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. The test was conducted smoothly. The paper had the same interface as that of CAT. There were no surprises, except that the paper was extremely easy; hence, the cutoffs would probably be higher than expected.

SNAP 2020: Review of Paper Pattern

Section-wise Analysis

General English: The (pleasant) surprise element, for many students, was that 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.

Grammar questions were slightly off-beat, as is expected from SNAP. For instance, there were questions on finding out what a collective noun is, or a compound word is in a sentence. 
Other usual questions of SNAP, such as, Idioms and Phrases, Spelling Corrections, Parts of Speech, or Figures of Speech were also asked.

The level of difficulty of this section was easy-to-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 10+ marks.

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

Verbal Ability

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

The usual questions on Coding-Decoding, Letter Series, Blood Relations, Input/Out ( very easy), Calendars, Clocks, Syllogism, Analogies, Circular Arrangements (2 questions, not continuous, but of the same set), and Verbal Reasoning.  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 to 25 questions.

A good score in this section would be 16+ (for the top Symbi school).

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

Analytical & Logical Reasoning

 

Verbal Reasoning

Quantitative Ability: This section was of LOD 1. 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 P&C and 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 12+ 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, in terms of level of difficulty.

SIBM Pune: SIBM Pune has the highest competition and the cutoff for the flagship MBA of the institute would be easily 38+ marks (out of the 60).

SCMHRD : The next-best institute under the Symbiosis umbrella; and the cutoff could be 35 to 36 marks to get a 97 percentile.

Other top Symbi institutes would require scores of around 30+

The lowest-ranked institute (and course) also may require 17 to 20+ marks for admission in the General Category.

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