XAT Preparation Strategy 2026: Detailed Section-Wise Strategy

If we are talking about the top management colleges in India then definitely people will first talk about IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management), but there are some other top B-schools who are not lesser than IIMs, like XLRI Jamshedpur, FMS Delhi and more. This blog is highly focused on the XAT examination which is considered as the gateway to the prestigious XLRI Jamshedpur who is better known for its Human Resource Management program. 

Now the important question arises – how to enter in such prestigious management institutes like XLRI Jamshedpur?. The answer is XAT exam, which is widely known as the basic eligibility criteria to sit for the interviews of Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur and other top B-schools who are widely accepting XAT scores. The XAT exam pattern is a bit different from the Common Admission Test but people who have already prepared for CAT and other competitive exams will need to do some minute changes to ace this. The XAT exam is conducted on the first Sunday of January. With the XAT 2026 exam being just a few months away, it’s time to start formulating the XAT strategy effectively.

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XAT Exam Pattern 2026

Before getting into the XAT strategy, you must have a good understanding about the XAT exam pattern. The XAT exam pattern has been changed since the XAT 2022 exam. The total time duration for the exam now is 3 hours or 180 minutes with two parts.  The part 1 covers the Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation, Decision Making, Verbal & Logical Ability which covers 170 minutes with no sectional time limit.

The part 2 covers the General Knowledge that needs to be completed in a time duration of 10 minutes.  The total number of questions are 95 and it is MCQ type questions with 5 options to choose from. Moreover, you will be allowed to move from part 1 to part 2 only after completing part 1 of the exam. Only part 1 will be calculated for percentile.

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A new type of Numerical Answer Type (NAT) questions have been introduced wherein the candidates would have to use a virtual keypad to enter the numerical answer. NAT-type questions do not have negative markings.

To get the complete idea about the XAT 2026 exam pattern, please refer the table mentioned below.

Sections	Number of Questions	Time Duration
Part 1
Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation	28	170 Minutes
Decision Making	21
Verbal and Logical Ability	26
Part 2
General Knowledge	20	10 minutes

XAT 2026 Marking Scheme 

The expected marking scheme for this exam is also peculiarly different. While there is 1 mark for every correct answer, every wrong answer bears a negative marking of 0.25 marks. Candidates can leave up to 8 questions total in Part 1 and anything beyond 8 questions would attract 0.1 negative marks per question left.

For percentile calculation, only Part 1 would be considered but students are requested to attempt both the parts seriously as every part becomes a judgmental criterion when it comes to GDPI.

XAT 2026 Important Dates

Following are the XAT 2024 important dates to keep in mind for the XAT exam before building a XAT strategy.

XAT 2026 Details	XAT 2026 Important Dates
XAT 2026 Notification Release	July 10, 2025
XAT 2026 Registration Last Date	December 05, 2025
XAT 2026 Admit Card Release Date	December 20, 2025 (Expected)
XAT 2026 Exam Date	January 04 , 2026, 2.00 pm to 5.00 pm
XAT 2026 Result Date	Last Week of January 2026 (Expected)

XAT Syllabus

Being well acquainted with the XAT syllabus is an important aspect of preparing XAT strategy. Check out the section-wise XAT syllabus down below with the iQuanta class hours for each topic.

1. XAT Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning Syllabus

Topics	Expected Number of Questions	iQuanta Class Hours
RCs (4 sets)	12	6
Poem Based (2)	3	2
Fill in the Blanks	2	2
Critical Reasoning	4	2
Grammar	3	2
Para jumbles	2	2
Total	26	16 Hours

2. XAT Decision Making Syllabus

Topics	Expected Number of Questions	iQuanta Class Hours
Case Studies (7 sets)	21	6 Hours

3. XAT Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation Syllabus

Topics	Expected Number of Questions	iQuanta Class Hours
DI Sets (4 sets)	12	4
Numbers	7	2
Algebra	4	2
Arithmetic	2	4
Geometry	2	4
Probability	1	2
Total	28	18 Hours

4. XAT General Knowledge Syllabus

Topics	Expected Number of Questions
Science & Tech	8
Personality & Awards	3
Economy & Business​	3
Geography	3
History	2
Sports	2
Books & Authors	2
Polity	1

 

XAT Topic Wise Weightage | XAT Exam Analysis

1. Verbal & Logical Ability

Topics	No. of Questions
Correct incorrect sentences	3
Fill in the blanks (3 blanks)	1
Jumbled Paragraphs	2
Critical Reasoning (Conclusions)	4
Poem-based Inference	1
Cloze Passage (4 blanks)	1
Reading Comprehension	3+3+3+3+2

