The Symbiosis National Aptitude (SNAP) Test is up next this Sunday, December 18. 2011. According to www.snaptest.org, the structure of this years paper is,
|
|
Section |
Total Marks |
|
1. |
General English: Reading Comprehension, Verbal Reasoning, Verbal Ability |
40 |
|
2. |
Quantitative, Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency |
40 |
|
3. |
General Awareness: General Knowledge, Current Affairs, Business Scenario |
40 |
|
4. |
Analytical & Logical Reasoning |
60 |
|
Total |
180 |
I would also recommend that you joined this Facebook page about SNAP if you havent done it already. They keep posting questions and information about the exam which might come in handy.
A few very elementary things that you should take note of are,
a) It is a two-hour exam with 150 questions.
b) All questions are of 1 mark except those of Analytical & Logical Reasoning which are 2 marks each. This means, that there will be 40 questions each in English, Quant & General Awareness and 30 in LR.
c) Each wrong answer attracts 25% negative marks. So, avoid blind guesses.
This post is largely about the General Awareness section of the test. GA is a scoring area because it does not need any specific talent. Also, you need not devote too much time to this section. The questions are either-you-know-or-you-dont category and hence spending too much time on them would not be a good idea. Lets face it you cannot work out or calculate who the Paramount Leader of China is. I recommend a maximum of 20 minutes to go through this section. 30 seconds per question might sound a little optimistic but if you went through some of the sample papers for GA you will realize that it is enough.
Given below is a broad categorization of GA questions that have come in the exam in the past three years (2008 / 09 / 10).
Topic-wise distribution,
|
Topic |
# of Ques (200 |
# of Ques. (2009) |
# of Ques (2010) |
|
Business & Economy |
9 |
12 |
12 |
|
People |
0 |
3 |
8 |
|
Technology (IT / Science) |
9 |
9 |
7 |
|
Politics |
7 |
4 |
7 |
|
Awards |
1 |
1 |
2 |
|
Sports |
2 |
5 |
2 |
|
Geography – World |
4 |
5 |
1 |
|
Books & Authors |
3 |
1 |
1 |
|
Total |
35 |
40 |
40 |
Time-wise distribution,
|
# of Ques (200 |
# of Ques (2009) |
# of Ques (2010) |
|
|
Current Affairs |
10 |
7 |
16 |
|
Time independent |
25 |
33 |
24 |
|
Total |
35 |
40 |
40 |
Based on this, I would like to point out the following,
- Questions on Business / Economy dominate the test. Reading business magazines from the second-half of 2011 might be a good idea.
- There are a lot of questions on Science & IT as well but let me assure you that the exam-setters do not go too much into detail but it would help if you knew what did Watson & Crick do.
- The importance of current affairs has increased over the years. It would help to know who Arvind Kejriwal and Dhanush are.
There is no substitute or shortcut for keeping yourself up-to-date and reading newspapers / magazines regularly. However, sample papers and old SNAP papers will come in handy in such situations.
You can download a chapter from my book Biz World. It wont be much but it will help you get started.