The Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) section of the Common Admission Test (CAT) is a critical component of the exam and contributes significantly to the overall score. It assesses candidates' proficiency in language comprehension, reasoning, and vocabulary. The VARC section is known for its variety and depth, requiring candidates to hone multiple skills to perform well.
In CAT 2025, the VARC section consists of 24 questions, and candidates are allotted 40 minutes to attempt them. This section is divided into two parts: Reading Comprehension (RC) and Verbal Ability (VA). RC questions typically make up the larger portion of the section. To understand the VARC syllabus in more detail, let’s break it down and explore what candidates can expect and how they can prepare effectively.
Structure of the VARC Section
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Parameter
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Details
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Total Number of Questions
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24 Questions
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Time Allotted
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40 Minutes
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Question Types
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- Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
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- Type-in-the-Answer (TITA) Questions (non-MCQ)
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Marking Scheme
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+3 for correct answers
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-1 for incorrect answers (only for MCQs)
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No negative marking for TITA questions
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This structure emphasizes both comprehension skills and the ability to analyze and interpret text accurately and efficiently within a limited time frame. Since VARC is one of the first sections in CAT, it is essential to approach it with a strategy that helps manage time well.
Breakdown of the VARC Sections
1. Reading Comprehension (RC)
Reading Comprehension (RC) forms the bulk of the VARC section in CAT and tests the candidate's ability to understand and interpret written content.
Key Features of RC:
- Number of Passages: Typically 4 to 5 passages are included in this section.
- Passage Length: Each passage is generally between 600 to 700 words.
- Number of Questions: 16 questions related to the passages.
- Difficulty Level: RC passages in CAT are of moderate to difficult difficulty. These passages test not just comprehension but also the candidate’s ability to interpret, infer, and analyze information.
Themes of Reading Comprehension:
The passages in CAT can cover a broad range of topics, including:
- Science and Technology
- Economics and Society
- History and Politics
- Arts and Culture
- Philosophy and Psychology
- Literature and Social Issues
These passages are designed to evaluate a candidate’s ability to:
- Comprehend complex ideas.
- Analyze arguments presented in the text.
- Draw inferences from the given information.
- Critically evaluate the statements or views presented.
- Understand nuances and meanings that are not explicitly stated.
While some passages may require background knowledge of specific subjects, most can be understood with strong reading and analytical skills.
Tips for Reading Comprehension:
- Practice Active Reading: As you read, focus on understanding the main ideas, tone, and arguments presented.
- Don’t Memorize: Rather than trying to memorize facts, focus on the underlying ideas and themes. The questions in RC usually revolve around themes, tone, and arguments.
- Work on Speed: Since time is a constraint, aim to read passages efficiently without missing key information.
- Analyze Previous CAT Papers: Reviewing previous years' RC passages can help familiarize you with the types of questions asked and the level of difficulty.
2. Verbal Ability (VA)
The Verbal Ability section tests a candidate’s proficiency in language skills, grammar, and sentence structure. While the RC section covers comprehension, VA focuses more on language mechanics and reasoning.
Key Features of VA:
- Number of Questions: Typically 8 questions in this section.
- Question Types: The questions in VA vary and can include the following:
- Para Jumbles (PJ): These are questions where sentences are given in a jumbled order, and candidates are required to reorder them logically.
- Para Summary: A brief passage is provided, and candidates are asked to choose the most appropriate summary.
- Odd Sentence Out (OSO): A set of sentences is given, and candidates have to identify the sentence that doesn't logically fit with the rest.
- Fill-in-the-Blanks: A sentence with one or more blanks is given, and candidates must choose the correct word to fill the blank based on the context.
- Sentence Correction: These questions assess grammar and sentence construction skills.
- Sentence Completion: These questions require candidates to complete sentences meaningfully based on the options provided.
Tips for Verbal Ability:
- Strengthen Grammar Skills: A strong understanding of grammar is crucial for VA. Pay attention to sentence structure, punctuation, and the usage of tenses.
- Practice Para Jumbles: Regular practice of para jumbles can help improve your ability to quickly identify the logical order of sentences.
- Improve Vocabulary: A good vocabulary will help you not only in VA questions but also in comprehending RC passages.
- Work on Synonyms and Antonyms: Many questions in the VA section test the ability to identify synonyms, antonyms, and words used in specific contexts.
- Read Widely: Exposure to different types of writing, including essays, articles, and reports, can help enhance language skills and comprehension.
VARC Syllabus and Topics for CAT 2025
To ensure effective preparation, it is essential to understand the key areas covered in the VARC syllabus. Below is a breakdown of the major topics for both Reading Comprehension and Verbal Ability.
Reading Comprehension
- Comprehension of Passage Content: Focus on understanding the main ideas, arguments, and perspectives.
- Inference and Conclusion: Ability to draw conclusions and make inferences based on the text.
