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XAT 2026 Strategy: Insights from the XAT Convenor Interview
December 17, 2025
Overview: Confused about XAT prep? Read XAT 2026 Strategy with XAT Convenor interview to understand the exam mindset, section-wise tips, and what really matters in XAT 2026.
With XAT around the corner and anxiety high after other MBA entrance exams, many aspirants look for clear, reliable guidance.
In a rare and candid conversation, XAT 2026 Convenor Dr. Rahul Kumar Shukla explains what the exam really tests, what is changing, what is not, and how serious candidates should plan the final month and exam day.
The discussion cuts through myths about difficulty, decision making, and general awareness, and lays out a practical approach that fits into an existing CAT preparation plan.
Who is Dr Rahul Kumar Shukla?
Dr Rahul Kumar Shukla, Convenor of XAT 2026 and faculty member in General Management at XLRI Jamshedpur, is known for his work in managerial and leadership communication, critical thinking, and rational decision-making.
Why XAT 2026 Strategy Matters According to XAT Convenor?
XAT is one of the most distinctive MBA entrance exams in India — it tests not just speed and accuracy, but ethical decision-making and logical reasoning.
With the exam set just around January 4, 2026, a focused XAT 2026 Strategy can be a game-changer.
XAT 2026 Pattern: What Candidates Can Expect?
For XAT 2026, aspirants can treat the previous year as the template.
Dr Shukla confirms that:
✅Overall pattern remains the same as last year.
✅Total test duration stays at 3 hours, not 3 hours 30 minutes as in older editions.
✅ The reduced number of General Awareness questions remains in place.
✅The same broad topic coverage continues across sections.
What XAT Really Tests (Beyond the “Difficult Exam” Label)
XAT is often referred to as “the difficult exam”, especially when compared to CAT.
Dr. Shukla directly challenges this label.
✅Difficulty is Not The Design Goal
Inside the paper-setting team, there is no target to make the exam “tough”. A simple thought experiment guides their approach:
If 10 questions in Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation are made extremely hard, the effective assessment happens on the remaining 18 questions.
That wastes both the candidate’s time and the test designer’s effort. Instead, the team tries to:
- Keep questions doable but thinking-oriented.
- Avoid extremes that nobody touches.
- Maintain consistency with previous XAT papers, not with other exams.
At the same time, the paper cannot be trivial. Many candidates invest months of focused effort, some take breaks from jobs, and many prepare after long workdays.
A very easy paper would not respect that investment. The result is a “normal but thoughtful” paper that rewards careful work more than clever shortcuts.
✅Core skills XAT 2026 seeks
Across sections, XAT emphasises:
| Skill Area | What XAT Looks For? | What does this mean for Aspirants? |
| System 2 Thinking | Preference for slow, logical, and reflective thinking over impulsive responses | Avoid guesswork. Read questions carefully, evaluate options step by step, and choose logically sound answers. |
| Decision Making (DM) | Logical, ethical, and practical decision-making | Base answers strictly on the information given. Avoid personal bias, emotional responses, or industry assumptions. |
| Quant & DI Reasoning | Application-based problem solving rather than formula memorisation | Focus on understanding concepts and applying them to new situations, rather than memorising shortcuts. |
| Verbal Ability Interpretation | Accurate interpretation of text, arguments, and visuals | Read RC passages, arguments, and data visuals carefully. Look for tone, intent, and logical flow before answering. |
| General Awareness (GA) | Awareness of significant national and international events | Focus on key events, trends, and implications—no need for rote memorisation of static facts. |
The rising number of non-engineers in the top percentile bands, as seen by the convenor, is evidence that the test is not tilted towards any one academic background.
One-Month Blueprint for XAT 2026 Strategy by XAT Convenor
Many candidates face XAT after attempting CAT and other exams. The convenor offers a realistic view of overlap and extra work.
| Week | Primary Goal | Detailed Action Plan | Key Tips |
| Week 1 | Strengthen Fundamentals |
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| Week 2 | Improve Speed & Accuracy |
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| Week 3 | Mocks & Deep Analysis |
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| Week 4 | Final Revision & Mental Prep |
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How can CAT preparation help XAT 2026 Aspirants?
According to XAT Convenor:
- Around 60-70 per cent of CAT preparation overlaps with XAT, especially in Verbal Ability, Logical Reasoning, DI, and Quant fundamentals.
- The real differentiators are decision-making and General Awareness.
