Most MBA Aspirants Prefer Reading Newspaper to Improve Vocabulary: Shiksha Poll

In a poll conducted by Shiksha, maximum number of respondents said they read newspaper to improve vocabulary for cracking English section of MBA entrance exams. Read more.

English Vocabulary preparation

Reading comprehension is an important part of all MBA entrance exams. In fact, it is an important section in many other entrance and competitive exams. Aspirants follow various paths to improve their English comprehension skills, verbal as well as written. The most popular being reading newspapers and magazines. We’ve been taught in school to read newspapers daily, not only to gain knowledge of what’s going around us but also to improve English. Reading newspaper, helps in improving vocabulary, grammar, sentence construction, spelling, and all the aspects of English as a language.

The childhood habit of reading newspaper, books and magazines comes into use in adulthood. Whether going for higher studies or opting for a job, you need to have good English communication skills. And that is why English comprehension and vocabulary are an important section in all MBA entrance exams.

Shiksha Poll: What do you do to improve your vocabulary for MBA entrance exams?

Often, many aspirants from non-English medium education background or from Technical streams are weak in English comprehension. To improve that, most of them resort to reading newspaper.In a poll conducted by Shiksha too, maximum respondents said, they read newspaper to improve vocabulary. Check below the finding.

Candidates preparing for MBA entrance exams such as CAT, XAT, MAT, CMAT, NMAT, etc. specifically read newspapers as part of their preparation plan. Out of over 200 respondents who took the Shiksha poll, 40 % said they read newspaper, whereas 11% said they read vocabulary building books. 16% of the respondents solve tests and puzzles to improve vocabulary and 8% use flash cards. 25% however, understands that English vocabulary is vast and there is a need of using combination of all the methods for best results.

Poll result

While, reading vocabulary books and solving word puzzles are also proven methods of vocabulary building, newspaper is still the most popular. It could be because, in a newspaper one can find vocabulary of all types – easy, tough, local/foreign words, idioms, etymology, synonyms. Antonyms, similar sounding words, words with same spelling but different meanings, etc.