VARC Post #8 - How to attempt the VARC section in the mock tests or in CAT 2025 ?

Over the last 7 posts I have explained the different types of questions in the VARC section and how you can answer them. In this post I will give you a template that you can use to answer this section in the mock tests as well as CAT 2025. Note that I will be refering to the material covered in the earlier posts, so if you have not read these, it will be a good time to do so :)

You start with 3 RC passages, I would do these consecutively, but if needed break it up with some VA questions in between.. As I have said earlier, decide on selecting the passages by reading the first 3–4 lines. In the passage, make short phrase notes for each paragraph that you can refer to while answering the questions. If you are a high aptitude person with good confidence in this section try to answer all questions of Type 1, Type 2 and Type 3. If you are not very confident of your aptitude in VARC, look at doing all Type 1 questions and attempt the others only if you are quite confident of them, do not guess under any situation. Ideally the 3 passages should take you about 24 minutes and you would probably have done 5-7 questions correctly, even if this is not your strong section. For people with strong aptitude this number should be 8–10.

After this you shift to the VA section. Out here there are normally only 4-5 MCQ questions and the rest are TITA, so your goal must be to answer as many questions as you can. Ideally, you should be able to do 5-7 questions in this section and get 4-6 correct depending on your aptitude levels. In terms of time VA questions should not take more than 8-10 minutes

By now you have spent 32–34 minutes of the section and are left with 1 RC passage. Take this up if you feel confident, otherwise go to the earlier passages and check if you are able to answer any of the questions that were unanswered previously.

If you follow this strategy of answering the section an overall correct attempt of 14–16 for the high aptitude people with a score of about 42–48 is quite possible. For others with a lower aptitude in VARC an overall correct attempt of 7-9 with a score of 21–27 will be a good result.

I hope this series has given you enough inputs on how to tackle the VARC section in the right way. Do not worry even if you are not doing the mocks well today, there is a lot of time to fix this.

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