SNAP 2014 Exam Analysis

This test was easier than SNAP 2008. Even questions carrying 2 marks (in analytical and logical reasoning) were of easy to moderate level of difficulty. General Awareness section was tricky and students would struggle to get anything in excess of 10 marks in this section. Based on these observations, the broad strategies to follow while attempting this paper should have been:

The number of attempts should have been 100 or more; if your average accuracy in Mocks (total correct / total
attempts) tops 90%+
Attempts of 130 - 135 marks would have sufficed; if your average accuracy hovers around 80-85%.
You should have attempted worth 155 or more marks; if your average accuracy is of the order of 70-75%.
This time there was hardly any difference between the difficulty levels of 1 marker and 2 markers and hence students
should have attempted as many 2 markers as possible (if possible all 30).

Since all the sections (except for General Awareness) were easy, it was at your discretion to choose which one to attempt first. However, you should have started with Logical Reasoning, given that the all the questions in this section were 2-markers. Then, you could have attempted any of the sections depending upon your strengths.
The overall break-up, with detailed sectional analysis, is given below:

Overview
Total time = 120 minutes.
Negative marking = 25% of the maximum marks of the question.

Section	No. Of Questions	Total Marks	Suggested Time	Possible Attempts	Possible Scores
General English	40	40	25 minutes	30	22
Quantitative & Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency	40	40	35 minutes	30	25
General Awareness	40	40	15 minutes	15-18	9
Analytical & Logical Reasoning	30	60	45 minutes	25	42
Total	150	180	120 minutes	100-103	98+

Some institutes in SNAP have sectional cut offs and hence, students are supposed to score in each of the sections for consideration of these institutes.

Quantitative Ability, Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency

Topic	Number of Questions	Level of Difficulty
Number System	3	Easy
BODMAS	1	Easy
Arithmetic	13	Easy
Algebra	2	Moderate
Geometry &Mensuration	2	Easy
Probability	1	Moderate
P&C	2	Moderate
Set Theory	2	Moderate
Statistics	1	Moderate
Reasoning and puzzles	5	Moderate
Data Interpretation	8	Table -3 Qs and Pie chart -5 Qs, all easy
Total	40	Easy

The quantitative ability questions were of easy to moderate level of difficulty. Most of the questions were direct; both the sets of DI in this section were very easy. One question (based on girls, boys, pass, fail) had some typographical error in it.

Logical Reasoning & Analytical Reasoning

Topic	Number of questions	Level of Difficulty
Critical reasoning	4	Easy - Moderate
Analogies	4	Easy
Logical and Mathematical reasoning	3	Easy - Moderate
Analytical Reasoning	2	Easy
Visual Reasoning	2	Easy
Coding âDecoding	2	Easy
Series	1	Moderate
Calendar	1	Moderate
Tabular	4	Moderate
Percentage chart	3	Easy
Bar Graph	2	Very Easy
Pie Chart	2	Very Easy
Total	30	Easy - Moderate

Except a set of questions based on Airtel and a couple of Critical reasoning questions, nothing in this section will make you think much. A couple of questions in this section has errors in them.

General Awareness:
The General Awareness section of SNAP -2014 had 40 questions in all worth 40 marks. There were 5 more GK questions this year as compared to SNAP-2008.This year's General Awareness section had questions from Static, Current, Business and Miscellaneous General Knowledge. The split up of the questions is as follows;

Type of General Knowledge	Number of questions
Static General Knowledge	10
Current General Knowledge	7
Business General Knowledge	9
Miscellaneous General Knowledge	14

The surprising element in this year's General Awareness section was increase in the Miscellaneous GK questions that were mainly of quiz type in nature and bothered the students the most! The level of difficulty of the General Awareness section was high. There were some very easy questions like, New York City's nickname, credit policy, SEBI and the question related to Pluto . But majority of the questions were challenging in nature.
Here is some clarity regarding the answers of some of the General Awareness questions:

The computer laptop was invented by Adam Osborne (USA) in 1981.
The first twins to play test cricket question was not clear as it did not mention about male or female players,
therefore, the correct response out of the given options was Steve and Mark Waugh but in reality the first twins to
play test were females.
The largest landlocked country is Kazakhstan and NOT Mongolia despite the fact that Kazakhstan is touched by
Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea (which are actually landlocked seas) at its borders but since these seas are in effect
lakes, and do not allow access to seaborne trade, countries such as Kazakhstan are still considered to be landlocked
and hence it is the largest landlocked country in the world.

General English Section

Topic	Number of questions	Level of Difficulty
RC	3	Easy
Fill in the Blank	7	Easy - Moderate
Vocabulary-based question (Analogy + synonyms +antonyms + spellings + Odd One Out+ Figure of Speech)	16	Easy - Moderate
Para-jumble	1	Easy
Same meaning of the sentences	1	Easy
Grammar & Usage (parts of speech + punctuation + prepositions + pronouns)	12	Easy - Moderate
Total	40	Easy - Moderate

The English section was comparatively easy this time. However, there were some questions, which were tricky. Grammar based questions were of moderate level of difficulty.
Likely cut-offs for various institutes:

Institute	Cut-off
SIBM	98+
SCMHRD	95+
SIIB, SIOM	90+
SIMC, SCIT, SITM, SIMS	81 +

CL extends its best wishes to all SNAP aspirants
All the very best!!

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