Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) is one of the most important and high scoring section of CAT. The weightage of Reading Comprehension is higher in CAT than in any other MBA entrance examination. Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension is one of the crucial sections in CAT. The section consists of passage-based questions and is considered to be the most time-consuming section. VARC section tests a candidate’s language, understanding, and comprehension skills. While solving these type of questions, students have to be quick, comprehend the information, analyze the data, and then choose the correct answer.  Check CAT VARC Preparation Tips

• Reading comprehension in the CAT 2020 constitutes 24% of the exam.
• VARC comprises in total 34 questions out of which 24 questions are from RC.
• Number of questions in VARC from passage have been increased to 70% from 45%.

Latest Update: CAT 2020 notification is expected to release on last saturday of July 2020, IIM Indore is the coordinating body of CAT 2020 as announced on its official website. Read More

CAT is conducted by IIMs. It is divided into three sections:

• Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (RC)
• Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR)
• Quantitative Ability (QA)

CAT EligibilityCAT Syllabus CAT Paper Analysis CAT Exam Pattern

For the past four years, CAT exam pattern has remained the same.

Also Check

• CAT Quantitative Aptitude Important Topics and Sylllabus
• CAT Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning Important Topics and Sylllabus 

Reading Comprehension Weightage in CAT 2020

The revised pattern of CAT 2020 allots following weightage to RC.

Reading Comprehension- Sectional Analysis 

Reading comprehension mainly tests how fast a candidate can read the information (given in the form of passages) accurately, and can assimilate that information and answer the questions. Before coming on to how one can attempt this section, it is important to understand what all components does this section comprise. RC has now become the first section of CAT exam instead of last. The RC questions help in achieving high sectional score as well as overall increased CAT percentile. The composition of the section is as follows:

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Type & Number of Reading Comprehension Questions in CAT

Though the baseline of the RC passages remain same with chances of vocabulary and idioms/phrases to be repeated, the idea of the passage may change with the current scenario. A broader understanding of the type and number of questions in RC section is given below.

Practice With CAT Sample Papers

How to Prepare for Reading Comprehension? - Key Tips 

Reading Comprehension requires different preparation strategy. Following are the guiding points on how to prepare Reading Comprehension for CAT Exam:

• Prepare as per latest trends in CAT exam.
• Read the Best books on Reading Comprehension
• Go through Updated CAT Reading Comprehension Preparation Material of Best Coaching Institutes
• Read CAT toppers’ Reading Comprehension Preparation Strategy
• Take CAT Reading Comprehension Mocks.
• Understand the English vocabulary.
• Continue with consistent flow of thoughts in Reading Comprehension Passages.
• Read between the lines to crack the meaning
• Arrive at the correct option for the questions based on Reading Comprehension passages for CAT.
• Make reading editorials, articles in the newspaper a regular practice.
• Underline the difficult words-search out their meanings and put them to use in writing and conversation. Tests have shown a trend that if the number of unfamiliar words in a passage is more, the reader may lose track of the passage. However, if the number is less, the reader can still grasp the idea of the passage with skipping a few unfamiliar words.

Study Material for Reading Comprehension for CAT 

No matter if you are attending any coaching class or preparing self for CAT, you may require help from other external sources as well in the form of practice papers, e-notes or books.

Some of the prominent books recommended by CAT toppers are:

• How to Prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for the CAT- Sharma and Upadhyay
• 30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary Mass Market Paperback- Wilfred Funk & Norman Lewis/ Simon & Schuster
• Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for the CAT- Nishit K Sinha

Must Read News Scholarships Available through CAT

Sample RC Question (CAT 2018 Question Paper- Slot 1) 

