CAT Verbal Ability- A to Z on How to Deal with the Trickiest Section

Common Admission Test is conducted by IIMs on the rotational basis for admission in various management programs offered at top B-schools. It tests the candidates upon three subjects that include Quantitative Ability, Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension and Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning.

Verbal Ability is considered the most difficult section but is often undermined by most CAT applicants. Few realize that it's important to do well in this section to get a call from the prestigious IIMs and other reputed MBA colleges. To help the candidates score well in the exam, we’ve shared pointers to facilitate their preparation for the verbal ability section.

Tips and Tricks to Tackle Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension

It is important to understand the CAT syllabus to prepare well and develop skills for this particular section of the examination. Verbal Ability section has questions from the following key topics:
        Reading Comprehensions(RCs)
        Grammar
        Verbal Reasoning
          Para-jumbles
          Critical Reasoning
          Misfit Sentence/Error Corrections
          Summary Writing
          Para-completion
Let’s analyze the individual constituents of the Verbal Ability section.
Reading Comprehension: Reading Comprehensions form the most important segment of the CAT Verbal Ability section. RC passages are based on a variety of topics. So, here diverse reading comes to your rescue. You are likely to score well if you are well-versed with a wide spectrum of topics.
Passages from areas such as philosophy and sociology require you to have good comprehension skills while the passages from business/economics require you to be familiar with the basic terminology of these areas. So, read articles from as many sources as possible.
The second important aspect for RCs is practice. The three best resources for practising CAT level RCs are previous year papers, Mock CAT RCs and prepare from the recent news article. These offer you the highest quality and most appropriate material for preparation. Make sure that you regularly practice RCs. The more you practice, the better will be your speed and accuracy. You can buy 100 Comprehension Prepared From Recent Newspaper Articles and Books, this ebook is prepared by experts of English Reading Comprehension.
Practicing RCs also improves your grammar and vocabulary, thereby helping you in other areas as well.
Grammar: These are the type of questions in the Common Aptitude Test that can create confusion in the mind of students. To score fairly well in such questions, you need to be well acquainted with the basics of Grammar. You can consult any good book such as High School Grammar and Composition by Wren & Martin to polish your basic grammar skills.
Studying the basics can help you solve questions with greater accuracy and better speed. It is highly recommended that you go through previous year CAT verbal ability questions.
Verbal Reasoning: In the last two years, the key topics that have appeared in verbal reasoning for CAT are Para-jumbles, Misfit sentences, Summary Writing and Critical Reasoning. Previously, Para-completion questions also made a regular appearance in the exam. It is crucial that you practice questions from this area regularly.
Your performance in this area depends upon your reading skills along with your ability to make logical inferences. Majority of these topics do not have any hard and fast rules but have a simple series of instructions that you need to follow in order to solve these questions.
Vocabulary: Many times, the difference in 94 and 96 percentile is due to that one word meaning that hindered your understanding of the given text. Therefore, it is essential that you build up your word power.
Strengthen your vocabulary by learning new words daily. We provide a power-packed section for enhancing vocabulary skills that are Vocab Builder with Tricks. The purpose of various word lists provided in this section is to enrich your vocabulary with tricks and help you perform well in the verbal section.
Even though there have been no direct questions based on vocabulary in CAT for the last three years, vocabulary still plays a vital role in enhancing your efficiency in all the areas discussed above. It expands your ability to understand the complex reading material.
After covering all these areas for your CAT preparation, it is necessary that you test yourself with some mock questions to evaluate your preparation. You can find tests online or opt for test series. They will test your preparation in real time and help you to work on weak sections. You can practice various question types for the section- word meanings, synonyms and antonyms. Consistent solving of mock tests and old papers can give your preparation a great boost if done honestly and with dedication.
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