An analysis of SNAP, 2021 by IMS Learning
SNAP-2021 had no major changes in pattern or difficulty level from last year. The duration of the exam was 60 minutes with 3 Sections. The exam is being offered in three different slots – on 19th December 2021, 8th January 2022, and 16th January 2022, out of which students can appear for up to two slots. The overall pattern and the level of difficulty as reported by IMS students are given below along with the IMS suggestion of time allocation per section:
For General English: Reading Comprehension, Verbal Reasoning, Verbal Ability while the number of questions was 15, they were found to be ‘’easy and a good score would be considered if 13-14 are attempted.
For Analytical & Logical Reasoning, there were 25 questions and this section was also found to be ‘easy’ and an attempt at 20-22 would be fine, according to IMS.
For Quantitative, Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency which had 20 questions, the level of difficulty was ‘medium’ and an attempt of 14-15 questions would be fine. While the question carried 1 mark, there was a negative marking of – 0.25 for each incorrect answer. There was no sectional time limit.
VERDICT
Based on the feedback received from students and IMS teachers who took the test in Slot 1, the scores and the corresponding percentiles required to secure a call for the next round of admissions for General Category students to SIBM-Pune, SCMHRD, SIIB, and SIBM-Bengaluru as follows:
Raw Score for SNAP Dec 2021 Test Percentile 41-43 could translate to a 98 percentile ( for SIBM -Pune), a score of 39-41 could mean 97 percentile ( for SCMHRD) and a raw score of 35-37 could indicate a 90 percentile ( for SIIB & SIBM Bengaluru)
Analysis of sections:
General English
The General English section of SNAP-2021 was easy like last year’s SNAP. There were no RC questions. All questions were on Verbal Ability. The VARC section was dominated by Vocabulary and Grammar questions. There were questions on synonyms, (1 question) Fill in the blanks (Single blank 2 questions and two blanks 1 question) and spellings (1 question). Parts of speech and tenses were tested in grammar questions. There were 6 questions on direct grammar. There was one question that required one to identify the correct sentence and another similar question to identify the incorrect sentence. In another question, one had to identify the meaning of a proverb. *The poem-based question required one to identify the line with the most ‘standard word order’. No RC questions were asked which made the section less time-consuming. Since the section was overall easy, one could attempt 13 or 14 questions with high accuracy in about 13 or 14 minutes.
Analytical & Logical Reasoning
Out of the 25 questions in this section, 10 questions were on Verbal Reasoning and the remaining 15 were on Non-Verbal Reasoning. This was the easiest section in the test. The 10 questions on Verbal Reasoning of which 3 were Critical Reasoning – Conclusion questions. The rest of the Verbal Reasoning questions were on expected lines with Courses of Action (2 questions), Statement and Assumption (1 question) Cause-Effect (1 question), and Syllogisms (1 question). There was also 2-word arrangement questions type of questions; however, all these questions were easy and one could easily score in 7 or 8 questions. The questions on Non-Verbal Reasoning included questions on clocks, calendars, Linear arrangement etc. There were no set-based questions. Unlike previous years of SNAP test, no question in this section required any understanding of Physics in order to be able to answer the question. Most of the questions in the section were easy to medium in terms of the level of difficulty. In Verbal Reasoning, Syllogisms, Statement & Course of Action, Conclusion – Critical Reasoning, Statement & Assumption, Cause- Effect, and Word-Arrangement were all easy.
In Non-Verbal Reasoning Complete the series, Clocks, Calendars, and Linear Arrangement were easy while Coding and Family Tree 2 were easy to medium. Odd man out and Sequential Output were also easy while the Numerical puzzle was medium. Overall this section was easy. A good strategy would be to attempt around 20-22 questions in 24-26 minutes.
Quantitative, Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency
Out of the 20 questions in this section, 19 questions were on Mathematics and there was one singleton question on Data Interpretation. There was no question on Data Sufficiency. Overall this section was very medium in terms of the level of difficulty. Though many questions in the section were easy and could be solved orally, about 5 to 6 questions were somewhat challenging. Overall, this section was slightly more difficult than the QA section of the first attempt of SNAP-2020. The questions on Mathematics were dominated by Arithmetic (7 questions), followed by Modern Mathematics and Geometry (4 questions each). Students reported that the options in one question on Modern Mathematics did not match the correct answer.
While there were 7 questions in Arithmetic, 6 were easy, Modern Mathematics had 4 questions of which 3 were medium and 1 was difficult. In Geometry, out of 4 questions, 1 was easy, 2 were medium and 1 was difficult, in Numbers, there were 2 questions of 2 easy. Algebra had 2 questions of which 2 were medium and Data Interpretation had 1 question 1 which was medium in nature. A good strategy would be to attempt around 14 to 15 questions in 20-22 minutes.