XAT2014 Related Question Answers
27. Analyze the following passage and provide appropriate answers for the questions that follow. Either explicitly or implicitly, our informants suggest that the objects that transfix them are hoped to be conduits to, rather than surrogates for, love, respect, recognition, status, security, escape, or attractiveness. These are the social relations we desire, consciously or subconsciously, beneath the objects that we find so compelling. The value of the objects that we focus our longing upon inheres less in the object or in a Lacanian search for childhood love than in the culture. The hope for the hope that an altered state of being may result keeps the cycle of desire moving. Desires are nurtured by self-embellished fantasies of a wholly different self, and they may be stimulated by external sources, including advertising, retail displays, films, television programs, stories told by other people, and the consumption behavior of real or imaginary others. But we find that the person who feels strong desire has almost always actively stimulated this desire by attending, seeking out, entertaining, and embellishing such images. The desires that occupy us are vivid and riveting fantasies that we participate in nurturing, growing, and pursuing, through self-seduction. The social nature of desire implies that preferences of consumers are far from being independent. Yet, choice models assume that preferences of consumers act as individuals. The mimetic aspect of desire creates difficulties for using individual attitude or intention measures to predict adoption of new products whose use will be visible. The notion of desire we have derived suggests that the appeal of the desired object is not inherent in the object itself. Models that begin with preferences for product attributes or benefits are therefore problematic. The consumer, individually and jointly, has a role in constructing the object of desire, within a social context. What makes consumer desire attach to a particular object is not so much the object’s particular characteristics as the consumer’s own hopes for an altered state of being,involving an altered set of social relationships.Consider the statement given below as true: “The failure of men to transition from being shoppers and consumers to producers and creators has implications about their manliness.” Which of the following statements would concur with the above idea and the theme of the main paragraph?
28. Consider the statement given below as true: “Men use the plasticity of consumer identity construction to forge atavistic masculine identities based upon an imagined life of self-reliant, pre-modern men who lived outside the confines of cities, families, and work bureaucracies.” Which of the following statements would concur with the above idea and the theme of the main paragraph?
29. Consider the statement given below as true: “By appropriating fashion discourse, consumers generate personalized fashion narratives and metaphoric and metonymic references that negotiate key existential tensions and that often express resistance to dominant fashion norms in their social milieu or consumer culture at large.” Which of the following statements would concur with the above idea and the theme of the main paragraph?
30. Answer questions based on information that is provided.The main issues of interpretation arising from the work of professionally trained anthropologists are that they are late in colonial/post - colonial trajectories, because professional training shapes their interpretations. However, within field of interest and training, their works are most thorough and systematic The best conclusion drawn from the above paragraph is analogous to:
31. Answer questions based on information that is provided.Consider merit pay for teachers. Schools face constant pressure to change their management approaches to improve performance, which is usually assessed by standardized reading, math, and science scores. In most school teacher’s pay is determined by seniority, years of total teaching experience, and credentials. Pay is rarely based on performance, which is contrary to the belief among parents and private sector. Parents and business leaders lament that there are no carrots/sticks used to motivate teachers. Consequently, there has been greater push to implement some form of merit pay to improve the motivation. Which of the following statements will disapprove the claim of the parents and business leaders?
32. Answer questions based on information that is provided.Read the following newspaper report: In a new study by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), researchers explored how caffeine can serve as a “mild anti - depressant”. They concluded that “drinking several cups of coffee daily appears to reduce the risk of suicide”. Data pulled in from three large studies in the US showed that the suicide risk of those who drank two to four cups of caffeinated coffee a day was about half of those who drank decaffeinated coffee or very little or no coffee. In the studies, a respondent’s caffeine consumption was assessed every four years through a questionnaire. The respondents were all adults, and the study was published online. The authors, however, cautioned the public from increasing coffee intake as it could result in “unpleasant side effects”. “Overall, our results suggest that there is little further benefit for consumption above two to three cups/day or 400 mg of caffeine/day,” wrote the researchers. The authors observed that there` was no major difference in suicide risk for adults who drank two to three cups a day from those who drank four cups or more. Which of the following shaped graph would best capture the above paragraph(x - axis represents “coffee intake” and “Y - axis represents “suicidal tendency”)?
