Verbal Ability for CAT 2024: Pattern, Expected Questions, How to Prepare, Tips

Common Admission Test (CAT) is the largest MBA entrance exam for admission in 21 IIMs and majority of other top B-schools. CAT is a computer based test of two hours duration and is divided into three sections: Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension; Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning; Quantitative Ability. Below is the CAT preparation plan for CAT Verbal Ability 

The Verbal Ability for CAT questions are part of the Verbal Ability Reading Comprehension section which carry high weightage in the entire CAT exam. Out of total 66 questions in CAT, Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) section consists of 24 questions. Out of these 24 questions in VARC, Verbal Ability part has 8 questions based on English Language usage. 

Read below all about what is Verbal Ability? How is the CAT Verbal Ability Test? What are the topics covered in the Verbal Ability for CAT Syllabus? How to Prepare for VA, toppers’ tips

Table of Contents

1. CAT Exam Pattern

2. What is Verbal Ability for CAT Exam?

3. Verbal Ability Reading Comprehension Topics & Questions Appeared in CAT

4. Verbal Ability Syllabus for CAT

5. Toppers Tips for CAT Verbal Ability Preparation

6. CAT Verbal Ability Sample Questions with Answers

7. Best Verbal Ability Preparation Books for CAT

8. CAT 2024 Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension Preparation Plan for 6 Months, 3 Months, 1 Month

9. CAT Verbal Ability Preparation Tips by Experts & Videos   

1. CAT Exam Pattern
Before moving on your preparation path, it is very important to understand the CAT exam pattern as below:

2. What is Verbal Ability for CAT Exam?
Verbal Ability is the test of English Language in CAT. Questions in Verbal Ability (VA) section in CAT focus on your English grammar and sentence formation skills. The Verbal Ability for CAT Questions are based on English Language, Grammar, Vocabulary, correct understanding of paragraph, para summary among other key topics. So, the questions in CAT Verbal Ability Test are asked to test the understanding of coherent and flawless usage of English Language. An important part of CAT preparation, CAT Verbal Ability questions constitute 33% share in Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) Section in the CAT exam. 

3. Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension Topics & Questions Appeared in CAT 2023

4. Verbal Ability Syllabus for CAT
Once you know about the VARC CAT Pattern 2024, your next step for preparation is to scan the CAT Syllabus. Please note that CAT exam VARC syllabus is not pre-defined by IIMs and is based on latest topics that appeared in past CAT exams.

5. CAT Toppers’ Verbal Ability Preparation Tips & Strategy

Most of the CAT toppers with varying back ground, found themselves less prepared for CAT Verbal Ability section when they started Verbal Ability Preparation for CAT, yet they ended up cracking the CAT Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension in CAT with 95+ percentile and above! So what is the mystery behind their preparation strategy of Verbal Ability for CAT Questions and cracking successfully the CAT Verbal Ability Questions in the exam with an ease? Sharing with MBAUniverse.com, CAT toppers spoke about their preparation strategy for Verbal Ability and also shared advice to CAT aspirants:

How to Prepare Verbal Ability for CAT: Topper Tips by Ekansh Gupta (99.91% in CAT)   
In an exclusive interview with MBAUniverse.com, CAT Topper Ekansh Gupta, who scored 99.91%ile in CAT 2020 and was a student of IIM Calcutta 2021-23 batch shared how he prepared and cracked Verbal Ability in CAT exam. He said, “I decided to start with the basic read 10 books in a period of 2 months. Post that I started with CR exercises from GMAT Club and other free resources. This was followed by practice from past mocks. I also enrolled for GEJO VARC 1000 which I found quite useful.”

How to Prepare Verbal Ability for CAT: Topper Tips by Nandan Goel (99.95% in CAT)
CAT topper Nandan Goel who score 99.95 percentile in CAT exam and was a student of IIM Calcutta 2021-23 batch, has shared his preparation strategy with MBAUniverse.com on how he cracked Verbal Ability as below, “I solely focused on mocks and sectional tests. But again, I completed them in their entirety. I made a point of attempting every question in this section, unless I cant understand the meaning of a problem.”

