XAT RC practice: passages and poems, every day
XAT VALR rewards dense reading, five-option elimination and comfort with poetry. Practise an XAT-style passage daily, work through every past XAT passage and poem, solved, and learn when to leave a question.
The Horse That Could Count and the Face That Did Not Know
A horse in Berlin tapped out sums to the delight of the crowds, and a psychologist later showed that the arithmetic belonged to the audience.
3 min read · XAT-style questions
This week’s passages
Arts & LiteratureThe Lady in the Sea by Abhishek Leela PandeyEconomics & BusinessThe Tulip Bubble That May Never Have BurstPsychologyThe Man Who Survived the Iron Rod and Outlived His Own LegendScienceThe Placebo That Knew It Was a PlaceboEconomics & BusinessThe Cobra Effect Was a Rat ProblemFree solved XAT RC and poem past papers
All XAT PYQs →Real XAT passages, every question answered and explained. Free, no plan needed.
XAT 2026 · poemOld Newspapers as Sleeping Snakes of the PastXAT 2026The Inherent Psychological Burdens of Liberal DemocracyXAT 2026The Twisted Logic Behind Internet Trolling and AnonymityXAT 2026Why Communication Fails When Meaning Is Assumed Not NegotiatedXAT 2026Self-Esteem, Mindset, and the Two Faces of ComparisonXAT 2026Why the Discovery of Nuclear Fission Was InevitableHow to practise a XAT passage
- Time it. XAT has no sectional time limit, but aim for about 7 to 8 minutes per passage so you can reach Decision Making and Quant.
- Read for the argument. After each paragraph, ask what the author claims and how it connects to the last one. Note the author’s attitude.
- Answer, then check. Commit before you look. For each wrong option, find the exact word that makes it wrong: too extreme, out of scope, or partly true.
- Read every explanation. Including the ones you got right. If you were right for the wrong reason, you will be wrong next time.
- Log your traps. One line per mistake. After a week, one or two patterns explain most of your lost marks.
More XAT practice
Questions about XAT practice
How many questions are there in XAT VALR?
Recent XAT papers have had 26 questions in Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning, within a shared 170-minute Part 1.
Does XAT have negative marking?
Yes: −0.25 for a wrong answer, and −0.10 for each unanswered question beyond eight. GK has no negative marking.
Does XAT have poems?
Often. XAT has repeatedly included a poem or a literary extract in VALR. See every past XAT poem solved on the XAT poems page.
When is XAT 2027?
XAT 2027 is on Sunday, 3 January 2027, from 2:00 to 5:00 pm.