Concrete guidance for the final month
A balanced plan, based on his remarks, would emphasise:
| 📌 Focus Area | 📝 What to Do: Guidance from XAT Convenor |
| 🔁 Daily Consistency | Even on low-energy days, complete at least one RC, one Decision Making case set, or a short GA revision to maintain momentum. |
| ⚖️ Decision-Making Practice | Solve 10+ years of XAT Decision Making papers, focusing on case stems, stakeholders, constraints, and recurring option patterns. |
| 📰 General Awareness Catch-up | Spend 10–15 minutes per recent month revising key events from the last 7–8 months, including important December updates. |
| 📖 Interpretive Reading | Practice reading full passages and cartoons, focusing on structure, tone, and implied meaning rather than just direct statements. |
| 🧠 Application-Focused Quant | Treat Quant questions as logic-based puzzles that combine basic math with reasoning, rather than relying solely on formulas. |
| 📚 Previous Year Questions (PYQs) | Consider PYQs as the single most powerful hack for score improvement in the final weeks, as highlighted by the Convenor. |
| 🧪 Official XAT Mock | Attempt the official XAT mock multiple times—kept open deliberately to help candidates experience the real exam environment. |
The convenor calls the previous year's questions the single most powerful “hack” for boosting scores in the final weeks.
He also mentions that the official XAT mock has been kept open for long periods to give candidates a real test feel.
Section-wise Guidance from the Convenor for XAT 2026
✅ Decision Making: Objective and Common-sense Driven
Decision-making is XAT’s unique hallmark and also its most misunderstood section.
Many aspirants believe:
- The questions are subjective.
- “Perfect” sounding options are automatically correct.
Dr. Shukla clarifies that the section is highly objective in construction. The team:
- Builds each case (stem) with clear stakeholders, constraints, and decision makers.
- Discusses each option internally to see if it has any unintended meanings.
- Retains only those options whose interpretation is unambiguous within the stem.
To do well, candidates should:
- Treat the stem as the only source of truth.
- Track who the decision maker is and who is affected.
- Respect constraints such as limited resources or time.
- Accept that the best option can be “suboptimal” in absolute terms if the situation rules out perfect solutions.
A simple example offered in spirit: if a school like XLRI appears as an option, but the statement states that the student has not taken XAT, that option is not real, no matter how attractive it looks.
Scores in decision-making have been rising over the years.
The convenor believes that aspirants have gradually “cracked the code” through practice with previous-year questions from the last 10 years, which he strongly recommends.
✅Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation: Application Over Formula
Contrary to popular belief, the convenor does not accept that XAT Quant is “harder than CAT” in a simple sense. The XAT Quant and DI philosophy is:
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Factors
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What XAT Emphasises?
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Formula Usage
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Avoids formula-heavy questions that favour only engineering-heavy backgrounds. |
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Problem-Solving Approach
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Encourages logical thinking and strong number sense, even if formulas are not remembered. |
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Question Structure
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Uses multi-question sets carefully, which can be high-scoring but also time-consuming. |
🎯 What Candidates Should Do for Quant & DI as per XAT 2026 Strategy Plan
| Preparation Strategy | Actionable Guidance |
| Previous Year Papers | Study 7–8 years of XAT Quant and DI papers to understand recurring patterns and topic weightage. |
| Strength Identification | Identify personal strong areas—Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, or DI—and secure these questions first. |
| Time Management | Be cautious of the time cost of favourite question types, especially lengthy DI sets. |
✅Verbal Ability, RC, Poems, and Cartoons
The XAT convenor draws a clear contrast between two reading strategies:
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Reading Strategy
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How It Works
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XAT’s Preference
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| Scanning | The candidate reads the questions first and then searches the passage for matching lines to find direct answers. | ❌ Less preferred in XAT |
| Skimming & Interpretation | The candidate reads the passage to understand its structure, key ideas, tone, and implications, then answers questions based on overall understanding. | ✅ Strongly preferred in XAT |
Recent papers have also introduced poems and cartoons, alongside regular RCs and logical reasoning passages. The reason is twofold:
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Format Used
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Why XAT Includes It
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Core Skill Tested
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| Poems | Encourages deeper thinking beyond surface-level reading. | Interpretation of ideas and implied meaning |
| Cartoons & Memes | Aligns with Gen Z’s natural communication style and modern contexts. | Interpretation of visual and textual information |
| RCs & Logical Passages | Tests structured reading and reasoning abilities. | Comprehension, logic, and inference |
Whether the input is a prose passage, a poem, a cartoon, or an LR narrative, the exam is checking if the candidate can infer, connect, and reason, not just locate sentences.
