List of top Questions asked in XAT

Sara has just joined Facebook. She has 5 friends. Each of her five friends has twenty five friends. It is found that at least two of Sara's friends are connected with each other. On her birthday, Sara decides to invite her friends and the friends of her friends. How many people did she invite for her birthday party?
Prof. Mandal walks to the market and comes back in an auto. It takes him 90 minutes to make the round trip. If he takes an auto both ways, it takes him 30 minutes. On a Sunday, he decides to walk both ways. How long would it take him?
There is a lot of interest in the first five ranks for Class XI students. One student guessed the rank order as Ankita, Bhagyashree, Chanchal, Devroopa and Esha. Later upon announcement of the results, it was found that not only did he get each student out off her true position, none of the students in his ranking correctly followed her immediate predecessor. Another student guessed Devroopa, Ankita, Esha, Chanchal and Bhagyashree. Even his guess was wrong. It was found that he had got two positions correct, and two students in his ranking correctly followed their immediate predecessors. Which of the following is true about the correct rank order?
The mean of six positive integers is 15. The median is 18, and the only mode of the integers is less than 18. The maximum possible value of the largest of the six integers is
Students from four sections of a class accompanied by respective class teachers planned to go for a field trip. There were nineteen people in all. However, on the scheduled day one of the four teachers and a few students could not join the rest. Given below are some statements about the group of people who ultimately left for the trip.
I: Section A had the largest contingent.
II: Section B had fewer students than Section A.
III: Section C’s contingent was smaller than Section B.
IV: Section D had the smallest contingent.
V: The product of the number of student from each section is a multiple of 10.
VI: The number of students from Section C is more than 2.
VII: The product of the number of students from each section is a multiple of 24.
VIII: The largest contingent has more than 4 students.
IX: Each section contributed different number of students
The statements that taken together can give us the exact number of students from each section:
Gastric bypass surgery has been shown to be effective at helping extremely obese people lose weight. Some patients have lost as much as 300 pounds after undergoing the surgery, thereby substantially prolonging their lives. Despite the success of the treatment, most doctors have not embraced the surgery. Which of the following statements, if true, best accounts for the lukewarm reaction of the medical community to gastric bypass surgery?
Over the last five years, Bank of Bharat has seen the number of its retail customer accounts drop by over 40 percent. Over the same period, the share price of Bank of Bharat has increased by more than 80 percent. This amazed a few investors, who believe that a bank's share price should drop if its number of customers drops. Which of the following, if true over the last five years, best accounts for the observed movement in the price of Bank of Bharat's equity shares?
Read the following sentence and choose the best alternative which should replace the italicized part of the sentence.
To be a great manager _________ strong inter-personal skills, the ability to think fast, and demands a can-do attitude.
Read the following sentence and choose the best alternative which should replace the italicized part of the sentence.
The tremendous insight of Einstein was that the passage of time does not appear to be the same _________ a person traveling at a speed which is a significant fraction of the speed of light.
Read the following sentence and choose the best alternative which should replace the italicized part of the sentence.
Economic theory fails to explain the extent _________ savings from personal income has shifted to short-term bonds, money-market funds, and other near-term investments by the instability in the futures market.
Read the following sentences and choose the option that best arranges them in a logical order.
1. I was scarcely in position ere my enemies began to arrive, seven or eight of them, running hard, their feet beating out of time along the road and the man with the lantern some paces in front.
2. My curiosity, in a sense, was stronger than my fear, for I could not remain where I was, but crept back to the bank again, whence, sheltering my head behind a bush of broom, I might command the road before our door.
3. Three men ran together, hand in hand; and I made out, even through the mist, that the middle man of this trio was the blind beggar.
4. The next moment his voice showed me that I was right.
Read the following sentences and choose the option that best arranges them in a logical order.
1. Finally he took a wrong turn and ran a few steps past me, towards the hamlet, crying, "Johnny, Black Dog, Dirk," and other names, "you won’t leave old Pew, mates—not old Pew!"
2. This quarrel was the saving of us, for while it was still raging, another sound came from the top of the hill on the side of the hamlet—the tramp of horses galloping.
3. And that was plainly the last signal of danger, for the buccaneers turned at once and ran, separating in every direction, one seaward along the cove, one slant across the hill, and so on, so that in half a minute not a sign of them remained but Pew.
4. Him they had deserted, whether in sheer panic or out of revenge for his ill words and blows I know not; but there he remained behind, tapping up and down the road in a frenzy, and groping and calling for his comrades.
5. Almost at the same time a pistol-shot, flash and report, came from the hedge side.
Read the following sentences and choose the option that best arranges them in a logical order.
1. As chroniclers of an incremental process, they discover that additional research makes it harder, not easier, to answer questions like: When was oxygen discovered? Who first conceived of energy conservation?
2. Simultaneously, these same historians confront growing difficulties in distinguishing the "scientific" component of past observation and belief from what their predecessors had readily labeled "error" and "superstition."
3. Increasingly, a few of them suspect that these are simply the wrong sorts of questions to ask. Perhaps science does not develop by the accumulation of individual discoveries and inventions.
4. In recent years, however, a few historians of science have been finding it more and more difficult to fulfill the functions that the concept of development-by-accumulation assigns to them.
Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate option that follows:
He got _________ next morning, to be sure, and had his meals _________ usual, though he ate _________ and had more, I am afraid, than his usual supply of rum, for he helped himself _________ the bar, scowling and blowing _________ his nose, and no one dared _________ cross him.
Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate option that follows:
_________ bat who fell upon _________ ground and was caught by _________ weasel pleaded to be spared his life. _________ weasel refused, saying that he was by nature _________ enemy of all birds. _________ bat assured him that he was not _________ mouse, and thus was set free.
Choose the most appropriate option after reading the following statements:
1. Whether due to haste or design, the new laws are marked by vagueness, leaving officials all down the organization’s bureaucratic chain great latitude in enforcing them.
2. The opacity of the language leaves the law open to manipulation on political grounds.
Choose the most appropriate option after reading the following statements:
1. If there is any endeavour whose fruits should be freely available, that endeavour is surely publicly financed science.
2. There is a widespread feeling that the journal publishers who have mediated the scientific exchange for the past century or more are becoming an impediment to free distribution of knowledge.
3. Internet revolution is happening, making knowledge transfer cheaper. Technology permits it; researchers and politicians want it, more public money can be spent on it.
Choose the most appropriate option after reading the following statements:
1. Business schools are ideally positioned to point out when an action that provides a benefit for an individual comes at a cost to society, but in reality they rarely bother.
2. It is part of the malaise that has befallen the political debate on capitalism, which has been taken over by special interests and people who have no faith in a real market-based system.
3. When governments favour the private sector it is all too often by being "pro-business" rather than "pro-market", meaning that favourable conditions are provided to particular institutions rather than to institutions broadly.
Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate option that follows:
_________ wolf, meeting with _________ lamb astray from _________ fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea to justify to _________ lamb _________ wolf's right to eat him.

