Just a day after the CAT ‘purred’, it was time for being SNAP ‘ed’ at. The Symbiosis National Aptitude Test (SNAP) 2011 results that were declared yesterday has left many aspirants worked up. Not the top scorers though, who seem content with the results, but most of those who have scored between 80 and 110. These aspirants feel that cutting down the final assessment questions from 180 to 175 (after an uproar by students regarding a few wrong questions) have somehow affected their final scores.

For instance, Bhuvan Gupta, who scored 114 said that he was expecting a score between 110 to 115 but Mitul Jain, who scored 99 said that he was expecting a score of at least 110. Coaching institutes also agree with the aggrieved lot of students. We are still in the process of collating data, however, from the information received till now, 105 is the top score amongst test takers in our institute, said Gautam Puri, managing director, Career Launcher. He further said that every management test had errors and that it was an unfortunate loss for the test takers. I believe that if the paper is tough and the assessment is out of 175, the cut-offs will be low. Absolute score does not matter if you have cleared the cut-off,” he said.

Shibashis Sen Gupta, business head, IMS (Deccan region) said that the overall scores had slid by 10 to 15 points this year. Good students who could score above 100 have on an average received scores between 80 and 90. Also, a considerable amount of test takers have received scores between 60-70. He added: There are very few number of test takers who have scored anywhere close to 120 to 130.

Many test takers told PaGaLGuY that they could have fared much more had they not wasted time in trying to solve questions that were wrong or had wrong answers as options. I could have scored more had I not wasted time in answering wrong questions. Also, Logical Reasoning and General Knowledge sections were tough, which further added to my unsatisfactory score, said Siddhi Bohra, a Bachelor in Business Management who scored 77. She further said, I used to score above 95 consistently in mock tests. I thought I would at least score that much in the test.”

Mitul Jain, a BTech from Nirma University said, I scored 99, though I was expecting at least 110. SIU’s decision of assessment out of 175 has actually not solved the problem because the time wasted in solving wrong questions cannot be compensated and it is evident for my score card.

Removing five questions and reducing the total marks does not serve the purpose. Some students might have marked those questions correctly by assuming some data (for example, in case of the question in Quant where the denominator was missing; it was obvious for most test takers that it was the correct answer). These students have not only lost out on better scores but they have also lost time and effort spent on those questions. Even if a test-taker spent 1-2 minutes on a wrong question, how does SIU compensate for the time wasted? Had these anomalies not been there, they could have invested this time on other questions and increased their score, said Parasharan Chari, chief operating officer, Endeavor Careers. A strong trend is being observed wherein students with paper code H have seen the maximum difference (read drop) in their actual score as compared to their expected score. The minimum difference is -7 and the maximum is -20 till now. Students believe that there is a mistake in the answer key of H coded papers, he added.

Bhuvan Gupta, a BTech student, who scored 114 said, “I was expecting a score between 110 to 115, in fact many of my friends who were expecting above 100 have got between 80-90 points. All of us spent considerable time solving questions, which were wrong and an already tough paper became lengthy to be completed, he said.

Last year there were many test takers of SNAP who had scored 140 on 180. However, this year there is no one close to a score of 120, said Chari. He further said, Getting a score of 115 was considered to be decent as aspirants could opt for other institutes under the Symbiosis wing in case they couldn’t make it to Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Pune.

Dr Anil Keskar, dean (academics), Symbiosis International University (SIU) talking about possible slide in cut-offs this year said, Each institute will declare its cut-off within a week and no disclosures regarding cut-offs can be made at this point.

A Ray of Hope