Common Admission Test 2025 ( CAT )
Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) section of CAT exam comprises 24 questions. Candidates need to attempt it in 40 minutes. Read here to know which topics to focus in VARC syllabus for CAT and which are the best books for it.
CAT 2025 will be conducted on November 30, 2025, which means candidates have just about 5 months to prepare for the exam. Most students find either Quant or Reasoning tough and spend most of their CAT preparation time on these and VARC section get neglected. Now as we all know CAT is divided into three sections and it is extremely important to score well in all the sections to get a good overall percentile. It will be suicidal to not pay equal attention on the VARC section. More importantly because CAT VARC preparation requires more time in reading. It has the maximum weightage in CAT exam. To guide candidates in preparation of VARC, Shiksha brings to you some key insights.
Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) section will be the first section in CAT 2025 exam having 24 questions. Candidates need to attempt it in 40 minutes.
Ideally, candidates should finish CAT VARC syllabus by August end and focus on mocks in the month of November. One needs to create a solid preparation plan as soon as possible and stick to it. Create this plan keeping in mind your strengths and weakness in VARC. Spend at least three hours a day for CAT preparation. That’ll give you about 350 hours before CAT 2025 exam day. Out of 350 hours, keep about 100 hours in practicing Mock Tests.
VARC syllabus for CAT can be broadly classified into four sub-categories:
Since there are no direct Grammar and Vocabulary questions in CAT, the candidate needs to focus on application of their knowledge of the language. The table below idicates types of questions asked in CAT VARC and number of questions asked from each. This knowledge will help you in making a VARC study plan with focus on scoring well.
| VARC Topics for CAT |
No. of Questions in CAT Exam |
Level of Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Reading Comprehension |
16 |
Moderate to Difficult |
| VA-Parajumbles |
3 |
Moderate to Difficult |
| VA-Odd Sentence |
2 |
Easy to Moderate |
| VA-Summary |
3 |
Easy to Moderate |
| Overall |
24 |
Moderate to Difficult |
Some of the most recommended CAT books for VARC section are mentioned below:
Also Read: CAT Books - Section wise best books for CAT and secondary reading
CAT has three sections – Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Aptitude. XAT has four sections – Verbal and Logical Ability, Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation, Decision Making and General Knowledge. While CAT is Quant heavy, XAT is more tilted towards Reasoning.
CAT syllabus includes all the important topics of subjects that are relevant for business aptitude. For CAT exam, candidates have to study, Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension VARC Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning DILR and Quantitative Aptitude. Given below are the key topics included in the CAT syllabus.
Here are key tips to study VARC syllabus for CAT. The exam will be held on November 30, 2025, so start studying now.
Grammar:
CAT exam generally tests the basic high school level grammar of students. One needs to identify and correct grammatical errors swiftly.
Some of the common concepts that candidates need to prepare are use of subject-verb agreement, articles, prepositions, modifiers, parallel construction, phrasal verbs and redundancy and so on. Candidates may get questions on identifying mistakes in a sentences or sequence of sentence.
Vocabulary:
This part tests a candidate's knowledge of language and lexicon. There can be simple sentence completion (fill-in-the-blanks) or correct/incorrect use of words in a sentence. This section cannot be developed/practiced overnight. Candidates need to develop a regular study habit to score well in this section.
Verbal Reasoning:
Questions related to paragraph formation and paragraph completion are integral in this section of verbal ability. Candidates will have to identify sentence that stands out in a paragraph or deduce summary, or identify the statement that fits the best summary or organise a given set of questions based on the given passage. Deducing such questions is direct application of logic/reasoning. Regular practice will help build proficiency in this area.
Reading Comprehension:
Like vocabulary, RCs can be mastered with regular practice and attempting mocks. One should start reading editorial columns of leading newspapers or good online news and opinion websites. Read at least one dense passage every day and try to summarise it. Do not limit yourself to reading on a particular subject. Read from a diverse set of topics: Politics, science, economics, psychology, environment and so on.
