The Symbiosis National Aptitude Test (SNAP) test takers can now heave a sigh of relief as five questions of the test paper have been declared ‘deemed to be cancelled’. The notification issued by Symbiosis International University (SIU) on Friday evening also stated that the final assessment of the aspirants’ performance will be only out of 175 marks instead of 180 this year .

The external committee set up by SIU, which was probing the matter of alleged wrong questions and plagiarism in the test paper, have found question number 34, 38, 46, 65 and 112 of Set E (the questions in set ‘E’ are same as in Sets ‘F’, ‘G’, ‘H’ but with different question numbers) in the SNAP test 2011 had some errors.

The SNAP 2011 paper allegedly had seven wrong questions in the quantitative aptitude (QA) and logical reasoning sections, wherein the questions either did not have the correct answer in the options or the questions had insufficient data or the data was inconsistent. After an uproar of SNAP test takers to address the issue to the university, SIU had set up an external committee to come up with recommendations.

The latest notification states that the committee after studying the nature of these errors believes that normally such errors should not severely impact students’ capability of choosing the correct answer or an alternative. However, keeping in mind the larger interest of candidates some equitable and just benefits should be given to test takers.

Also, clarifying the universitys stand on the possibility of SNAP questions being copied from any coaching institute website, SIU authorities have stated that any resemblance or similarity of questions asked in the test is purely co-incidental and cannot be treated or termed as plagiarism.

Furthermore, Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication’s (MMC) assessment will be out of 178 since two questions 34 and 38 are deemed to be cancelled. However, there is no change in the assessment of the Symbiosis Institute of Geoinformatics.