33. Answer questions based on information that is provided.A group of nine runners will finish the 400 meters race in a certain order. The runners are: Ashok, Benjamin, Chetan, Divya, Eshant, Girish, Himani, and Irravaty. They all finish at different times, and their finishing order is as follow: 1.Faneesh finishes before Ashok 2.Divya finishes before Benjamin and Eshant 3.Irravaty finishes after Chetan 4.Girish finishes after Ashok Which is the best position Girish can finish?
34.
Read the following case – let and answer the that follow
Ms. Banerjee, class teacher for 12th standard, wants to send teams (based on past performance) of three students each to district, state, national, and international competition in mathematics.Till now, every student of the class has appeared in 100 school level tests. The students had following distribution of marks in the tests, in terms of “average” and “number of times a student scored cent per cent marks”.
Ms. Banerjee has carefully studied chances of her school winning each of the competitions. Based on in - depth calculations, she realized that her school is quite likely to win district level competition but has low chances of winning the international competition. She listed down the following probabilities of wins for different competitions. Prize was highest for international competition and lowest for district level competition (in that order).
All the students are studying in the school for last twelve years. She wanted to select the best team for all four competitions (Ms. Banerjee had no other information to select students).
Which of three members should form the team for the International competition?
36. Ms. Banerjee has to select the team for national competition after she has selected the team for international competition. A student selected for international competition cannot be a part of national competition. Which is the best team for the national competition?
37.
Read the following case – let and answer the question that follow
Krishna Reddy was the head of a pharmaceutical company that was trying to develop a new product. Reddy, along with his friend Prabhakar Rao, assessed that such products had mixed success. Reddy and Rao realized that if a new product (a drug) was a success, it may result in sales of 100 crores but if it is unsuccessful, the sales may be only 20 crores. They further assessed that a new drug was likely to be successful 50% of times. Cost of launching the new drug was likely to be 50 crores.
Now, Reddy and Rao were in a quandary whether the company should go ahead and market the drug. They
contacted Raj Adduri, a common friend for advice. Adduri was of the opinion that given the risky nature of launch, it may be a better idea to test the market. Rao and Reddy realized test marketing would cost 10
crores. Adduri told them the previous test marketing results have been favorable 70% of times and success
rate of products favorably tested was 80%.Further, when test marketing results were unfavorable; the products have been successful 30% of the times.How much profit can the company expect to earn if it launches the new drug(suppose there are no additional costs)?
38. How much profit can the company expect to make if the product is launched after favorable test marketing results.(assume there are no additional costs)?
40. If Rao and Reddy decides to launch the product despite unfavourable test marketing, how much profit can the company expect to earn?
41.
Please read the three reports (newspaper articles) on ranking of different players and products in smart phones industry and answer the questions that follow.
Report 1: (Feb, 2013)
Apple nabs crown as current top US mobile phone vendor
Apple’s reign may not be long, as Samsung is poised to overtake Apple in April, 2013. For the first time since Apple entered the mobile phone market in 2007, it has been ranked the top mobile phone vendor in the US. For the latter quarter of 2012, sales of its iPhone accounted for 34 percent of all mobile phone sales in the US - including feature phones - according to the latest data from Strategy Analytics.
While the iPhone has consistently been ranked the top smartphone sold in the US, market research firm NPD noted that feature phone sales have fallen off a cliff recently, to the point where 8 out of every 10 mobile phones sold in the US are now smartphones. That ratio is up considerably from the end of 2011, when smartphones had just cracked the 50 percent mark. Given this fact it’s no surprise that Apple, which only sells smartphones, has been able to reach the top of the overall mobile phone market domestically. For the fourth quarter of 2012, Apple ranked number one with 34 percent of the US mobile market, up from 25.6 percent year over year. Samsung grew similarly, up to 32.3 percent from 26.9 percent - but not enough to keep from slipping to second place. LG dropped to 9 percent from 13.7 percent, holding its third place spot. It should be noted that Samsung and LG both sell a variety of feature phones in addition to smartphones. Looking only at smartphones, the ranking is a little different according to NPD. Apple holds the top spot with 39 percent of the US smartphone market, while Samsung again sits at number two with 30 percent. Motorola manages to rank third with 7 percent, while HTC dropped to fourth with 6 percent. In the US smartphone market, LG is fifth with 6 percent. Note how the percentages aren’t all that different from overall mobile phone market share - for all intents and purposes, the smartphone market is the mobile phone market in the US going forward. Still, Samsung was the top mobile phone vendor overall for 2012, and Strategy Analytics expects Samsung to be back on top soon. “Samsung had been the number one mobile phone vendor in the US since 2008, and it will surely be keen to recapture that title in 2013 by launching improved new models such as the rumored Galaxy S4”. And while Apple is the top vendor overall among smartphones, its iOS platform is still second to the Android platform overall. Samsung is the largest vendor selling Android-based smartphones, but Motorola, HTC, LG, and others also sell Android devices, giving the platform a clear advantage over iOS both domestically and globally.
