Recently, a team of social scientists launched an experiment to test that hypothesis. They recruited 1,500 entrepreneurs in West Africa—a mix of women and men in their 30s, 40s, and 50s—who were running small startups in manufacturing, service, and commerce. They randomly assigned the founders to one of three groups. One was a control group: they went about their business as usual. The other two were training groups: they spent a week learning new concepts, analyzing them in case studies of other entrepreneurs, and applying them to their own startups through role-play and re section exercises. What differed was whether the training focused on cognitive skills or character skills. In cognitive skills training, the founders took an accredited business course created by the International Finance Corporation. They studied nance, accounting, HR, marketing, and pricing, and practiced using what they learned to solve challenges and seize opportunities. In character skills training, the founders attended a class designed by psychologists to teach personal initiative. They studied proactivity, discipline, and determination, and practiced putting those qualities into action. Character skills training had a dramatic impact. After founders had spent merely ve days working on these skills, their rms’ pro ts grew by an average of 30 percent over the next two years. That was nearly triple the bene t of training in cognitive skills. Finance and marketing knowledge might have equipped founders to capitalize on opportunities, but studying proactivity and discipline enabled them to generate opportunities. They learned to anticipate market changes rather than react to them. They developed more creative ideas and introduced more new products. When they encountered nancial obstacles, instead of giving up, they were more resilient and resourceful in seeking loans. Along with demonstrating that character skills can propel us to achieve greater things, this evidence reveals that it’s never too late to build them … Character doesn’t set like plaster—it retains its plasticity. Character is often confused with personality, but they’re not the same. Personality is your predisposition—your basic instincts for how to think, feel, and act. Character is your capacity to prioritize your values over your instincts. Knowing your principles doesn’t necessarily mean you know how to practice them, particularly under stress or pressure. It’s easy to be proactive and determined when things are going well. The true test of character is whether you manage to stand by those values when the deck is stacked against you. If personality is how you respond on a typical day, character is how you show up on a hard day. Personality is not your destiny—it’s your tendency. Character skills enable you to transcend that tendency to be true to your principles. It’s not about the traits you have—it’s what you decide to do with them. Wherever you are today, there’s no reason why you can’t grow your character skills starting now.
Which of the following views would the author BEST agree with?
Show Hint
- Character skills risk abandoning your personality along with your instincts.
- Our values and principles are always put to test by our personality.
- Putting our values and principles to practice requires transcending our personality.
- Because principles clash with your personality, character is needed.
- Our behavior is a function of our character not our personality.
The Correct Option is C
Approach Solution - 1
To solve this question, we need to analyze the given comprehension and identify which statement the author would most likely agree with regarding character and personality.
- Understanding the Passage: The passage emphasizes the importance of character skills over personality traits. It illustrates an experiment where character skills training resulted in a significant improvement in entrepreneurs' business outcomes compared to cognitive skills training. The key point is that character allows individuals to prioritize values over instincts and transcend personality tendencies, particularly under challenging circumstances.
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Analyzing Each Option:
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Character skills risk abandoning your personality along with your instincts.This option contradicts the passage since it suggests a negative impact of character skills, whereas the passage highlights their positive role.
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Our values and principles are always put to test by our personality.While personality may influence our instincts, the passage does not stress that it constantly tests values and principles, rather it distinguishes between the responses dictated by personality and those guided by character.
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Putting our values and principles to practice requires transcending our personality.This option is aligned with the passage's core message, which stresses that character skills help overcome inherent personality tendencies to uphold values.
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Because principles clash with your personality, character is needed.Although this suggests a conflict between principles and personality, it's not entirely the passage's focus. The passage highlights transcending tendencies, not just conflict.
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Our behavior is a function of our character not our personality.This oversimplifies the relationship between personality and character. The passage acknowledges both influence behavior but emphasizes character's role in challenging times.
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Conclusion: The correct answer is Putting our values and principles to practice requires transcending our personality.This statement best summarizes the passage's argument that character skills enable individuals to act consistently with their values, beyond personality inclinations.
Approach Solution -2
The passage explained that personality is our predisposition (instincts, reactions), while character is our ability to transcend those instincts and act according to values and principles.
