XAT 2013 exam is 60 days away. Now that CAT 2012 is over, XAT is one of the important examinations on the testing calendar you should focus on so far as preparation is concerned. In this article, MBAUniverse.com shares some important information which will stand you in good stead.

In an exclusive interaction with MBAUniverse.com, Prof Vishwa Ballabh, admission chairperson, XLRI, shared some important aspects of the exam pattern.

Number of Questions

CAT 2012, the 21-day exam for the 13 IIMs and over 150 B-schools across India is over. This year, 2,14,068 candidates took the test. If you are among CAT takers, you must be thinking on the next action plans that can fulfill your MBA dreams.

Harvard Business School professor and one of the most influential management thinkers Dr Robert S Kaplan, who has won the second Global Management Guru Award (GMGA) 2012, will address Indian leaders from business, industry and the government at the GMGA 2012 award ceremony on November 9 in New Delhi.

The award has been instituted by Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH), set up by the Birla group.

In a major relief to the Institute of Rural Management, (IRMA), Anand, and thousands of candidates set to appear for its entrance test scheduled on next Sunday, November 11, for the 2013-15 batch, the Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the institute to conduct its test separately for this year.

IRMA has hailed the decision. IRMA director Prof Jeemol Unni said all the efforts would now be directed towards successfully organizing the test.

Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kozhikode has completed summer placements for its 16th batch (2012-14) comprising 366 students across 144 companies, with 80 of them, including Philips, General Mills, NSE, Flipkart and Sudarshan Chemicals visiting the campus for the first time. The highest stipend offered was Rs 1.5 lakh for two months.

International Management Institute (IMI) has said it may reopen its admission registration process once the CAT results are declared. The institute, however, said from the next year onwards, the process will be closed in one go. Talking to MBAUniverse.com, Dr Pritam Singh, director-general, IMI, said: This year, we may allow one more opportunity to aspirants to apply for our institute once the CAT results are out.

Often described as the telecom man, Manoj Kohli is the chief executive officer (international) & joint managing director of Bharti Airtel. He heads the international business group of the company and sits on its board. Prior to his present assignment, Mr Kohli held multiple roles as CEO & joint MD, president & CEO and head of mobile services business at Bharti Airtel.

So, the curtains finally fell on CAT 2012 after 21 testing days between October 11 and November 6. The 21st or the last day passed off without any major untoward incident being reported. According to some test takers, the Quant section was easier in a shift from the earlier trend. On an overall basis, the difficulty level was easy to moderate, experts said.

Saurabh Kumar, a test taker, said: The quantitative ability & data interpretation section was easier among the two sections. There were three reading comprehension passages which were lengthy and ambiguous.

As part of its efforts to find solutions to rising problems across industry verticals which deter growth and often lead to job losses, IMT Ghaziabad is in the process of organising a competition to generate ideas and strategies that are likely to reverse the trends.

The event, called IMT Big 10, will ask participants to come up with ideas and strategies to boost the growth of the various sectors of the economy. The competition is not only open to students of B-schools but also for alumni who have less than three years of work experience.