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SNAP2008 was on expected lines with a minor surprise in the form of the 2 mark Qs in every section. SNAP over the years has

been quite an easy exam but SNAP2008 seems to have reversed the trend in it being a lot more difficult than expected. The

change this year was the introduction of 2 mark Qs in every section which clearly identified the ‘difficult’ questions for

the students. Let us now look at the individual sections:

Analytical & Logical Reasoning

The Analytical & Logical Reasoning section of SNAP has the least number of questions but the maximum weightage in terms of

marks. In the past this section was quite difficult and SNAP2008 has continued the trend by giving a paper which was

considerably tougher than the average paper of the past. A good strategy for any student would have been to spend a higher

proportion of time in this section on account of the higher marks per question which implies a higher return for time spent.

A student pursuing this strategy should have tried to work out the set based questions to maximise their score. The puzzle on

Cubes was as easy as it could get and students who had done reasonable practice for CAT would have found this to be a breeze.

The puzzle on a group of 5 persons playing different games should have been attempted and so were the questions on the

diagram. The individual questions were the trickiest and students should have picked the questions with care to avoid making

too many errors.

A good time allocation strategy for this section would be around 35-40 minutes. Attempts in the range of 18-22 should be

considered to be very good.

General Awareness

The introduction of differential marking in this section clearly helped students segregate the difficult and easy questions

(if at all any question can be called ‘easy’). A cursory glance at the section may deceive us into believing the section was

easy but after having gone through each question in a fair bit of detail, this view is bound to change. As was the case in

previous years, there was a preponderance of questions on Economy and Science & Technology. Questions on History were

conspicuous by their absence. Quite a few questions would have confused students on account of the nature of the question and

the wording used, for example the question on the odd one out was difficult as the basis to classify one as ‘ODD’ could be

many and thereby lead to different answers.

A good time allocation strategy for this section would be around 15 minutes. Attempts in the range of 22-26 should be

considered to be very good.

Quantitative and Data Interpretation & Sufficiency

This section has 10 Qs from Data Interpretation, 2 from Data Sufficiency/Redundancy and 23 Qs from the Quantitative area.

This section was slightly more difficult than the SNAP papers of the past and thus the scoring could be restricted. A student

who had done sufficient practice for CAT and other management tests would have been able to attempt quite a few questions in

this section. Since this section was a combination of Quant, DI and DS most students would have been able to pick questions

from their strong areas and maximise their score. A couple of the 2 markers were doable but the others were definitely

difficult and would have taken a lot of time to solve. The DI set on movie watchers was based on speed calculations and was

probably the easiest of the DI sets. The Quant Qs were predominantly on Arithmetic and students who had done sufficient

practice would have been able to maximise their attempts and thus their score.

A good time allocation strategy for this section would be around 30-35 minutes. Attempts in the range of 17-19 should be

considered to be very good.

General English

The section carried 35 questions that tested the candidates’ abilities, in considerable width, in the areas of

1. Comprehension

2. Vocabulary (meanings, appropriate use, idiomatic use, idioms)

3. Grammar and Composition (Recognition of function, error identification, sentence correction, arrangement of jumbled

sentences)

The three comprehension passages were not difficult to read or understand. However, while the questions seemed easy enough,

at first look, some, especially those that looked at interpretation and central idea, were difficult since the choices were

quite tricky, and required careful thought. Those questions that looked at direct detail were not too difficult. A few of the

vocabulary questions were difficult. Well-prepared candidates (and those with a regular reading habit) would have been able

to deal with the others without much difficulty.

The grammar questions would have taken some time to answer because the errors were slight and not easy to spot. 2 questions

were very difficult as the choices were such that the best of the available options were to be picked. 1 jumbled sentence

question was also quite difficult.

A good time allocation strategy for this section would be around 25-30 minutes. Attempts in the range of 22-24 should be

considered to be very good.

Sectional Scores and Overall Cut-Off

The SNAP2008 bulletin has clearly specified that the participating institutes decide on the sectional and overall cut-offs

that they would be using on their own. We have used this to advise our students to ensure that they do well in all sections

of SNAP. The procedure followed by any of the Symbiosis institutes in 2007 has little bearing on what they would do this

year.

One should note that many of the participating institutes using SNAP scores in 2007 had sectional and overall cut-offs. It

would not be a surprise to see most of them using the sectional filter this year as the number of test takers has increased

quite sharply. A safe score to get calls from the top two institutes would be around 80+ with good scores in all four sections.

Source: time4education.com