Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) is the first and foremost important section of the CAT exam. Now, you’ve probably heard this, but every CAT topper shared that they scored most marks in only RCs with the right strategy, mindset, and consistent practice, which if implemented well, you can also score well. RCs make up nearly two-thirds of the VARC section, 48 out of 72 marks generally. So no matter how much you try to avoid them, mastering RCs is non-negotiable.
But many aspirants, maybe even you, have trouble reading and understanding RCs, as well as solving questions. RCs in recent CAT exams raise several challenges for aspirants, such as long passages, difficult language, unfamiliar terminology, large fonts, trouble remembering details, and frequent mistakes during practice. These issues can lead to irritation, frustration, and procrastination, which ultimately prevent any real progress in RCs. To help you overcome these problems, we are now providing a strategy to read RCs quickly and accurately, so you can score maximum marks in less time.
What makes RCs so Hard to Read and Understand?
Although many aspirants have studied English in school and college, many still struggle to understand and speak it fluently. This may not seem like a major issue when reading passages, but it often creates significant challenges for those who are not familiar with RCs.
Long Passages
In CAT 2024, most passages were around 450 to 550 words. While reading them may not seem difficult, understanding and remembering every detail can be challenging for readers who are not used to long-format passages.
Difficult Language
Most of us are familiar with basic English textbooks that present fact-based information and clear definitions. But what happens when a passage doesn’t state its main argument directly? A difficult RC in CAT can confuse many aspirants. Often, students find themselves unsure about the essence of the passage, what it is trying to convey, and what its main conclusion is.
Unfamiliar Terminology
This is a challenge that no one can escape. Almost every aspirant faces it, as CAT RCs cover a wide range of genres such as business and economics, politics, history, science and technology, philosophy, and arts and culture. These topics often include unfamiliar terminology, making comprehension more difficult. For instance, a commerce student may not be familiar with torque, covalent bonds, ionisation enthalpy, surface tension, dipole moment, and nuclear fission.
Large Fonts
After CAT 2023, the font size of exam passages has noticeably increased. While this change aims to help those with weak eyesight, it ends up confusing and frustrating many aspirants. Constantly scrolling through RCs and navigating large-font passages can cause irritation and break focus.
Trouble Remembering Details
This is a problem even toppers face. It’s natural to miss some details when starting RCs, but consistently forgetting key points and struggling to recall them makes the passages even more challenging.
Is it necessary for us to have a Reading Habit, Grammar, and Vocabulary to read and understand RCs?
Before answering this, note that the response is subjective, though many iQuanta CAT toppers support this view. The answer is a clear ‘No’—you don’t need to be an expert. That’s why consistent RC practice and proper analysis can help you score even a 99+ percentile.
However, here’s the twist: while reading habits and vocabulary may seem unnecessary, they play a key role. They help you read faster, understand passages better, and retain important details to answer questions accurately.
If you’re wondering how to build these skills, especially since doing it alone can take months of effort and come with many challenges. Therefore, the answer to this problem is simple: iQuanta VARC Essentials.
Recognizing the confusion around reading habits and vocabulary, iQuanta is launching VARC Essentials to help you master the fundamentals of VARC. This program offers access to both live and recorded classes, covering detailed strategies and tips for tackling RCs and VA questions that many aspirants often miss. 40 videos across different genres explaining RC in-depth, 12 videos with 10 VA questions solving each, and 8 strategy videos on each topic necessary in the VARC section–RC reading, RC Option Elimination, Parajumble, Parasummary, Odd One Out, Sentence Insertion, and Critical Reasoning. A package of all the necessary topics.
You’ll also gain access to our online community, where you’ll learn the most frequently used words in RCs and watch numerous video solutions across different genres. Beyond RCs, you’ll also learn effective techniques for Verbal Ability questions like para summaries, para jumbles, odd one out, and sentence insertion.
To clarify, VARC Essentials is different from iQuanta Engineer’s VARC module. While the Engineer’s module helps you go from 10 to 100, VARC Essentials is designed to take you from 0 to 100 in the shortest time possible—with over 60 videos and 30+ hours of focused VARC content.
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RC Strategy and Tips–Solution to crack RCs in the shortest amount of time
The strategy below is the most effective and efficient technique to attempt an RC during the exam, a strategy designed by our top VARC faculty.
CAT 2025 RC Solving Strategy + Tips
Step 1: When starting RCs, begin with the easiest one among the four. The key is to choose a passage with simpler language, a familiar topic, or shorter length. A useful trick is to scan the first line of each paragraph to get a rough idea of what the passage is about.
To understand this strategy in depth, you can join the iQuanta CAT 2025 Full Course or check out the iQuanta Engineer’s VARC Module, where everything is explained in detail with practical RC solving sessions conducted live.
Step 2: Once you’ve chosen the RC to solve, approach it with calm and patience. This is the most important part. If you feel confident about the passage, take your time and try to understand it fully in your own way.
To learn how to read actively and stay focused without distractions, iQuanta VARC faculty will guide you at every step. And if you’re studying offline, you can always drop your doubts in our active 24/7 doubt-solving group with expert support.
Step 3: This step is crucial, as it helps you deal with words you don’t understand while reading. A strong basic vocabulary is essential, and consistent practice is the key to mastering it. Our 500 most frequent RC words list in VARC Essentials will help you not only learn each word but also understand its application within passages.
Step 4: After reading each paragraph, try to rephrase its meaning in your own words. This helps you retain the information more effectively, as you’re connecting the content with your personal understanding. To develop this skill, you need regular practice and proper guidance. Our dual pedagogy approach—with both conceptual and application-based classes—can help you strengthen this technique.
Step 5: Once you finish the passage, take a moment to breathe and mentally summarize each paragraph with a one-line conclusion. This will prepare you to answer questions more confidently and recall important details, especially for fact-based and inference-based questions.
Final Step: Now comes the most important part—solving the questions. Here, your goal isn’t to find the perfect answer, but the best one. This requires proper guidance and clear parameters for eliminating incorrect options. These elimination techniques are crucial for achieving a 99+ percentile.
For a detailed guide on how to eliminate options in RCs, stay tuned for our upcoming blog. If you want to master this step quickly, join the iQuanta Engineer’s VARC Module or the CAT 2025 Course, where you’ll get active live classes and a smooth preparation journey without delay.
If you are targeting a 99+%ile in CAT 2025, iQuanta has got you covered. Get highly relevant content along and prepare right from the very basics with iQuanta’s CAT Course. iQuanta has made a record with 500+ 99 percentilers in CAT 2024.
