Symbiosis National Aptitude (SNAP) Test was attempted by more than 40000+ students all over India for the admission processes of 11 postgraduate institutes of Symbiosis International University [SIU]. However, out of the 11 institutes falling under SIU, only SIBM, SCMHRD, SIIB have a good industry interface and offer relatively good placement opportunities. The remaining 8 offer fair Return-on-Investments and therefore students are advised to take the SNAP very seriously and prepare in a focused manner in order to be able to compete successfully with the competition. Cracking the SNAP is neither too difficult, nor too easy. The Test has 150 Questions with differential and negative marking scheme. It is in line with other tests like XAT, FMS, IIFT because it tests the same areas - Quantitative Aptitude, Verbal Ability, Verbal Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, Data Interpretation, Logical Reasoning & Data Sufficiency. SNAP displays its “difference” in nature through the fact that it has an extra area of testing called “General Awareness”. SNAP is as difficult as previous models of the CAT, since you get less than 50 seconds to solve each question. The first question that would come to your mind is if it is humanly possible to solve a question within 50 seconds (remember: you have to read the question, understand the question, deliberate on the best method to solve it, solve it and arrive at an answer carefully so that you avoid silly mistakes – all this within 50 seconds)? Then you also have to worry about how to continue doing it for the next 119 Minutes!!! A bit difficult this seems, isn’t it? Well, not actually. The logic behind this arrangement are 2 – (A) No one expects you to solve all questions; you will focus on solving questions correctly and work on maximizing the number of questions you can solve correctly and (B) There are several questions that do not even consume 10 Seconds to solve; for example, if you consider the Synonyms & Antonyms or Analogy based questions, they are pretty simple from the perspective that you either know the answer or you do not know the answer – spending time is not going to lead you to the answer and therefore you would choose to move on thereby saving time. Let us take a look at the SNAP 2007 and its brief analysis before we proceed further to strategize for SNAP 2008. SNAP 2007 saw some changes - total number of questions was reduced to 150 from the last year’s 165 questions. In terms of the types of questions, there were hardly any changes in the test as compared to SNAP 2006. Overall Test Structure: Test Duration: 120 Minutes Total Questions: 150 Total Marks: 180 Marks per Right Answer: Differential Negative Marks: 1/4th of the allotted marks Oval Shading: Blue or Black Ball Point Pen Area Wise Structure Section I: General English: Ideal attempts: 21+ questions in this section and ideal score: 17-19 marks. The questions testing one’s verbal ability and reading comprehension skills were combined in one section and it was named General English. Out of 40 questions, 21 were on verbal ability and 19 were on reading comprehension. VA questions were all usage-based while 3 out of 4 RC passages were of medium length and were easy to understand. Grammar and Usage Based Questions The questions of this type were: identifying the correct and incorrect sentences, converting from active to passive voice and identifying sentences with similar meanings. There was also a question testing punctuation and one on spelling. The words that were asked in the usage based questions were simple ones like AFTER, WOULD, FIRE and ALMOST. There was also one question each on jumbled paragraph and scrambled sentence. On the whole, the grammar based questions tested the basic concepts of grammar. The usage based questions used familiar sentences that we regularly come across in the newspapers. Word Based Questions There were questions of the type like fill in the blank (maximum number of times), synonym, antonym, analogy and odd one out. Although the words were familiar ones, the options were close and thus time consuming. Questions based on words like SUBTLE, MALINGER, DIN and CADENCE were asked. Reading Comprehension There were four passages on a variety of topics viz., science, entrepreneurship, trade and quality of a person. Out of 4 passages, 3 passages (14 questions) were simple. These 14 questions were direct and could be located from the passage easily. The passages were of medium length and easy to comprehend. Only the passage on ‘trade’ (5 questions) was slightly difficult for understanding though the passage was of medium length. All the 5 questions based on this passage were inferential ones. The best strategy for solving this section would have been to attempt as many VA questions as possible and then attempt one or two of the RC passages, especially the passages on quality of a person (with 6 questions) and science (with 5 questions). Section II: Quantitative Ability, Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency: Ideal attempts: 30-33 questions and ideal score: 25+ marks. The PS section did not have questions based on higher mathematics or ones that involve difficult concepts. The calculations involved were so basic and simple that the section could be attempted in a short span with good accuracy. Out of 5 DI sets, some questions from the set involving Online Job Portal and Opening/Closing Stock Prices were calculation intensive and hence were time consuming. The other 3 sets (Train Speed, Wheat/Rice production ratio and employees in diff depts.) were either observation based or simple calculation based.   read more »