The focus in the last week should be to build the ability to go of questions which are difficult to understand or lengthier to solve. This is easier said than done. Many a student make the common mistake of spending time on a question just because he/she knows the topic.
SNAP is an exam where the difficulty level of the majority questions is varying between easy to moderate. Given this fact, it is obvious that there will be a number of questions that can be solved in a short interval of time. Hence one should not waste time on questions even if they know how to solve it provided the process is lengthy. Getting this attitude and the ability of leaving questions that are known is difficult for many students; yet that discipline is what is needed most for such an exam.
We recommend that a student take up to 2 mocks in the last five days. The focus on each mock should be to attempt as many questions as possible without compromising on the accuracy. But writing mocks without understanding your drawbacks/weaknesses is useless.
Every mock should be analyzed in terms of number of questions attempted, number of easy questions left due to lack of time, number of difficult questions attempted unnecessarily thereby losing precious time etc. Each mistake should be a learning and should not be repeated.
We do NOT recommend that a student starts preparation on a new topic at this point in time. He/she should focus on getting better at what they already know than start an entirely new topic.
Exam Strategy:
The strategy of the exam starts way before the student enters the exam hall.
Given that there are no sectional time limits, the first thing a student needs to decide is the college he wishes to apply to using SNAP scores and whether they have sectional cut-offs or not. This is very important because if the institute he wishes to target does not have a sectional a cut-off, he is well off not worrying about his weak areas and focusing on strength areas there by maximizing his score overall.
Start the paper by spending 2-3 minutes scanning the paper and assessing the difficulty level of the paper; mentally noting down or physically marking doable questions etc. It is recommended that you start the exam with the section of your interest/strength. Do NOT leave your strength area till the end. The decision to continue with a question or leave it should be taken in the first 15 seconds of reading the question. Mark a question if you think it is doable but lengthy.
SNAP 2016 Strategy
Divide the 2 hours of time as below –
| Section | Questions | Recommended Time |
| Preliminary Scan | 2 | |
| GK | 30 | 7-8 |
| LA | 40 | 30 |
| English | 40 | 30 |
| QA | 40 | 30 |
| Buffer | 20 | |
| Total | 150 | 120 |
- It is always good to keep 15-20 minutes as buffer time and spend that time in the section which turns out to be the most easy or doable on that day. This will help the student in maximizing the scores.
- GK should not take up more than 8 min of your time as a normal student will not know almost 90% of these questions; hence no point in spending more time here. Just answer whatever you know and leave the rest as they carry negative marking.
- Amongst the LA, English and QA, start with your favorite topic and move towards the least favorable topic keeping in mind the time you are spending in each section. In the last 20 minutes of buffer, spend 13-15 min on the area which you found to be the easiest and the remaining 5-7 minutes on those questions that are half done or marked for later review.
Remember – If the paper is difficult for you, so is it for most of your competition. The one who keeps his cool in such a situation will most likely succeed in maximizing the score.
Wish you all the best for SNAP 2016!
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About the Author:
ARKS Srinivas is an alumnus of IIM Calcutta and has been the All India CAT Director at TIME. He is currently the CEO of VistaMind Education. VistaMind is the only National Level Training institute, which prepares students for CAT through LIVE ONLINE CLASSES. For more information, write to info@vistamind.com OR Visit cat.vistamind.com.
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