Your CAT preparation can take on many forms. Whether you are working with someone or doing it on your own, here are some CAT preparation tips that will help. 

1. First things first

Start with the VARC concepts and understand the fundamentals. This will give you a strong base.

2. Regular Reading

  • It’s essential to cultivate the habit of reading daily. This will not only improve your comprehension but also enhance your vocabulary and familiarity with different writing styles. 
  • Read from diverse quality sources. 
  • Allocate at least 30 minutes to 1 hour daily for reading. 
  • Beyond, or in lieu of this, choose diverse sources like newspapers (The Hindu, The Guardian), magazines (The Economist, National Geographic, New Yorker), and online platforms (Aeon, Longreads, 3quarksdaily, sciencedaily). 
  • Focus on understanding the main idea, the tone of the passage, and the author’s perspective.

3. Practising RC and VA

  • Initially, don’t time yourself. Instead, focus on understanding the passage and answering questions accurately.
  • Gradually, introduce time constraints to simulate exam conditions.
  • After attempting each RC, analyse your mistakes. Understand why the correct answer is right and why your choice was wrong.
  • For VA questions (like parajumbles, summary, etc.), practice is key. Again, start without timing yourself and then introduce time constraints.

4. Mock Tests

  • Continue taking sectional mocks. This will help you identify your weak areas and also get used to the exam format. 
  • Review each mock thoroughly. Understand the solutions and make a note of your mistakes to avoid repeating them. 
  • Create your own pattern of errors so you can define your own tips to crack CAT. 

5. Time Management

  • While doing sectionals and mocks, work on your time management skills. 
  • Decide how much time you’ll allocate to each passage and stick to it. 
  • If a particular passage seems dense or challenging, move on and come back to it later if time permits.

6. Stay Calm and Confident

Even with the best tips to clear the CAT exam, it’s common to feel anxious given the time constraints of the test. However, staying calm will help you comprehend better and make fewer mistakes. 
Learn calming techniques.
Remember confidence is an effect. It comes with practice. All the CAT exam tips and tricks will be ineffective without practice. 

7. Daily Routine for VARC

  • Morning: Spend 30 minutes to 1 hour reading from diverse sources.
  • Afternoon: Work on verbal ability questions.
  • Evening: Practise at least 2-3 RC passages. Initially, without timing, and then with a timer.
  • Weekends: Take a sectional mock and review it thoroughly.

The above are just broad guidelines. Mould them per your own unique preferences and constraints. 

Remember, everyone starts somewhere, and it’s okay to have low scores initially. The goal is to learn from each attempt and consistently improve. With dedicated effort, you will see significant improvements. 

Especially when it comes to online CAT exam preparation, you need to identify your strengths in self-study and self-monitoring to excel.

The race against the clock

This is a classic challenge many test-takers face: the pressure of the clock. Time management and emotional/mental control during exams are skills that require practice, much like the verbal questions themselves. A few suggestions

1. Deep Breathing

Take a moment to pause and take a few deep breaths when you start feeling the pressure. This can reset the fight-or-flight response, allowing you to think more clearly. Focus on your senses — what you can see, hear, feel — to pull yourself back into the moment. 

2. Moving On

Not all questions are made equal. If a question seems too complicated, it might be better to move on to easier questions first and come back later if time allows. Leaving questions is as important a skill as doing them.

3. Carrying on from 2

Avoid Perfectionism: It’s okay not to get every question right. Sometimes the pressure comes from wanting to be perfect. Let go of questions you don’t know and move on.

4. Practice makes perfect

The more you practise under actual timed conditions, the more comfortable you’ll get with the pacing required.
Lastly, let’s have a look at how to go about attempting VARC In CAT

Time Allocation

1. Initial Scan: 2-3 minutes
2. Reading Comprehension: 25-27 minutes
3. Verbal Ability: 10-13 minutes

⭐️ Note: Feel free to adjust the time based on your strengths and weaknesses. Some students are naturally faster at RC and can allocate more time to VA. Some others do better if they start with RC and then go to VA. All CAT exam preparation tips should be adjusted to you individually. 

Reading Comprehension

1. Initial Scan: Use the first couple of minutes to scan through all four RCs. Identify passages that are either within your area of expertise or seem easier to understand.

The 2-3 minutes spent on scanning can actually save time in the long run by helping you choose passages and questions where you are more likely to score. For most students the benefits of a brief scan outweigh the loss of a few minutes. However, those who are already doing well without it should skip this.

2. Pacing: Allocate roughly 8 minutes per passage. This should include time to read and answer the four questions. (Again, this is very general advice. Someone may take more time and so do fewer passages or vice versa. Find your strength and hone in on it.)

3. Question-First Approach: Some students find it effective to glance at the questions before reading the passage. This helps them know what to look for. For others, this doesn’t work at all.

⚠️ What to Avoid

  • Do not spend too much time on a single passage.
  • Avoid jumping back and forth between passages. It can disrupt your flow and consume valuable time.

Verbal Ability

  1. Sequence of Attempt: Start with Summary questions as they usually take the least time. In fact you can start the entire VARC section with these.
  2. Elimination Method: Use the elimination technique to narrow down choices, especially useful for summary questions. This also works well for RC.

⚠️ What to Avoid

  • Do not guess if you’re not at least 50% sure; you risk losing marks due to negative scoring.

General Tips

1. Adaptability: Be prepared to adapt your strategy depending on the difficulty level of the section in the actual exam.
2. Quality Over Quantity: It’s better to attempt fewer questions with high accuracy rather than answering all questions and risking negative marks.

Personalised Strategy

Remember, what works for one may not work for another. Try, experiment and see what works best for you. Practise mock tests rigorously to identify what strategy aligns best with your capabilities. Keep fine-tuning your approach based on your mock test performance.

With consistent/persistent practice, and the right strategy, cracking the VARC section is totally achievable. 
Understand your strengths, work on your weaknesses, and most importantly, keep practising.