Report 2: Reader’s Response (2013, Feb)
I don’t actually believe the numbers for Samsung. Ever since the debacle in early 2011, when Lenovo called into question the numbers Samsung was touting for tablet shipments, stating that Samsung had only sold 20,000 of the 1.5 million tablets they shipped into the US the last quarter of 2010, Samsung (who had no response to Lenovo) has refused to supply quarterly sales numbers for smartphones or tablets. That’s an indication that their sales aren’t what analysts are saying. We can look to several things to help understand why. In the lawsuit between Apple and Samsung here last year, both were required to supply real sales numbers for devices under contention. The phones listed turned out to have sales between one third and one half of what had been guessed by IDC and others. Tablet sales were even worse. Of the 1.5 million tablets supposedly shipped to the US during that time, only 38,000 were sold. Then we have the usage numbers. Samsung tablets have only a 1.5% usage rate, where the iPad has over 90%. Not as much a difference with the phones but it’s still overwhelmingly in favor of iPhone. The problem is that with Apple’s sales, we have actual numbers to go by. The companies who estimate can calibrate what they do after those numbers come out. But with Samsung and many others, they can’t ever calibrate their methods, as there are no confirming numbers released from the firms. A few quarters ago, as a result, we saw iSupply estimate Samsung’s smartphone sales for the quarter at 32 million, with estimates from others all over the place up to 50 million. Each time some other company reported a higher number for that same quarter, the press dutifully used that higher number as THE ONE. But none of them was the one. Without accurate self-reporting of actual sales to the end users, none of these market share charts are worth a damn!
Report 3: Contradictory survey (Feb, 2013)
iPhone5 Ranks Fifth In U.S. Customer Satisfaction Survey inShare. The iPhone5 ranks fifth in customer satisfaction according to the results of a recent survey from OnDevice Research, a mobile device research group. In the poll, they asked 320,000 smartphone and tablet users from six different countries, how satisfied they were with their devices. According to 93,825 people from the US, Motorola Atrix HD is the most satisfying and Motorola’s Droid Razr took second spot. HTC Corp (TPE : 2498)’s Rezound 4G and Samsung Galaxy Note 2 took third and fourth spots, while Apple’s iPhone5 landed in fifth spot. It appears that Apple may be lagging in consumer interest. OnDevice Research, Sarah Quinn explained, “Although Apple created one of the most revolutionary devices of the past decade, other manufactures have caught up, with some Android powered devices now commanding higher levels of user satisfaction.” Despite the lower rankings, things aren’t looking too bad for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) elsewhere. In the United Kingdom, they ranked second place, right after HTC One X. Interesting enough, Apple did take top spot for overall satisfaction of mobile device, whereas Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) ranked second. Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (NYSE:NOK) took third, fourth, and fifth places respectively, while Sony Ericsson trailed behind at sixth place. The survey sampled mobile device users in the following countries: United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, and Indonesia. Although OnDevice didn’t share the full list of devices mentioned in the survey, it does show some insight to what customers want. Unfortunately, there were still many questions regarding the survey that were left unanswered. Everyone wants to know why Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was on the list when they are not an actual smartphone maker and why was Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) on the bottom of the satisfaction list when the brand is leading elsewhere.
