Boost VARC scores in CAT | How I Scored 99% in CAT in 5 Months | Personal Tips
Summary
TLDRIn this educational video, Anushka Man shares valuable strategies for tackling the Verbal and Reading Comprehension (RC) section of the CAT exam. She emphasizes the importance of time management, suggesting a division of 40 minutes between RCs and verbal ability. Anushka advises viewers to set a minimum number of questions to attempt and a fixed time for each, highlighting the need to move on from a question if time runs out. She also discusses choosing RCs based on comfort with the topic and improving vocabulary by reading essays on various themes. The video concludes with tips on understanding central themes in passages, eliminating wrong options, and assessing one's risk-taking ability in exam scenarios.
Takeaways
- 📚 The video focuses on strategies for tackling the Verbal and Reading Comprehension (RC) section of the CAT examination.
- ⏰ Time management is crucial; viewers are advised to divide their 40 minutes effectively between the RC and verbal ability parts.
- 📈 A strategy for attempting the exam is suggested: decide on a minimum number of questions to attempt and a fixed time for each section or question.
- 📝 Reading comprehension is a significant part of the exam, with 4 RCs and 16 questions equivalent to 48 marks.
- 🕒 The speaker recommends allocating around 10 minutes per RC initially, gradually reducing this time as preparation progresses.
- 🎯 Choosing RCs based on comfort with the topic is suggested, especially for those with slower reading comprehension speed.
- 🔍 Common themes in CAT RCs include psychology, philosophy, economy, finance, literature, natural sciences, and history.
- 📘 To improve, read Aon essays daily, focusing on different themes to familiarize with terminologies and enhance vocabulary.
- 📑 Understanding the central theme, arguments, and conclusion of an RC passage is key to answering questions effectively.
- ❌ Avoid word-to-word matching when answering RC questions; focus on understanding the passage rather than memorizing details.
- 📊 Keep track of mock scores and analyze risk-taking ability to decide whether to attempt questions with uncertainty or leave them.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the video by Anushka Man?
-The main focus of the video is to provide strategies and tips on how to tackle the Verbal and Reading Comprehension (RC) section of the upcoming CAT examination.
Why is it important to divide the 40 minutes effectively in the VC section of the CAT exam?
-It is important to divide the 40 minutes effectively to ensure that you can attempt all the questions within the given time frame and avoid spending too much time on a single question or section, which could lead to losing marks.
What is the author's suggestion for the initial time allocation for RCs in the CAT exam?
-The author suggests initially spending 10 minutes per RC, which includes both reading and attempting questions, especially for beginners who may not be able to solve more than two RCs in a mock test.
How many RCs are there in the CAT exam, and what is the equivalent mark distribution?
-There are four RCs in the CAT exam, with 16 questions in total, which is equivalent to 48 marks.
What is the significance of setting a time limit for each question or section before starting the exam?
-Setting a time limit helps in managing time effectively during the exam, ensuring that you do not get stuck on one question or section and lose marks or time on other parts.
How can one improve their reading comprehension speed and efficiency in the CAT exam?
-One can improve their reading comprehension speed by practicing with various essays on different themes, reading Aon essays daily, and gradually reducing the time taken for attempting RCs over time.
What are some common themes in CAT RCs that the author suggests getting comfortable with?
-Some common themes in CAT RCs include psychology, philosophy, economy, finance, literature, natural sciences, technology, history, and prehistoric era topics.
Why is it advised not to do word-to-word matching when attempting reading comprehension questions in the CAT exam?
-Word-to-word matching is not advised because the CAT exam is designed to test understanding rather than memorization. It is important to comprehend the passage and answer questions based on the context rather than exact wording.
What is the author's strategy for attempting questions in the RC section?
-The author's strategy is to first identify the central theme, arguments, and conclusion of the passage, then read and understand the questions thoroughly, eliminate wrong options first, and avoid word-to-word matching.
How should one track their progress and analyze their risk-taking ability in mock exams?
-One should maintain a separate notebook for mocks, noting down the date and mock score, and analyzing the minimum number of correct and incorrect attempts to understand their risk-taking ability and improve their strategy accordingly.
