Guidelines For XAT 2009 Essay

The Inherent vice of Capitalism is unequal sharing of blessings and the inherent virtue of Socialism is equal sharing of misery.

 

An interesting topic, which required some awareness of the two political and economic systems. Some points worth exploring in this essay were:

 

1) The historical development of Capitalism as a major force shaping the modern world.

 

2) The rise of Socialism as a countering force as visualized by Karl Marx and other thinkers.

 

3) Major Socialist movements such as the Russian Revolution.

 

4) How Capitalism came to be viewed as a credo and how the world got bi-polarized into the Capitalist and Socialist blocks.

 

5) Lessons from the 20th century- how Socialism and Communism failed to stem the economic collapse of Russia. Ironically enough, the virtue ‘of equal sharing of misery failed to sustain Socialist governments’.

 

6) The enduring appeal of Capitalism even though the vice of unequal distribution of wealth persists- example of how erstwhile Socialist regimes like China are embracing market Capitalism today.

First impression of XAT 2009

The paper consisted of 3 sections: Quantitative Aptitude+Data Interpretation (38 questions), Verbal Ability +Logical Ability (35 questions) and Analytical Reasoning +Decision Making (31) questions – a total of 104 questions, which was lower than last year’s 120.

As expected the paper was on the tougher side. Nonetheless it was balanced across the sections. There were few questions, which were ambiguous but all in all the paper was on the expected lines and resembling XAT 2008.

The topic for the essay was “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries”

Expected Cut-off for XLRI (BM) QA+DI: 9.0, AR+DM: 7.5, VA+LA: 9.0 Overall: 34-35