How to Prepare Verbal Ability for CAT: Topper Tips by Rohan Joshi (99.63% in CAT) 
In an interview with MBAUniverse.com, CAT Topper Rohan Joshi (99.63 % in CAT 2017) explained how he cracked Verbal Ability section. He said, “VARC was most challenging for me and my motive was to just clear the sectional cut off.” However, Rohan ended up with a sectional CAT score of 96.40 in Verbal Ability section. He achieved this high percentile by consistent study and taking all sectionals for Verbal.

How to Prepare Verbal Ability for CAT: Topper Tips by Akhil Garg, (99.73% in CAT) 
Sharing with MBAUniverse.com, CAT topper Akhil Garg IIM Ahmedabad student of 2017-19 batch, said “I focused a lot on reading different articles and novels, conversing in English with friends and even watching English TV series and movies. I wrote down whatever new words I encountered after reading at least 5-6 newspaper articles every day.”

How to Prepare Verbal Ability for CAT: Topper Tips by Gyayak Jain, (100% in CAT)
In an interview with MBAUniverse.com, CAT topper with 100 percentile and IIM Ahmedabad student of 2017-19 batch, Gyayak Jain said, “I believe I was weak in VARC and therefore I started by looking into model answers given in the solutions and tried to understand if I associated with the logic given in the solution. If I was satisfied with the logic given in the solution, which was not always true, I tried to look problems from that point of view also in the next mock. When I was not convinced with the solution, I ignored the mistake and went ahead with my intuition/logic in next mocks too. If I find that same mistake is repeating, then I tried to find out situations where my logic will not work. I tried experimenting with various exam attempting strategies and realised I get fatigued if I do same kind of problems together in one go, so I mix-matched various types of questions.”

How to Prepare Verbal Ability for CAT: Topper Tips by Rachit Gupta, (99.83% in CAT)
CAT topper with 99.83 percentile, Rachit Gupta, IIM Lucknow student of 2017-19 batch shared with MBAUniverse.com, “I was very weak at the verbal section. The key reason was the slow reading speed. I took course material from TIME and my strategy was to emphasize more on my weakness which was the Verbal section.”

How to Prepare Verbal Ability for CAT: Topper Tips by Sai Praneeth Reddy (100% in CAT)
Sai Praneeth Reddy felt that he needed hard work in VARC which he did in the last one month to CAT. Mocks helped him to improve a lot in CAT preparation.  His advice on Verbal Ability preparation for CAT is to learn from mistakes and don’t miss AIMCAT. To improve in VARC the best way, is to start reading novels and articles. 

6. CAT Verbal Ability Sample Questions with Answers
Below are shared the sample questions with answers to help you Prepare Verbal Ability for CAT:

Q.1: There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide where (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.
Sentence: The discovery helps to explain archeological similarities between the Paleolithic peoples of China, Japan, and the Americas.

Paragraph: The researchers also uncovered an unexpected genetic link between Native Americans and Japanese people. ___(1)___. During the deglaciation period, another group branched out from northern coastal China and travelled to Japan.___(2)___. "We were surprised to find that this ancestral source also contributed to the Japanese gene pool, especially the indigenous Ainus," says Li. ___(3)___. They shared similarities in how they crafted stemmed projectile points for arrowheads and spears.___(4)___. "This suggests that the Pleistocene connection among the Americas, China, and Japan was not confined to culture but also to genetics," says senior author Qing-Peng Kong, an evolutionary geneticist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Ans Options

1. Option 1
2. Option 3
3. Option 2
4. Option 4

Correct Answer: 3

Q.2: The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4) given below, when properly sequenced, would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer.

1. What precisely are the “unusual elements” that make a particular case so attractive to a certain kind of audience?

2 . It might be a particularly savage or unfathomable level of depravity, very often it has something to do with the precise amount of mystery involved.

3. Unsolved, and perhaps unsolvable cases offer something that “ordinary” murder doesn’t.

4. Why are some crimes destined for perpetual re-examination and others locked into permanent obscurity?

Case Sensitivity: No

Answer Type: Equal

It is a TITA (Non MCQ Question) Correct Answer is: 4123

Q.3: There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide where (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.

Sentence: This philosophical cut at one’s core beliefs, values, and way of life is difficult enough.