What is the author's final advice regarding the CAT exam preparation?
-The author advises to understand one's risk-taking ability, decide whether to attempt a question with a risk of negative marking or to leave it, and to continue practicing and improving based on the analysis of mock exams.
Outlines
📚 Introduction and Strategy for CAT VC Section
Anushka Man introduces the video, addressing the audience's request for guidance on tackling the Verbal and Reading Comprehension (VC) section in the CAT examination. The speaker emphasizes the importance of time management, suggesting an effective division of the 40-minute time limit between the RC and verbal ability parts. They encourage viewers to share topics for future videos and stress the significance of a strategic approach to maximize scores in the VC section.
🕒 Time Management and Selecting RCs in CAT Preparation
The speaker discusses the importance of time management in the CAT exam, particularly for the RC section, which accounts for a significant portion of the marks. They share personal experiences and suggest dividing the 40 minutes between RCs and verbal ability questions. The speaker advises viewers to choose RCs based on their comfort level with the topic and to familiarize themselves with common themes in CAT RCs such as psychology, philosophy, economy, and technology. They also recommend using the Aon platform to improve vocabulary and understanding of these themes.
🔍 Effective Reading and Comprehension Techniques for CAT RCs
In this paragraph, the speaker provides tips on how to read and understand RCs effectively. They suggest identifying the central theme, author's arguments, and conclusion of the passage, and ignoring extraneous details like statistics. The speaker also advises against word-to-word matching when answering questions and emphasizes the importance of understanding the question and eliminating wrong options first. They recommend practicing these techniques with sample RCs to improve performance in the actual exam.
⚠️ Risk Assessment and Final Tips for CAT VC Section
The speaker concludes with advice on assessing one's risk-taking ability during mock exams. They suggest keeping a record of performance to track improvement and understanding one's average correct and incorrect attempts. The speaker warns against the pitfalls of negative marking and encourages viewers to make informed decisions about whether to attempt uncertain questions or leave them. They remind viewers to balance the risk of negative marking against the potential gain from correct answers, and to make strategic choices based on their confidence in the material.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Reading Comprehension
💡Time Management
💡Mock Exams
💡Negative Marking
💡Strategic Approach
💡Verbal Ability
💡Central Theme
💡Arguments
💡Conclusion
💡Risk-Taking Ability
💡Aon
Highlights
Introduction to the video focusing on tackling the VC section in the upcoming CAT examination.
Invitation for viewers to comment on topics for future CAT preparation videos.
Emphasis on the importance of time management in the VC section, especially for Reading Comprehension (RC).
Strategic division of 40 minutes for the VC section into time slots for RC and verbal ability.
Suggestion to decide on the minimum number of RCs to complete in a mock test based on one's performance level.
Tip to allocate 10 minutes per RC initially and adjust based on improvement.
Discussion on choosing RCs based on comfort level with the topic to maximize efficiency.
Common themes in CAT RCs such as psychology, philosophy, economy, and technology.
Recommendation to use Aon for daily practice with essays on various themes to improve vocabulary and comprehension.
Advice on not exceeding 8-10 minutes per RC for beginners and gradually reducing this time as preparation progresses.
Technique to identify the central theme, arguments, and conclusion in a passage for effective RC.
Importance of understanding the question thoroughly before attempting to answer in the RC section.
Strategy to eliminate wrong options first when answering RC questions to narrow down the correct answer.
Warning against word-to-word matching from the passage to the question options in the RC section.
Importance of assessing one's risk-taking ability in mock tests and understanding the impact of negative marking.
Encouragement to track mock scores and analyze performance to improve risk assessment in the actual exam.
Closing remarks with well wishes for viewers preparing for the CAT examination.