2. Decision Making

Topics	No. of Questions
Case 1 – Allotment of accommodation to scientists (of 3 different seniority levels) in a research institute	3
Case 2 – Regarding an individual’s use of a vehicle (diesel-based) that is non-compliant with pollution rules	3
Case 3 – Regarding recruitment and confirmation of faculty members in an engineering college	3
Case 4 – Running a dosa Stall in a hospital; business	3
Case 5 – Regarding school fees payment by financially able parents during the pandemic	3
Case 6 – Regarding an assignment submission in a management college	3
Case 7 – Regarding the concerns of residents of an island village about how a proposed new bridge connecting their island to the mainland might impact them, business and ethics	3

3. Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation

Topics	Easy	Medium	Difficult	Total
Arithmetic	0	1	0	1
Geometry	0	1	1	2
Modern Maths	1	2	1	4
Algebra	1	0	0	1
Numbers	5	2	1	8
Total QA	7	3	6	16
Table	0	2	1	3
Bar Graph	0	2	1	3
Candlestick	0	3	0	3
Line Graph	0	3	0	3
Total DI	0	10	2	12
Total QADI	7	16	5	28

Section-Wise XAT Strategy

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It is very important for an aspirant while building their XAT strategy to have a stronghold on all five sections of the syllabus. For that, the aspirant needs to give their equal focus on each section so they can be more confident while taking the exam.

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1. XAT Strategy: Verbal and Logical Ability

This section is a combination of the VARC and the LR portion of the CAT exam. There will be around 26 total questions. Approximately 4 passages are given in this section, 14-16 questions will be asked on the basis of RCs. The verbal ability questions range from 8-10.

Subscribe to a daily newspaper and/or a weekly news magazine. After developing a regular reading habit, you can now start focusing on your speed. Various online sites can determine your reading speed. RCs require more practice in your reading skills. Start by solving 1–2 RCs a day and then gradually them after you start gaining confidence. Try to analyze the tone and the passages. It will eventually come with time. Practice as many previous year’s papers for the verbal section as you can. Practice as many previous year’s papers for the verbal section as you can.

The best XAT strategy for this section would be to put your CAT VARC preparation to use. The passages are way smaller than CAT and often the passages constitute poems. Sometimes, that makes it hard to comprehend. The vocabulary will be put to the test in this section through passages and through the other VA questions which include fill-in-the-blanks with the right choice of words, grammar questions, synonyms, antonyms, and other vocabulary tests. There would be questions from Paragraph Jumbles, Paragraph Completion, Critical Reasoning, Statements-Assumptions, etc. The paper would not consist of difficult sets of LR but the level of Verbal ability would be higher than CAT.

2. XAT Strategy: Decision Making

Decision Making often called Business Decision Making is a section that would be new for the candidates. This is a section that has scenarios of business problems or HR problems and tells you to choose the best option or order the options from most effective to least effective to solve the problem given in the question. It consists of 7 to 8 passages that have 2-3 questions each. The total number of questions is 21. The XAT strategy for this section is more or less practicing the old set of papers as there is no syllabus for this section. In the XAT 2025, using the logic of the question, not your own interpretation helps. Solving Decision-making questions through the lens of Law and practicing lots of questions from the past year’s papers is an important part of your XAT strategy.

3. XAT Strategy: Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation

This section consists of the Quantitative Ability as well as Data Interpretation Questions. There would be 3-4 DI sets and the rest would be Quants. The total number of questions is 28. The Syllabus for Quants and DI would be similar and of the same level as CAT. This section might not need additional preparation. Just more and more practice will sort it out.

To start your XAT preparation for Quantitative Skills, make sure you start from the very basics. Begin with focusing on calculation. Practice speed maths and Vedic maths.

Start preparing from the elementary level Mathematics and then work your way up to the tougher questions. Here at iQuanta, both Live and Conceptual classes are conducted so that the students can learn the concept behind a topic and then apply them to the questions. Try to not rely on the calculator for basic calculations.

There are two approaches to solving a question: general and shortcut way. If you apply the general method, you will not be able to solve all the questions in time. Also, you can solve by using options, but it only works when you have practiced lots of questions and have a clear idea of doing it through options. Solve as many questions from every topic, and try to be familiar with all the types of questions by practicing lots of varieties.

All you can do for the DI preparation is to practice as many sets as possible. Solve as many previous year papers as possible and appear for mocks. This will help you gain familiarity with the level of the XAT exam and what you’re going to deal with.

