SNAP exam, conducted on 17th Dec 2017, in the computer based test format for the first time ever, had the same pattern as it had last year.

The overall difficulty level of the exam was higher as compared to last year’s.

The broad distribution of the test was as under:

Since there was no sectional cut-off, it made the job of the students a lot easier i.e., they could focus on maximising the overall score instead of perforce trying to improve their sectional performances in tougher sections.

Let us have a closer look at each of the sections:

General English

The distribution of the questions area-wise was as under:

The RC area had two passages with six questions each. The passages were lengthy in nature with around 1000-1100 words.

Passage 1: A lengthy passage on “The right to be left alone” or “Privacy” taken from “The Indian Express”. The questions included Title and Tone of the passage and four ‘specific detail’ questions.

Passage 2: Another lengthy passage on “The Founding Fathers of Australia: The Story of convicts shipped to the New World”. There were 5 ‘specific detail’ questions and 1 Vocab based question.

Around 20-22 can be considered to be a good number of attempts in this section.

Quantitative Ability, Data Interpretation and Data Sufficiency

The Quantitative Ability, Data Interpretation and Data Sufficiency section was lengthier and relatively trickier. This was unlike last year when the section had more doable questions. Surprisingly, the weightage of Pure Maths was a little on the higher side.

There were only two DI sets which were not calculation intensive and should be on the easy-moderate side for most of the students. There were no DS questions this year as well.

One question was ambiguous (p^q =169) and two other questions did not have the correct answer options (1. Sale of two FM Radios, 2. DI question on the technicians and carpenters).

The broad distribution of the questions from various areas is as below:

A good student could have attempted a net of 18-21 out of 40 questions in this section by spending around 35-40minutes. However, this called for a judicious selection of the questions.

General Awareness

The General Awareness section had 30 questions.

The questions were asked from various categories as below.

As the name of the section suggested, there were no static GK questions. Most of these questions were difficult. There were few easy questions but none of them can be categorised as sitters at all.

Around 7-9 attempts in the section in around 10-15 min would have been good for this section.

Analytical & Logical Reasoning

The Analytical and Logical Reasoning section had a reasonable number of easy & moderate questions.

Unlike last year, apart from the standalone ones, there were few set based questions also. Added to this, there were some tough ones to crack.

The level of the section could be pegged at a moderate level of difficulty.

The question distribution in the section was as below

Around 18-20 attempts could be considered to be a good attempt in this section.

Cut-Offs:

An overall score of 66-68 or above should be a good score for SIBM, 62-64 for SCMHRD, and 53-55 for SIBM Bangalore and SIIB.

Note- The above mentioned estimated cutoffs are for general category students, the cutoffs for SC/ST/DA/Kashmiri migrants will be much lower.

Please note that there are no sectional cut-offs for SNAP.