Transcripts
[Music]
hello everyone this is Anushka man and I
welcome you back to my channel so
today's video has been made after so
many people requested on the YouTube
comments and on the LinkedIn DMS that
they wanted to know how to tackle the VC
section in the upcoming cat examination
so today's video is going to be focused
on that particular aspect only and also
I would like to tell you guys that if
there is any topic that you want me to
focus on or make a video on regarding
the cat preparation um you're more than
welcome to comment that comment that
topic below and uh I'll try to see if I
can make a video on those topics as well
so that it can help you in your
preparation for the cat examination so
let's get started with today's video so
first of all let us talk of the reading
comprehension section reading
comprehension part which is like one of
the most difficult things about VC to
tackle and also the large chunk of this
particular section so you'll have four
RC's there're going to be 16 questions
which is equivalent to 48 marks like
that's a lot you can't ignore it at all
so in this video I'll share the things
that I did and things that you might
also do to boost your scores in in the
RCs
so first of all the biggest tip that I
have for anyone who wants to improve
their scores in the VC section is that
divide your 40 minutes in this section
effectively now I have seen a lot of
people do this and I used to do this
initially too when I while I was
struggling with the section that I did
not divide my time my 40 minutes uh for
the RC part and for the verbal ability
part I would just you know get inside
the section
and just start attempting questions hay
you know haphazardly but this is the
biggest mistake that any cat aspirant
can make it is very important that
before you start giving the examination
or before you start attempting a mock
you should have a strategy in your mind
that this is the minimum number of
questions I'm going to do and this is
the fixed time that I'm going to take
for each particular section or each
particular question because if you don't
set a time limit for your yourself while
you are solving questions be for any
section even for D or qus if you get
stuck on one thing then you are going to
lose marks uh on the other part you're
going to lose a lot of time you're going
to lose a lot of marks so it's very
important that before you get inside a
mock before you start attempting it you
focus you create this rough strategy in
your head that I'm going to take this
much time per question or this much time
per section and once that time limit it
is up whether or not that section or
that question is complete I'm going to
move on I'm going to leave that behind I
think that's the biggest tip I can give
to a lot of cat aspirants and it helps
to save a lot of time that you can
devote to perhaps other sections or
other questions that might help you
score more now speaking of uh the VC
section you can do this way that you can
divide it into 2020 minutes 20 minutes
for the RC's and 20 minutes for the uh
the other part the verbal ability part
or maybe you can do 24 minutes for uh
the RC's part and the rest of the time
for the verbal ability part that is
something that you have to check based
on your performance that which section
would need how much time now speaking of
how much time you should devote to each
RC before that I would like to suggest
you guys that before starting a mock
decide it preand based on your level of
performance or your your level of
preparation that how many minimum RC's
are you going to uh you know complete in
that particular mock that whether you'll
uh complete one RC in that mock whether
you are a whether you are aiming to
complete at least two RC's in that
particular mock or maybe three or four
based on your level of performance or
your level of preparation at that point
of time suppose you start you are a
beginner at at the moment and uh you not
not able to solve you in one RC properly
in the entire section so what I did was
I used to devote like 10 minutes per RC
so that would be like I used to I was
able to solve like two RC's in those uh
in one particular mock initially and the
rest 20 minutes were for was for the
verbal ability part so 10 minutes per RC
which included the reading and
attempting questions part and the rest
of the time for for verbal ability part
and once those 10 minutes per RC was
over I used to move on to the next one
without you know delving or wasting more
time on that particular
RC now coming to choosing RC's whether
or not you should choose RC's or should
you just you know get inside the
examination and start attempting the
questions so now this strategy depends
on your level of performance I'll share
my personal experience so initially for
the first two and two or two and a half
months uh my speed was slow my reading
comprehension speed was slow so I was
able to attempt just two to three RC's
in one particular Mock and I used to
choose RC's obviously like if you are
attempting like less than four hours and
you'll have to choose one I used to
choose the one which uh with which I
used I felt more comfortable the topics
which with which I felt more comfortable
like if it was relating to psychology it
really interested me and I felt
comfortable so I used to generally
attempt those kinds of uh RC's and uh I
was really afraid of economics and sort
of uncomfortable around those subjects
and they took a lot of time for me
initially to comprehend them so I used
to leave those out so based on the
topics that you are comfortable with you