Paragraph: The experience of reading philosophy is often disquieting. When reading philosophy, the values around which one has heretofore organised one’s life may come to look provincial, flatly wrong, or even evil. ___(1)___ . When beliefs previously held as truths are rendered implausible, new beliefs, values, and ways of living may be required. ___(2)___ . What’s worse, philosophers admonish each other to remainunsutured until such time as a defensible new answer is revealed or constructed. Sometimes philosophical writing is even strictly critical in that it does not even attempt to provide an alternative after tearing down a cultural or conceptual citadel. ___(3)___ . The reader of philosophy must be prepared for the possibility of this experience. While reading philosophy can help one clarify one’s values, and evenmake one self-conscious for the first time of the fact that there are good reasons forbelieving what one believes, it can also generate unremediated doubt that is difficult tolive with.

___(4)___.

Ans Options

1. Option 1

2. Option 4

3. Option 3

4. Option 2

Correct Answer: 4

Q 4: Five jumbled up sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.

1. In English, there is no systematic rule for the naming of numbers; after ten, we have "eleven" and "twelve" and then the teens: "thirteen", "fourteen", "fifteen" and so on.

2. Even more confusingly, some English words invert the numbers they refer to: the word "fourteen" puts the four first, even though it appears last.

3. It can take children a while to learn all these words, and understand that "fourteen" is different from "forty".

4. For multiples of 10, English speakers switch to a different pattern: "twenty ","thirty", "forty" and so on.

5. If you didn't know the word for "eleven", you would be unable to just guess it –you might come up with something like "one-teen".

Case Sensitivity: No

Answer Type: Equal

It is a TITA Question: Correct Possible Answer: 3

Q.5: Five jumbled up sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence and key in the number of that sentence as your answer.

1. Having an appreciation for the workings of another person’s mind is considered a prerequisite for natural language acquisition, strategic social interaction, reflexive thought, and moral judgment.

2. It is a ‘theory of mind’ though some scholars prefer to call it ‘mentalizing’ or ‘mindreading’, which is important for the development of one's cognitive abilities.

3. Though we must speculate about its evolutionary origin, we do have indications that the capacity evolved sometime in the last few million years.

4. This capacity develops from early beginnings in the first year of life to the adult’s fast and often effortless understanding of others’ thoughts, feelings, and intentions.

5. One of the most fascinating human capacities is the ability to perceive and interpret other people’s behaviour in terms of their mental states.

Case Sensitivity: No

Answer Type: Equal

It is a TITA (Non MCQ) Question: Possible Answer: 2

Q 6: The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4) given below, when properly sequenced, would yield a coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the sequence of the four numbers as your answer.

1. Algorithms hosted on the internet are accessed by many, so biases in AI models have resulted in much larger impact, adversely affecting far larger groups of people.

2. Though “algorithmic bias” is the popular term, the foundation of such bias is not in algorithms, but in the data; algorithms are not biased, data is, as algorithmsmerely reflect persistent patterns that are present in the training data.

3. Despite their widespread impact, it is relatively easier to fix AI biases than human-generated biases, as it is simpler to identify the former than to try to make people unlearn behaviors learnt over generations.

4. The impact of biased decisions made by humans is localised and geographically confined, but with the advent of AI, the impact of such decisions is spread over a much wider scale.

Case Sensitivity: No

Answer Type: Equal

It is a TITA (Non MCQ) question, Possible Answer: 4123 

Q.7: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

Manipulating information was a feature of history long before modern journalism established rules of integrity. A record dates back to ancient Rome, when Antony met Cleopatra and his political enemy Octavian launched a smear campaign against him with “short, sharp slogans written upon coins.” The perpetrator became the first Roman Emperor and “fake news had allowed Octavian to hack the republican system once and for all”. But the 21st century has seen the weaponization of information on an unprecedented scale. Powerful new technology makes the fabrication of content simple, and social networks amplify falsehoods peddled by States, populist politicians, and dishonest corporate entities. The platforms have become fertile ground for computational propaganda, ‘trolling’ and ‘troll armies’.

