How to Improve Reading Comprehension for CAT
The aspirants must follow a strategic preparation strategy to grasp this section well. Our experts have listed some guiding points on how to improve RC for CAT.
- The aspirants must be prepared as per the latest trends of CAT Reading Comprehension questions. Get updated with CAT RC preparation study notes from BYJU’S Exam Prep CAT online classes.
- Read the best books to practice RC for CAT.
- While attempting CAT Reading Comprehension questions, balance your time in reading the question and the passage. Do not invest too much time in reading the passage.
- One of the best Reading comprehension for CAT tips as per experts is to choose which RC to attempt while giving the exam. It is important to judge whether you wish to attempt the question or leave it.
Below are some well-curated books for Reading comprehension for CAT practice.
CAT Reading Comprehension Practice Books | Author's Name |
How to Prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for CAT | Arun Sharma and Meenakshi Upadhyay/Arihant |
How to Prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for the CAT | Sharma and Upadhyay |
Reading Comprehension for CAT Tips
The aspirants need to practice repeatedly to prepare for the CAT RC questions. Practising is very important to build a good grip on English vocabulary skills. Additionally, if you practice regularly, you will understand what type of passages you will get in the CAT exam and how to extract information from them to answer the questions. Try to solve 2-3 passages each day for CAT reading comprehension practice
When it comes to reading comprehension, the aspirants should aim to acquire new words, synonyms, antonyms, meaning, error correction, and answering strategies for the RC questions. Here, BYJU’S Exam Prep experts have highlighted quick tips and tricks and tips on how to improve RC for CAT
Be Focused on the Core Idea of the CAT RC Passage
The aspirants must focus on the core ideas of the passage given in the CAT reading comprehension question. It is very important to understand the meaning of the passage to solve the questions accurately.
If you read the CAT RC passages carefully, you will be able to analyze the passage and its meaning. It will help you to fix your confusion so that you can easily conclude the entire passage.
Improve Your Reading Habits
The aspirants must enhance their reading habits by reading novels, storybooks, fiction, non-fiction magazines, and newspapers like TOI, Economist, and The Hindu. You must give preferences to your reading skills first to solve RC questions in the CAT exam. The aspirants can also read magazines and online articles from their areas of interest. It is good to be updated with the latest information because CAT RC passages often come from current events.
Focus on Vocabulary Skills
Reading Comprehension for the CAT exam relies on a combination of context, vocabulary, and the interaction of words. So, you must understand the meaning, importance, and application of each before starting your preparation.
The aspirants can also follow the dictionary to look up the meaning and application of the words they are unfamiliar with. It is really helpful to enhance the work stocks with their synonyms, antonyms, and usage in the sentences.
Maintain a Diary to Make Important Notes to Improve RC for CAT
The aspirants must maintain a diary to note down every uncommon word with its meaning and uses in the sentences. It is helpful to make time-to-time revisions. Additionally, if you make notes, you can do a quick revision before the exam dates.
Maintaining a diary will also boost your memory. If you prepare anything with writing practice, you can easily recall them at the time of the exam. Additionally, it keeps your preparation on track.
Use Your Freetime
The aspirants must use their free time by revising the study materials they have followed during practising the reading comprehension for CAT. If they ignore revising, they will forget what they have studied. So, you must revise your notebooks in your free time to gain more confidence to solve the CAT RC passages.
You can also utilize your free time by reading good novels, as it is very helpful to enhance English vocabulary. The RC passages in CAT questions are very standard; therefore, reading habit for good novels is required.
Solve Previous Year CAT RC Questions
The aspirants must solve previous years’ CAT question papers to get an idea about CAT RC passages. It will help them to understand the types and difficulty level of reading comprehension and be prepared accordingly. You can also attempt BYJU’S Exam Prep CAT RC mock test for practising reading comprehension for CAT. It will help you to analyze your preparation level.
The reading comprehension questions in the CAT exam are a little time-consuming, as this is the only section that does not follow any formulas and shortcut tricks to solve the questions. Thereby, you must practice this section well and try to follow strategic preparation tactics to score well in this section. Check section-wise preparation tips for the CAT exam.
Reading Comprehension for CAT- Types of Questions
The baseline of the RC for the CAT exam remains the same with the chances of idioms, phrases, and vocabulary. However, the central idea of the passage may vary with the recent updates of news and current events.
Note the table below to get a thorough understanding of the types of questions you may face to solve reading comprehension CAT questions. The types of RC questions in CAT mentioned below are as per the previous year analysis.
RC CAT Question Types | Key Features |
Reasoning based Questions | It includes Statement, Assumption, True-False, Inference, Judgement |
Vocabulary Questions | Find out the similar meaning of the word or the phrase used in the RC passage |
Opposite Meaning questions | Pick out the answer option with the opposite meaning of the word/phrase as used in the passage |
Thought based | Summarised the central idea of the passage in your own words |
Fact Verification | Choose the answer that agrees or disagrees with the idea expressed by the author |
How to Practice Reading Comprehension for CAT?
Everybody knows that reading books is the best way to capture interest in comprehension passages, as it improves our focus and accuracy. The CAT RC passages are generally extracted from the below areas:
- Business and Economics
- Humanities
- Social Sciences
- Natural Sciences
- Current Events
Thereby, give priority to reading the passages in the CAT exam to understand the subject and core information. Note the table below to get an idea about what type of topics you will face during the CAT exam.
CAT RC Topics 2021 | ||
Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 3 |
Utopia Distopia | Nationalism (Ghar Bahar) | NanoTech |
T Trade | Philosophy (Truth and Power) | Psychology |
Experiments on CuttleFish | Languages (Weish) | Robotics |
What Mayans Considered a Person | Knowledge (Detach Yourself) | Time and Clock |
RC for CAT - Best Books to Prepare
The aspirants must remember that there is no definite syllabus for preparing RC passages for the CAT exam. Our experts have listed down some books by analysing the previous years' questions, which you can follow while preparing for CAT RC passages.
For Reading comprehension for CAT practice, you must download the question papers and solve multiple CAT mock tests.
Books | Author |
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey | Stephen Covey |
A Brief History of Time | Stephen Hawking |
Cosmos | Carl Sagan |
An Illustrated Retelling of Mahabharata - Jaya | Devdutt Patnaik |
India in Slow Motions | Mark Tully |
Capitalism & Freedom | Milton Friedman |
Maximum City | Suketu Mehta |
Long Walk to Freedom | Nelson Mandela |
Wings of Fire | APJ Abdul Kalam |
Shantaram | David Gregory Roberts |
Around the world in Eighty Days | Jules Verne |
The Time Machine | HG Wells |
Caves of Steel | Isaac Asimov |
The Hunger Games | Suzanne Collins |
Three Men in a Boat | Jerome K Jerome |
Something Fresh | P G Wodehouse |
Where Eagles Dare | Alistair McLean |
Besides, the above-listed books, the aspirants can also follow newspapers and journal articles to read for RC for CAT.
News and Journals | |
The Hindu | Times of India |
The Stateman | Business Week |
The Economist | Newsweek |
The National Geography | Fortune |
Business World | The Telegraph |
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