SNAP 2015 Exam Snapshot:
SNAP 2015 followed the familiar test pattern and composition that has been witnessed in earlier years. The overall difficulty level of the test was lower compared to last year. The broad distribution of the test was as follows:
SNAP 2015 followed the familiar test pattern and composition that has been witnessed in earlier years. The overall difficulty level of the test was lower compared to last year. The broad distribution of the test was as follows:
| Sections | Marks | N0. of questions | Good number of net attempts | Ideal time allocation (min) |
| General English | 40 | 40 | 23-25 | 25 |
| Quantitative & Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency | 40 | 40 | 25-27 | 40 |
| General Awareness: General Knowledge, Current Affairs, Business Scenario | 40 | 40 | 10-12 | 15 |
| Analytical & Logical Reasoning | 60 | 30 | 13-15 | 40 |
| Total | 180 | 150 | 58-62 | 120 |
The total duration of the test was 120 min, and comprised 150 questions in all. The Logical Reasoning section had only 30 questions with 2 marks per question as against 40 one-mark questions in each of the remaining sections.
Let us have a closer look at each of the sections -
General English
The section continued to focus on vocabulary. Most of the questions did not require any inference or reasoning, and so answering this section would have required lesser time for the test takers.
Let us have a closer look at each of the sections -
General English
The section continued to focus on vocabulary. Most of the questions did not require any inference or reasoning, and so answering this section would have required lesser time for the test takers.
- Vocabulary Based Questions: These questions comprised synonyms-antonyms, analogies, questions on idioms, collocations, i.e., two or more words that often go together. In addition to this, there were questions which tested the student’s knowledge of British and American English and questions on literary devices.
- Grammar Based Questions: Majorly comprised the sentence-correction questions and questions of single fill in the blanks type.
- RC passages: There was only a single RC passage on “Knowledge and Wisdom” by Bertrand Russell. While the passage was lengthy (around 850 words), the questions from the passage were not as tough. Any student who spends time trying to understand the passage can easily answer the questions related to the passage. There were 5 questions in the passage, of which three were based on specific details and two were slightly inference-based.
A good student could have attempted around 22-24 questions in 25 minutes in this section.
Quantitative Ability, Data Interpretation and Data Sufficiency
The Quantitative Ability, Data Interpretation and Data Sufficiency section was one of the easier sections in the paper. Most of the questions could be categorized to be of easy to moderate difficulty level, despite the presence of a few lengthy questions.
There were a few questions from the topics such as Percentages, Profit & Loss, Simple Interest and Compound Interest, Probability, Indices-Surds-Logarithms, Progressions, Time & Work, Geometry and Mensuration. There were 5-6 questions from Numbers, a few of these were riddled with mistakes.
There was only one DI set in the exam which was calculation based and slightly on the easier side for any student familiar with ratios and proportions. Similar to last year’s SNAP, there were no DS questions this year as well.
A good student could have attempted 24-26 of the 40 questions in the section by spending around 40 minutes.
General Awareness
The General Awareness section had questions from topics ranging from history, civics, geography, awards, sports, science, recent events, economics, politics to government bodies. Most of the questions were static, only around a third of the questions were on current-affairs. That said, there were a few sitters that any serious MBA aspirant would have been able to attempt.
Around 10-12 attempts in the section in around 15 min would have been good.
Analytical & Logical Reasoning
The Analytical and Logical Reasoning section did not have a lot of ‘easy’ questions; the difficulty level of the section could still be pegged at moderate.
The section was well represented by questions from all the usual areas in LR with one/two questions from each of analogy, critical reasoning, clocks, number series, blood relations and miscellaneous puzzles. There were 5 questions from circular arrangement, and 4 from selections. There were about three quant-based reasoning questions and 5 questions from Coding & decoding.
The questions that stood out in the section were:
1. Circular arrangement – This was very much on the lines of circular arrangement questions discussed in the classroom. Many students might have answered them.
2. Selections – This set was an easy one as well. All that one had to do was to apply the given conditions to the answer choices. These conditions were quite simple.
3. Blood Relations – Both were a little complicated and one of them had inconsistent data.
4. CR based questions – Both were based on strong and weak arguments. They were easy to answer.
5. Coding & Decoding – All the five questions were in the combination of letters and numbers. Students might have found it difficult to answer them. It would have been a good strategy to leave them for later, if one had the time.
6. Analogy – Both the questions, while easy to answer, it would have taken some time to understand the logic involved.
7. Quant Based Reasoning – One of them was easy, but the other two were lengthy and would have taken time to assimilate the given information.
Around 13-15 attempts, spending about 40 min, can be considered good in this section.
Bottom line:
Overall, a score of 88 or above should be a good score for SIBM, 84 for SCMHRD, and 80 for SIBM Bangalore and SIIB.