XAT Marks vs Percentile 2025: How Many You Need for Your Dream B‑School

8 min read

RishmaSri RamakrishnanAuthor

XAT Marks vs Percentile 2025: How Many You Need for Your Dream B‑School

If you’re an MBA aspirant targeting XLRI Jamshedpur or other top B schools, you’ve probably wondered:

“What XAT score will give me a 95+ XAT percentile?”
“Is my XAT exam score enough for XLRI Business Management?”
“What is a safe score vs percentile 2025 for top MBA colleges?”

This page breaks down XAT 2025 score vs percentile using recent data from XAT 2024 and XAT 2023, so you’re not just guessing.

We’ll also connect it back to Mockat’s CAT percentile predictor (your pillar page), because most MBA aspirants write CAT + XAT together and need one clear place to interpret scores and plan MBA admissions.

1. Why XAT Score vs Percentile Matters So Much

For most candidates appearing in XAT, the goal is simple:

Get into XLRI Jamshedpur for Business Management or HRM
Or land a seat in strong XAT participating colleges and top MBA colleges

Your XAT score vs percentile is the crucial factor that decides:

Whether you clear the cut‑offs
How competitive you are in the selection process
Which MBA programs you can realistically seek admission into

Knowing the score required for a specific percentile (like 90, 95 or 98) helps you:

Set a good score target
Track your progress in mocks
Avoid panic after the exam

2. Quick Overview of the XAT Exam and Pattern

2.1 What is XAT?

XAT (Xavier Aptitude Test) is a national‑level entrance exam conducted by XLRI Jamshedpur on behalf of Xavier Association of Management Institutes (XAMI).

Many MBA colleges and B schools use XAT percentile for MBA admissions, especially for Business Management and related fields.(XAT Online)

2.2 XAT exam pattern and sections

The XAT exam currently has two parts:

Part 1 (counted for XAT percentile score)
- Verbal and Logical Ability (VALR) – verbal ability + logical ability
- Decision Making (DM)
- Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation (QADI) – maths + data interpretation
Part 2 (not counted in main XAT percentile)
- General Knowledge section

The total duration is about 3 hours (180 minutes), with Part 1 usually around 170 minutes.

3. XAT Marking Scheme, Raw Score and Negative Marking

3.1 How is XAT score calculated?

In XAT, the basic marking scheme in Part 1 is:(XAT Online)

+1 mark for each correct answer
–0.25 for each wrong answer (MCQs)
–0.10 per question for unattempted questions beyond 8
No negative marking in General Knowledge (Part 2)

Your raw score is the sum of marks from all questions in Part 1:

Raw XAT score = (Number of correct answers × 1) – (Number of incorrect answers × 0.25) – (0.10 × unattempted beyond 8)

This raw XAT score represents the total marks obtained in Part 1 and is used to compute your percentile score.

3.2 Total marks and exam score

The XAT paper usually has about 75–80 questions in Part 1, so the total marks for percentile calculation are roughly in that range. The exam score you see in analysis articles is often this overall XAT score from Part 1.

4. XAT Score vs Percentile: What Does Percentile Actually Mean?

4.1 Percentile score vs raw score

Your raw XAT score is just your marks.

Your percentile score (or XAT percentile score) tells you your candidate’s relative position among XAT test takers / candidates appearing that year.

So:

XAT percentile is percentile based
It reflects your candidate’s performance relative to other candidates and other test takers, not just your marks

4.2 Percentile calculation and percentile rank

Officially, XAT percentile calculation uses a standard percentile calculation formula similar to:

XAT percentile = 1 – (Candidate’s rank / Total XAT test takers) × 100

Where:

Candidate’s rank is based on your overall score. The candidate's rank reflects your relative standing among all test-takers, showing how you performed compared to everyone else.
XAT percentile represents the proportion of people you’ve beaten

That means your XAT percentile depends on both your final scoreand how tough the paper was for everyone.

