XAT 2013 Question Paper
Read the following caselet and choose the best alternative:
Head of a nation in the Nordic region was struggling with the slowing economy on one hand and restless citizens on the other. In addition, his opponents were doing everything possible to discredit his government. As a famous saying goes, "There is no smoke without a fire", it cannot be said that the incumbent government was doing all the right things. There were reports of acts of omission and commission coming out every other day.
Distribution of public resources for private businesses and for private consumption had created a lot of problems for the government. It was being alleged that the government has given the right to exploit these public resources at throw-away prices to some private companies. Some of the citizens were questioning the government policies in the Supreme Court of the country as well as in the media. In the midst of all this, the head of the nation called his cabinet colleagues for a meeting on the recent happenings in the country.
He asked his minister of water resources about the bidding process for allocation of rights to setup mini-hydel power plants. To this, the minister replied that his ministry had followed the laid out policies of the government. Water resources were allocated to those private companies that bid the highest and were technically competent. The minister continued that later on some new companies had shown interest and they were allowed to enter the sector as per the guidelines of the Government. This, the minister added, would facilitate proper utilization of water resources and provide better services to the citizens. The new companies were allocated the rights at the price set by the highest bidders in the previous round of bidding. After hearing this, the head of the nation replied that one would expect the later allocations to be done after a fresh round of bidding. The minister of water resources replied that his ministry had taken permissions from the concerned ministries before allocating the resources to the new companies.
Media reports suggested that the minister of water resources had deliberately allocated the water resources at old prices to the new companies, and in return some received kickbacks. However, the minister denied these charges. His counter argument was that he followed the stated policies of the Government and it is very difficult to price a scarce resource. He also said that the loss that the media is talking about is notional and in reality the Government and the citizens have gained by the entry of new players. Which of the following is the most appropriate inference?
Subsequently, the minister questioned the role of the media in the whole affair. He said that the media cannot act like a reporter, prosecutor and judge at the same time. Mr. Swamy, an independent observer, was asked about appropriateness of the minister's opinion. What should be Mr. Swamy's reply?
Looking at the public unrest and discontent, the Government's anti-corruption branch was with the task of investigating the matter. Within a week's time the branch chargesheeted top corporate managers and the minister for wrong doings. Mr. Swamy was again asked to identify the guilty. Who should Mr. Swamy pick?
Each of the Big, Small and Medium cost is categorized by the manager into Red, Yellow, Green and Violet costs. Breakdown of the additional costs under these headings is shown in the table below: Red, Yellow, Green and Violet costs are allocated to different retail formats. These costs are apportioned in the ratio of number of units consumed by each retail format. The number of units consumed by each retail format is given in the table below:
The BIG and Colourful Company
You are running "BIG and Colourful (BnC)" company that sells books to customers through three retail formats:
a. You can buy books from bookstores,
b. You can buy books from supermarket,
c. You can order books over the Internet (Online).
Your manager has an interesting way of classifying expenses: some of the expenses are classified in terms of size: Big, Small and Medium; and others are classified in terms of the colors, Red, Yellow, Green and Violet. The company has a history of categorizing overall costs into initial costs and additional costs. Additional costs are equal to the sum of Big, Small and Medium expenses. There are two types of margins, contribution (sales minus initial costs) and profit (contribution minus additional costs). Given below is the data about sales and costs of BnC:
Read the following statements:
Statement I. Online store accounted for 50% of the sales at BnC and the ratio of supermarket sales and book store sales is 1:2.
Statement II. Initial Cost is allocated in the ratio of sales. If you want to calculate the profit/loss from the different retail formats, then
What is the profit/loss from "online" sales? (Use data from previous question if needed)
Read the following caselet and choose the best alternative
A teacher wanted to administer a multiple choice (each question having six choices) based quiz of high difficulty level to a class of sixty students. The quiz had sixty questions. The probability of selecting the correct answer for a good student and a brilliant student was 0.2 and 0.25 respectively. The poor students had no learning advantage. The teacher did not want students to cheat but does not have time and resources to monitor. All students were seated serially in 10 rows and 6 columns.
Is it possible for the teacher to detect cheating without monitoring? Choose the statement that best describes your opinion:
Three good students were seated next to each other. What is the probability of them having the same incorrect choice for four consecutive questions?
For the following questions answer them individually
Students from four sections of a class accompanied by respective class teachers planned to go for a field trip. There were nineteen people in all. However, on the scheduled day one of the four teachers and a few students could not join the rest. Given below are some statements about the group of people who ultimately left for the trip.
I: Section A had the largest contingent.
Il: Section B had fewer students than Section A.
Ill: Section C's contingent was smaller than Section B.
IV: Section D had the smallest contingent.
V: The product of the number of student from each section is a multiple of 10.
VI: The number of students from Section C is more than 2.
VIl. The product of the number of students from each section is a multiple of 24.
VIll. The largest contingent has more than 4 students.
IX: Each section contributed different number of students
The statements that taken together can give us the exact number of students from each section:
