An Engineer’s guide to prepare for VARC -By Rohit Singh, 99.56 percentile, MDI Gurgaon - Part II

VARC is the most dreaded section for the majority of aspirants. These include especially engineers and often students from other domains as well. What would make this post different from the rest is the real struggle, an aspirant can associate themselves with my own journey. Let’s dig into how to prepare for VARC in the most effective way.

First of all, a brief background on my VARC journey: From ashes to a respectable position. 

A decent enough score which plunged to ‘Negative Marks’ in mocks during CAT’18 season. Yes, the sectional marks were actually negative (-4 &-5 marks in VARC). I tried to recuperate but achieved 68.93 percentile (32.43 marks) in CAT’18. Again, I started this year’s journey with a 75-80 percentile range in mocks and then escalated and finally achieved 96.71 percentile (53.60 marks) in CAT’19.

The scores in my Verbal section across exams in 2019/20 are as follows:

• CAT: 96.71 percentile (53.60 marks)
• IIFT: 98.10 percenttile (80 marks)
• SNAP: 44.25 marks (overall 99.98 percentile)
• XAT: 98.86 percentile

A complete guide to prepare for VARC

But as dreadful as the section would seem, VARC is a misunderstood character. A character once tamed doesn’t seem so scary. The trick to prepare for VARC across all examinations remains more or less the same. 

Understanding RCs are crucial in securing overall respectable marks. It is a given fact that not everyone can get a 99, and that’s even difficult for people not so familiar with the language on the whole. So here are my two-cents on how I prepared the sections.

Reading Comprehension

Myth: You require good reading speed to ace the section

Reality: I did it with a below-par speed of 133 WPM

The difficulty can be segmented into 2 parts. 

• The Comprehension part which the difficulty can only be elevated in terms of understanding the passage and its central idea. CAT’19 was one such example. One cannot connect the dots to know what actually the passage is trying to convey and hence there is difficulty in managing the Q&As. 
• The other is the Options. In this type, either the question is made in such a way that the reader misses or misreads the obvious factors associated with it or the options are doctored purposefully to seem similar in everything except the main point.

A way out: There is no substitute for reading is a cliched answer with no further depth offered in it. The way out for Comprehension is to read as diversely as possible. Try making a point to touch upon at least one article from unfamiliar territory. For example, engineers can focus on non-tech literature and B.A. can touch on tech literature. The idea behind this is to get a hang of the logical structure and flow a particular type has to offer. 

For eliminating the options, one can start with a simple trick such as BANE (too Broad, Additional info, too Narrow, too Explicit). This requires practice to get to the level that you can see the purposefully put errors in the option. Time your RCs while solving, but focus on comprehension rather than regression.

Verbal Ability

Myth: You need to be too good to get all the words

Reality: Normal-versed in language can still do the trick

While VA varies from exam to exam, we can see the maximum weightage of Summaries and Words in most of them. While it still remains a dread for most, you can have a way around it if you find your spot. Not everyone is good at all the types of VA questions put in different exams.

A way out: Find your sweet spot. It can be words, it can be a summary, it can be the odd one out. While one can get good at summary while practicing RC comprehension as stated above, words require special attention. Pick up one good word list and start practicing, but it does not end there. One should be curious enough to use a dictionary even while reading newspapers and online articles. That does the trick as well.

By and large...

If you want to prepare for VARC thoroughly, understand that VA in CAT will remain unpredictable and hence should be attended wholeheartedly only after mastering RC which takes in a major chunk. There is no way around RC but the above-mentioned tricks shall work. While for other exams, words become essential and so do popular wordlists as well as curiosity while reading newspapers and articles is required.

If you think that these tips can help you prepare for VARC in a more efficient and productive way, check out the other article on my journey to MDI Gurgaon.

Good Luck!

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