questions for the XAT 2025 exam:

Section	No. of Questions
Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation (QA-DI)	28
Decision Making (DM)	26
Verbal Logical ability (VARC)	21
General Knowledge (GK)	20

XAT Exam Pattern: Section-Wise Breakdown

Section-wise XAT 2025 syllabus discussed in the table below:

Section	Important Topic
Verbal & Logical Ability	Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension, Fill in the Blanks, Analogy, Para jumble, Critical Reasoning, Grammar
Decision-Making	Complex, Assumptions, Grouping, Conclusion, Conditioning, Caselets, Data Arrangement, Premises
Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation	Pie, Geometry, Arithmetic, Charts, Surds and Indices, Data interpretation, Algebra, Tables, Ber, Diagrams
General Knowledges	World Affairs, Politics, Business, Science, Economy, Static GK, Sports Prizes and Awards, Government, Constitution of India

XAT Marking Scheme

XAT 2025 marking scheme has some unique aspects that differentiate between correct answers and penalizing incorrect answers. Questions in the General Knowledge section are not marked negatively.

Here is the XAT marking scheme 2025 discussed below:

Particulars	XAT 2025 Marking Scheme
Correct Response	For each right answer, you will get +1 mark.
Incorrect Response	For each wrong answer, -0.25 marks will be deducted from total marks.
Unattempted	If you skip more than eight questions, 0.1 marks are deducted.

XAT Exam Duration

Candidates have to understand the overall and sectional time limits for managing their time for both parts of the exam. The complete XAT 2025 exam duration is 3 hours, where Part I consists for 170 minutes and Part II is 10 minutes. There are no sectional time limits, so manage your time effectively.

The PWD candidates will have an additional 20 minutes per hour. So, they will have 55 minutes extra for Part I and 5 minutes extra for Part II of the XAT exam.

XAT Exam Pattern: Trends Over the Years

XAT exam pattern has gone through various changes over the year. Get the year-wise XAT exam pattern trends in the table below:

XAT Exam Year	VARC	DM	QA-DI	Essay Writing	GK	No. of Questions
2020	26	22	28	-	25	101
2021	26	22	28	1	25	102
2022	26	21	28	1	25	101
2023	26	22	28	1	25	102
2024	26	22	28	1	25	102

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the differences in the XAT 2025 exam compared to the previous year's exam? +

Ans: The XAT 2025 exam is different from the previous year in several aspects. The key change was the removal of the essay writing section, which was previously part of the exam, but now it is part of the selection process. Also, the exam duration also changed to 180 minutes, which was 210 previously. This year, the total number of GK questions has also reduced to 20.

How will the scientific calculator help during the XAT exam? +

Ans: In the XAT exam, a scientific calculator will be added to the solving of complex quantitative problems with greater accuracy. This can allow candidates to save time, reduce errors, and focus on other questions to improve their scores.

Which types of questions will benefit from using the Scientific calculator in the XAT exam? +

Ans: Basically, the scientific calculator will help to solve the mathematical questions of the XAT 2025 exam. Test takers can make the complex calculation easier and can focus on the other tougher questions by saving calculation time.

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