should choose the RC's uh based on that
and uh then start attempting them now
generally in the cat RC's there are
certain themes which are very common uh
on which on which the essays are based
some of the common themes that I've
observed are psychology uh philosophy
then there is economy related stuff
Financial related stuff
literature Sciences like Ai and
Technology based Natural Sciences
something related to you know the
prehistoric era or something like that
something related to history this is
also a subject that is very common in
cat RC's so I will suggest that if you
are preparing for the reading
comprehension part you should get
comfortable with the terminologies that
are frequently used in these particular
themes because when you will encounter
such an RC in the cat examination even
if you have to choose the RC's you won't
feel com you won't feel uncomfortable in
going with any of them because you'll
feel comfortable in understanding all
the all the themes that are present in
the reading comprehensions now how can
you you know improve your knowledge
regarding these particular uh themes on
which esss are based so there is this
particular source which is called Aon
which I used very frequently wherein you
have essays on various themes so what
you can do is that every morning when
you wake up spend at least 30 to 35
minutes reading one Aon essay and every
day try to switch the theme on which you
are reading the essays so when you in
open the website ofon so there will be
essays based on themes so select a
different theme every day and if you
encounter a difficult word note it down
so that your terminology and your
vocabulary regarding uh any of the them
whether it's Natural Sciences economics
Finance whatever it's like up to date
and uh whenever you are actually
attempting the mock the VC part you
don't feel like you don't understand any
of the sentences in those mocks
so this is one of the tips that I've got
for you now coming to the RC part now
that suppose you are if you are a
beginner I would suggest that you should
not take more than 8 to 10 minutes per
RC
initially and as you proceed with your
preparation you should keep in uh keep
in mind that your time for attempting a
particular set of RC reduces gradually
like every 2 weeks your time should be
reducing if not not then try to you know
polish your Basics try to read you know
spend more time reading the essays
additional essays polishing your
vocabulary attempting the sectional
marks or maybe you know uh attempting
the pre RCS present in the previous year
question papers so that your speed
increases gradually but initially 8 to
10 minutes is fine now in those 8 to 10
minutes per RC's you also have to
subdivide and finalize the time that you
will be allotting for reading the RC's
and for attempting the questions again
the entire game of cat is not just about
the you know having specific knowledge
about specific topics it's also about
time management it's a race of time you
guys you have got very little time and
you have to do a lot of things in that
time so how do you manage that time so
for so for doing that you should fix
your time uh for reading the RC for
attempting the questions the time you'll
be taking per RC the time you'll be
taking for different sections different
parts and so on now first of all if you
are speaking of the RC part suppose uh
you have decided in your mind that
you're going to take 8 minutes per hours
so what you can do is you can spend
around 4 and 1/2 4 4 and 1/2 minutes in
reading the RC's and the rest of the
time should be allotted to solving the
questions in the RC's
now speaking of how to read the RCs and
how to understand it so let me tell you
one thing that in any passage that
you'll find in any of the reading
comprehensions there is a certain
pattern and that pattern is that in
every passage there is a central theme
and based on that central theme there
are certain arguments given by the
author either accepting or rejecting
That central theme suppose an essay is
about AI okay artificial intelligence so
you'll first of all have to identify the
central theme of the passage which is
generally present in the first or second
paragraph in the first or second
paragraph you'll get to know what this
entire passage is going to be about so
once you have identified the central
theme then you have to understand the
arguments given by the author for that
particular Passage whether the author is
is in favor of AI whether the author is
in FA is rejecting the uh you know
concept of AI what is his argument about
so you have to under you know pick on
those arguments as well from the rest of
the passages rest all other information
extra information like facts and figures
and numbers this year in 1978 this
happened 2014 this happened 177% 18%
percentages whatever it is you all it is
all useless for you uh in terms of
understanding or attempting the
questions your main focus when you are
attempting an RC should be to identify
the central theme and the arguments and
what are those arguments telling us
about the theme and lastly the
conclusion of the author now the
conclusions are sometimes open-ended
that is open to you know interpretation
by the viewers sorry readers and
sometimes so it's a definitive
conclusion that the author States this
definitively so three things first of
all the central theme the arguments and
the conclusion you have to identify
these three things in the in every
passage and ignore the rest of the
numbers don't get too engrossed in
Remembering and memorizing the numbers
that you know the author had mentioned