Step 2: Evaluate options.
- Option A: Incorrect — character does not abandon personality. - Option B: Misleading — values are not “tested by” personality, they override it. - Option C: Correct. The author stresses character as transcending personality by prioritizing values and principles. - Option D: Incorrect framing — principles do not “clash,” but require practice beyond personality. - Option E: Too absolute — behavior is influenced by both character and personality.
Step 3: Conclusion.
Thus, the best view is Option C.
Final Answer: \[ \boxed{\text{C}} \]
Which of the following can be BEST inferred from the passage?
Show Hint
- Character skills can compensate for poor cognitive skills.
- Character skills can be built only if one believes in them.
- Cognitive skills unlike character skills are always reactive.
- Being aware of your character skills enable you to exercise them.
- Sustainable success in life requires strong character skills.
The Correct Option is
Approach Solution - 1
This question asks you to determine which option can be best inferred from the given passage about the impact of character skills training versus cognitive skills training. Let us analyze each option carefully to identify the best inference based on the passage's information.
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Character skills can compensate for poor cognitive skills.
- This statement implies that character skills can replace cognitive skills, which is not explicitly supported by the passage. The passage highlights the distinct advantages of character skills training over cognitive skills training but does not suggest that character skills can completely replace cognitive skills. Thus, this is not the best inference.
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Character skills can be built only if one believes in them.
- The passage mentions that character skills can be developed and has plasticity. However, it does not state that belief in character skills is a prerequisite for building them. Therefore, this option is incorrect.
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Cognitive skills unlike character skills are always reactive.
- The passage notes that character skills enable anticipation of market changes, implying proactivity, but it does not claim that cognitive skills are always reactive. It merely highlights one specific case where character skills training led to more proactive behavior. Thus, this inference is not fully supported.
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Being aware of your character skills enables you to exercise them.
- While the passage emphasizes the importance of practicing character skills, it does not specifically state that merely being aware of these skills enables one to exercise them effectively. Therefore, this option is not the best choice.
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Sustainable success in life requires strong character skills.
- The passage provides examples of businesses achieving significant growth through character skills training, including increased profits and resilience. It also emphasizes that character skills are needed to stand by values under stress and pressure. These points strongly suggest that character skills contribute to sustainable success. Thus, this is the best inference from the passage.
Considering all the options and the context provided in the passage, the correct answer is: "Sustainable success in life requires strong character skills."
Approach Solution -2
The experiment showed that entrepreneurs who trained in character skills saw profit growth nearly triple that of those trained in cognitive skills.
Step 2: Evaluate options.
- Option A: Not stated — character skills don’t “compensate” but enhance opportunities. - Option B: Incorrect — belief is not emphasized, practice is. - Option C: Wrong — cognitive skills are not described as “always reactive.” - Option D: Awareness is not enough; deliberate practice is stressed. - Option E: Correct. The passage shows long-term business growth came from character skills, proving sustainability.
Step 3: Conclusion.
Thus, the inference is Option E.
Final Answer: \[ \boxed{\text{E}} \]
Based on the passage, why would character skills help entrepreneurs more than cognitive skills?
Show Hint
- One can be poor in finance and quantitative skills but really good in character skills.
- Character skills enable you to generate opportunities rather than capitalize on existing ones.
- Character skills are industry agnostic in application.
- Entrepreneurs are already aware of their business and are only missing character skills.
- Character skills prepare you for an uncertain future.
The Correct Option is B
Approach Solution - 1
To understand why character skills might help entrepreneurs more than cognitive skills, let's start by analyzing the passage provided in the comprehension section.
- Context of the Experiment: A team conducted an experiment with 1,500 entrepreneurs in West Africa, focusing on comparing the effects of cognitive and character skills training. Cognitive skills included areas such as finance, accounting, HR, and marketing. In contrast, character skills focused on personal initiative, proactivity, discipline, and determination.
- Outcome of the Experiment: The results showed that character skills training led to a profit growth of 30% over two years, nearly triple the impact of cognitive skills training. This indicated a substantial benefit in developing character skills.
- Generating Opportunities vs. Capitalizing on Them: While cognitive skills might equip founders to capitalize on existing opportunities, character skills enabled them to generate new opportunities. This highlights the proactive nature of character skills—entrepreneurs learned to anticipate market changes, develop creative ideas, and innovate by introducing new products.
- Resilience and Problem Solving: Entrepreneurs with strong character skills showed greater resilience and resourcefulness when facing financial challenges, illustrating their ability to maintain productivity and devise solutions despite adversity.
- Conclusion: The critical takeaway is that character skills, through enhancing proactivity and resilience, empower entrepreneurs to not just seize opportunities but to create them. This aligns with the correct answer: "Character skills enable you to generate opportunities rather than capitalize on existing ones."
By focusing on developing character skills, entrepreneurs increase their capacity to adapt, innovate, and maintain their core values, even when facing significant challenges, proving the long-term value of character skills over mere cognitive abilities.
Approach Solution -2
The passage said cognitive skills (finance, marketing) help founders capitalize on existing opportunities, but character skills (discipline, proactivity, resilience) enabled them to create new opportunities and overcome obstacles.
Step 2: Evaluate options.
- Option A: Too simplistic — being “poor in finance” is not the core argument. - Option B: Perfect fit — directly reflects passage’s statement about generating opportunities. - Option C: True but secondary; not the main reason given. - Option D: Unsupported — no evidence that entrepreneurs only lack character skills. - Option E: True but vague; “uncertain future” is not highlighted as main reason.
Step 3: Conclusion.
Thus, the correct answer is Option B.
Final Answer: \[ \boxed{\text{B}} \]
Top Questions on Reading Comprehension
- Shown below are letters ‘e’ taken from four popular logos, arranged in a sequence. Which of the options is the correct sequence?
- UCEED - 2026
- English Language Comprehension
- Reading Comprehension
- Shown below are four options, each showing consecutive frames representing the movement of a pendulum of an old-style wall clock for an animation movie. Which is the correct option?
- UCEED - 2026
- English Language Comprehension
- Reading Comprehension
- Acrucial moderating factor in how people experience comparisons is self-esteem. Individuals with high self-esteem are more likely to interpret upward comparison as informative rather than threatening. They are more resilient in the face of others’ success and more likely to believe they can reach their own goals. In contrast, people with low self-esteem are more prone to interpret comparison as judgment, reinforcing negative self-views and triggering feelings of inadequacy.
This dynamic creates a self-reinforcing loop. People with high self-esteem are less vulnerable to upward comparison, which intensifies those doubts. Those with a secure sense of self are more likely to use comparison as a learning tool. The same external stimulus—a colleague’s achievements, a friend’s popularity—can have radically different effects depending on internal stability.
Self-esteem also influences how people choose their comparison targets. Research has found that individuals often engage in “selective comparison,” seeking out those who confirm their existing beliefs about themselves. This can become a subtle form of self-sabotage. Someone who feels unworthy may subconsciously seek out targets that reinforce that sense, perpetuating a narrative of inferiority. One of the most promising antidotes to social comparison is temporal comparison—evaluating oneself not against others, but against one’s own past. This method has been shown to increase motivation and satisfaction, especially when individuals can see concrete progress. Temporal comparison activates the same reward circuits as social comparison but avoids the threat systems associated with social ranking. It also reinforces agency: individuals focus on what they can control and improve rather than what others control. In therapeutic and coaching settings, temporal comparison is used to help clients build self-efficacy and track growth over time.
Moreover, people who focus on self-improvement rather than social dominance are less likely to fall into cycles of envy or self-pity. They can still use others as inspiration, but they do so without attaching their self-worth to the outcome. This is not to say they never compare—but that they focus on learning, rather than judgment. The most skilful approach to comparison may lie in eliminating it, but in reframing it as feedback. When we interpret comparison as information rather than a verdict, we can ask, “What can I learn from this?” This shift turns comparison into a growth tool. Teachers mentor their students, not as rivals. Psychologists emphasize that the key variable here is mindset.
