Section A : Verbal Ability
The Verbal Ability section was on the tougher side as usual. It tested not just the language but also the logic and analytical skills of the students. This section had a strong emphasis on critical reasoning skills. The test has definitely made its mark this time with the variety it has incorporated in the Verbal Ability section. The 4 out of the 5 Reading Comprehension passages were of moderate length and not as complex as the ones in 2013. The one on consumer desires in societies can however be said to be the toughest RC by far of the MBA entrance season this year. While the length was deceivingly less, the passage was very tough to read. And those who eventually managed to venture past the passage into the questions would have been flummoxed by the kind of questions - a new type where additional info is given and the students have to search for a common thread that runs through this additional info and the passage.
The questions, in general however, as is expected in XAT were very clever and had close options.The subjects that were touched upon included Science, Economics, Sociology, Behaviour and so on.
The highlight of the paper are some new question types even within the oh so familiar RC and grammar areas.
The distribution of the questions was as follows:
|
Sno |
Question Type |
No of Questions |
Difficulty Level |
|
1 |
Fill in the blanks (vocab and grammar based) |
5 |
Easy-Medium |
|
2 |
Para Completion |
1 |
Medium |
|
3 |
Grammar (Parts of speech identification, sentence
correction) |
2 |
Easy- Medium |
|
4 |
Para inference |
1 |
Easy - Med |
|
5 |
Reading Comprehension (5 sets) |
15 |
Medium to High
|
|
6 |
Verbal Logic |
2 |
Medium |
|
7 |
PFQ |
2 |
Easy - Med |
|
Total |
28 |
Medum-High |
One could have attempted around 15 questions in 45 min with an accuracy of 70%. A score of 8 marks can be considered good in the section. The cutoff is likely to be around 7 marks.
|