that 78% people are doing this and that
that's just you know pretty useless
focus on these particular three aspects
now this was about how to read the RS
the reading comprehension I can suggest
that uh whatever workbook or whatever uh
you know materials you that you are
referring to you can pick up the sample
reading comprehension that you have and
then and then you know try to apply what
I just told you in those particular
reading comprehension and see if you are
able to identify those three things the
theme the arguments and the the
conclusion in those passages if you are
done identifying these three things you
are done with half the work in the RC
section now coming to attempting the
questions first of all read and
understand the question very very very
very thoroughly a lot of times people
get confused among two options because
they look identical or maybe they are
not able to understand what the question
is uh you know demanding from them and
then they end up marking the wrong
answer and that is because you're not
reading and understanding the question
carefully spend time Focus carefully and
understand and analyze what the question
is actually asking from you the next
thing is while you are marking options
this is one of the strategies that
really helped me it is to eliminate the
wrong options first rather than find
finding the right one because when you
go on you know in finding the one right
option generally in the cat examination
two three options are considerably
similar or maybe two options would be
there that are very much similar but if
you are like uh you know eliminating
those options which are like completely
wrong or not related to the question any
way so if you eliminate those options
you'll be left with the ones which are
which actually fit in with the question
so eliminate the wrong options first
before answering questions in the
reading comprehension now there's
another tip that uh my mentor at the
coaching platform that I was taking at
used to repeat again and again and it
was very helpful that is do not do word
to word matching when you are marking
answers in the reading comprehension
part that a reading that the question
mentions a certain statement and there
is a certain State the exact same
statement is also in the passage so
these two would be the correct pair and
then you mark the wrong wrong option
that's not how it works in the cat
examination they're not it's not a
second grade or you know you're not in
second grade or third grade that they're
going to ask you to find the exact words
in the passage and then Mark the answers
no they want you to understand the
passage so do not do word to word
matching when you are attempting the
reading
comprehensions now the last tip that I
have for this particular video is to
measure your risk taking ability now
what I mean by risk taking ability is
that why when you are uh you know
attempting the mocks first of all I
would suggest that create a separate
notebook for mocks wherein after the
mocks are over when you analyze them and
you find some s some questions that you
were not able to you should note them
down in that particular register so on
the front page of that register write
the date and the mock score against that
particular date and track if your mock
scores are improving day by day or not
and when you are doing that understand
your risk taking ability now what does
that mean what I mean is that you know
you should get to know after a certain
point of time that this is the minimum
number of correct questions that I do on
an average in every Mock and this is the
minimum number of incorrect attempts
that happen in the mocks that I attempt
you should have a rough idea about both
of the those things so based on that
analysis you should whenever you
encounter a question in your examination
wherein you are not 100% sure about the
answer like there is a confusion between
two options there's a 50/50 scenario so
you should know that whether you can
exercise The Leverage of going for a
negative marking in case your option is
wrong or whether you should leave that
question or not that is not attempt that
question because I have seen a lot of
time that a lot of aspirants they just
keep marking the answers in order to
increase their attempts and in that case
they lose a lot of marks from negative
marking now minus one seems like a very
little score as compared to plus three
score that you might get when attempting
the right answer but overall when your
total score is calculated the negative
marking it can really break your score
so make sure that you are aware of your
risk taking ability how much risk you
can take while attempting the questions
that you are not sure of whether you
should leave that question or you should
you know you know attempt it and take a
little bit risk because you have that
leverage because you have attempted a
certain number of correct questions
you're sure of that that it would be
cover up uh that it could cover up the
you know that particular question even
if it is wrong so risk taking ability so
these were certain tips and tricks that
helped me boost my scores in the VC
section in the C examination so if
there's any question anything particular
that you want me to make a video on
comment it below and I'll try to film a
video on that and that's it for today
guys I hope these videos help you help
you and I really really hope that you
all scored really really well in the cat
examination good luck you've got this
you can do it okay but bye
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