A Strategy For SNAP 2015

SNAP Pattern highlights

Total no of questions: 150

Total Duration of the exam: 2 hours (120 minutes)

Negative Marking: ¼ of the value of the question

 

Sno	Section	No of Qns.	Marks per Qn.	Total Marks
1	General English	40	1	40
2	General Knowledge	40	1	40
3	Quantitative Aptitude	40	1	40
4	Logical Ability	30	2	60
		150		180

Except for SIBM Pune, no other institute is expected to take the sectional cutoffs while shortlisting for the GDPI round.

Exam Strategy for SNAP

The table below gives the ideal time allotment for each of the sections in the SNAP exam.

Sno	Section	No of Qns	Time Allotted (in Min)	Expected Attempts
1	General English	40	20 - 25	34 - 40
2	General Knowledge	40	7 - 10	15 - 20
3	Quantitative Aptitude	40	40 - 35	19 - 23
4	Logical Ability	30	45	22 - 25
5	Buffer time		8 - 5	2 - 3
			120	92 - 112

General English (40 Qns, 20/25 minutes)

This section mostly consists of:

• Vocab – Synonyms, Antonyms, Idioms, FIBs
• Grammar including Active-Passive sentences
• RC – one or two passages

There may be a few questions on Para Jumbles too. As can be seen, the time taken to solve this section should be as less as possible. By giving about 20 to 25 minutes, one can attempt almost all the questions (including the RCs). Unlike CAT where there is ample time to spend on each question, here in SNAP, the key would be to keep moving after attempting (or skipping) the questions

General Knowledge (40 Qns, 7-10 minutes)

This is probably the section where one can save time by quickly going through the questions and answering those that one knows. There is no point guessing unless one is sure to eliminate TWO of the FOUR choices given.

In this section, one should give as little time as possible, say 10 minutes at the extreme end. The cutoffs, if they exist, would also be very low for this section.

Quantitative Ability (QA)& Data Interpretation (DI)(40 Qns,  35 – 40 minutes)

The QA section in SNAP is expected to be full of Arithmetic and Geometry & Mensuration. There are questions on Logs, Indices, Probability, P&C, Quadratics, Progressions and Functions too. However, the number of questions in the Algebra area may be less than in Arithmetic.

DI also makes an appearance in this section and one can expect about TWO to THREE sets and about 6 to 10 questions.

It is important to divide the 35 minutes of the time allotted. It is advised that one gives about 10 minutes to the DI area and the remaining time to QA.

Logical Ability (LA) (30 Qns, 45 minutes)

Though the number of questions in LA are less than the other three areas, the total marks allotted to LA is 60! This section also happens to be the scoring section and hence sufficient time (45 minutes) should be given so as to try attempting almost all the 30 questions.

Overall Strategy

SNAP is a 120 minute paper with 150 questions. There is almost no way anyone can complete the entire paper (read – attempt all questions). Hence, one has to maximize the scores and give the time available as per the marks in each of the sections. Saving time in areas such as GK would really help!

 

Simple rules of the SNAP game!

Read all questions

Skip questions which take more than a minute to solve (esp in QA)

Maximise the attempts

Don’t guess randomly, however, if you can eliminate two choices, go ahead and mark!

Keep track of time and stick to the time limits as per the strategy

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