Ans Options

1. People need to become critical of what they read, since historically, weaponization of information has led to corruption.
2. Octavian used fake news to manipulate people and attain power and influence, Justas people do today.
3. Disinformation, which is mediated by technology today, is not new and has existed sinceancient times.
4. Use of misinformation for attaining power, a practice that is as old as the Octavian era, is currently fuelled by technology.

Correct Answer: 4

Q 8: The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

Colonialism is not a modern phenomenon. World history is full of examples of one society gradually expanding by incorporating adjacent territory and settling its people on newly conquered territory. In the sixteenth century, colonialism changed decisively because of technological developments in navigation that began to connect more remote parts of the world. The modern European colonial project emerged when it became possible to move large numbers of people across the ocean and to maintain political control in spite of geographical dispersion. The term colonialism is used to describe the process of European settlement, violent dispossession and political domination over the rest of the world, including the Americas, Australia, and parts of Africa and Asia.

Ans Options

1. Technological advancements in navigation in the 16th century, transformed colonialism, enabling Europeans to establish settlements and exert political dominance over distant regions.
2. Colonialism, conceptualized in the 16th century, allowed colonizers to expand their territories, establish settlements, and exercise political power.
3. Colonialism surged in the 16th century due to advancements in navigation, enabling British settlements abroad and global dominance.
4. As a result of developments in navigation technology, European colonialism, led tithe displacement of indigenous populations and global political changes in the 16th century.

Correct Answer: 1

7. Best Verbal Ability Preparation Books for CAT

VARC Preparation books and CAT preparation material online or offline play a major role in helping you in CAT preparation and score high in the CAT exam. A few of the best VARC books for CAT recommended by toppers to prepare for CAT are:

• How to Prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for CAT’- by Arun Sharma & Meenakshi Upadhyay
• ‘Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for the CAT’ - by Nishit K Sinha
• Latest RC Passages and practice questions provided by Study centres like TIME, CL among others
• Editorial and short articles published in English news papers
• ‘Word Power Made Easy’ – by Norman Lewis
• ‘High School English Grammar & Composition’ – by Wren & Martin
• Regularly solve the Verbal Ability questions from your study material especially on Para summary, Jumbled Paragraphs
• There is also number of CAT preparation books PDF free download available online for CAT 2024 aspirants
• Use the study material of best online coaching for CAT 2024

8. CAT 2024 Verbal Ability Reading Comprehension Preparation Plan for 6 Months, 3 Months, 1 Month

180 days (6 Month) CAT VARC Preparation Plan 2024
The VARC CAT preparation plan 2024 for next 180 days beginning from March/April, include your judiciously divided preparation hours and everything related to VARC preparation with at least 30 minutes of daily reading of newspapers, attending expert sessions on CAT preparation, your practice sessions, doubt solving sessions and all other preparation related steps. You need to gather best CAT Verbal preparation material including books, other online and offline CAT Verbal preparation material.

In next 180 days, you have close to 3600 hours available with you. According to CAT experts, you are expected to spend 15 to 20% of available hours out of 24 hours per day on CAT preparation. Accordingly, you have to spend 800 hours during next 180 days on CAT preparation and divide the same on Scanning the CAT Syllabus and divide it into sections for study; Choose Time Lines to complete the task one after another as follows:

• First 90 Days: Clear the Concepts & their Applications, Go for Tests. By the end of 85 days, you will know the topics, type of questions, that are asked in CAT VARC, their key concepts, how to answer
• Next 60 Days: Devise Strategy and Take Mocks, Sectional tests
• Last 30 Days: Go for revision and frame final strategy

CAT Verbal Ability & RC Preparation Study Plan: April, May, June, July
During March, April, May, June, July, devote 500 hours minimum to strengthen your concepts on the topics as per CAT syllabus and get complete clarity with attempting exercise questions on each concept simultaneously. This will help you to revise and understand how strong your basics have become and where you need further study of concepts.

How to Prepare for CAT 2024: 180 Days VARC Preparation Plan

Focus both on Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension. You can very well prepare for VARC section in 150 Hours in following manner

Overall CAT Verbal Ability & RC Section Month-wise Preparation Plan till CAT exam

Verbal Ability for CAT 2024: Start Taking CAT Mocks from August
Attempting maximum number of Mocks for CAT and analysing each of them is as important as appearing in actual CAT 2024 exam. So, what should be the Mock taking strategy and how many mocks you need to attempt – all details are shared below to prepare well for CAT 2024. 