- Vocabulary Understanding: Questions may test your understanding of words or phrases in context.
- Tone and Style of the Passage: Identifying the author’s tone (e.g., critical, neutral, optimistic) and style (e.g., formal, informal, argumentative).
Verbal Ability
- Para Jumbles (PJ): Identify the correct order of sentences.
- Para Summary: Understand the central idea of a short paragraph and select the best summary.
- Sentence Completion: Fill in blanks using context clues.
- Error Spotting and Sentence Correction: Identify grammatical mistakes or syntactical issues in sentences.
- Vocabulary Usage: Focus on the correct usage of words based on context.
Sample questions for VARC Section
Sample 1 Directions for questions : The passage given below is followed by a set of questions. Choose the most appropriate answer to each question.
Two of the four main physical forces are familiar ones: electromagnetism and gravity. Even though it is the most obvious force we experience in everyday life, gravity is by far the weakest of the four. The reason why it is so important to us is that our weight is caused by the pull of the entire Earth, almost six million billion billion kilograms of matter (6 × 1024 kg), acting together.
It takes the gravitational pull of all that mass put together to hold us down on the surface of the Earth with the weight we feel. This can be put in perspective by comparing the strength of gravity with the strength of the electromagnetic force, or with one aspect of electromagnetism: the electric force. The electric force of repulsion between two protons is 1036 times stronger than the strength of the gravitational attraction between the same two protons the same distance apart.
On the nuclear and atomic scales, gravity is utterly insignificant, and molecules are held together by electric forces without any complications caused by the gravitational interactions between atoms. These electric forces can, of course, produce attraction, not just repulsion, which is what holds electrons and nuclei together in atoms, and holds atoms together to make molecules.
On the surface of the Earth, there is constant competition between electric forces holding things together and gravitational forces tending to break things apart. Because of this smaller bodies can survive more easily if they suffer a fall. But a large animal is likely to suffer broken limbs even by falling over, let alone in a fall from a tree or over a cliff. We humans are close to the limit of how big an active animal can be and survive on Earth. In order to be much larger than a human being, you have to be sturdy and ponderous, like an elephant, or live in the sea, like a whale, where the water offers support. Roughly speaking, the rule of thumb is that the volume of a body (and therefore its mass) is proportional to the cube of its linear size (its height), but the strength of its bones is only proportional to its cross-section, which depends on the square of the linear size. Since mass is proportional to volume, and the force of gravity pulling on a body (its weight) is proportional to its mass, as bodies get bigger the forces operating when they fall increase more than the ability of their bones to withstand a fall.
This puts the seemingly incredible weakness of gravity in a different perspective. Suppose gravity were a million times stronger (which would still leave it 1030 times weaker than the electric force). This would not be enough to affect atomic and molecular processes, so everything on the scale of atoms and molecules – in particular, chemistry – would operate the way it does in our Universe. But because of the volume rule, anything living on the surface of a planet in such a Universe would also have to be very small, in order not to break apart when it fell over. There could not be anything as large as us, and nothing with the same sort of complexity as us.
Most important of all, in this high-gravity universe, the stars would live for only about 10 thousand years before they had used up all their fuel, instead of living for about 10 billion years, as stars like the Sun do in our Universe. Since the chemistry in such a universe would be no different from that in our Universe, there would be no time for evolution even to begin. Gravity has to be as weak as it is for us to exist. A truly cosmic coincidence!
1. What is the main point of this passage?
1) Gravity is far weaker than the other physical forces like electromagnetism.
2) It’s a cosmic coincidence that gravity is as weak as it is.
3) Gravity has to be as weak as it is in order for life to exist.
4) If gravity hadn’t been as weak as it is, humans would never have evolved.
2. Would an elephant have an advantage over a human being in a universe in which gravity was a million times stronger than in ours?
1) Yes, as it would be better able to withstand a fall, because it is sturdy and massive.
2) Yes, as its bones would be proportionally stronger in comparison to its mass.
3) No, as it would be too heavy to survive for long.
4) No, as neither would be likely to evolve in the first place.
3. Which of the following is true about the electric force, as per this passage?
I. The electric force is the strongest of the four main physical forces.
II. The electric force of repulsion between two protons is 1036 times stronger than the strength of the attraction between the same two protons.
III. Atoms and molecules are held together by the forces of electric attraction.
1) Only II 2) Only III 3) I and II 4) I and III
4. This passage describes a hypothetical high-gravity universe. Which of the following is likely to be true, as per the information given in the passage, in a hypothetical universe in which gravity is a million times weaker than it actually is?
1) Chemistry would work very differently from that in our Universe.
2) More animals would evolve to be as large as or even larger than whales.
3) Stars and planets would never form, as gravity would not be strong enough to pull enough material together.
4) None of the above.
