5 easy steps to approach XAT Decision Making questions -By Avik Pramanick, 99.046 percentile, DoMS IIT Roorkee

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Meet Avik Pramanick, who, with his strategy and consistent efforts, made it to the league of toppers. He scored in the 99.965th percentile in the XAT Decision Making section and was among the top 30 candidates in this section. He attained an overall percentile of 99.046 in XAT 2018 and is now an alumnus of DoMS IIT Roorkee. With his passion for guiding MBA and other competitive exams' aspirants, here he is to discuss how he approached the XAT Decision-Making questions with accuracy.

Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) is a management entrance exam conducted by Xavier Labour Relation Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur, for admission to Xavier management schools, especially in XLRI Jamshedpur. The XAT score is also accepted by other top-notch B-Schools in India. XAT is undoubtedly considered one of the toughest MBA exams in India.

What is XAT Decision Making all about?

Decision-making is an exclusive section of XAT that comprises 21 questions. It tests the candidate’s ability to find the most suitable solution and make a quick decision on the given situation. It appeals to the candidates from behavioral, management, emotional, and ethical perspectives. It challenges your logic and ethics while making the decision. This section will not only help you to crack the exam but also aid you in solving real-life problems after an MBA.

An Effective Approach to Tackle XAT Decision-Making Questions

There are a few rules that one needs to keep in mind before approaching this section:

• The information given in the questions is exhaustive and should be considered as it is. Don’t consider anything of your own.
• There is no wrong answer to these questions; you should not mark the option that seems right to you, but rather you should mark the option that is the most logical and ethical one.
• There is no room for being emotional and unethical.

As per my take on approaching decision-making questions, I recommend a five-step strategy to solve them:

Step I- Read: Read the questions thoroughly and gather all the information given. Don’t overlook any data. Identify all the stakeholders of the situation.

Step II- Understand: Understand the plot and gather a holistic view of the situation. Find out the problem statement.

Step III- Analyse: Analyze the problem from the viewpoint of each stakeholder present in the situation. Eliminate all those options which seem unethical in one way or the other.

Step IV- Judge: After the analysis, judge the option you have decided to finalize i.e. whether it has appealed to you emotionally or not. If yes, you should re-analyze. 

Step V- Action: Mark the right choice.

The above five-stage approach will help you to solve every question correctly.

Tips and tricks: This section neither has a syllabus nor a theory. The only preparation is “Practice”. Solve as many questions as you can, and always go through the illustration of the answers, even if you got it right. If there is any logic mismatch, you will get it. Go through the XAT previous years' papers and you will understand what variant of questions were asked.

Finally, don’t rush to solve all the questions; rather, attempt the maximum number of questions with 100% accuracy.