How to Improve Reading Comprehension for CAT Exam? Preparation Tips

‘How to improve reading comprehension for CAT exam?’ is a question that every CAT aspirant is concerned about, especially those who are not confident about their reading skills. The CAT exam is divided into 3 sections, namely Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR), and Quantitative Ability (QA).

Each section has a 40 minutes time limit making time management a key factor for a great performance and percentile score. The primary objective of CAT is to assess a student’s basics on various subjects, this is more apparent in the VARC and QA sections as these two sections mostly include topics that a student has learnt during school.

The Reading Comprehension part of the VARC section tests a student’s ability to read short passages with scrutiny, retain important portions and identify answers to certain specific questions regarding the given passages. 

About the VARC Section in CAT

Before hoping to give an outstanding performance, a student must understand what every particular section of CAT involves. The Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) section tests a student’s proficiency in the English language by assessing them on various topics like fill in the blanks, para jumbles, sentence completion, etc.

The Verbal Ability portion of the VARC section can be tackled if a student’s basics are in place, but it is not the same with the Reading Comprehension portion as a student needs to read entire passages, and answer complicated questions and choose between very similar options regarding the passage all under given time constraints. 

Overview - Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension

Particulars	VARC
Types of Passages Included	Long and Short
Number of Passages Included in RC	4
Marking Scheme	+3' for Correct Answers'-1' for Incorrect Answers
Types of Questions Included	MCQ and Non-MCQ
Number of Verbal Ability Questions	8
Number of Reading Comprehension Questions	18
Total Time Limit	40 minutes
Number of Questions	26

Improving Reading Comprehension for CAT Exam

The Reading Comprehension portion of the VARC section in CAT includes 4 passages and 18 MCQ questions divided among these 4 passages. Since the question type is MCQ, negative marking will be in effect thus students need to make sure that they answer these questions as accurately as possible.

Students should follow the tips mentioned below during their preparation and while taking the CAT exam to improve their performance in Reading Comprehension.

1. Form a Reading Habit
2. Read the Questions First
3. Don’t Spend too Much Time on One Question
4. Practice Reading Comprehension
5. Don’t Switch Between VA and RC

1. Form a Reading Habit

The first and foremost step that a student can take to improve their performance in reading comprehension, is to make a habit of reading regularly. This habit can be formed with any kind of reading material that a student can find or is interested in, be it fiction novels, non-fiction books, newspapers, journals, etc.

Although forming a new habit is a difficult task, especially when it is done intentionally, a habit of reading will make it easier for students to go through every RC passage quickly which is crucial due to the time constraints.

2. Read the Questions First

It is important for students to understand and identify what they are looking for when reading a long passage. A student might not be aware of what to focus on and retain if they read the passage without having any idea what will be asked in the questions.

Usually, students tend to read the passage first and the questions later, after which they realize that they need to go through the passage once again to find the correct answers. Reading the questions first will help students identify and understand the answers while reading the passage for the first time.

Also Read: CAT Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension Syllabus

3. Don’t Spend too Much Time on One Question

It is quite common to get stuck on a particular question in CAT, this problem becomes more common when a student is in the VARC section, particularly when doing the Reading Comprehension part of VARC.

According to many CAT examinees, the answers for the MCQ questions of the RC passages are quite similar to each other in many cases, making it very difficult to select a single answer even after going through the passage more than once.

Students must not forget that they are on a clock and spending too much time on a single question will leave them less time to complete the rest of the section.

4. Practice Reading Comprehension

If a student is not confident about his skills regarding reading comprehension, they should spend more time for their preparation on this particular section. Practising reading comprehension from mock tests, previous year question papers, dedicated VARC mock tests and other sources are necessary to improve reading comprehension abilities.

The level of the RC passages in CAT and the questions asked regarding them is quite advanced, and students need to dedicate enough time and preparation to make sure that they can tackle these questions. The RC questions in CAT can even overwhelm students with the highest level of preparation. 

When the students rigorously practice RC before entering the CAT exam centre, it will help them save a lot of time while attending the particular section. 

5. Don’t Switch Between VA and RC

Another important point to remember is to complete a particular part of the VARC section before attempting the other one. Students often tend to switch between questions from the Reading Comprehension portion and the Verbal Ability portion whenever they get stuck on a particular question or when reading passages becomes too monotonous.

• Switching between two different portions breaks the momentum that a student gains when answering a particular type of question i.e. when answering RC questions, a student will perform better if all the RC questions are answered one after another whereas if a student answers one RC question and then attempts a VA question like 'fill in the blanks' or 'rearrange the sentences', the whole process takes longer and students tend to lose focus and concentration on both.
• The Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) section is the first section that students have to tackle when appearing for the CAT exam, particularly the RC portion.
• Students need to perform well in this section not only for securing a good percentile score but also for the sake of a decent performance in the other two sections (DILR and QA).

Read More: CAT Admit Card 2023

When a student successfully manages to answer all the RC questions, it serves as a necessary motivation to go through the rest of the questions confidently, thus a student should not slack on their preparation for the same.