Sample 2
‘Nothing is so much to be shunned as sex relations,” said St. Augustine, and American psychotherapy has lately taken up his cry, at least regarding therapists’ relations with their patients. Rightly so, says Susan Baur in her new book, “The Intimate Hour: Love and Sex in Psychotherapy.” But, she asks, if everyone opposes it, even to the point of making it a crime, “why do sexual intimacies continue among persons who say they are against them?”
Ms. Baur continues, “We have a group of professions whose members are in condemning sex between therapists and their current clients — 98 percent say it is wrong — yet among the I .2 million or so individuals out there who Offer advice in consulting rooms, hospitals, clinics, churches, prisons, and halfway houses, many more than 2 percent enter into erotic relations.”
Could it be that sexual feelings are part of what makes a successful therapy possible? As the author asks, “How do two people sit across from each other in therapy, becoming closer and more intimate by the hour, without sometimes giving in to the full and natural expression of love?” Seeking answers to these questions, she finds, reports grow scarcer, more formulaic in describing
predatory males who prey on vulnerable females, and more one-sided in their condemnation. But, she writes, with the increasing feminization of the therapeutic professions, abuse is likely to diminish. And with the rise of managed care, the rules against transgression are hardening. So strict is prohibition growing that “serious considerations of the physical attraction that develops so often between doctor and patient” are getting “swept under the rug” and becoming “undiscussable.’’
This distresses her because even in some of the most extreme cases she considers, she can’t help detecting certain benefits in the intrusion of sex. As often as patients feel abused, they also feel cared for, She insists, And as much as they are hurt, they are also helped, In short, as she writes in a footnote, “to say love makes a mess of therapy is not the same as saying it doesn’t exist.”
This is not to suggest that Ms. Baur believes “that sex can coexist with therapy.” She warns, “Some readers will confuse my desire to understand what happens when doctor and patient are strongly attracted to each Other with approval Of such liaisons, and others will be so certain that men are always abusive or women always hysterical that they will have difficulty imagining a Story that can respect the feelings of both.”
But she is also afraid that the imposition of stricter rules and regulations will inevitably backfire. She writes, “As teachers, therapists, and clergy bid a distracted farewell to intimacy, and as both the helper and the helped feel the frustration of being in a managed relationship instead of real one, it is possible that the rate of blatant sexual exploitation could rise rather than fall.”
Q1: Who is the author of this passage?
A. A therapist
B. Author Susan Baur
C. A victim
D. Book Reviewer
Q2: Why does Ms. Baur feel that blatant exploitation would rise with stricter rules and regulations?
A. The rules will instigate a rebellious attitude in clients to be further taken advantage of by the therapist.
B. The mutual intimacy that resulted from the strong connection between the patient and the therapist would be replaced by frustration leading to less consensual and more exploitative sex.
C. Patients will be less likely to speak up openly as they would be unwilling to subject their therapist to the extremely harsh consequences.
D. The lack of intimacy in sex would make the patients feel exploited even though the therapist cares for them and wants to help them.
Q3: Which of the following if true would negate the argument that stricter rules are making physical attraction between doctor and patient undiscussable?
A. Stricter rules are needed to protect the patient from predatory therapists.
B. 98 percent of the therapists have condemned sex between therapist and patient.
C. The incidents of physical intimacy are few as more than 88 percent of those in the therapeutic profession are women.
D. The reports of such cases are scarcer making it more difficult to understand the nature of physical attraction.
Q4: Which of the following statements is Ms. Baur most likely to agree with?
A. It is inevitable for the therapist and their clients to grow intimate over time.
B. Sexual relationships are essential to successful therapy sessions.
C. Incidents of sexual exploitation would rise as more stringent rules and laws are enacted to prohibit relationships between therapists and clients.
D. There is absolutely nothing to gain from mixing romance in therapy other than to just make a mess out of it.
Preparation Strategy for VARC
1. Reading Regularly
To improve your comprehension and analytical skills, it is crucial to read regularly. Diversify your reading materials, such as:
- Newspapers (e.g., The Hindu, The Times of India)
- Magazines (e.g., The Economist, TIME)
- Books and Articles on Science, Politics, and Literature
2. Practice with Mock Tests
Mock tests are invaluable in simulating the actual exam environment. Regularly practicing CAT-specific mock tests helps you get used to the time constraints and question patterns.
3. Analyze Your Mistakes
After attempting a set of practice questions or mock tests, always analyze your mistakes. Understanding why an answer was wrong and revising the concepts helps in avoiding similar mistakes in future attempts.
4. Focus on Accuracy Over Speed
While speed is important, accuracy should be your primary focus. It is better to answer fewer questions correctly than to rush through and make mistakes.
Conclusion
The VARC section of CAT 2025 is designed to test both verbal and analytical skills. By developing strong reading habits, improving your vocabulary, practicing consistently, and focusing on understanding the content, you can perform exceptionally well in this section. With careful planning and strategic preparation, the VARC section can become one of your strongest areas in the CAT exam.
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