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Get below free PDFs of VARC sample questions for practice with solution.
| CAT Easy Test Set 1 | CAT Easy Test Set 1 Solutions |
| CAT Medium Test Set 1 | CAT Medium Test Set 1 Solutions |
| CAT Difficult Test Set 1 | CAT Difficult Test Set 1 Solutions |
| CAT Easy Test Set 2 | CAT Easy Test Set 2 Solutions |
| CAT Medium Test Set 2 | CAT Medium Test Set 2 Solutions |
| CAT Difficult Test Set 2 | CAT Difficult Test Set 2 Solutions |
| CAT Easy Test Set 3 | CAT Easy Test Set 3 Solutions |
| CAT Medium Test Set 3 | CAT Medium Test Set 3 Solutions |
| CAT Difficult Test Set 3 | CAT Difficult Test Set 3 Solutions |
| CAT Easy Test Set 4 | CAT Easy Test Set 4 Solutions |
| CAT Medium Test Set 4 | CAT Medium Test Set 4 Solutions |
| CAT Difficult Test Set 4 | CAT Difficult Test Set 4 Solutions |
| CAT Easy Test Set 5 | CAT Easy Test Set 5 Solutions |
| CAT Medium Test Set 5 | CAT Medium Test Set 5 Solutions |
| CAT Difficult Test Set 5 | CAT Difficult Test Set 5 Solutions |
| CAT Easy Test Set 6 | CAT Easy Test Set 6 Solutions |
| CAT Medium Test Set 6 | CAT Medium Test Set 6 Solutions |
| CAT Difficult Test Set 6 | CAT Difficult Test Set 6 Solutions |
Download Free VARC Question Bank for Practice |
Vipra Shrivastava is MA in English Literature from Delhi University with extensive experience in content writing of over 14 years. She has been handling content for Management, Accounting and Commerce streams for 8
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Anything you would want to ask experts?Answered 22 hours ago
No, CAT scores are not compulosry for admissions to MBA course at Techno India University. Because the university considers scores from other entrance exams too, likewise, CAT/ MAT/ XAT/ CMAT/ GMAT/ JEMAT/ TNJEE scores. Thus, you can get enrolement with CAT scores. However, it is not compulsory.
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Contributor-Level 10
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In CAT 2025, 26 candidates scored 99.99 percentile. 14 are from engineering background and 12 are from non engineering background. And among them 4 are female candidates.
A
Contributor-Level 6
Answered Yesterday
In CAT 2025, the number of 100 percentilers was 12. Maximum toppers were from Delhi (3). IIM Kozhikode had released the state wise toppers data along with CAT 2025 result on December 24, 2025.
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Contributor-Level 6
Answered Yesterday
A total of 2.58 Lacs candidates appeared for CAT 2025. Check below gender wise break up.
Category | Number of registrations | Number of test takers |
|---|---|---|
Female | 1.10 lakh | 0.97 lakh |
Male | 1.85 lakh | 1.61 lakh |
Transgender | 9 | 9 |
Contributor-Level 10
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In CAT 2025, two female candidates have scored 100 percentile in CAT 2025. Number of 99.99 percentile scorer females in 4 and the number of 99.98 percentile scorer females in 5.
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Contributor-Level 6
Answered 11 hours ago
At GIBS Bangalore, the admission process for CAT and MAT candidates is kept simple and transparent.
GIBS follows a general merit-based admission approach. This means selections are mainly based on:
Entrance exam scores (CAT/MAT)
Academic background
Personal interaction and overall profile
There is no rig
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Yes, there is a 10% scholarship for those who have scored 80 percentile and above in the CAT exam. Scholarship based on CAT is offered based on document verification once you join the program. There are limited scholarship seats which are offered on first-cum-first-serve basis. This scholarship is v
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Contributor-Level 10
Answered 2 days ago
In 2024, the CAT cutoff percentile for the Shiv Nadar University Chennai was 60 for the students belonging to the General AI quota. The is the overall sectional cutoff. More details are below:
| Section | 2024 |
|---|---|
| Overall | 60 |
| Quants | 40 |
| VA-RC | 40 |
| DI-LR | 40 |
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Contributor-Level 10
Answered 2 days ago
| Exam | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| CAT (percentile) | 88 | 88 |
| XAT (percentile) | 85 | 85 |
With these cut off details, students can decide the kind of preparation they will have to do.
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CAT lays a lot of emphasis on analytical skills so the questions are asked mostly from those topics which require deep learning and practice. The three sections of CAT question paper are designed in such a way that candidates have to use their ability of minute observation and fast calculation. Shared below are the section wise main topics from which questions are asked in CAT. Verbal Ability: Parajumbles, Parasummary, Sentence Completion and Inferences
The difficulty level of CAT questions is usually moderate to high. Only a few questions are easy and quick to solve. To crack the CAT exam, one needs to pay attention to the abovementioned topics.