SNAP 2015 turned out to be quite a surprise for aspirants who were caught unawares with the difficult General Awareness and Logical Reasoning sections. Aspirants who didn’t panic and instead focused on the other 2 sections would have fared relatively better overall. Let’s go through the SNAP 2015 analysis section wise:
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Quantitative Aptitude (SNAP 2015 Analysis)
Quantitative Aptitude was the easiest section in SNAP 2015. The question pattern was similar to what we had already mentioned in our article. The questions on profit & loss, time and work, mixtures, alligations, etc were pretty straightforward for a serious aspirant. The 1 question on time, speed and distance could have solved in seconds by simple assuming a value for the total distance. Also, there were 2 questions on simple interest, 1 of which was extremely simple.
Coming to modern math, there were 3 questions on probability which looked difficult on first sight but could easily have been solved once some time was taken to solve them. The logarithm questions were simple and one of them could again have easily been solved by using the answer options. The Venn diagram question was comparatively difficult and could have been solved at the end in case time permitted.
In the topic of numbers, there were quite a few easy questions on indices, LCM-HCF etc. The question on finding the last digit of the multiplication was probably the easiest question of the paper.
There were 2 questions on geometry and 1 on trigonometry which were moderately difficult. These questions were better left till the end.
The DI set right at the end of the section was moderate in terms of difficulty. By devoting some time, one could have attempted at least 4 out of the 5 questions in this set.
Even accounting for a couple of questions which had wrong options, a good candidate could have easily attempted around 30 questions in this section. In fact, a good score in this section would have gone a long way towards helping your overall score.
General English (SNAP 2015 Analysis)
This section was relatively easy for someone who has a good command over the language. Again, let’s go through each sub-section.
There was only 1 reading comprehension passage taken from Bertrand Russell’s ‘Knowledge and Wisdom’ (link). If a candidate had spent around 6-7 minutes reading the passage, then he could have easily attempted all the 5 questions instead of spending time unproductively in GK/LR. But more on those sections later!
The idioms were moderately difficult. Again, as mentioned above, someone who reads a lot would have had no difficulty in marking all the answers here. There was 1 question each on synonym and antonym which were moderately difficult but could have been solved by eliminating options. The question on the singular/plural word form of scarves was easy. The questions on cactii, trousseaux and drawing pins would have been better left unattempted. The same goes for the questions on word collocation if one had no clue on what it meant. Also, the 3 questions on choosing the odd one out were moderately difficult. Leaving these few questions, almost all the other vocabulary questions were attemptable.
The 3 questions on ‘figures of speech’ were sitters for someone who remembered their English school lessons. The questions on sentence correction were easy and so were the questions on choosing the grammatically correct sentence part. All in all, a serious aspirant would have easily been able to attempt most of the questions here.
Overall, even after leaving the difficult questions mentioned above, a good candidate would have been able to solve around 25-28 questions.
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Analytical and Logical Reasoning (SNAP 2015 Analysis)
This section was clearly a surprise in terms of the difficulty level. An aspirant would have been better off cherry-picking the comparatively easier questions from the 30 questions that this section had. The caselet on ice cream flavours was a sitter and one could have easily scored 8 marks with minimal fuss. The other big caselet – rectangular seating arrangement- was again easy pickings for a candidate who is attuned to solving LR caselets. Combining these 2 caselets, a candidate could easily have scored 18 marks. After attempting these 9 questions, it was just a matter of choosing the right questions to attempt.
The questions on coding were difficult and were better left alone. The same applied to the questions on finding the missing numbers in series. The 2 critical reasoning questions were easier and could have been attempted. The questions on bulbs and switches could easily have been guessed by knowing that the answer could not have been more than 2. The other question on the drama schedule could have been solved by looking at the answer options and checking for the one which satisfied the conditions mentioned. The questions on blood relations were moderately difficult and it would have been better to attempt such questions at the end. The questions on the fan analogy and the puzzle with the emojis were ambiguous and were better left alone.
By answering all the easy questions, one could have attempted at least 14-16 questions in this section.
General Awareness (SNAP 2015 Analysis)
This was easily the toughest section with obscure questions. Easy questions were few and far between. A knowledgeable aspirant would probably have got the questions on Jayaram, Aung San Suu Kyi, W3C, forex reserves and base years of the stock indices right. Beyond this, it was simple attempting those questions where you could have eliminated options. The best strategy in this section was to attempt few questions and spend time on the other sections instead.
The scoring for this section will surely be in single digits with 5-6 marks being a good score.
Overall SNAP 2015 Analysis
Keeping in mind the easy questions mentioned in the review above, a candidate could have easily attempted around 80 questions while the number of attempts for a good candidate would be 90+. Also due to the relative difficult nature of the paper, the cut-offs may be on the lower side as compared to SNAP 2014. In such a situation, a score of 85 marks may ensure a SIBM call, while anything around 75-80 marks would be touch and go.
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Final Thoughts
General Awareness is a section generally hated by most aspirants who instead prefer the relatively safer havens of Quant, LR/DI and Verbal. However, the logic of having a general awareness section in a paper is to ensure that the students who qualify are people who are well read and are generally aware of the things happening in the country or around the world. In such a situation, it is important that the questions asked in this section also cater to such candidates.
In light of this, it is unfortunate that the SNAP test setters missed a chance of the above happening by setting obscure questions which would test even the most knowledgeable aspirants. Questions on the date on which smoking was banned or the date on which the prime minister was elected are not ‘general’ awareness but rather specific events. Remembering the dates of such events serves no purpose nor do questions on the age of the emperor when he ascended the throne. While knowing that the emperor was young when he ascended the throne would be general awareness, knowing the specific age among 4 options which are extremely close (11, 12,13,14) can’t be labeled the same way.
It’s high time institutes recognize that the general awareness section can be extremely useful for picking a good candidate over someone who is unaware of the events happening around the world.
Rant over! 🙂
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