4. XAT Strategy: General Knowledge

The list of topics covered in the XAT GK section of the XAT exam is limitless. For the purpose of calculating the percentile, GK scores are not taken into account. This portion, however, cannot be disregarded. During the PI time, the interviewers examine your grades. You must thus think of it as embracing all the crucial subjects that were examined in the study of prior years.

This is a section of 10 mins where anything and everything can come. It would be from various kinds of current affairs, news, trivia, history, important past events, business etc. People normally spend the least amount of effort on the preparation of this section but it is important that you have a decent score in this section as the professors interviewing you might judge you on this score. The correct XAT strategy for the GK would be practicing more and more from old papers and mock tests.

The Cut-offs and XAT Strategy

One of the key factors of this exam is the sections are not time-bound and you can move across sections. Now, people who are strong in a particular section end up spending more time in that section. So, while they meet the overall cut-off of a particular program, they might fall short on the sectional cut-off. Make sure your XAT strategy helps you make the best out of this. A lot of people fall short of the DM cut-off as they pay less importance to the section or they make too many errors. While the section you find easiest should be done the earliest, a substantial amount of time should be given to the other sections as well. It is suggested that aspirants should write as many mocks as they can in order to judge how much time to give to each section in order to clear the cut-offs of each section. The cut-off goes till 96 because a lot of students in that range fail to meet the sectional cut-offs.

Practice is the Key

The most crucial part of your XAT strategy is to practice. While not much time is usually left after CAT to prepare for XAT, the students need to practice as much as possible. Taking at least 10 mock tests would help the students understand how the pattern is and how he/she can strategize to ace the exam. Once you know how the pattern is and how to work through it, XAT can be aced nicely. Also, people who often falter in the CAT exam find a breather in XAT and many of them end up getting XLRI to shortlist while they could not manage a good score in CAT. So, the key is not to get demoralized if you have had a poor CAT exam. Also, the CAT results are often timed just before the XAT exam. Keep it in mind that XAT is just another test if you aced CAT already or another lifeline if you faltered in CAT. Do not let the CAT result bother you and ruin this opportunity.

Where To Prepare For XAT 2026?

While planning your XAT strategy, it is also important to keep in mind the sources you’re preparing from. Given below are some of the features that make iQuanta the best preparation platform.

1. 24×7 Doubt Solving 

As an aspirant, anyone would want their doubts to be cleared immediately as they arise at any time of the day. This is the ideal situation. Immediate doubt clarification could be a great addition to your exam preparation.

This is why we at iQuanta provide free doubts-solving mechanisms on our FB group. Therein, you are able to ask your doubts whenever they arise, i.e., 24×7 doubt solving. All you need to do is post your doubts in the group and it will be resolved within 10 minutes of posting.

2. Peer-to-Peer Learning in India’s Largest Student Community

A community is very important as having a dedicated community at one place will provide you with the necessary support for your preparation.

In our secret Facebook group and in our public Facebook group, every student studies in a group wherein they learn from each other by asking and solving doubts, sharing strategies, and uplifting each other by providing motivation. A functioning ecosystem is built that is engaging as well as informative.

3. iQuanta’s Past Results for XAT

Click Here to Enrol for XAT 2026 Course

Why it is Important to Cover XAT Preparation Strategy 2026?

XAT exam is accepted by one of the prestigious management institutes like XLRI Jamshedpur which is better known for its Human Resource Management program but to get the best scores from standing out among the competition requires a proper preparation strategy and structured approach. Candidates should maintained a proper time table to cover the complete syllabus of XAT which is widely categorized in two major parts including the Part 1 and Part 2. The Part 1 covering the Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation, Decision Making, Verbal & Logical Ability whereas the part 2 cover General Knowledge section. Apart from covering the XAT syllabus, the preparation strategy for XAT 2026 exam well covers the mock test series, crash courses, marathons and webinars. Solving PYQs (Previous Year Questions) and mock test papers aligns your preparation for the XAT exam in the right direction that leads to the real-exam like conditions for getting maximum scores and admission offers from top B-schools including XLRI.

Conclusion – XAT Strategy 2026

XAT exam is one of the important examinations when we are talking about OMETs (Other Management Entrance Examinations). There are many candidates who have started their management journey by giving the CAT (Common Admission Test) but due to intense competition very few candidates are able to make it. The best possible way further to approach the top management institutes in India like XLRI Jamshedpur is XAT examination. This exam is slightly easier in comparison to CAT but this exam requires a proper preparation strategy to get good scores.

FAQs – XAT Preparation Strategy 2026