4.3 Percentile XAT vs percentile CAT – same idea, different exams

The logic of percentile XAT is the same as percentile in CAT:

It’s a percentile comparison across all test takers
Two students with the same score can even get slightly different overall percentile if they took tests in different years with different exam difficulty level

5. XAT 2025 Score vs Percentile – Overall Snapshot

Let’s talk about score vs percentile 2025 using data that’s already available for XAT 2025 and XAT 2024.

According to IMS and other leading prep platforms:

In XAT 2025, an overall XAT score around 38–39 has been reported near 99+ XAT percentile
Scores around 34–35 have been associated with roughly 97–98 percentile
Around 29–30 marks can fall close to 92–93 percentile
Around 20–21 marks may correspond to 70–75 percentile

In XAT 2024, a score near 38.7 was estimated around 99.7 percentile, while 30+ often sat around the mid‑90s.

Different sites show slightly different tables, but across them, XAT marks vs percentile broadly matches this pattern.

6. XAT Marks vs Percentile 2024–2025: Section-Wise View

6.1 Section wise XAT score: VALR (Verbal and Logical Ability)

The Verbal and Logical Ability (VALR) section checks reading, verbal ability and logical ability.

Recent section wise XAT score vs percentile data shows:

Around 15–16 marks in VALR can be ~99 percentile in that section
About 11–13 marks can land you in the 93–95+ percentile band
Around 9–10 marks can hover around 85–90 percentile

Because VARC‑type sections are often high difficulty level, even a moderate total marks obtained here can push your overall percentile up.

6.2 Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation (QADI)

The Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation (QADI) section mixes quantitative ability with data interpretation charts and tables.

Typical recent patterns:

Around 14–15 marks in QADI can be close to 95 percentile
Around 12–13 marks might be nearer 90 percentile
Even 10–11 marks may still be decent if the difficulty level is high

For many MBA aspirants, this section decides whether they get that high percentile or not.

6.3 Decision Making and its impact

Decision Making doesn’t always get a separate xat marks vs percentile breakdown online, but its influence on your overall XAT score is huge.

Performing well here:

Lifts your final score without needing extreme maths skills
Improves your percentile score even if you’re average in QADI

That’s why balanced performance across sections is key for a good vs percentile outcome.

7. XAT 2026 Outlook and Current Exam Trends

7.1 XAT 2026 exam difficulty level (expected)

XAT 2026 is scheduled for early January 2026, following a similar pattern and marking scheme to recent years.

Based on current exam trends:

The exam difficulty level usually stays moderate-to-tough, especially in Decision Making and VALR
Minor changes in question styles happen, but the score vs percentile 2025 pattern is likely a good reference for XAT 2026 too

7.2 Safe score vs good score for XAT 2026

Looking at XAT 2025 score vs percentile and XAT 2024:

A safe score for 95+ percentile may be around 33–35 marks, depending on the year
A good score for 90+ percentile might be 27–30 marks
For some B schools, even 23–25 marks can be competitive

Remember, the score required at a specific percentile can shift a bit with each year’s paper.

8. What Does a Given XAT Percentile Represent for MBA Admissions?

8.1 XLRI Jamshedpur Business Management cut-offs

For XLRI Jamshedpur, the Business Management (BM) program is the big magnet.

Recent data and official cut‑offs indicate:(XAT Online)

Overall XAT percentile of 96+ is usually needed for BM (general category, male engineers)
Slightly lower overall percentile cut‑offs exist for some other categories
Sectional percentiles in VALR, DM, QADI also matter in the selection process

So if your goal is XLRI BM, your XAT percentile represents much more than just a number – it’s the gatekeeper.

8.2 Other XAT participating colleges and top MBA colleges

Many strong XAT participating colleges take candidates in the 85–95 percentile range:

Xavier Institute of Management (XIMB)
IMT Ghaziabad, TAPMI, LIBA, KJ Somaiya, Great Lakes and similar top MBA colleges

For these, a good score somewhere around 26–32 marks often works, because their selection process also weighs profile, work ex, GD–PI, etc.

