All Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) Notes

The **CAT Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)** section is the opening component of the Common Admission Test, setting the tone for your overall percentile. Designed to evaluate your command of the English language, this section prioritises critical reading, logical reasoning, and contextual text analysis over rote grammar rules.

The VARC section features 24 questions that must be completed within a strict 40-minute sectional time limit. The paper is structurally split, allocating roughly 70% of the weight to Reading Comprehension and 30% to non-MCQ and objective Verbal Ability questions.


* Section Structure: 16 Reading Comprehension (RC) questions and 8 Verbal Ability (VA) questions
* Exam Format: A mix of Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) and Type In The Answer (TITA) formats
* Core Question Types: RC Passages, Para-jumbles, Paragraph Summary, and Paragraph Completion
* Target Skills: Skimming and scanning dense text, identifying author arguments, and logical structural tracking
* Major Themes: Diverse reading topics ranging from philosophy, sociology, and economics to popular science