A fixed mindset sees comparison as a threat. If someone else is better, it means we are worse. A growth mindset sees comparison as a map. If someone else has reached a certain level, it means the path exists. This reframing is not just a cognitive trick. It changes the emotional tone of comparison, making it more likely to inspire than to wound. Reframing also requires emotional regulation—the ability to notice an initial pang of envy or shame without reacting impulsively. With practice, individuals can learn to pause, reflect, and reinterpret their emotional responses. Over time, this builds resilience and self-trust, allowing comparison to become a learning tool rather than a cage.- XAT - 2026
- Verbal and Logical Ability
- Reading Comprehension
When people who are talking don’t share the same culture, knowledge, values, and assumptions, mutual understanding can be especially difficult. Such understanding is possible through the negotiation of meaning. To negotiate meaning with someone, you have to become aware of and respect both the differences in your backgrounds and when these differences are important. You need enough diversity of cultural and personal experience to be aware that divergent world views exist and what they might be like. You also need the flexibility in world view, and a generous tolerance for mistakes, as well as a talent for finding the right metaphor to communicate the relevant parts of unshared experiences or to highlight the shared experiences while demphasizing the others. Metaphorical imagination is a crucial skill in creating rapport and in communicating the nature of unshared experience. This skill consists, in large measure, of the ability to bend your world view and adjust the way you categorize your experiences. Problems of mutual understanding are not exotic; they arise in all extended conversations where understanding is important.
When it really counts, meaning is almost never communicated according to the CONDUIT metaphor, that is, where one person transmits a fixed, clear proposition to another by means of expressions in a common language, where both parties have all the relevant common knowledge, assumptions, values, etc. When the chips are down, meaning is negotiated: you slowly figure out what you have in common, what it is safe to talk about, how you can communicate unshared experience or create a shared vision. With enough flexibility in bending your world view and with luck and charity, you may achieve some mutual understanding.
Communication theories based on the CONDUIT metaphor turn from the pathetic to the evil when they are applied indiscriminately on a large scale, say, in government surveillance or computerized files. There, what is most crucial for real understanding is almost never included, and it is assumed that the words in the file have meaning in themselves—disembodied, objective, understandable meaning. When a society lives by the CONDUITmetaphor on a large scale, misunderstanding, persecution, and much worse are the likely products.- XAT - 2026
- Verbal and Logical Ability
- Reading Comprehension
Later, I realized that reviewing the history of nuclear physics served another purpose as well: It gave the lie to the naive belief that the physicists could have come together when nuclear fission was discovered (in Nazi Germany!) and agreed to keep the discovery a secret, thereby sparing humanity such a burden. No. Given the development of nuclear physics up to 1938, development that physicists throughout the world pursued in all innocence of any intention of finding the engine of a new weapon of mass destruction—only one of them, the remarkable Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard, took that possibility seriously—the discovery of nuclear fission was inevitable. To stop it, you would have had to stop physics. If German scientists hadn’t made the discovery when they did, French, American, Russian, Italian, or Danish scientists would have done so, almost certainly within days or weeks. They were all working at the same cutting edge, trying to understand the strange results of a simple experiment bombarding uranium with neutrons. Here was no Faustian bargain, as movie directors and other naifs still find it intellectually challenging to imagine. Here was no evil machinery that the noble scientists might hide from the problems and the generals. To the contrary, there was a high insight into how the world works, an energetic reaction, older than the earth, that science had finally devised the instruments and arrangements to coart forth. “Make it seem inevitable,” Louis Pasteur used to advise his students when they prepared to write up their discoveries. But it was. To wish that it might have been ignored or suppressed is barbarous. “Knowledge,” Niels Bohr once noted, “is itself the basis for civilization.” You cannot have the one without the other; the one depends upon the other. Nor can you have only benevolent knowledge; the scientific method doesn’t filter for benevolence. Knowledge has consequences, not always intended, not always comfortable, but always welcome. The earth revolves around the sun, not the sun around the earth. “It is a profound and necessary truth,” Robert Oppenheimer would say, “that the deep things in science are not found because they are useful; they are found because it was possible to find them.”
