The Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) section is often considered the “make-it-or-break-it” section of the Common Admission Test (CAT) for Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) – and for good reason.
Recent trends reveal that the VARC section holds a slight edge over the other sections in terms of scalability. Moreover, this section has the highest number of questions in CAT (24 out of 76).
Thus, a candidate who is well-prepared to handle this section can expect to have an overall strategic advantage in the examination.
Overview of the VARC Section
The pattern of CAT has undergone several rounds of transformation over the years. In the current pattern, the VARC section has two components: reading comprehension and paragraph-based verbal reasoning.
Reading Comprehension
Of late this section includes 16 questions, typically presented as four passages with four questions each. The passages are around 500 words long and span a diverse range of subjects such as sociology, political science, history, culture, psychology, literature, science, technology, media, and management.
A distinct feature of CAT reading comprehension is the emphasis on critical reasoning skills. Questions are designed to test concepts such as inference, assumption, conclusion, author’s purpose and strengthening and weakening of arguments.
All reading comprehension questions are being given as multiple-choice (MCQs), with 3 marks for each correct answer and a penalty of 1 mark for each incorrect answer.
Verbal Ability
This subsection primarily tests the candidate’s grasp of the logical structure and idea flow of passages. This subsection consists of eight questions, as seen in the recent CATs, which may include the following types:
Para formation: Four sentences are presented in random order. They need to be arranged in the correct sequence to form a logically coherent paragraph.
Odd man out: Five sentences are presented in random order. The task is to identify the sentence that does not fit within a logically coherent paragraph.
Summary: A short paragraph is given, followed by four alternative summaries. The candidate needs to identify the summary which best captures the author’s position and the essence of the passage.
Paragraph completion: A sentence is provided along with a short paragraph containing four blanks. The candidate must determine where the given sentence fits. In another variation, a paragraph with a blank is presented, and the candidate must choose the most appropriate sentence from four options to complete the paragraph.
A few questions in the Verbal Ability section are multiple-choice (MCQs) with negative markings, while others require the answers to be typed in. The latter question type does not have negative markings.