Decoding the verbal enigma

Ankur Jain

Cracking the verbal section is one of the three challenges CAT throws at you. Since the premier institutes use sectional cut-offs, scoring well in this section is critical as well. Even if you score high in two sections, but perform badly in one, your chances of getting through a reputed management school are reduced. The top institutes prefer candidates who demonstrate all-round ability with the skills required to become a manager.

The verbal-ability (VA) portion of the section checks reading and how comfortable you are with English, the global language of business communication. It emphasises reading skills, as is clear from the high weightage given to reading comprehension and reading-oriented VA in the last few years. Thus, you should focus on improving reading skills. The CAT looks at your ability to go through wide-range of reading material in depth. So concentrate on reading material that you may not have read earlier, for example philosophy, spirituality, religion, social sciences, humanities, sciences, etc. Ideally, you should spend approximately 80 per cent of your time of English preparation on reading and answering questions. Memorising rules of grammar or cramming up words, at this stage, will bear little benefit, so do not worry too much about these. You may spend maximum 20 per cent of your English preparation time on these activities. Please note that solving questions on the pattern of the previous years’ examination is much more beneficial than only learning words and rules of grammar.

Be your own tutor

Take mock exams on a regular basis. This will improve your mental and physical stamina to attempt a tough examination and also prepare you for unexpected situations. Since CAT pattern is unpredictable, practicing a test-series like the 

AIMCATs, with several tests patterns and difficultly levels, is important. Further, analyses of mock exams is even more important, since this will help you to understand your strengths and weaknesses, build stronger concepts, practice skills, capitalise on  strengths and remove problems.

Follow up on the analyses by working on your weak areas. Whatever emerges as the strong area can be practiced less and whatever as weak should be devoted more time. Take sectional tests to increase you speed of answering questions. After you attempt a practice RC, don't check the answers immediately. Instead, check all the difficult words from a dictionary and all the difficult concepts on the internet. Read the article again. Check which answers you want to change. Then check the keys. You will find that in many cases, you have improved your answers.

Improve your attempt

While attempting the examination, allocate time proportionate to the marks of the two sub-sections of RC and VA. Try to read all the questions in the given time. Attempt the questions you know and leave the ones you are not sure about. Do not get stuck on one sub-section,since the target should be to at least read all the questions. If you have time left after one sub-section, you can use the time for  other section. In RC, devote some time to scanning the passages and questions and choose passages with easy questions.  Do not pick easy passages always, since it is for answering questions that you will get marks, not for reading the passages. Attempt as many passages as you can. If there are some difficult (inferential) questions in a passage, leave them without being tempted by the thought that you must do these, since you have attempted others from the same passage. Similarly, if you plan to leave a passage, check for some easier (non-inferential) questions that you may  still be able to attempt.

Learn to differentiate

If you are bothered about two options being similar in an RC/VA question, focus on the difference between the options and not the similarity. The answer lies where the difference lies. Please note that CAT may give you questions with more than one correct answer (up to all correct answers). In this case, look for the option that is the best option. Similarly, CAT may give a question with all wrong answers. In this case, look for the least wrong answer.

—The writer is Chief Knowledge Expert, T.I.M.E.