The lion’s share of the Verbal Ability section in CAT consists of the Reading Comprehension part. The number and length of the passages may vary from year to year, but questions on Reading Comprehension have been proved to be a compulsory part of CAT. This section requires a good skill over the English language and comprehending.
MBAUniverse.com tells you the ways through which you can have a grip over the Reading Comprehension section for CAT 2011.
What does the Reading Comprehension check?
The Reading Comprehension section basically checks your understanding of English language, word power and how well you can comprehend a given passage. RC is the ability to read and understand unfamiliar materials and to answer questions about them. Your focus while reading should be NOT to READ fast but to COMPREHEND fast.
Areas you need to focus for the Reading Comprehension section
In order to excel in the Reading Comprehension section, you need to follow certain guidelines. You should improve your word power, should be able to read fast and comprehend faster, understand what is asked in the question and answer appropriately.
The common solution to improve all these sections is reading. In order to improve on your RC and VA section you need to broaden your background knowledge by reading newspapers, magazines and books. Try discussing one topic of the paper with your parents or friends. This will help you to develop interest and will help in comprehension.
Followed by your reading habit, you should also develop the habit of practicing a lot. Try to get more practice in reading, particularly in reading dense materials fast. Learn to look at each question in the exam from first principles.
Improving speed to solve Reading Comprehension
You need to manage your time while solving the CAT 2011 exam paper. So even if it is a long passage, you cannot spend much time in the Reading Comprehension section.
We suggest some pointers on improving the speed in reading the passages:
1. Focus on three to four main words in a sentence
2. Time your reading speed and decrease the time you take to read gradually.
3. Identify main parts of the paragraph.
4. You can mark the important points/words/sentences.
5. While reading, move your eyes fast from left to right, focusing on main words.
6. After finishing an article, write the gist of that. This will help you know how much you remember of that passage.
7. Write a summary of about 100 to 150 words every day on the editorial as it will help in building thought process. Make a note of the difficult words and find their meanings from a Standard English dictionary. Try and maintain notebook/prepare flash cards that you can go through in your free time.
8. Time yourself while reading. You should be able to read 200 to 250 words in a minute’s time.
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more expert advice on RC for CAT 2011.
