XAT Essay Writing Tips: How to write an essay for MBA Entrance Exam?
Appearing for XAT Exam is a bit different from other management exams. Where in all other exams you need to master your skills to answer the MCQ based questions, it’s in the XAT exam that you have to divert your focus on writing descriptive answers as well. The exam not only put to test your skills pertaining to verbal ability, logical reasoning and quantitative aptitude but also focuses on gaining an understanding of your opinion on particular issues of national importance or of relevance for your management education.
While you get only 20 minutes to answer the essay question, it becomes quite challenging to ideate the essay and then write it speedily without having to commit any errors. However, you can master this section as well with by practising more because practise makes a student perfect. Here are a few tips that you can apply while practising for the XAT Essay writing section.
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Preparation Strategy for XAT Essay
The first and foremost step is to formulate a strategy that will help you write XAT essay. With just 200-250 words as per the guidelines of XAT essay writing, you do not have time to beat around the bush. It is advisable to follow a prudent approach that says that your essay should comprise of 3 paras. The first being ‘Introduction’, second para being ‘Body’ and the third para being the ‘Conclusion’. In this manner the para will appear logical and easy to understand.
Read a Lot
When you sit to write XAT essay, it becomes challenging to respect the word limit and yet provide a essay that is content-rich and has meaningful arguments, suggestions and solution to the offered problem. Hence, as a first step, enhance your reading speed and read regularly. Subscribe to daily newspaper such as Economic Times, Livemint and The Hindu. These newspapers carry relevant reading material to enhance your knowledge base and also help you stay updated with the current happenings. Get addicted to their editorial column and try to analyse the points which the writes have put forward.
You can also buy subscription of monthly or weekly magazine that comes up with articles on various issues. These days with technology on the boom, you can download various mobile apps that will elp you prepare for the XAT essays.
Your essay must ooze and aura of you being the future managers. This perspective will only be garnered once you get a hang of reading business news and understanding various theories that underlie the political, economic and business environment of the world. Consider every issue as a problem and think rationally to offer solution.
Also, remember that when you write an essay, do not take one stand. Talk about both pros and cons and then conclude on a balancing note while writing the concluding opinion.
Structure of Essay matters
In order to master the art of writing an impressive essay in the XAT Exam, make sure that you have a dab hand at formulating the structure of essay within few seconds. This will come with regular practise and time. The first 60 seconds shall be invested in formulating a mental structure of the essay that you will pen down for final submission.
Here structure means that for say you have been allotted a topic on trans-border terrorism, then you do not end up writing the solution to the problem first and then the causes of this malice for the survival of humanity.
Your essay is being analysed on the basis of the structure that binds the essence of the content provided by you. If the examiner deduces that the paragraphs in the essay are written illogically from one paragraph to the other then your XAT essay will be subjected to deduction in marks. A proper structure depicts clarity of thoughts of the candidate. Good marks are awarded for structured and ordered essay that links your arguments in a logical manner.
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Structuring the XAT Essay
It is not a herculean task to come up with an A+ rated essay within 15 minutes of the allotted time. If you want to make an impression on the evaluator, make sure that you follow these tips to enhance the quality and marks of your essay. The given below structure will ensure that you do not miss out on important details while writing and your essay fits in the guidelines of the exam. Here is one example of the flow of essay that can fetch you good grades. For every paragraph that becomes a part of essay, follow this structure:
(i) Topic Sentence: It is primarily the 1st sentence that expresses the core of the paragraph in a nutshell and gives a purview of what is going to be talked about. For say: Trans-border terrorism has not only uprooted the lives of migrants but is gradually impacting the natives of a nation as well. A reader will get an idea that you will talk about the miseries faced by the natives due to terrorism.
(ii) Supporting Sentences: These sentences are supposed to elaborate upon the central idea of the paragraph. You can use 50-60 words in each paragraph to support the theme of this para.
(iii) Concluding Sentence: Finally comes a concluding line of para. This needs to be carefully written because it not only summarises your whole idea of including this issue in the essay but will also give a hint of what next is to be talked about. In order to maintain the logical flow of the paras to be followed, the concluding line has to be crafted carefully.
Ideal number of questions to attempt in XAT 2018
Keep Essay Grammatically Correct
For XAT essays, it is very important that you ensure that the essay is grammatically correct. When you appear for one of the toughest exams to get into one of the top MBA institutes of India, an essay will act as a silent salesman of your personality.
Aspects such as grammar, punctuation and spelling errors can ruin your percentile and thereby chances of final selection. Taking care of these aspects will help you gain an edge over the competition. When the next time you practise for the XAT essay, keep in mind that the essay is free from such trivial yet important errors.
Spare a few minutes for Proofreading
Proofreading is an essential part of any piece of writing that goes for final submission. And when it is XAT essay, do not miss out on this ritual because at times, we naturally tend to make mistakes. It is not a good idea to submit an essay that has a potential to fetch you good marks but lands you in no man’s land with poor scores.
Recapitulating Tips to master XAT Essay
So before you head on to write the XAT Essay, let is recapitulate some easy tips to help you grab good grades.
1. Always write the essay in paragraphs and make sure that the flow of content is logical. Do not provide the content haphazardly to confuse the examiner. This will only pull down the quality of your paragraph and won’t fetch you good grades.
2. Do not mention same idea in each paragraph. Different paragraphs should express different ideas on the chosen topic. Your paragraphs should appear like tributaries of a river that contributes their water in one river. All your paras should vary in terms of the content but must contribute to the main idea.
3. Practise a lot! Yes, without practising you will not be able to provide an outstanding essay for submission. Essay writing is an art and even if you do not excel at it, you can master it with regular practise.
4. Keep your paras free from grammatical errors. Do not write sentences that the examiner doesn’t understand. Keep the sentences short and crisp. Do not use too many technical jargons that deviates the true essence of the topic.
5. One of the most essential requirements is your hand-writing. A legible hand-writing will fetch you wonderful grades. If the evaluator found it difficult to read the content, you might loose on marks because he/she won’t be able to contact you to gain an understanding of your illegible hand-writing. Groom your handwriting skills if you are bad at it.
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Essay topics in previous year XAT exams
Here is the list of the topics on which essay writing came in the preceding year’s XAT Exam. The candidates may refer to this list and prepare the topic similar to these for XAT 2017.
| Year |
Topic of Essay |
| 2000 |
Ships are safer in the harbour. But they are not meant for the same |
| 2001 |
Economic Growth without distributive justice can only lead to violence |
| 2002 |
Indian Economy in the Post WTO Era |
| 2005 |
More than one billion Indians: A gigantic problem or a sea of opportunities |
| 2006 |
India has one of the largest pool of talented manpower, but few innovations and patented products |
| 2007 |
Economic growth without environmental damage – a mirage or a reality |
| 2008 |
Gender Bias: Cause of Third World War |
| 2009 |
The Inherent vice of Capitalism is unequal sharing of blessings and the inherent virtue of Socialism is equal sharing of misery |
| 2010 |
Earth provide enough to satisfy every man’s need but not every man’s greed need |
| 2012 |
Poverty is a big menace in India. |
| 2013 |
Corruption is the root cause of economic slowdown in India |
| 2016 |
Technology and nature are natural enemies |
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