There is an essential and irreducible ‘duality’ in the normative conceptualization of an individ ual person. We can see the person in terms of his or her ‘agency’, recognizing and respecting his or her ability to form goals, commitments, values, etc., and we can also see the person in terms of his or her ‘well-being’. This dichotomy is lost in a model of exclusively self-interested motivation, in which a person’s agency must be entirely geared to his or her own well-being. But once that straitjacket of self-interested motivation is removed, it becomes possible to rec ognize the indisputable fact that the person’s agency can well be geared to considerations not covered- or at least not fully covered- by his or her own well-being. Agency may be seen as important (not just instrumentally for the pursuit of well-being, but also intrinsically), but that still leaves open the question as to how that agency is to be evaluated and appraised. 
Even though the use of one’s agency is a matter for oneself to judge, the need for careful assess ment of aims, objective, allegiances, etc., and the conception of the good, may be important and exacting. To recognize the distinction between the ‘agency aspect’ and the ‘well-being aspect’ of a person does not require us to take the view that the person’s success as an agent must be independent, or completely separable from, his or her success in terms of well-being. A person may well feel happier and better off as a result of achieving what he or she wanted to achieve- perhaps for his or her family, or community, or class, or party, or some other cause. Also it is quite possible that a person’s well-being will go down as a result of frustration if there is some failure to achieve what he or she wanted to achieve as an agent, even though those achievements are not directly concerned with his or her well-being.
There is really no sound basis for demanding that the agency aspect and the well-being aspect of a person should be independent of each other, and it is, I suppose, even possible that every change in one will affect the other as well. However, the point at issue is not the plausibility of their independence, but the sustainability and relevance of the distinction. The fact that two variables may be so related that one cannot change without the other, does not imply that they are the same variable, or that they will have the same values, or that the value of one can be obtained from the other on basis of some simple transformation. The importance of an agency achievement does not rest entirely on the enhancement of well-being that it may indirectly cause. The agency achievement and well-being achievement, both of which have some distinct importance, may be casually linked with each other, but this fact does not compromise the specific importance of either. In so far as utility-based welfare calculations concentrate only on the well-being of the person, ignoring the agency aspect, or actually fails to distinguish between the agency aspect and well-being aspect altogether, something of real importance is lost.