9. How to Calculate XAT Score and XAT Percentile

9.1 Step 1 – Calculate XAT score from your answers

After the exam, use your response memory (or answer key when released) to calculate XAT score:

Count total correct answers in each section
Count total incorrect answers (excluding GK)
Apply the marking scheme:
- +1 for each correct answer
- –0.25 for each wrong answer
- Adjust for unattempted questions beyond 8 (–0.10 each)

This gives your raw XAT score or xat marks before any percentile math.

9.2 Step 2 – Estimate your percentile XAT

To calculate XAT percentile roughly:

Look at score–percentile charts from XAT 2025 and XAT 2024
Match your overall score with the nearest row in xat score vs percentile tables.

Officially, the XAT percentile calculation is:

XAT percentile = 1 – (candidate’s rank / total XAT test takers) × 100

Where candidate’s rank is your position after sorting all xat test takers by their final score.

9.3 Step 3 – Interpret your percentile based on difficulty level

When you compare xat score vs percentile, always keep difficulty level in mind:

If the paper felt very tough for you and others, a lower total marks obtained can still give a high percentile
In a smoother paper, you might need more marks for the same percentile

That’s why percentile depends on your candidate’s performance relative to the whole crowd, not in isolation.

10. Why Two Candidates with the Same Score Can Have Different Percentiles

It’s possible for two other candidates with the same score to have slightly different percentile score in different years, because: Even if candidates have scored equal marks, their percentile may differ due to changes in exam difficulty or the number of test takers.

The exam difficulty level changes
The total number of candidates appearing changes
The distribution of scores across xat test takers changes

As a result, percentile comparison between years is approximate, but within a given year, your percentile rank very clearly shows where you stand.

11. Using XAT Score vs Percentile Along with Mockat’s Percentile Predictor

You’re building this subpage under a CAT‑focused brand, so here’s how it connects:

Most MBA aspirants use CAT + XAT together for MBA admissions
Mockat already has a percentile predictor for CAT on your pillar page
Students can understand score vs percentile 2025 for XAT here, and then jump to your CAT percentile predictor to do the same for CAT

In practice, they can:

Use this page to understand what good score and safe score mean in XAT.
Use Mockat’s tools (and later, an XAT‑focused tool if you build it) to estimate their percentile based position.
Compare different percentiles across CAT and XAT to decide where they’re stronger.

This combination makes Mockat feel like a one‑stop guidance hub for serious MBA admissions planning.

12. Quick FAQs on XAT Score vs Percentile

Q1. What XAT score is needed for 95+ percentile?

Based on XAT marks vs percentile for 2024 and 2025:

A score required for 95+ percentile is roughly in the 33–36 marks band, depending on the year and exam difficulty level.

Q2. Is 30+ a good score in XAT?

Yes. A good score of 30+ has historically been close to 90–93 percentile, which is competitive for many strong XAT participating colleges and MBA colleges.

Q3. How many marks are needed for XLRI Jamshedpur BM?

For XLRI Jamshedpur Business Management, you typically need:

Around 96 percentile overall
Which usually corresponds to a high percentile score in the 38–40 marks zone in recent years, plus decent sectional performance.(XAT Online)

Q4. Does XAT consider General Knowledge in percentile?

GK marks are shown on the XAT scorecard but usually do not affect the main XAT percentile score used in shortlisting. They may, however, be considered later in the selection process by some institutes.(XAT Online)

Q5. If I left many questions unattempted, will it hurt my final score?

Yes, after 8 unattempted questions, negative marking of 0.10 per question kicks in for each additional unattempted question in Part 1. This reduces your total marks obtained and can drop your percentile rank slightly.

13. Final Thoughts: Turn Numbers into a Real Plan

Your XAT score vs percentile is not just a table – it’s a way to:

Understand your candidate’s relative position among thousands of other candidates
Choose the right B schools and MBA programs to apply to
Build a realistic, data‑driven plan for business management careers

Use these ranges as a guide, then:

Set your target score for XAT 2026
Keep an eye on current exam trends and difficulty
Combine this with Mockat’s CAT percentile predictor so you have both CAT and XAT covered in your strategy