How To Improve CAT Verbal Ability: Check Important Questions and Preparation Tips

Verbal Ability section forms a major part of the CAT question paper. Good performance in this section is a necessity for a high overall CAT percentile. Get tips to improve Verbal Ability for CAT 2024.

CAT Verbal Ability cannot be mastered in a short time. There has to be long-term plan, proper guidance and proper timeline for achieving the desired result. Thus, the best option is to start early. Most importantly, one needs to develop the habit of reading. Verbal Section of CAT includes para jumbles, odd sentence and para inference. All the questions of these topics are comprehension based so develop reading practice from early on. If you plan to appear for CAT 2024 exam then read a lot of books and novels. To prepare Verbal Ability section of CAT better, first understand 'why' and 'what' of it.

In this article we shall broadly try and understand what purpose does Verbal section of the CAT question paper serve and how can we score well in it. 

What is the Importance of Verbal Ability in CAT? 

Since communication is a very important tool in all spheres of management, this section of CAT tests a person's English Language skills. By this, the B-schools want to gauge how well a person can do the following:

1. Comprehend the given data (passage/sentence) and understands the following:

• The meaning of each of the words used
• The explicit message conveyed
• The implicit undertones of the passage or sentence
• The correctness of grammar (punctuation, usage, etc.)
• The direction / conclusion that is being hinted at

2. Manage to respond to the question posed by applying similar analysis of each of the 4/5 options presented, before picking his answer.

In order to do well in this section of the CAT exam, one needs to demonstrate competency on the above metrics. It is easy to see that each question type asked in the CAT Verbal Ability tries to test a candidate on the abovementioned aspects. The Reading Comprehension section of the CAT employs almost all these skills simultaneously posing to be a tough deal for an aspirant.

It is well known that individuals who are voracious readers do well in CAT VARC as they have honed their reading skills over the years. Hence, in order to excel in CAT Verbal Ability, one should start reading books and novels well in time.

Also Read:

• CAT Syllabus 2024
• CAT Exam Pattern 2024
• CAT Preparation 2024

Tips to Improve at Verbal Ability for CAT 2024

CAT Verbal Ability Preparation: Read a lot

The most important part of CAT Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension preparation is reading up. In fact, it not only helps in the Verbal section of CAT but also in General Awareness section of other MBA entrance exams. This effort can't be intensive in nature as one needs to assimilate what they read. Thus, the reading has to be consistently spread out across a few months or more for CAT 2024 preparation.

CAT Verbal Ability Preparation: Why to read?

It is much easier to understand any language by knowing the way its words are used, its sentences are framed and ideas are conveyed than by refering to an English Language guide. Also, noticing how a word is used will cement the correct meaning and usage of the word/phrase than learning it by rote.

The structure of the CAT exam 2024 will be such that a lot of time will be required to read a passage. Irrespective of the style of answering followed in the exam (reading before answering or vice versa), the speed at which you read the passage is critical. Someone who can read an average length passage (400 words) in three minutes. has a definite edge over someone who takes four minutes. The best way to improve reading speed is by reading articles in progressively lesser time.

Download CAT Question Papers:

• CAT 2023 Question Paper: Download Free PDF
• CAT 2022 Question Paper: Download Free PDF
• CAT 2021 Question Paper: Download Free PDF
• CAT 2020 Question Paper: Download Free PDF
• CAT 2019 Question Paper: Download Free PDF
• CAT 2018 Question Paper: Download Free PDF
• CAT 2017 Question Paper: Download Free PDF

CAT Verbal Ability Preparation: What to read?

Since management schools want us to become good business leaders they dish out stuff that an MBA graduate is most likely to read. However, due to exam constraints the passages in the exam are often excerpts of a bigger and wider article. These articles typically deal with economic, social, political etc. issues and the impact of these issues on the intended reader.

However, it is much better to start off and read articles longer (about 5,000 words) than the ones that appear in the exam (about 400 words). A complete article has a proper structure unlike those in the CAT exam. However, it is important to figure out how excellent English is written.

Also, while reading in English we should make a conscious effort to start thinking in English as well, since this can be a handicap for many of us who come from vernacular schools.

CAT Verbal Ability Preparation: How to read?

Upon reading an article it is important to discuss it with friends who have read it. You should make sure that all the implicit opinions/arguments are talked about and not missed. Often at the face of it the article seems straightforward but we fail to locate the point the author is trying to make. Correctly filtering the facts from the author's opinions help get an insight into the article.

Similarly, it is important to understand how arguments are built by good writers and what is an expected line of thought in the passage. This understanding can be developed by discussing the passage with friends who have read it.

Also Read:

• Best Books for CAT Preparation 2024
• CAT Mock Test for Practice

CAT Verbal Ability Preparation: Learn vocabulary

While learning words organically (through essays and articles) is an excellent option, with the view of preparing for the CAT exam - it makes sense to parallely learn the less commonly used words. Many students praise the virtues of books like Word Power Made Easy for improving vocabulary. These books help students derive the meaning of a word from its root and other techniques. However in case of extreme time crunch, it is best to pick up a standard word list provided by books for GRE, TOEFL, etc. and attempt learning them by rote. As the CAT 2024 exam draws closer, these lists will be a useful tool to recall what one has learnt. Whenever a new word is learnt, try using it in a sentence for better retention.

Also Read:

• Reading Comprehension preparation tips
• Verbal Ability preparation tips
• Pronouns with exercises
• Parajumbles with exercises
• Prepositions with exercises

CAT Verbal Ability Preparation: Practice Sample Questions

The Verbal Ability section of CAT calls for a lot of practice, which should be duly done in the last few months before the exam. The scores in the Reading Comprehension section get tremendously boosted with practice followed by analysis of the questions attempted correctly and incorrectly. The associated explanation to an answer is very important since it shows what the examiner thought was the correct answer, why and how it was different from what we thought. While answering subsequent RCs, we should be mindful not to repeat earlier mistakes.

For questions in the vocabulary section of CAT exam, it is important to also know why the incorrect answers were incorrect. In case, the options to a question throws up a new word make it a point to check the word up in the dictionary.

Scoring in Verbal Ability section of CAT exam can be elevated by sincere efforts towards improving the language followed by extensive practice. It is very difficult to score well unless a person has good command over English as a language. Similarly, it is very easy to make many mistakes in case a person is over reliant on his/her English skills without the requisite practice.

Every person should try and modify the approach for suitability while remembering the above skills at the back of his mind.

CAT VARC Practice Question PDFs

Download free PDFs of CAT VARC practice questions with solutions from the table below:

Source: Test Funda
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