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SNAP – 2008 Analysis Exam Snapshot
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.
***Estimated sectional
cut-off in case the institute goes for sectional cut-offs
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