One of the first things that I would like to share is that this article will not contain the standard ways of cracking an entrance exam, but a look at what i feel are the small issues that can make or break your day.

1. Expectation of the Paper: When I appeared for CAT, I worked on my strategy of 4 sections and when i opened the paper, I wasn’t mentally prepared to attend a paper that had only 3 sections. Hence please always remember that going into an exam with a fixed mind set does not help a lot.

2. Cracking the First question: I always used to spend more time on the first 10 questions, because if i got caught, mentally the game was over. I usually spent around 10 minutes solving the first 10 questions. It could be a good strategy to solve the GK towards the end rather than at the beginning because of the above reason. Also the issue of a person being fresh also adds credence to this point

3. XAT, this year: Since the XAT this year is online, I wish that the candidates have a look at the software used for these types of exams. If you cannot lay hands on the XAT software, do try the GRE software, because I always felt that the environment in which i write the exam is very important. Also spend some time in the exam hall on using & learning the various aspects of the software. Please do not neglect the learning stage as it can be comparable to not reading the instructions of the questions. Hence please spend a lot of time in learning the software.

4. XAT is Different : Traditionally XAT was the same format as CAT, but over the last few years there has been a consious decision to differentiate between XLRI and IIMs. Hence please be very careful in the preparation for this exam as the format and the content of this exam is vastly different from CAT.

I always made it a point to arrive at the exam hall well in advance for the exam and I remember that in the XAT entrance exam, I even had a short nap also!!! Though i would not advice the nap, please get to the Exam hall atleast 30 minutes in advance. Also the standard advice of pencils and erasers should hold true.

One final experience, when I attended the XAT exam, I was at first ’’ Pschyed out ’’ looking at the crowd. I felt that there was no way i could get a short list for the interview. But please remember that not all the people who shall appear will have put in the same effort as you have and be always confident of cracking the exam.

Best of luck for XAT .....