SNAP 2018 Analysis & Expected Cut-off
Major highlight of SNAP 2018 was the introduction of “Special” questions, each carrying double weight than normal questions. Most out of these 20 two-markers lived up to the expectation of being more challenging than the normal questions. Unlike the example of special question having alphanumeric virtual keyboard in their formal communication, the actual paper added a relief to test takers by having a numeric virtual keyboard. This year’s SNAP was easier than the last edition with just the reasoning section trying to stop the test takers with time consuming questions. Section wise analysis is as follows:
The sectional, in depth analysis is as follows:
Quantitative, Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency (35 Qs, 40 Marks)
This should, arguably, be the longest ever title for this section which generated an expectation of having Data Interpretation and Data Sufficiency in this section. Three Data Sufficiency questions indeed made the section easier for test takers but surprisingly there wasn’t a single question from Data Interpretation area.
There were four questions on basic percentage application which provided the test takers comfortable pace while attempting. Four questions on basic Algebra applications were also manageable, if not very easy. The Permutation and Combination part of Quant continued having an abnormal share in SNAP with four questions in the section. Apart from these, Geometry and Mensuration saw an improvement in the share of section with eight questions being asked from various chapters of Geometry.
Overall, this section was Easy as far as difficulty level is concerned.
Considering that the Reasoning section was not a smooth ride, this section deserved a time allocation of 45 minutes. Good Score for this section should be around 27 marks.
Analytical & Logical Reasoning (35 Qs, 40 marks)
SNAP has a history of producing some weird variety of questions in this section which are not seen in other major entrance examinations. This year, again, they have continued with the legacy. A couple of questions on unfolding 3D shapes were interesting and tricky. The questions with Pendulum and Candles also surprized the test takers.
The section was still dominated by conventional AR/LR questions. A set of seven questions of arrangement was time consuming and reasonably risky for most of test takers. Four independent questions based on arrangements, three questions on coding-decoding, one question each on calendar, blood relation, set theory, analogy were also there. There were five questions of the variety of missing numbers and series. 2-3 of these questions were tricky and may have wasted time of test takers.
Considering presence of a seven question set which was difficult to break and 4 to 5 more questions of unfolding 3D shapes and missing number/series, the overall difficulty level of this section can be termed moderate to difficult. 35 minutes was ideal time allocation for this section in which a good score should be around 20 marks.
General English (Verbal Ability, Verbal Reasoning and Reading Comprehension) (35 Qs, 40 marks)
In General English section of SNAP 2018, the level of difficulty went down prominently from last year. The questions were mostly straightforward and pretty much doable. The section consisted of a total of 35 questions out of which 25 questions were from Verbal Ability and Verbal Reasoning and there were 10 questions based on Reading Comprehension.
Verbal Ability and Verbal Reasoning: – The questions primarily tested vocabulary and grammar. 10-11 Vocabulary based questions from a wide variety of topics like synonyms, antonyms, spellings and odd man out would comfortably fall under the category of easy to moderate. There were about 12-13 questions based on grammar. Replicating the trend of last year, SNAP this year again tested the aspirants on topics like active-passive voice, word usage and parts of speech. With three filling the blanks questions based on conjunction, preposition and conditional tense, there were two match the following questions on word usages according to parts of speech. The conventional question type of sentence correction and error detection had a fair presence in this section with 3-4 questions. The Verbal reasoning questions were limited to one rearrangement of jumbled sentence and two analogies.
Reading Comprehension: The RC questions were distributed evenly between two passages. The passage on Google’s location tracking system was moderate in length and easy enough to understand. Most of the questions from this passage were direct ones, except for one question on title. However, the second passage on Trade Liberalization was quite lengthy (850-1000 words), so reading that would have taken a long time. Students with an average understanding of verbal as a section would have skipped the passage as it was lengthy and had 2 inference based questions.
With no real expectations of which question type will be categorized as TITA (Type in the answer), aspirants were given a mixed question bank for special questions ranging from unscrambling the scrambled sentence, to past participle form of a word, from identifying the correct spelling to plural form of a word.
Overall, Verbal section was fairly manageable with a mix of Easy to Moderate questions. It could certainly be a morale booster for a well prepared student.
Allocating 30 mins to this section, around 26 can be termed as Good Attempts and 22 can be considered a good score.
Current Affairs (25 Qs, 30 marks)
SNAP creators by living up to their promise of testing the aspirants on current affairs based on last two year weren’t able to surprise the test takers much. However, asking questions as latest as the 2018 assembly elections they surely raised the happiness index of test takers. There was a good spread of questions from the different types like Sports, Politics, Business, Who’s who (Business as well as Government), Awards and Technology related news.
With a total of six questions from business, five on politics and government, four on Who’s who, three on awards and recognitions and a question on sports, aspirants were given a comfort zone to perform.
TITA (Special Questions) in this section were based on India’s rank in Happiness Index, No. of total seats in Chhattisgarh assembly Elections 2018, No. of people winning noble prize in Economics in 2018 and No. of cities in Indonesia where Asian Games are held.
A test taker who has been following news regularly should surely have an edge over others.
An ideal allocation can be 10 mins for this particular section and 16-17 attempts with 13 marks can be considered as a good score.
Source:www.endeavorcareers.com