The idea of demarcating certain areas within the country as special economic zones to promote investment and growth is not new. A large country unable to provide the kind of facilities and environment that can attract foreign investment throughout the country often finds it feasible and attractive to carve up some of its areas where such facilities can be provided. The laws and procedures for setting up new industries are waived to make the area business-friendly with developed infrastructure and a one-window interaction with government. In addition, huge tax benefits are promised to lure investors. China’s experience shows that if chalked out and implemented with care such a policy can accelerate the flow of capital and technology from abroad and thereby speed up growth. 
However, SEZs may not be the best option in all situations to clear the bottlenecks in growth. India’s experience with export processing zones (EPZs) bears this out. They have failed in India for the simple reason that the factors that made the SEZs successful in China have been absent here. In India, as in China, EPZs were thought of as a way of providing an escape route from the stranglehold of control that prevailed over the Indian economy. But even while promising to ease the rigours of controls, Indian policy-makers could not give up their pen chant for micromanaging from the centre and undoing the promised relaxations with all kinds of qualifications and “guidelines”.
Over last two decades India has evolved into a market economy and much of governmental control has disappeared, but the flow of foreign direct investment has not reached anywhere near the levels of China. Besides, infrastructure building has fallen far short of what is required. Even after three years of the enactment of the Electricity Act (2003), private investment in electricity generation is still a trickle with the states refusing to give up the monopoly of their electricity boards in the matter of purchase of the power generated. While swearing by growth, governments at both the centre and the states cite the fiscal responsibility laws to plead their helplessness in making the required investments to improve infrastructure.
Given the situation, the SEZs have apparently been thought of as a simple way out. In its enthusiasm for SEZs the commerce ministry forgot two critical lessons of the Chinese experi ence, viz., that an SEZ must be of an adequate size to provide opportunities for reaping the benefits of large-scale operations and their number should be few. Every industry or economic activity worth its name is now seeking SEZ status. Proposals are now being floated to invite foreign educational institutions to come to India with promises of SEZ treatment! The finance ministry apprehends a loss of nearly 1,75,000 crore in direct taxes, customs duties and excise duties over the next five years.

On the basis of the following letter.

To the Chairman:
Dear Mr. Sailesh,

At the December 3, 2011 meeting, it was decided that no two officers would hold positions on the same committee. It has recently come to my attention that both Chaitanya Rao and Ajit Singh will be serving in some capacity on the Cultural Committee, and both have been nominated for officer status. As you know, this is in direct disregard for the rules as voted by the Members Council last December 3, 2011. I would hope that sufficient action be taken by the Disciplinary Committee (on which committee both of the above are members) so that this problem will be remedied.

Sincerely,
Arvind Singh

Due to increased competition, Ginger Automobiles, the Indian subsidiary of Pepper Automobile Company (PAC) reported lower sales and profits. PAC expects its new model Limo, developed especially for value conscious customers of India and China, would revive its fortunes. In order to prevent customers from buying competing products, PAC announced the launch of Limo six months before schedule. Due to unrest in its Indian supplier’s plant, deliveries of essential components for its main plant was hampered, and hence it decided to launch Limo in China only as per the original plan.
Within a short span of time, Limo captured 30% market share in China, which was 200% higher than expected. Indian customers who had looked forward to purchasing Limo were becoming increasingly unhappy due to the non-availability of Limo in India. Ginger’s dealers were worried about loss of business from the customers who might switch to other cars.

Tina, a blast furnace expert, who works as a technology trouble-shooter, stays in Jamshedpur. She has got an important assignment in Delhi, which requires six hours to complete. The work is so critical that she has to start working the moment she reaches the client’s premises. She is considering various options for her onward and return journey between Jamshedpur to Delhi. 
A quick search revealed that ticket from Jamshedpur to Delhi is available in two trains. Trains 12801 and 12443 depart from Jamshedpur station at 06:45 hrs and 15:55 hrs and reach Delhi next day at 04:50 hrs and 10:35 hrs respectively. Trains 12444 and 12802 start from Delhi at 17:20 hrs and 22:20 hrs and reach Jamshedpur next day at 10:35 hrs and 20:05 hrs respectively.
Another option is to reach Ranchi by a three-hour road trip and take a flight to Delhi from Ranchi. The distance between Ranchi and Delhi is covered in 105 minutes both-ways by any of the scheduled flights. Air India operates two flights, AI 9810 and AI 810, which depart Ranchi at 08:00 hrs and 15:25 hrs respectively. Flight number IT-3348 operated by Kingfisher Airlines departs Ranchi at 19:20 hrs. Return flights operated by Air India, AI 9809 and AI 809, depart Delhi at 05:50 hrs and 11:00 hrs respectively. Flight number IT-3347 operated by Kingfisher Airlines departs Delhi at 17:10 hrs.
From Tina’s home, Jamshedpur railway station is five minutes drive, and her destination at Delhi is 90 minutes and 30 minutes drive from airport and railway station respectively. One has to reach the airport at least one hour before the scheduled departure to complete the boarding procedure. At every railway station she loses five minutes in navigating through the crowd.

