The Lady in the Sea by Abhishek Leela Pandey
In a poem by Abhishek Leela Pandey, the sea and a woman drag the speaker in again and again, and every metaphor runs out before the pull does.
Abhishek Leela Pandey3 Qs · Hard
The XAT room
XAT RC, including the poems.
Harder inference, 5 options, and poetry, the part of XAT verbal most aspirants never practise.
XAT pattern, marking & dates ↓
Featured for XATThe Horse That Could Count and the Face That Did Not KnowA horse in Berlin tapped out sums to the delight of the crowds, and a psychologist later showed that the arithmetic belonged to the audience.Read · 3 min
The Tulip Bubble That May Never Have Burst
The tulip crash is the most repeated warning in finance. Archives suggest the ruin was far smaller than the legend, which makes the warning harder to read.
Abhishek Leela Pandey3 Qs · Hard
The Man Who Survived the Iron Rod and Outlived His Own Legend
Phineas Gage is the best known brain injury patient in history, and most of what is said about him is shakier than the textbooks admit. The more his case is studied, the less certain it becomes where a person actually lives.
Abhishek Leela Pandey3 Qs · Hard
The Placebo That Knew It Was a Placebo
Patients in a 2010 Harvard trial were handed a bottle labelled placebo and told that the pills held no medicine. Many of them improved anyway, and medicine has not yet agreed on why.
Abhishek Leela Pandey3 Qs · Hard
The Cobra Effect Was a Rat Problem
The most quoted warning about bad incentives concerns snakes in Delhi that nobody has been able to find. The rats of Hanoi, which did exist, made the same point and were forgotten.
Abhishek Leela Pandey3 Qs · Hard
About the XAT
Checked September 2026 · official siteXavier Aptitude Test (XAT) · XLRI Jamshedpur (for XAMI member institutes)
XAT 2027: Sunday, 3 January 2027, 2:00–5:00 pm.
ModeComputer-based
Duration180 minutes (170 + 10 for GK)
Questions95 (75 scored + 20 GK)
Options5 per question
Sectional time limitNone in Part 1
Pattern
| Section | Qs | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning (VALR) | 26 | Part 1: 170 min shared |
| Decision Making | 21 | Part 1 |
| Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation | 28 | Part 1 |
| General Knowledge (not in percentile) | 20 | Part 2: 10 min |
Marking
- +1 for a correct answer
- −0.25 for a wrong answer
- −0.10 for each unanswered question beyond 8
- No negative marking in GK
- The essay was removed from XAT 2026 onwards
How reading is tested
- VALR has several RC passages, usually shorter but denser than CAT’s, often philosophical.
- XAT regularly sets a poem or a literary extract, which most aspirants never practise.
- Five options and close distractors make elimination harder than in CAT.
- Critical-reasoning questions (assumption, inference, strengthen/weaken) sit alongside RC.
Prepare with GRADFLIX
- Pick XAT in the bar at the top to get 5-option questions.
- Do at least one poem a week from the XAT room.
- Practise leaving questions: the unanswered penalty means guessing strategy matters.
- Pair each essay with a Decision Making-style “what should the author do?” reflection.
XAT: common questions
Does XAT have negative marking?
Yes: −0.25 for a wrong answer, plus −0.10 for each unanswered question after the first 8. GK has no negative marking.
Does XAT have poems in RC?
Often. XAT has repeatedly included a poem or literary passage in VALR, which makes poem practice worthwhile.
Is there an essay in XAT?
No. The essay was removed from XAT starting with XAT 2026.
When is XAT 2027?
XAT 2027 is on Sunday, 3 January 2027, from 2:00 to 5:00 pm.
How many options does XAT have?
Five options per question, versus four in CAT.
Dates and patterns can change. Always confirm on the official website.