SNAP 2023 Analysis (Test 1 - 10th Dec)

The first SNAP 2023 exam was conducted on 10th Dec 2023 (Sunday). The test was similar in structure to the recent SNAP with 60 questions to be answered in 60 minutes.

The overall difficulty level of the exam was at a similar level as compared to the SNAP of the previous year.

There were no sectional cut-offs and no sectional time limits. Navigation across the sections was allowed. There was a negative marking of 0.25 for every wrong answer.

The test pattern is as below:

Section	Total questions	Total marks
General English	15	15
Quantitative, Data Interpretation and Data sufficiency	20	20
Analytical and Logical Reasoning	25	25
Total	60	60

Given that the paper is only for one hour with no sectional time limits and no sectional cut-offs, students are expected to apportion the time across sections picking the easy questions first. Doing this well would have meant to make sure to not get stuck on any question which looks even slightly tough.

Those who did this would have found the paper to be a fairly moderate one. While the test was, overall, at the same level of difficulty as that of the previous year, the English section was relatively easier, with more direct questions. Let us look at the individual sections in detail.

General English

The section had a total of 15 questions. The distribution of the questions area-wise was as under:

Question type	No. of Questions
Grammar	10
Vocab	5
Total	15

The questions were fairly direct, and very few questions were of the kind that students would have got stuck in. Overall, the level of directness could make this section a notch more scorable than that of the previous year, particularly at the top-end, where the well-prepared ones would get that additional time now that they could spend on other questions and increase their score.

A score of 13-15 can be considered to be a good score in this section.

Analytical & Logical Reasoning

There were 25 questions in the Analytical and Logical Reasoning section with a good number of easy questions, similar to what was seen in the SNAPs of recent years (of 60Qs).

The difficulty level of the section could be pegged at a moderate level, similar to that of the last year.

The distribution of questions in the section was as below:

Area	Number of questions
Course of action	2
Statement and assumption	3
Cause & effect	2
Blood relation	1
Logically correct sequence	1
Logic puzzles	2
Clocks	2
Syllogism	2
Coding-decoding	1
Inference	1
Letter series/number series	4
Circular arrangement	2
Statement and course of action	2

Out of the 25 questions in this section, an attempt of 16-18 could be considered a good attempt. A score of 15(+/-)2 can be considered a good score in this section.

Quantitative Ability, Data Interpretation and Data Sufficiency

This section was not too tough for the well-prepared student, and also was not a tough nut to crack for the students who consider themselves not-so-strong-on-quant. There were a good number of easy questions to pick from, and those who did so could expect to sail through easily.

There were 20 questions in this section. The distribution of the questions from various areas is as below:

Area	Number of Questions
Time and work	1
Time and distance	1
Equations (Simple)	2
Geometry and Mensuration	2
Permutation and Combinations	2
Probability	2
Profit and Loss	3
Average and Mixtures	2
Ratio	1
Logarithms	1
Progression	1
Heights and Distances	1

A score of 15(+/-)1 can be considered to be a good score in this section. Cut-Offs: Cut-offs should be similar to that of the last year given that the paper did not throw any surprises at the students and was similar to that of the last year. An overall score of 36-38 should be a good enough score for SIBM Pune, and 35-37 for SCMHRD.

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