Teknik Group of industries had businesses in different sectors ranging from manufacturing, construction, fish farming and hotels. These different businesses operated as semi-independent units managed by the unit level managers. Teknik’s management had an internal consultancy group called the Business Advisory Group (known internally as BAG). The 15 experts in BAG were hired personally by Mr. Teknikwala, the owner of Teknik, who wanted this core group of experts to help his organization grow fast without facing the typical growth hurdles. Most of them were specialists in fields like law, information technology, human resource management, and operations management. Almost all of them had experience spanning decades in the in dustry. Whenever any of the units faced any significant issues, it represented an extra workload for those who were involved. This coordination was required to understand the different work processes and the users’ requirements. This coordination activity was being extensively man aged by the old timers as they were familiar with internal processes and people in the different units. An external consultant was also hired for customization and implementation. 
After two months, BAG teams had to fortnightly present their progress to Ms. Teknikwala’s team. In the last meeting Ms. Teknikwala was dissatisfied. She explained her thinking that since ERP impacted every aspect of the business, the roll out had to be done faster. She wanted Mr. Shiv to get the implementation completed ahead of schedule. In the meeting she asked Mr. Shiv to get the people in IT team to be more productive. Not willing to disagree, Mr. Shiv committed to a roll-out schedule of complete ERP system in 6 months instead of earlier decided 14 months. Next day, Mr. Shiv presented the revised project milestone to BAG members. He told them that in order to meet the deadline, the members were expected to work on week-ends till the completion of the project. Along with that, they were also expected to maintain their earlier standards of delivery time and quality for the normal trouble-shooting and internal advisory work. Mr. Shiv also pointed out that anyone whose performance did not meet the expectations would be subjected to formal disciplinary action. The meeting ended without any member commenting on Shiv’s ideas, although Mr. Shiv heard a lot of mumbling in the corridor. Over the week, Shiv noticed that the members seemed to avoid him and he had to make extra effort to get ideas from them.
After a fortnight Shiv reviewed the attendance register and found that Mr. Lal, an old time member, had not come during the week-ends and certain decisions were held up due to lack of inputs from Mr. Lal. Mr. Shiv issued a written reprimand to Mr. Lal. He was speechless on receiving the reprimand but kept silent. It has been three days since that incident. Some of the senior members had put in request for transfer to other business units. It was rumoured that four problems, the unit level managers would put up a request for help to BAG. The prob lems ranged from installation of internal MIS systems, to financial advice related to leasing of equipment, to handling of employee grievances.
Over a period of 20 years, Teknik’s revenues grew from 100 crore to 10,000 crore with guid ance of BAG and due to Mr. Tekinkwala’s vision. Given its reputation in the industry, many people wanted to start their careers in BAG. Often young MBAs fresh out of business schools would apply. However their applications used to be rejected by Mr. Tekinkwala, who had a preference for people with extensive industry experience. Things changed after the unfortunate demise of Mr. Tekinkwala. His daughter Ms. Teknikwali took up the family business. She was an MBA from one of the premier business schools, and was working in a different company when Mr. Tekinkwala passed away. She preferred that BAG developed new ideas and therefore inducted freshly graduated MBAs from premier business schools. She personally supervised the recruitment and selection process. Now the entire group constituted of 50 specialists, out of which 35 were the old time members. She also changed the reporting relationships in the BAG group with some of the older members being made to report to the new members. In IT team, Mr. Shiv, a newly recruited MBA, was made in-charge. For the older members it was a shock. However, as most of them were on the verge of retirement, and it would be challenging to search for new jobs while competing with younger professionals, they decided to play along. After one month, all business units were caught up in the ERP fever. This was an idea pushed by Ms. Teknikwali who felt the need to replace the old legacy systems with latest ERP system integrating all the units of Teknik. This was heavily influenced by her experience in the previ ous company where an ERP system was already up and running. Therefore she was not aware of the difference between installing an ERP system and working on an already installed one.
The ERP implementation in Teknik Group required extensive coordination with senior level managers of senior legal experts had agreed on an offer from a law firm. Other senior members would sporadically come in late to work, citing health reasons. Almost all senior members now wanted a weekly work-routine to be prepared and given to them in advance so that they could deliver as per the schedule. This insistence on written communication was a problem as urgent problems or ad-hoc requests could not be foreseen and included. Also normal services to other business units were being unattended to, and there were complaints coming from the unit heads.