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 Yesterday
CAT is one of the accepting exams for admission to MBA at ISMR Pune. However, it is not compulsory. Aspirants with a score in CMAT, MAT, XAT, MAH MBA CET, etc. can also get admission. Candidates selected based on their entrance exam scores also need to pass the personal interview round for admission
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Guide-Level 15
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No, CAT scores are not compulsory for admissions into MBA course at Chhatrapati Shahu Institute of Business Education and Research. The institute accepts other national/ state level management entrance exams too. The names of the accepted entrance examinations are: XAT/ MAT/ ATMA/ MAH MBA CET.
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Contributor-Level 9
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No, CAT scores are not compulsory for admissions into MBA course at GLA University, Mathura. The university also considers scores from other management entrance exam and one university level entrance exam too. The names of the other accepted entrance exams are: MAT/ XAT/ UPSEE.
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Contributor-Level 10
Answered 5 days ago
No, CAT scores are not important for enrollment into Masters of Business Administration course at Chitkara University. Because CAT is not the only scores which are considered by the university, it also accepts the scores of MAT/ XAT/ NMAT/ CMAT.
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Contributor-Level 10
Answered 6 days ago
Minimum qualifying cut off for IIM Ahmedabad is 95 percentile whereas for IIM Bangalore and IIM Calcutta, it is 85. However final cut offs for these three top IIMs are between 99 to 100 percentile.
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Contributor-Level 6
Answered a week ago
GIBS is pretty flexible when it comes to entrance exams. They accept almost all the common management tests — CAT, XAT, MAT, CMAT, ATMA, State CET, and even GMAT. In my batch itself, we had students who came through different exams, not just CAT.
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Yes, Myra School of Business does offer CAT scores based Scholarships upto INR 1.5 lakh. In recognition of outstanding performance in CAT, MSB awards special scholarships as follows:
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LISAA School of Design, Bangalore BDes admission is done based on performance in the in-house entrance test. LISAA CAT is conducted at the LISAA centres. Candidates need to connect with the admission team to set up a time slot. Besides, it is important that the eligibility criteria is fulfilled.
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Contributor-Level 9
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Yes, you can absolutely get admission into the MBA programme without clearing CAT or MAT, because the university follows a flexible admission pathway that allows students to apply through its own entrance exam called CUCET. This exam acts as the primary route for MBA admissions, and it is designed t
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Beginner-Level 4
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.