SNAP 2014: Know how to deal with components of Verbal Ability section; exam round the corner

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
December 4, 2014
Verbal Ability and Reading comprehension in SNAP 2014 shall have 40 questions of one mark each
Out of the 40 questions in Verbal Ability section there are about six questions on Reading comprehension and six to eight questions on Error corrections

SNAP 2014, the gateway to various management programmes 2015-17 batch in 13 B schools affiliated to Symbiosis International University will be held on Dec 21, 2014. SNAP 2014 will be a paper pen mode Multiple Choice Questions based examination of two hours duration from 2PM to 4PM. Candidates are allowed with blue or black ball pen, preferably black as the OMR sheet in black ink can be better read by the system.

Candidates aspiring to join MBA programs offered by institutes of Symbiosis International University have to take the common, mandatory Symbiosis National Aptitude (SNAP) Test. A candidate must register for SNAP Test & then register with the institutes offering his/ her choice of program by paying separate institution registration fees. If shortlisted, he/she would then attend the GE-PIWAT process conducted by these institutes


SNAP 2014: Exam components

SNAP 2014 will comprise 4 sections and the total maximum marks would be 180 while maximum marks for each section will be as follows: Verbal Ability and Reading comprehension – 40 marks; General Knowledge and Current Affairs-40 marks; Quantitative Ability and data interpretation-40 marks; Analytical and logical Ability – 60 marks. Penalty of 25% marks will be applicable for every wrong answer in SNAP 2014.

Although candidates are allowed to attempt any section in any order, sectional cut off will always be there. One has to score at least a minimum cut off score in each of the four sections.

Score high in VA RC: Focus on Grammar usage and Reading skills

Verbal Ability and Reading comprehension in SNAP 2014 shall have 40 questions of one mark each. Prof. S.K. Agarwal, expert on Verbal Ability, shares how to prepare and score more in Verbal Ability and Reading comprehension in next 15 days.

The Verbal Ability section in SNAP 2014 will have questions on English language usage, Reading Comprehension, Verbal Reasoning and Verbal Ability. SNAP like other important Management entrance examinations has the sectional cut off also. MBA aspirants, therefore have to score at least a minimum cut off score in each of the four sections.

Out of the 40 questions in Verbal Ability section there are about six questions on Reading comprehension and six to eight questions on Error corrections.

Error correction; know the key points

It is an important part of Verbal Ability section. There may be 6 to 8 questions on usage of tenses, phrasal verbs, syntax, passive voice, conditional sentences, reported speech, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, articles and more topics on English language. The questions may be framed to find out the correct/incorrect sentences, fill in the blanks or spot out the usage in different forms.

The topics cited above can be prepared in 10 days’ time, if proper schedule is maintained. There are certain similarities in different tenses.  Hal an hour a day is sufficient to all the indefinite, continuous and perfect tenses. All the other parts in grammar can be understood well in four five days.

Keep a good grammar book with you, practice specific exercises find out your errors and rectify them.

Examples

You may expect following type of questions in this section. Questions are not very tricky but need consistent practice with understanding of rules of English language.

Q.1 Love comes to everyone at sometime in his life, that is a wonderful feeling.

a) Love comes to everyone at sometime in his life, that is a wonderful feeling.
b) Love, which comes to everyone at sometime in his life, that is a wonderful feeling.
c) Love, who comes to everyone at sometime in his life, is a wonderful feeling.
d) Love, which is a wonderful feeling, comes to everyone sometime in his life.

Q.2 They said that they______ coffee in the mornings.

a. will drink

b. shall take

c. drink

d. drank 

Answers: 

1. D) Love, which is a wonderful feeling, comes to everyone sometime in his life. (Relative pronoun, place the modifier as near as possible to the antecedent)

2. C) Typical use of Reported speech as it is based on regular habit and practice. It is also not a matter of past as they still do it. The sentences has the same expression as the sentence “ They said that the Sun rises in the East”.  Otherwise the sentence would be framed like “They said that they earlier/usually drank coffee in the mornings.” So put the verb of present tense.

RC: Crack six questions

Reading Comprehension Passage in SNAP is not very difficult but you need a regular reading practice. If you understand the RC passage well you can crack it accurately.

Types of questions are like tone of the passage, title of the passage, main idea of the passage, explaining the phrases and words and one or two questions on the information given in the passage.

Make it the regular practice to read the editorials, articles in the news paper and check how many words are there which you do not know. Tests have shown that the number of unfamiliar words in a passage, if exceeds about one in twenty, the reader will lose track.  Use the words in conversation to practice more on them.

Write a summary in your own words neatly and precisely – with one third/fourth in length to the original length of the passage.

Make a chart on time consumed in reading and writing the summary of the passage. Check whether the time is getting reduced after a day or two.

Go for versatile reading with different topics. Try to mark and note down the interesting/important words or sentences.

Use complete sentences, Take care to understand, make a chart on time consumed in reading and writing the summary of the passage. Check whether the time is getting reduced after a day or two.

Analogy

A good vocabulary can help you crack the questions on Analogy. Relationship among words is not very difficult to find.  There may be 3-4 questions on analogy asking you to identify the similarity or dissimilarity among the words. The key tips to prepare in this area are to improve the vocabulary to understand the meaning of the words. Identify the exact relationship between the words/sentences. Check the pattern used. Form small and precise sentences to identify this relationship. You may find very close answer choices so be on your guard before opting for an answer. There are certain words that have more than one meaning, so watch for such words like dear, sweet, train, watch, book, kind, or idiomatic/phrasal use of the words. You may confront the words not familiar to you.  In that case in case of a breakable word – split it-try to understand the roots and try to remember something related to the word. if possible frame a sentence using the word and check if it is negative or positive word – A-, an-, Un-, Im-,  Dis-, anti-, Non-, Mal-, etc.      

The need is to practice more. Most of the MBA aspirants seeking admission opportunity in 2015 have appeared in CAT 2014, IIFT 2014 and also plan to appear in XAT 2015.

You are already well prepared for the forthcoming exam. The only thing is to practice a little bit more in accordance with SNAP 2014 exam pattern to get a high score.

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates and tips on SNAP 2014