SNAP aspirants in a quandary

Updated on: Monday, December 26, 2011

Armed with an HB pencil, all ready to circle just the right ones with the mind set on, “maximising attempts and ensuring accuracy,” as a candidate gets ready to take an MBA entrance, the worst situation that he/she can face is getting stuck on a set of questions with numerous printing mistakes and some seemingly incorrect options. The nightmare came true for the thousands of students who took the Symbiosis National Aptitude Test (SNAP) recently. Over 14 different colleges, run by the Symbiosis International University, in Pune, Bangalore and Nashik, accept the scores of the test that was conducted in 30 different cities across India.

“The pattern was the only similarity between this paper and the last year's. The difficulty level of certain sections was much more this year. Incorrect questions/missing information added to the stress levels,” says Siddharth Srinivasan, an IT employee who took the exam.

The exam-takers say that SNAP, with a history of being one of the easier MBA entrances, was a test most MBA aspirants eagerly looked forward to. “Not everybody can do the lengthy calculations CAT questions have. SNAP was always more dynamic with easier questions. But that you can crack it with two months' preparation was proved wrong this year,” says S. Aditi, who took the test in Bangalore. The candidates note there were more than seven wrong questions and that most of these errors were from the Analytical and Logical Reasoning section, which had the maximum weightage this year. “Typos were there even in areas of language, for instance, ‘Kernal' instead of ‘Kernel',” says Aditi.

Also, quite a few questions seemed to have been taken from exams like GMAT and Civil services examination. Many students also allege that most questions in the GK section of the paper were taken from a particular website of a coaching institute.

The real scare, however was from the regular Logical Analysis questions, say the candidates. “Almost four questions of rankings and relations either had inconsistent data or missing information. Moreover, SNAP consists of only four options, they did not include the ‘None of these' option which was the correct one,” says Vivek Ramakrishnan, an IT employee. These sets took off valuable time because every time we realised the answer was not there in the option, we kept working on it, he adds.

The institute though has rejected these allegations. “This is easily the most difficult paper than the SNAP exams of previous years, hence most students are disappointed. And if there are any irregularities from our side, the exam-takers will be suitably compensated,” says a senior professor at SIBM, Bangalore.

So, will this affect the reputation of the B-school? Not much, say the alumni of the symbiosis group. “SNAP is conducted by the Symbiosis International University. It is only after they give the scores that SIBM shortlists students and calls them for interviews. The test still is the same across India. It is still relative, so I don't think there is any bias during admission possible,” says Aditya Raval, an alumnus of SIBM, Bangalore. “Of course it doesn't augur well for the college on the whole but as long as the further evaluation process by the SIU is unbiased, it would not be unfair. The students should let their decision of selecting the institute be independent from it because those who conduct the SNAP are different from those who are with SIBM, Pune,” he adds.

At a time when every IIM has nearly 400 students in a batch, SIBM, with just 180 students in one, is preferred by many B-school aspirants after the top-notch IIMs. This is because many feel the strength of the batch has direct implications on placements. But the MBA aspirants, who took the exam with aspirations of making it to at least one of the many higher education colleges under the Symbiosis brand will have to wait until the results and cut-offs are declared next month.

“As B-school aspirants, very few of us pin our hopes on one institute but Symbi has at least four good colleges that can't be ignored. And the fact that we have spent Rs. 1,600 and then Rs. 1,000 on every college has left us high and dry after the disaster,” says Ujjwal Kumar, another aspirant. Even if we are awarded grace marks for particular questions, it cannot make up for the time wasted on the wrong questions. And with so many test series, how will they make sure that everyone got the grace marks he deserved, he asks.

SNAP aspirants in a quandary

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