“Everybody pretty much agrees that the relationship between elephants and people has dramatically changed,” [says psychologist Gay] Bradshaw. . . . “Where for centuries humans and elephants lived in relatively peaceful coexistence, there is now hostility and violence. Now, I use the term ‘violence’ because of the intentionality associated with it, both in the aggression of humans and, at times, the recently observed behavior of elephants.” . . .
Typically, elephant researchers have cited, as a cause of aggression, the high levels of testosterone in newly matured male elephants or the competition for land and resources between elephants and humans. But. . . Bradshaw and several colleagues argue. . . that today’s elephant populations are suffering from a form of chronic stress, a kind of species-wide trauma. Decades of poaching and culling and habitat loss, they claim, have so disrupted the intricate web of familial and societal relations by which young elephants have traditionally been raised in the wild, and by which established elephant herds are governed, that what we are now witnessing is nothing less than a precipitous collapse of elephant culture. . . .
Elephants, when left to their own devices, are profoundly social creatures. . . . Young elephants are raised within an extended, multitiered network of doting female caregivers that includes the birth mother, grandmothers, aunts and friends. These relations are maintained over a life span as long as 70 years. Studies of established herds have shown that young elephants stay within 15 feet of their mothers for nearly all of their first eight years of life, after which young females are socialized into the matriarchal network, while young males go off for a time into an all-male social group before coming back into the fold as mature adults. . . .
This fabric of elephant society, Bradshaw and her colleagues [demonstrate], ha[s] effectively been frayed by years of habitat loss and poaching, along with systematic culling by government agencies to control elephant numbers and translocations of herds to different habitats. . . . As a result of such social upheaval, calves are now being born to and raised by ever younger and inexperienced mothers. Young orphaned elephants, meanwhile, that have witnessed the death of a parent at the hands of poachers are coming of age in the absence of the support system that defines traditional elephant life. “The loss of elephant elders,” [says] Bradshaw . . . "and the traumatic experience of witnessing the massacres of their family, impairs normal brain and behavior development in young elephants.”
What Bradshaw and her colleagues describe would seem to be an extreme form of anthropocentric conjecture if the evidence that they’ve compiled from various elephant researchers. . . weren’t so compelling. The elephants of decimated herds, especially orphans who’ve watched the death of their parents and elders from poaching and culling, exhibit behavior typically associated with post-traumatic stress disorder and other trauma-related disorders in humans: abnormal startle response, unpredictable asocial behavior, inattentive mothering and hyper-aggression. . . .
[According to Bradshaw], “Elephants are suffering and behaving in the same ways that we recognize in ourselves as a result of violence. . . . Except perhaps for a few specific features, brain organization and early development of elephants and humans are extremely similar.” 

Q 1: The passage makes all of the following claims EXCEPT: 

1. elephant mothers are evolving newer ways of rearing their calves to adapt to emerging threats. 

2. the elephant response to deeply disturbing experiences is similar to that of humans. 

3. human actions such as poaching and culling have created stressful conditions for elephant communities. 

4. elephants establish extended and enduring familial relationships as do humans. 

Q 2: Which of the following statements best expresses the overall argument of this passage? 

1. Recent elephant behaviour could be understood as a form of species-wide trauma-related response. 

2. Elephants, like the humans they are in conflict with, are profoundly social creatures. 

3. The relationship between elephants and humans has changed from one of coexistence to one of hostility. 

4. The brain organisation and early development of elephants and humans are extremely similar

Q 3: Which of the following measures is Bradshaw most likely to support to address the problem of elephant aggression? 

1. Funding of more studies to better understand the impact of testosterone on male elephant aggression. 

2. The development of treatment programmes for elephants drawing on insights gained from treating post-traumatic stress disorder in humans. 

3. Studying the impact of isolating elephant calves on their early brain development, behaviour and aggression. 

4. Increased funding for research into the similarity of humans and other animals drawing on insights gained from human-elephant similarities. 

Q 4: In paragraph 4, the phrase, “The fabric of elephant society . . . has(s) effectively been frayed by . . .” is: 

1. an accurate description of the condition of elephant herds today. 

2. a metaphor for the effect of human activity on elephant communities. 

3. an exaggeration aimed at bolstering Bradshaw’s claims. 

4. an ode to the fragility of elephant society today.

Q 5: In the first paragraph, Bradshaw uses the term “violence” to describe the recent change in the human-elephant relationship because, according to him: 

1. there is a purposefulness in human and elephant aggression towards each other. 

2. elephant herds and their habitat have been systematically destroyed by humans. 

3. human-elephant interactions have changed their character over time. 

4. both humans and elephants have killed members of each other’s species

ANSWERS: Q1. 4, Q2. 1, Q3. 2, Q4. 2, Q5. 1

Common Mistakes While Solving Passage-Based Questions

We are explaining some of the common mistakes that applicants commit while solving the passage based questions in CAT exam.

Not Engaging with the Passage

Students think that reading passage is similar to reading a newspaper article due to which candidates forget the beginning of the passage when they reach at the end of it. Students must try to imagine what the pictures and the author tend to explain rather than retained on the text. 

Not Reading the Options Properly

Somehow aspirants make 1-2 mistakes per passage. The problem is not with reading the options carefully. A usual trick of paper setters is that they pick words straight from the passage and insert a new word which negates the meaning and students end up marking the wrong answer. 

Check here CAT Preparation Tips

Not Reviewing Mock Tests Properly 

Mock tests are an excellent way to improve passage reading. Once you attempt the mock test, review the passage again, you will understand why the options you picked are wrong. Make sure to review all the wrong options to understand why these options are incorrect.

Candidates must solve as many mock tests as possible to analyze their mistakes to work on it. Best of Luck.

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