...Bohr proposed once that the goal of science is not universal truth. Rather, he argued, the modest but relentless goal of science is “the gradual removal of prejudices.” The discovery that the earth revolves around the sun has gradually removed the prejudice that the earth is the center of the universe. The discovery of microbes is gradually removing the prejudice that disease is a punishment from God. The discovery of evolution is gradually removing the prejudice that Homo sapiens is a separate and special creation.- XAT - 2026
- Verbal and Logical Ability
- Reading Comprehension
Questions Asked in XAT exam
- An artificial swimming pool is circular and water is flowing clockwise at a speed of 3 km/hr. Two swimmers Ayub and Rana start from diametrically opposite points, Ayub in the anticlockwise direction and Rana in the clockwise direction. They first meet at a point such that Ayub has covered 60 m by that time. Their second meeting point is such that Rana has covered another 180 m after the first meeting point. If the speed of Rana in still water is 3 km/hr, find the time taken by Ayub to cover one full circle in the clockwise direction.
- XAT - 2026
- Time and Work
- Arrange the following generations from the oldest to the youngest:
1. Generation X
2. Silent Generation
3. Generation Alpha
4. Baby Boomers
5. Millennials
- XAT - 2026
- Current Affairs
- Read the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.
Brijbhushan, a microfinancier, lends money at the rate of Rs.10 per square meter to small farmers at a village. He charges an annual interest rate of 10%. All the farming plots in that village are rectangular, with areas varying between a minimum of 1000 square meters and a maximum of 10,000 square meters.
This year, Brijbhushan has lent money only to five farmers: Aditya, Binod, Chhuttan, Dabloo and Govind. The perimeter of Chhuttan’s plot is 250 meters, with the length and width being at a ratio of 4:1. Aditya’s plot has an area three times the area of Govind’s plot. The area of Aditya’s plot is also the average of the areas of Govind’s plot and Dabloo’s plot. The plots belonging to Aditya, Binod and Dabloo are of the same width, but of different lengths. Moreover, the length of Binod’s plot is the sum of the lengths of Aditya’s plot and Dabloo’s plot.- XAT - 2026
- Mensuration
Light Chemicals is an industrial paint supplier with presence in three locations: Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. The sunburst chart below shows the distribution of the number of employees of different departments of Light Chemicals. There are four departments: Finance, IT, HR and Sales. The employees are deployed in four ranks: junior, mid, senior and executive. The chart shows four levels: location, department, rank and gender (M: male, F: female). At every level, the number of employees at a location/department/rank/gender are proportional to the corresponding area of the region represented in the chart.
Due to some issues with the software, the data on junior female employees have gone missing. Notice that there are junior female employees in Mumbai HR, Sales and IT departments, Hyderabad HR department, and Bengaluru IT and Finance departments. The corresponding missing numbers are marked u, v, w, x, y and z in the diagram, respectively.
It is also known that:
a) Light Chemicals has a total of 210 junior employees.
b) Light Chemicals has a total of 146 employees in the IT department.
c) Light Chemicals has a total of 777 employees in the Hyderabad office.
d) In the Mumbai office, the number of female employees is 55.
- XAT - 2026
- Pie Charts
An investment company, Win Lose, recruit's employees to trade in the share market. For newcomers, they have a one-year probation period. During this period, the employees are given Rs. 1 lakh per month to invest the way they see fit. They are evaluated at the end of every month, using the following criteria:
1. If the total loss in any span of three consecutive months exceeds Rs. 20,000, their services are terminated at the end of that 3-month period,
2. If the total loss in any span of six consecutive months exceeds Rs. 10,000, their services are terminated at the end of that 6-month period.
Further, at the end of the 12-month probation period, if there are losses on their overall investment, their services are terminated.
Ratan, Shri, Tamal and Upanshu started working for Win Lose in January. Ratan was terminated after 4 months, Shri was terminated after 7 months, Tamal was terminated after 10 months, while Upanshu was not terminated even after 12 months. The table below, partially, lists their monthly profits (in Rs. ‘000’) over the 12-month period, where x, y and z are masked information.
Note:
• A negative profit value indicates a loss.
• The value in any cell is an integer.
Illustration: As Upanshu is continuing after March, that means his total profit during January-March (2z +2z +0) ≥
Rs.20,000. Similarly, as he is continuing after June, his total profit during January − June ≥
Rs.10,000, as well as his total profit during April-June ≥ Rs.10,000.
- XAT - 2026
- Logical and Analytical Reasoning Skills