Spend Exact 2 Hours to Attempt 1 Mock Test on CAT Verbal Ability
Each Mock is of 2 hours duration and you not only have to attempt the mock but also have to maximise your attempts with accuracy. How it can be achieved-Check below

Devote 3 hours to Analyse a Mock Test
After completing your CAT mock test in 2 hours, next 3 hours should be devoted to its analysis so that you may understand where you have gone wrong. Identifying your errors and rectifying them, will consistently improve your test taking strategy. If you take the mock at the scheduled hour, you will be ready for CAT day.

When to Start Taking Mocks? Experts explain
According to CAT experts, you should start taking Mocks and analyse each of them, beginning from August 3^rd or 4^th week

300 Hours that You Need for Different Types of Mocks:
You need to attempt 4 Types of Mocks. These four type of Mock tests that you would take in 300 hours and their time division to get ready for CAT exam day are:

75 Hours for Prime Mocks: Beginning from August, you must start taking full length prime mock tests.

• There would be 15 mock tests of 2 hours duration and each mock will be divided into 3 sections – VARC, DILR, Quant
• Each section in mock test will have sectional time limit of 40 minutes as is there in the CAT exam
• Each 2 hours Mock test will go through the 3 hours analysis to check and avoid any recurrence of similar mistake.

75 Hours for Count Down Mocks: After the first 75 hours, you need to move to full length count Down Mocks. Since CAT exam starts coming a bit closer, you would also be increasing your CAT preparation time.

• There will be at least 15 count down mock tests of 2 hours duration
• Like Prime mock, each Count Down Mock will be divided into 3 sections – VARC, DILR, Quant.
• Each section in mock test will have sectional time limit of 40 minutes, like actual CAT exam. Each 2 hours Mock test will again go through the 3 hours analysis to avoid any future error.

Sectional Mocks in 90 Hours: Next most important thing is to attempt sectional mocks. In other words these are the sectional CAT papers.

• You need to attempt at least 15 Mock Tests on Verbal Ability
• Attempt 15 Mocks on RC
• Take complete 15 VARC Mock Tests  
• Each sectional mock should be of 40 minute duration
• Each Sectional Mock must be followed by 80 minutes of analysis to check your preparedness in each section.

Solve Actual CAT Papers in 60 Hours: Since 2017 IIMs have started releasing the CAT exam papers for all the slots with answers.

• There are total 18 CAT question papers available so far, that you need to go through, solve and analyse
• In 2017, 2018, 2019 CAT was conducted in two slots of 3 hours duration on same day.
• In 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 CAT was conducted in 3 slots of 2 hours duration on the same day.
• There are 6 CAT question papers of 2017, 2018 and 2019 as there were 2 slots in each CAT exam,
• There are 12 CAT papers for 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 as there were 3 slots in each CAT exam.
• It is very important that you solve and analyse these CAT papers.

CAT VARC 3 Months Preparation Plan

• In last 3 months obviously, you will have more speed
• So, Use only 1 Month to prepare on concepts if not yet done
• Further improve your strengths
• In case you need to start some thing new, complete it latest by September
• Go for more practice sessions and taking Mocks
• Spend more time on CAT preparation.

CAT VARC 1 Month Preparation Plan

• In last 1 month avoid starting anything new
• Your Mock Taking Speed will increase, so use it taking Mocks and analysing them
• Take 4 VA Sectional Mocks and 2 Full Length Mocks every week 
• Further improve your strengths
• Spend more time on Revision

9. CAT VARC Preparation Tips by Experts & Videos
Experts and toppers suggest the four steps to crack the Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension Test for CAT:

• Understand the English vocabulary,
• Continue with Consistent flow of thoughts in Verbal Ability paragraph and RC Passages,
• Read between the lines to crack the meaning
• Arrive at the correct and decisive answer option for the questions

Read More: CAT 2024 - Exam Date, Registration, Syllabus, Preparation, Books