Source: 92.825 US mobile users, July 2012 - January 2013
Fortunately, those questions were answered by OnDevice Research’s representative. He explained that the survey was conducted on mobile web where the survey software could detect the taker’s device and since user’s rate their satisfaction levels on a 1 to 10 scale, thanks to the Nexus device, Google was included.If you analyze the three reports above, which of the following statements would be the best inference?
42. Assume report1 and report3 are both correct, which of the following can be a reason for seemingly divergent ranks of different companies and their products?
43. If report1 and report3 are both correct, which of the following can be a reason for seemingly divergent ranks reported for different companies and their products?
44. Which of the following is more likely to be a correct conclusion about the respondent/reader in report2?
45. Read the following case-let and choose the best alternative for the questions that follow. Ajay was thinking deeply about a problem that his organization, a business consulting company, faced. Globalization had affected his company like many other companies. Despite the downturn, the current revenues remained healthy. However, Ajay knew it was inevitable that the company could not do business the same way. The complexity of managing the business had increased with time. Consultants were under pressure to deliver good and innovative solutions. The organization had consultants from different age groups having a good mix of domain and industry expertise. It was a flat organization with three levels. The biggest challenge for Ajay was to have consultants with latest knowledge who would also earn revenues. Getting additional business was a challenge as all the consultants were busy and it was very difficult to hire new consultants.Some of the consultants were adept at applying old solutions to new problems. Ajay was not very sure if this would work for long. Some of the clients had complained about the performance of old and reputed consultants. Ajay was mulling over the following five solutions to tackle this problem. 1.Decrease time spent on client interaction and increase time spent for generating solutions. 2.Increase support staff to help consultants to remain updated. 3.Decrease the number of simultaneous projects handled by consultants. 4.Make it compulsory for consultants to work on inter-industry and inter-domain problems. 5.Recruit more consultants. Which of the following would be the best sequence of decisions taken by Ajay (starting from immediate to distant)?
46. After Ajay implemented some of the steps mentioned above, consultants wanted to renegotiate their contract with the organization. It seems that the organization had never mentioned that consultants have to work across industries and domains. Some of the old consultants were reluctant to change their ways, while many of the younger consultants were willing to follow Ajay’s advice. Which of the following decision can be taken by Ajay to handle this situation?
47. Ajay was to retire in five years and he wanted to leave behind a legacy. Order the following activities, from the most important to the least important, that Ajay should undertake in next five year: 1.Do nothing. 2.Set a future direction for the organization in these challenging times. 3.Benchmark performance with respect to the best consulting company in industry. 4.Empower senior consultants and at the same time seek opinion of all others for handling future challenges. 5.Infuse fresh thinking by hiring outsiders. Choose the best option from the following sequences
48.
Read the following case – let and answer the questions that follow
Intercontinental Business Manufacturing (IBM) was doing a roaring business. Demand of the products was high and supply of raw – material was abundant. IBM was manufacturing three different products Some customers bought two types of products and some bought only one. The three products were “quickie – quick”, “run – of – the – mill”, and “maxi – max”. Customers were not complaining loudly. Ram, the product manager, was confused! Demand for “quickie – quick “was increasing .Raw material suppliers wanted to supply lower quality at cheaper price. It was profitable for the company to increase production .Quality department was not happy with the product. Ram met Rahim, the CEO, who, as always, wanted higher profits. He said that IBM will set up a committee for improving the quality.What must not be done by Ram?
49. Rahim set up a “brand” committee comprising of a few selected managers, headed by Robert. The committee proposed that IBM should continue to manufacture the three differently branded products. It also proposed to recruit a new brand manager for improving brand image of the products. It agreed with Rahim that the company should increase the price. Rocket Singh, head of sales, was confused because he realized that customers were miffed with “run - of - the - mill” and “maxi - max”. What should Rocket Singh do?
50. Some of the managers in production department were discussing the problems faced in shipping products in time. They complained that they had to undertake responsibility of creating financial and marketing plans in addition to responsibility of production planning. At the same time, finance and marketing managers were to be involved in preparing production plans. It was expected that this will reduce customer complaints. It was rumored that these changes were initiated by the managers educated in the U.S. Which of the following is the best possible course of action available to the affected managers?
Powered By:Omega Web Solutions© 2002-2017 Omega Education PVT LTD...Privacy | Terms And Conditions