CAT Preparation

The Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension section of the CAT exam has 24 questions. This section has the maximum weightage. 24 questions carry 72 marks. The major part of this section is dominated by Reading Comprehension. It covers about 14-16 questions through 4-5 passages. Rest of the questions are asked from Verbal Ability like Para jumbles, Para summary and Para completion. Every Reading Comprehension passage of the CAT carries about four to five questions. There are usually 3-4 para jumble questions, 3-4 para summary questions and 2-3 para completion questions. Lately it has been seen the CAT does not have word meaning or grammar-based questions. CAT VARC is a high weightage section of high difficulty level. High difficulty level, because the CAT Reading Comprehension passages are long, dense and inference based. To read and understand the passages in a short time poses a challenge to a large number of candidates. So, it is very important to develop reading habit if you want to score high in CAT.

The total number of questions in the Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning section of CAT exam is 22 (as per CAT 2024 question paper). Earlier, the number of DILR questions was 20.

There is equal number of question distribution between Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning, which means both sections have 11 questions each. The total marks for DILR is 66. The questions on Data Interpretation as based on Tables, Graphs, Pie Charts, Venn Diagram, whereas Logical Reasoning questions are based on Blood Relation, Seating Arrangement, Caselets and Syllogism. This section of the CAT is usually moderate in terms of difficulty level and about 12-14 correct attempts are good enough to score high marks. Some of the other important topics include Series, Proposition, Direction Sense, Coding-Decoding, Assumptions, Clocks and Calendars, Statements, Binary Logic, Data Structures, Data Sufficiency and Data Arrangement. To score high in this section, candidates must practice a good number of practice tests and sectional mock tests. The better you learn to interpret given data and apply reasoning to a given situation, the better you get at solving related questions.

There are a range of books available for preparation of Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension section of CAT. However, the most recommended books are mentioned below:

1. How to Prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for the CAT by Arun Sharma and Meenakshi Upadhyay
2. Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for the CAT by Nishit Sinha 
3. Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis 
4. High School Grammar and Composition by Wren and Martin 
5. 30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary by Wilfred Funk and Norman Lewis/Simon and Schuster 
6. For English Grammar and Vocabulary, High School Grammar and Composition by Wren and Martin is the best book. 

For Verbal Ability preparation, practice questions of different difficulty levels are a major part of preparation. The abovementioned books are the best resources of Verbal Ability and practice questions. To prepare for Reading Comprehension, candidates should read books, novels, magazines, research papers, newspaper editorials, etc. Along with these books.

The best books for Quantitative Aptitude preparation of CAT exam are listed below. These books are recommended by experts and mentors not only for CAT but also for other MBA entrance exams.

1. NCERT Mathematics books (Class 9-10) 
2. How to Prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for the CAT by Arun Sharma 
3. Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Examinations by Abhijit Guha 
4. Quantitative Aptitude Quantum CAT by Sarvesh Verm
5. Quantitative Aptitude for CAT by Nishit Sinha 
6. Quantitative Aptitude by RS Aggarwal 

The NCERT Mathematics book is recommended for CAT preparation because it is the best source of building or revisiting the fundamentals of Algebra Geometry, Trigonometry Mensuration and Arithmetic. The NCERT books are extremely helpful to students from non-Engineering background. Quantitative Aptitude books by Arun Sharma, Abhijit Guha, Sarvesh Verma, Nishit Sinha and RS Aggarwal are the main books for CAT preparation as they cover all the topics at advanced level. They also have 1000s of sample questions of easy, moderate and high difficulty levels for practice.