Contents
- 1 How to prepare for Decision Making in XAT 2023 – Best Study Material & Techniques To Solve The Questions
- 1.1 XAT 2023 Exam Pattern
- 1.2 Importance of Decision Making in XAT 2023
- 1.3 Strategy for XAT 2023 Decision Making
- 1.4 Top 5 Decision-Making techniques
How to prepare for Decision Making in XAT 2023 – Best Study Material & Techniques To Solve The Questions
Decision Making is a unique section in the XAT exam. This is a game-changing section, as many aspirants need help knowing how or where to prepare for this section. Especially this section is made to evaluate the decision-making skills of the candidates to analyze a situation and choose the best decision. The quality and speed of your decision-making will decide your success rate in this section. In this article, we will discuss how to prepare for XAT Decision Making and provide you with the best study material for this section.
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One can excel in this section by practising various types of problems. There are many sources where you can find the decision-making question from XAT previous years papers which are very beneficial and free sources for the aspirants. Also, watch the below excellent video on XAT 2023 Decision Making by Sayali Ma’am (Top rank holder in XAT 2021) cum IIMA Alumna.
XAT 2023 Exam Pattern
The XAT exam 2023 pattern consists of two papers which are shown below.
XAT Exam Pattern (Paper-1)
| Section name | No. of questions | Total marks | Time duration |
| Verbal and Logical Ability | 26 | 26 | 165 minutes |
| Decision making | 21 | 21 | |
| Quantitative ability & Data Interpretation | 27 | 828 | |
| Total | 75 | 75 |
Does XAT have negative marking?
The XAT paper-1 will have a negative marking of ¼ marks. For up to 12 un-attempted questions with no negative marks. After 12 un-attempted questions, each unanswered question will have a penalty of 0.05 marks.
XAT Exam Pattern (Paper-2)
The exam duration will be 25 minutes
No negative marking on paper 2
| Name of the section | No. of Questions | Duration |
| General Knowledge | 25 | 15 minutes |
| Essay Writing | 1 | |
| Total | 100 |
Importance of Decision Making in XAT 2023
As mentioned, decision-making is a unique section in XAT compared to the other MBA entrance exams. This section asses the candidates’ decision-making, analytical, behavioural and administrative skills. This section is said to be a game-changer in the exam. It can push your XAT percentile substantially up or take it down depending upon your preparation level and volume of versatile practice on a variety of questions of relevant types. This section mainly consists of two questions: Mathematical type problems and behavioural & managerial-type questions.
In this section, the candidate will be given a situation based on any areas, such as critical reasoning, management issues, Dilemma and Ethical dilemmas. So the candidate has to analyse the given situation or the problem and opting the best option that justifies the case. Let us see some best practices to excel in the decision-making section in XAT 2023.
Strategy for XAT 2023 Decision Making
As there is no accurate syllabus for the XAT decision-making section, candidates are advised to look into the previously asked questions, which you can find in the XAT previous year papers. Most of the questions in this section are passage types broadly divided into Business/Financial situations, Situations involving strategies, Situations related to Human Resources and Analytical Reasoning. Look at the key decision-making techniques that may help you choose the right option while solving this section.
Top 5 Decision-Making techniques
Here are some of the best practices while attempting the decision-making section in XAT.
Understand the Given Situation from all the perspectives
It is imperative to read the case study carefully, collect its main points, and understand the situation from all perspectives. Suppose the problem is between a business person and a customer. Then imagine the situation from both points of view.
Analyse Every Option Carefully
This is one of the most important tasks in which the candidates must clearly understand each option. This is because no answer is completely correct or incorrect. One answer can be more reasonable or ethical than another. The option will be given more confusion for the aspirant to choose.
Don’t Be Unethical
This is one of the most important points to be considered when solving decision-making problems. There would be a philosophical dilemma between choosing the correct answer in certain questions or situations posed before you as part of the Decision Making Section. In such instances, it would be automatically refused to opt for loopholes or unethical ways of solving a problem.
Make Sure To Justify All The Stakeholders
Choose the option through which justify all the stakeholders participating in a scenario would benefit. This could make you avoid making the wrong decision.
Elimination of Options
Considering the things to avoid while solving a question in the Decision-making section is imperative. After analysing the given situation well, filter the given options based on various inputs.
1. Avoid all Unethical Options
Try to avoid the unethical option. Choose only the option which justifies the given situation that would be ethical. Do remember this point which is very imperative while solving the decision-making section.
2. Avoid Impractical Options
While analysing the given options, read the options carefully and make sure that the option is possible to work out or not. If not, eliminate such options and make sure that the options you choose are feasible.
3. Choose Only the Effective Options
Choose only the effective options to achieve the objective or goal stated in the given problem.
4. Optimizing the Option That Left
After applying all the filters mentioned above, you will be left with one or two options. At this stage, one should find the optimal solution to achieve the goal.
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