Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore will conduct Common Admission Test (CAT) on November 29, 2020. The exam will be held in 3 sessions, each of which will be of 2 hours. Now that only ten days are left for CAT, the last leg of preparation must be taken seriously. Now is the time to brush up important topics and learn a few tricks and last minute preparation tips.
The first thing to understand is that in the past years, more questions have been asked from the VARC and QA section, in comparison to DILR. The same can be expected this year as well. However, Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension in CAT is not an easy nut to crack. The section comprises of VA – which Verbal Ability questions and RC – which is reading comprehension. While VA is easy and scoring, RC is lengthy and time-consuming. Hence, to ace VARC, candidates need quick understanding, command on the language, and out of the box quick thinking along with time management.
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Tips on How to Attempt CAT 2020 VARC
It is essential to be familiar with the English language, and the best way to master a language is to read, write, talk, listen, and think in that language. However, this is not all to VARC section. RCs in CAT are usually opinion-based, and so the most recommended way to attempted this section is by reading it in one go and grasp as much as one can.
Candidates can then re-read the entire passage, but again in one go. Reading a passage in parts is more time consuming as candidates have to go to and fro to comprehend it.
To read better and faster candidates can take help from books such as “How To Read Better And Faster” by Norman Lewis. It is an easy read which provides fantastic tips on increasing reading ability. Given the time that is left for CAT 2020, this is one of the best options.
The candidates who have weaker reading skills can also use the strategy where they read and solve all the easy questions first. Then go for the dense passages. This way, time management is better.
Those who are average at reading comprehension can solve questions in a mix. Solve a few problematic questions and a few easy ones. Solve one dense passage and then move to easy VA question. Then again come back to solving RC. Candidates who are good at VARC can solve questions in the sequence which suits them the best.
Types of Common VARC Questions Asked in CAT
To help the aspirants ace the exam with ease, here are 10 types of verbal ability questions asked in CAT:
- Para jumble
- Odd sentences
- Paragraph Summary
- Error correction in sentences
- Fill in the blanks with correct vocabulary words
- Contextual use of vocabulary words
- Identify a paradox / contradiction / inconsistency
- Identify a parallel situation
- Idioms & phrases
- Grammar.
Other than this, it is always recommended to practice mock test and previous year question paper for CAT.
This year, IIMs have changed the exam pattern for CAT. Now the exam will be of 2 hours instead of 3, and sectional timing will be 40 minutes. There will be 2 types of questions in the exam. All the questions in the exam will be of MCQs type (Multiple Choice Questions), where the students need to choose 1 answer out of the multiple options, and the TITA (Type in the answers type), where the candidates have to type the answer using the virtual keyboard. The paper will have questions from 3 sections are Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR), and Quantitative Ability (QA).
