The Common Admission Test, which is also popularly known as the CAT exam, is conducted in the last week of November or early December, usually. The CAT exam is a very popularly known entrance exam for MBA aspirants. It is a national-level entrance exam. The registration for the exam usually begins in the month of August. Each year there are many students who are looking forward to filling the registration forms and waiting for the CAT exam. Most of the students start their preparation after filling the registration forms and are dedicated to doing well. Students join CAT coaching from institutions like Hitbullseye. The institution helps to guide students in the right direction and makes them do well in life. Through this article, we will try to understand the different sections of the CAT exam and how the students can prepare for CAT VARC. With the right knowledge of every section of the exam the students will find that they can move ahead in a manner that works for them. Students will be able to find a place for themselves that will make them reach the institutions they have dreamt of. All this will be possible when students give their best efforts and stay focused.
Details Regarding CAT VARC
While talking about the verbal ability for CAT, there are a total of 24 questions that consist of this section. Students have the sectional time limit of 40 minutes to complete all questions of this section. There are questions based on the English language in the entire VARC section. Students are supposed to have a very strong knowledge about reading comprehension. They have to practice many topics that are going to be mentioned later on in the article to make sure that they have a strong preparation. There are 3 marks awarded to the students for every correct answer in the VARC section. There is, however, a negative marking of 1 mark in the multiple choice questions, and there is no negative marking in the type-in-the-answer type questions.
Time Duration of the CAT Exam Pattern
The CAT exam is overall for 120 minutes, but students have to keep in mind that for the CAT examination, there is a sectional time limit. This means that each section of the CAT examination has a different time duration. Each section is supposed to be completed within 40 minutes. If students are not able to complete the section within this time limit, it will automatically move to the next section. Students in the CAT examination are not allowed to then go to the previous section and make any changes. Therefore, students have to keep the 40 minutes of time duration very much in their mind.
Syllabus of CAT VARC
Students will find that all the questions are in this section, surrounded by the English language. The various topics of the English language are of great importance if students want to do really well in this section. Students will realize that this section can actually become the highest scoring if students pay a lot of attention. In this section, students will find that there will be at least four to five reading comprehensions that will range from topics such as philosophy, sociology, literature, history, social culture, technology, exploration, etc. Therefore, for the reading comprehension for CAT, students need to have a broad perspective to understand these topics. Then when it comes to the verbal ability questions, students will find para jumbles, odd-out sentences, summaries, sentence completion, error identification, fill in the blanks, etc.
Conclusion
Students should make sure that for the CAT VARC section, they are reading a lot of newspapers and practising a lot of reading comprehensions that make them aware of different topics that are there. It is only when the students open their minds to various topics that they can gain knowledge, and it will be easier for them to read and understand. Students need to, every single day, try and solve at least one reading comprehension. This will help the students to become better at analysing faster what they’re reading. The CAT VARC section is heavily based on reading comprehension; therefore, this should be the first priority of the students. While students read a lot of material, this will help them to enhance their vocabulary as well, which is another important aspect of this section. And then students can move on to grammar topics that are also important from the point of view of the exam. A combined practice of all of these various things will help the students to do well in this section. Students can also try and apply the elimination method to some questions where they feel stuck. The VARC preparation for CAT is important.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the structure of the CAT VARC section?
Students often want to know what exactly is the structure of the CAT VARC section. Students will realize when they look into the CAT exam pattern that there are a total of 24 questions that are divided into two parts. 16 questions are out of these based on reading comprehension from 4 different passages, and 8 questions are focused on verbal ability.
2. How many months of preparation is considered good for the students?
While talking about the entire CAT exam, students can actually invest six to seven months of good preparation in order to feel confident to appear for the exam. While talking about the VARC section separately, students will realize that this entirely depends upon how well they feel prepared and how good they think their grasp on the English language is.
3. Should students trust online websites for their preparation for the exam?
Yes, the students can actually trust the online educational websites that provide the VARC preparation. Earlier, there used to be this narrow-minded notion that online websites will provide wrong information or the wrong kind of material to the students. This was somewhat true, but on a larger scale these days everything has become more online mode.