How To Improve CAT Verbal Ability: Check Important Questions and Preparation Tips
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Verbal Ability section forms a major part of the CAT question paper. It is the first section of the paper and sets the mood for the rest. Good performance in this section is a necessity for a high overall CAT percentile. Get tips to improve Verbal Ability for CAT 2026.
CAT Verbal Ability mainly includes parajumbles, para summary, para completion and odd sentence. There are no direct grammar or vocabulary question in CAT, so short-term preparation will not work. There has to be long-term plan, proper guidance and proper timeline for achieving the desired result. Most importantly, one needs to develop the habit of reading. Verbal Section of CAT is about how well you understand the language. Whether it is parajumble or parasummary, the questions are comprehension based so one needs to develop reading practice from early on. To crack the Verbal Ability section of CAT 2026, 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?
- Tips to Improve at Verbal Ability for CAT 2026
- CAT VARC Practice Question PDFs
What is the Importance of Verbal Ability in CAT?
Since communication is a very important tool in all spheres of management, CAT lays a lot of emphasis on English comprehension. Maximum number of questions are asked from English. It is essential for all CAT aspirants to have the capability of the following.
1. Comprehend the given information (passage/sentence) and understand 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, etc.)
- The direction / conclusion that is being hinted at
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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.
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, reading books and novels over a long period of time is immensely useful.
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Tips to Improve at Verbal Ability for CAT 2026
CAT Verbal Ability Preparation: Read a lot
The most important part of CAT Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension preparation is reading. In fact, it not only helps in the Verbal section of CAT but also in Written Ability Test (WAT) and Personal Interview (PI). Reading can 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 2026 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.
There will be 4-5 RC passages in CAT 2026 of atteast 400 plus words. Irrespective of the style of answering you follow, 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. Remember that there are 4-5 passages having 24 questions and the time limit is 40 minutes.
Download CAT Question Papers:
- CAT 2025 Question Paper: Download Free PDF
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- 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 economics, sci-tech, society, anthropology, astronomy, geography, history, agriculture, philosophy, etc. 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.
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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 on 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.
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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 more sense to parallelly 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. Whenever a new word is learnt, first find out the meaning and origin, then try using it in a sentence.
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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:
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Commonly asked questions
MAT has 2 sections which are completely Maths based – Mathematical Skills and Data Interpretation, so it is not possible to crack MAT without having a good control over this subject.
Yes, you can take coaching for SNAP preparation. It will help you in preparing for the exam in a disciplined manner and you will get correct guidance too.
Yes CAT syllabus is difficult to crack if you do not have enough time. There are three subjects in CAT- VARC, DILR and Quantitative Aptitude. Most of candidates find RC passages tough to crack. In Quants, Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry pose significant challenge during preparation. In DILR, Reasoning questions often turnout to be tricky and confusion.
To crack MAT exam in first attempt, start preparation early; at least a month six months in advance. Cover each topic of the MAT syllabus thoroughly and attempt 40+ mock tests to have complete control on all possible types of questions asked. In the exam, avoid negative marking by skipping questions you are not sure of. Try to maintain average scoring by solving 17-20 questions in each section.
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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