SNAP 2019 Prep Strategies | Everything You Need To Know About SNAP

SNAP is considered one of the most competitive b-school entrance exams in the country. Even though the exam does not fall in the league CAT or XAT when considering difficulty levels, it does require a lot of practice and training to score well in this exam. Every year, more than 50,000 candidates sit for the test out of which only 2257 get seats in its member institutions. With every passing year, there is a rise in the number of applicants, which has led the participating colleges to diversify their intake. Taking these factors into consideration, this year candidates will have to score very high in SNAP if they want to get shortlisted for further admission processes. In this article, we will share some information, steps, strategies, preparation tips that can help you ace SNAP like a boss.  Highlights

1. SNAP 2019 will be a total of 110 questions which will be attempted in 120 minutes.
2. There will be NO GK section in SNAP 2019. With the removal of the GK section, you should expect SNAP 2019 difficulty level to be 5-10% higher than that of NMAT difficulty level.
3. Quant section will have more special type questions. (Non-MCQ)
4. All questions in Verbal and LR Section will be of 1.5 marks (25% negative marking for the wrong answer)
5. MCQ in Quant sections will carry 1 mark. (25% negative marking for the wrong answer)
6. Non-MCQ in Quant section will carry 2 marks each.
7. Special Type Questions will also have a 25% negative marking. 

Exam Structure

Section	No. of Questions	Total Marks
Verbal Ability & RC	34 (All MCQ)	51
Analytical & Logical Reasoning	36 (All MCQ)	54
Quant and Data Interpretation	40 (35 MCQ, 5 Non-MCQ)	45

Cut-off Percentiles For Symbiosis Campuses

MBA Colleges	SNAP Cut Off Expected Percentile
SIBM, Pune	98.5
SCMHRD, Pune	96
SIIB	93
SIBM, Bangalore	90
SSBF, SIMS, SIIB (Energy/ Agriculture)	76 +
SIMC	72 +
SICSR	82 +

Percentile Mapping: Exam Score V/s Percentile

The scores of all the candidates in the SNAP exam is converted into a percentile list. Based on the percentile list the merit list is prepared. After accumulating and analysing the data of the last couple of years, and expected the corresponding percentile has been prepared. Please refer to the table below:

SNAP Exam Score	Expected Percentile
93 +	99.9 +
88 - 93	99.5 - 99.9
84 - 88	99.3 - 99.5
80 - 84	99 - 99.3
77 - 80	98.5 - 99
74 - 77	97.8 - 98.5
72 - 74	97.4 - 97.8
70 - 72	97 - 97.4
68 - 70	96.5 - 97
65 - 68	95 - 96.5
62 - 65	93.5 - 95
60 - 62	91 - 93.5
57 - 60	88.5 - 91
54 - 57	84 - 88.5
51 - 54	80 - 84
48 - 51	75 - 80
45 - 48	70 - 75
40 - 45	60 - 70
35 - 40	50 - 60
30 - 35	40 - 50
Below 30	Below 40

Section Wise Prep Tips

1. VARC section of SNAP exam can be divided into three categories – Reading Comprehension (RC), Verbal Reasoning (VR) and Verbal Ability (VA). While preparing for this section, try reading more comprehensions. Develop a habit of reading, especially dense and long passages. Your reading diet must consist - newspaper editorials, non-fiction books, novels and a few business magazines.  For Verbal Ability and Verbal Reasoning improve your vocab, grammar and idioms. If your concepts are clear then you will be able to tackle the grammar well. Sentence correction and para jumbles require a great amount of practice, which you will be able to achieve by attempting a few SNAP sample papers and mock test series.
2. This year, Logical Reasoning is expected to be the toughest of all sections. This section will have 36 questions (MCQs) on bars, graphs, pie-charts, visual reasoning, coding & decoding, cause & effect, puzzles, etc. LR is going to be hard but not impossible to crack. Since all the questions are logic-based, you need to learn the art of ‘reading between the lines’ and ‘eye for detail’. Just practice as many questions as you can, all of the different variety.
3. The Quant section will be a mix of calculation based and logic-based questions. The best way to prepare for this section is revising and revisiting theorems, formulae and concepts and revising that you might have prepared for CAT or XAT.

 Preparation Tips From SNAP Experts Knowing Shortcuts To Solve Quant Questions Can Be Found Handy In quant popular topics like demand focus like permutation, probability, algebra and numbers. Pakshil, a 99.48 SNAP percentiler, said, “The calculations in SNAP are mostly basic and speed is the differentiating factor. To gain an advantage, I gave one-hour mock tests for Quant every day to increase my speed.” Knowing shortcuts to solve the questions was found to be handy. Know more about his strategies here. Keep Your Prep Simple And Systematic Rewati Kachhwaha, SNAP 99.82 Percentiler, and Chinmay Tadwalkar, SNAP 99.81 Percentiler are students at SIBM Pune. As working professionals, both of them had a solid strategy to balance work and SNAP preparation. Rewati tried to keep her prep simple and systematic. How did she manage to do that? Know about it here. Try To Improve Your Time Management Skills  “Hard Work is the Key to Success” –This has been expounded by everyone since time immemorial and is surely a concrete key to crack competitive exams. SNAP is all about having a clear idea about basic concepts and speed. Tushar, who scored 99.96%ile, was able to convert SNAP exam in his first attempt itself because of his time management skills. Do you want to know how he developed his skills? Click here to know more. Develop The Ability To Find The Low Hanging Fruits Prateek Papneja, who secured 99.44 percentile in SNAP 2016 says, “Overall Strategy is to maximise score in each section. You must develop the ability to find the low hanging fruits (all questions have the same marks). This saves time and energy. Attempt all sections and find the easiest ones first, then medium level.” Want to know more about his tricks and strategies to crack SNAP? Learn more about it here.  Taken As Many Mocks And Sectional Tests As Possible And Analyse Sairam Pasupuleti, 98.17%iler in SNAP 2016 says, “My tip to everyone out there aiming to crack SNAP is to assess all your mock exams, work on your problem areas, and of course practice.” Learn about his mock test-taking and analysing strategies here.

In A Nutshell

• In SNAP 2019, you have the advantage to choose the section of your choice and start with that first. So, start with the sections you are most comfortable with. 
• Choose your questions wisely because there is negative marking. Don’t risk losing marks due to silly mistakes or lengthy calculation.
• Achieving sectional cut off is good for your overall SNAP score. Hence, focus on achieving sectional cut-offs for all the three sections and then build upon it.
• There are 110 questions and just 120 minutes to solve them. This means you have only 1 minute to read and solve each question. Time management is the key here. If there is a question that is taking you more than 1 minute to solve, then don’t waste time on it. Move to the next question.

Best of luck!