CAT VARC Syllabus 2024, Question Distribution, Weightage

CAT VARC Syllabus 2024: The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta released the official Common Admission Test (CAT) 2024 notification. All the information has been released on the major newspapers. The CAT 2024 will be be conducted on 24th of November 2024, which is the last Sunday of August. The exam will be conducted in three different slots, morning, afternoon, and evening. Moreover, normalization of scores is done to equalize as per the difficulty level of all slots.

In this blog we will look at the Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) syllabus in detail.

CAT VARC Syllabus

VARC Question Distribution

CAT VARC Syllabus 2024

We have already seen the topics that are a part of the VARC section of the CAT exam. Now, let us understand what exactly is asked in each of the above mentioned topics and what is required from us to accurately solve the questions.

Reading Comprehension (RC)

• Passages: Typically, the VARC section includes 4-5 reading comprehension passages.
• Question Types:
  • Inference-based questions: Test your ability to understand the underlying meaning.
  • Direct questions: Based on factual information presented in the passage.
  • Author's viewpoint: Identify the tone and stance of the author.
• Summary-based questions: Summarize the content effectively.
• Topics Covered: The passages can be from various subjects including, but not limited to, economics, sociology, science, history, and current affairs.

Verbal Ability (VA)

Para Jumbles: These questions require you to rearrange jumbled sentences to form a coherent paragraph. The key is to identify logical connections between sentences.

• Para Summary: You’ll need to summarize a given paragraph in the most accurate and concise form and choose the correct option.
• Odd One Out: Identify the sentence that doesn’t fit within a given set of sentences.
• Sentence Completion and Correction: Although less frequent in recent CAT exams, these questions might appear in different forms and test your grammar and sentence structuring skills.

The VARC topic-wise marks distribution for each sub-topic is clearly mentioned in the CAT syllabus PDF based on recent CAT previous year papers.

Some CAT questions include applying two or more topics from two or more groups. As a result, after practicing the questions topic by topic, it is necessary to take an adequate number of mock exams to develop the skill of applying the concepts in the appropriate contexts.

In addition, many strategies for answering the same question may exist, and applicants must choose the method that saves the most time.

Please keep in mind that the themes are only illustrative and not exhaustive. After reviewing the previous papers, we discovered that most of the questions fall under the areas covered in this syllabus.

CAT VARC Solving Tricks

1. Option Elimination Strategy: Unlike Quantitative Aptitude questions, VARC questions require a different approach. Usually, you won't be able to identify the right answer directly in a VARC question. This is because the options are very close and hence, confusing. If you want to increase your accuracy in this section, you will have to simply identify at least one incorrect element in your options. This is known as the option elimination strategy. Some of the most common patterns in a wrong answer option are distortion, introduction of a new fact/information, change in the cause and effect relationship, and using extreme words.
2. Speed Reading and Skimming: The skimming method is used by all the CAT toppers to read the RC passages fast. In this method, you have to read only the keywords in the paragraph and skip unimportant details such as any proper nouns or dates. You do not need to memorize such details because you can come back at the details of that particular paragraph at any time if required.
3. Paraphrasing: Once you are done reading one single paragraph, you simply have to write the summary, main point, or essence of that paragraph in one sentence right after reading it. It is important to remember that it is not always necessary to write the para summary on the paper, you can also keep it in your mind as well.
4. Get a Glimpse of the Questions Before Reading the RC Passage: Once you know what is expected out of the questions, you can easily aim on those particular areas without wasting any time. Hence, it is highly recommended that you read the questions, while it is not very important to read the options before reading the passage.

CAT VARC Preparation Resources

We have jotted down some helpful resources that can help you in your VARC preparation for the CAT exam. These resources would help you in practicing for the VARC questions, speed reading, VARC theory preparation, etc.

1. Newspapers: Reading newspapers not just helps in building necessary skills to solve the VARC questions accurately, but also but also provides you with the necessary awareness required during the interview process. Some of the highly recommended newspapers include The Hindu, Mint, and The Economic Times.
2. Cracku Free Daily Targets: Cracku offers free Daily Target practice tests for each section of the CAT exam along with video solutions for each question. Almost all the CAT toppers and 99+ percentilers who got into the BLACKI IIMs recommend taking these Free Daily Targets.
3. Coaching Classes: Many students contemplate on whether they should join any CAT coaching or not. To put all the cards on the table, free resources are not comparable with the material and resources that a good coaching center would provide you, in terms of quality. Hence, a lot of students opt for it in order to have a structured CAT preparation journey.
4. Past Year CAT Papers: The Previous Year Cat Papers are the best resource to prepare for any section of the CAT. This works wonders if you want any material or resources for practice purposes. Solving actual CAT questions helps you to understand your weaker areas and fill the gaps immediately.

CAT Score VS Percentile

Based on the past trends, this is the percentile you could get based on your score in the VARC section of the CAT 2024: