CAT VERBAL ABILITY AND READING COMPREHENSION

Sentence Comprehension is the Core Skill in English

For many CAT aspirants, especially those who do not have a convent education background, this section represents the biggest hurdle in the CAT and indeed so, in most other management entrance exams. At the same time, even for students who have the best education and are seemingly good at English, the experience of the past few years’ CAT papers shows us that being good at speaking and conversing in English might not guarantee you a top percentile score.

Be alert while reading. Try to connect the paragraphs in the passage and make a mental map of the information provided in the passage. For example, while reading an RC passage about a recent technology developed to manufacture electric motors, I observed that the first paragraph gave an introduction about it. Then the next passage described its advantage, followed by disadvantages in the subsequent passages. Reading in this manner, your interest in the paragraph will be developed, and you will be able to understand the passage better. 

The Role of Reading in Developing Your Language Solving skills. The most commonly heard advice for career aspirants when it comes to preparing for this all important section is “Read more and more”. So it is your right to ask, “If I read more and more, would I get a solution to my problem in the language section in a time frame of say, four months?”

The answer to this question is largely in the negative. The reason for the same is that for you to develop your scores in Verbal Ability (VA) and Reading Comprehension (RC) by just reading more and more—you require maybe a 2-3 year cycle of preparation. Four months would be more like scratching the surface for the same.

We are not saying for a moment that reading is not important for preparing yourself for this section. Reading more and more
remains one of the primary activities that you would still need to do, but rather than doing it blindly it would definitely be better
for you if you did it with a clear purpose.
First of all let us try to set the objectives of reading more and more.
One of the key problems aspirants face when they take the CAT is that the language is too complex and the options for the
answer to the question asked are too close for comfort.
Your comfort with the language you read in the examination is going to depend on three broad factors. These give rise to
the possibilities of the kind of language you are going to face:

1. Short Sentences (10-15 words long) versus Long Sentences (25+ words long)
2. Easy Vocabulary versus Tough Vocabulary
3. Familiar Topic versus Unfamiliar Topic

• Verbal Ability Preparation Tips to ace the verbal ability section
• CAT questions are more about Logic than about Language
• Read as much as you can
• Do not try to attempt all questions
• Observe the trap answer options
• Improve Grammar and Vocabulary 
• Master the art of selecting the right RC paragraphs