Hi there.

Welcome to this course on XAT Decision Making.

In this series of articles on this topic, we cover every aspect related to the topic, one step at a time. Also, these articles will be accompanied by a series of tests, based on previous year XAT questions and some new questions created by Wordpandit himself.

This series of articles will run for approximately ten days, that is, the 25th of December and all material related to XAT Decision Making will be available by then. Since I am writing these articles and creating/curating these tests side by side, expect one to two posts on the topic on an everyday basis. Kindly bookmark this page as all resources related to the topic will be posted here.

So, let’s get started then!

XAT Decision Making: Introduction

The first step for solving this question type is to understand the nature of these questions. Effectively, this question type can appear in two forms:

1. Single-question based cases (this are similar in look and feel to Critical Reasoning Questions)
2. Comprehensive Caselets, accompanied with a series of questions.

The key element for these two types of questions is the aspect of time management. In the exam, in case you are running out of time, you will have to solve the single-question based sets and the smaller caselets.

For the both the question types above, the fundamentals remain the same: you will be provided a situational context and question/s will be based on it. The contexts provided in this case can be extremely far-reaching in nature and on multiple occasions, these are based on real-world situations.
For example, two contexts that can probably appear in the exam this year are Demonetarization and the Tata-Mistry fiasco (sacking of the Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry). Make sure you are aware of these situations, and you also form some informed viewpoints on these situations. After all, XAT decision making is nothing else but an evaluation of your understanding of situations and the course of action you will adopt in the same.

In fact, the reason for this question type to be a part of the exam is to check your managerial ability and skill. By exhibiting good decision-making skills, you showcase your managerial aptitude and the ability to take good decisions in difficult situations.

What kind of decisions should you take?

Now that we are talking about decisions, what kind of decisions should you take in XAT Decision Making Questions? In short, your decisions should exhibit the following characteristics:

1. They should be ethical in nature.
2. You should be practical in your approach and not idealistic.
3. The solution should not be biased and should not favour any particular side in a contentious situation.
4. Do not take extreme views and exhibit a balanced nature.
5. Always focus on the greater good and not the benefit of a particular individual/group.
6. You will often be in a situation where you need to choose one from the following: organisation/institution benefit or individual’s benefit. Remember point-5 in this case.
7. Be fair in all situations, even if it comes at some cost.

These are the Seven Guru-Mantras for this topic and are the seven parameters that you need to inculcate in your thinking for this question type.

How to do so? Well, I cover that in the next installment.

XAT Decision-Making: Articles and Tests

Article-1: Approach for XAT Decision Making: Stakeholder Analysis
Article-2: XAT Decision Making: Ethical Dilemma Questions
XAT Decision Making: Test-1