The SNAP 2020 Notification had sprung the biggest surprise: reduced time. From 2 hours, the test duration had been reduced to 1 hour, with no sectional timing. Another surprise revealed in the Notification was about SNAP being conducted on three different days - with students being allowed to appear for any 2 of the three exam dates (though one had to pay twice!); with the better score being counted towards selection.

The first SNAP was conducted on December 20, 2020 between 11:00 and 12:00 hrs; while, the second SNAP was conducted on January 6, 2021 between 11:00 and 12:00 hrs. The test was held smoothly. The paper had the same interface as that of CAT. There were no surprises, except that the questions were extremely easy; hence, the cutoffs would probably be higher than expected. SNAP of Day 2 was similar to that of Day 1, in terms of both paper pattern and level of difficulty.

Review of Paper Pattern

Section-wise Analysis

General English: The (pleasant) surprise element which was seen on SNAP Day 1 continued on Day 2, namely, there was no Reading Comprehension. This made the paper easy in terms of the time required to solve the 15 questions. Many students could have completed this section in less than 10 minutes; thus, having enough time for the Quant and Reasoning sections.

The usual Grammar questions were slightly off-beat, as is expected from SNAP. For instance, there were questions on finding out what a modal verb is, or a compound word is in a sentence.

Other usual questions of SNAP, such as, Idioms and Phrases, Parts of Speech, or Figures of Speech were also asked.

The level of difficulty of this section was moderate. We say, ‘moderate’ because many students might not be comfortable with the level of the grammar questions!

A good score In General English would be 9+ marks.

A detailed break-up of the question patterns is as follows:

General English

Analytical & Logical Reasoning: There were absolutely no surprises in this section too. The questions were extremely easy, except that yours truly could not attempt 1 Number Series questions :-)!

The usual questions on Coding-Decoding, Letter Series, Blood Relations, Calendars, Clocks, Syllogism, Analogies, Circular Arrangements (2 questions, not continuous, but of the same set), and Verbal Reasoning made their appearance. There were two miscellaneous reasoning questions, as well.

The section was extremely easy; and almost every question could have been attempted. Given that there were a few not-so-easy Number Series questions - and also miscellaneous reasoning questions - the attempts could be between 22 and 25 questions.

A good score in this section would be 17+ (for the top Symbi school) with 22+ ideal attempts.

A detailed break-up of the question patterns is as follows:

Analytical & Logical Reasoning

Quantitative Ability: This section was of easy LOD. Almost all the questions were easy and straightforward. The maximum number of questions (9 out of 20) was from Arithmetic. As usual, the SNAP paper had 2 Probability (though easy) questions. There was only one Data Interpretation question; and while the section name had Data Sufficiency, there was no question from that topic.

A good attempt would be almost all of the 20, but clearly 15+ attempts can be expected, with a 14+ score.

A detailed break-up of the question patterns is as follows:

Quantitative Ability

Overall

The paper was easy; and similar to that of last year and also to that of SNAP Day 1, in terms of level of difficulty.

SIBM Pune: SIBM Pune has the highest competition; and the cutoff for the flagship MBA program of the institute would be easily 42+ marks (out of the 60).

SCMHRD: The next-best institute under the Symbiosis umbrella; and the cutoff could be 40+ marks to get a 97 percentile.

This is the first time SNAP can be written twice but there may not be any big advantage writing the exam more than once.