Suddenly this year, one couldnt take the Symbiosis National Aptitude Test (SNAP) 2012 question paper home after taking the exam anymore. No clear reason was given for this change by Symbiosis, even though the tests nature remained the same (paper-pencil over a limited time).
Folks from test-preparation companies who also take the exam every year to analyse the paper were equally surprised with this change, with some wondering if this had any connection with the heat SNAP faced last year for having copied and unsolvable questions in the test. Symbiosis had later admitted to five questions being unsolvable as they had been printed in the question paper and cancelled them.
PaGaLGuY spoke to a few test-prep companies today about the new rule about not taking question papers home in SNAP 2012 and they all broadly identified four plausible scenarios.
1. This could have been a bid to thwart any controversy that might emerge following what happened last year. A faculty from one of the coaching institutes said, “It was done so that test takers do not go home and review the paper, especially the coaching institutes. Last year, there were many questions which were wrong. This year, if there are some questions which are wrong, people can only speculate about it but there would no possible way to verify that.”
2. This year the results will be declared as percentiles measures. If question papers were allowed to be taken home, then test-takers can calculate their scores. If there were a mismatch in the scores and percentiles obtained, they would raise a furore on Symbiosis.
3. Symbiosis might want to rotate the pattern of paper and hence doesn’t want to become predictable in the process. A test-prep faculty said, “There was a question on cubes this year in math which wasn’t there in the last couple of exams. So, maybe they want to rotate the pattern or questions of the exam.”
4. They might want to keep some surprises in store for future test-takers. A teacher said, “In the Common Admissions Test (CAT), even though the paper pattern is largely known, there is always an element of mystery associated with the exam. Similarly, Symbiosis might be trying to keep some surprise in store for their aspirants.”
Mr Lalit Kathpalia, head of the Symbiosis Test Secretariat did not provide a clear reason either. Steering clear of the above plausibilities, he refused to say anything except that these were just “new guidelines being followed to improve the paper”. He said, “This was proposed by the expert committee constituted after SNAP last year. An expert committee is appointed every year to look into the entire process, right from paper setting to delivery. The objective is to improve the process. We are only following the directives from the university on this matter.”