✅ General Awareness: Awareness, Not Trivia
General Awareness in XAT 2026 has a distinct flavour:
| Factors | How GA Works in XAT? |
| Nature of GA | Does not test deep, encyclopedic general knowledge. |
| Time Frame | Focuses on whether candidates stayed aware over the last 7–8 months. |
| Question Style | Tests awareness, understanding, and observation rather than rote memorisation. |
📰 Sources of GA Questions in XAT 2026
| Question Source | What XAT Focuses On |
| National Events | Events of evident national importance. |
| International Events | Global events that have a significant impact on India. |
| Key Developments | Essential changes in science, economy, governance, or public life that an informed person would notice. |
📊 Role of GA in XAT Selection Process
| GA Rule | What It Means for Candidates? |
| Usage in Selection | GA scores are used only in XLRI’s final selection stage, after shortlisting. |
| Percentile Impact | GA is not included in the overall XAT percentile calculation. |
| Option Design | Well-framed options allow logical reasoning to guide answers even without exact factual recall. |
Dr. Shukla adds one more practical point: December is not “out of syllabus”. Even events on 1 January can be reflected in the paper, so current affairs preparation should continue till the very end, not stop after the November exams.
How XAT 2026 Differs from Other MBA Entrance Exams?
Several design elements distinguish XAT from other popular tests.
✅Flexible timing and focus on accuracy
- Candidates receive 170 minutes for the main sections.
- They can start from any section, switch whenever they choose, and revisit questions.
- There are no strict sectional time limits within that window.
The convenor’s clear message: XAT does not test raw speed. It rewards those who think calmly and aim for accuracy.
The marking scheme reinforces this philosophy:
- Each wrong answer carries a penalty of –0.25.
- After 8 unattempted questions, each further unattempted question attracts an additional penalty of –0.10.
This may seem contradictory at first. The logic, as explained, is that the –0.10 penalty acts as a nudge. It discourages candidates from skipping large swathes of the paper in the name of accuracy when, in fact, they could solve more with a bit of effort.
✅One-Word Insights from the Convenor
In a rapid-fire round, Dr. Shukla summarised his stance as follows:
| Rapid-Fire Question | Convenor’s Answer |
| Which is the best section to start with XAT 2026? | Decision Making |
| What is the most underrated XAT skill? | System 2 Thinking |
| How to practice XAT 2026 Mocks: Quality or Quantity? | Quantity |
| Describe XAT 2026 preparation in one word | Consistency |
XAT 2026 Exam Day Strategy and Common Mistakes to Avoid
Structuring the 170 minutes
- Some candidates might start with their strongest section, finish it more quickly, and then allocate more time to weaker areas.
- Others may prefer to start with the most difficult section for them, using a fresh mind, then relax into the easier parts.
Regardless of the order, he recommends that candidates:
- Fix a rough time band for each section in their mind, with a minimum and maximum.
- Treat long sets with multiple sub-questions with care; they can yield good marks but can also consume disproportionate time.
- Avoid sitting on one stubborn question or set for 15–20 minutes only because it matches their “favourite” content.
- Use XAT’s flexibility to leave, switch, and return to questions, since a change of section can give a fresh perspective.
XAT 2026 Exam Mistakes to Avoid
Across his responses, several recurring pitfalls emerge:
| 🚫 Common Mistake | ❗ Why It Impacts Your XAT Score? |
| ⏳ Inconsistent preparation | Starting XAT prep only after other exams leads to rushed learning and weak conceptual clarity. |
| 🧳 Carrying performance stress from past exams | Poor performance in earlier exams can affect confidence, focus, and decision-making during the XAT. |
| 🏢 Using outside industry knowledge in DM | Decision-making answers must rely only on the case stem, not real-world assumptions. |
| 🎯 Chasing “perfect” options | Ideal-sounding choices often ignore practical constraints given in the case. |
| 🔍 Line-by-line answer hunting in Verbal | XAT tests interpretation and inference, not direct copying from passages or cartoons. |
| 🧮 Expecting formula shortcuts in Quant & DI | Many questions are logic-driven thinking exercises, not simple plug-and-play problems. |
He returns repeatedly to one theme: consistency plus rational thinking beats erratic last-minute effort.
Conclusion
This rare peek into the thinking of the XAT 2026 Convenor strips away much of the mystery around the exam.
The paper is not built to shock candidates; it is built to reward clear thought, accuracy, and steady preparation.
Aspirants who use the coming weeks to work through previous year papers, refine decision-making, stay updated on key events, and build an exam day plan aligned with their strengths will walk into the hall with far more control.
What has happened in earlier exams cannot be changed, but XAT offers a fresh opportunity for those who prepare with patience and purpose.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best section to start with in XAT 2026?
How does XAT differ from CAT in terms of Quantitative Aptitude?
Is General Awareness included in the overall XAT percentile?
What is the most underrated skill for XAT success?
How should candidates prepare for XAT Verbal Ability?
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