In this article I will share a few important steps to be taken for excelling in the VA or verbal ability section of the CAT exam as it is popularly known.

First of all it should be clear that the VA section has become very structured and has 5-6 question types which are very important.

Secondly, since the chapters are more or less defined with a few changes or surprises, the option of leaving something does not arise.

So we cannot say that I will not solve para-jumbles in the exam because there might be a chance that out of the 10 VA questions there are 3 para-jumbles questions which gives it a 30% importance in that section.

Thirdly, since the number of question are limited to 10 in VA, the scope of leaving out questions and the liberty of making errors or doing guess work is out of question. If you plan to do any of those things, then be prepared for negative marking at your own risk, to the extent of not being able to clear the cut off also.

Speed is not an issue in the verbal section of the CAT exam because you get close to 3 min to solve one question which in VA is enough, but accuracy cannot be compromised at any cost.

The chapters which are seen mostly in this section of CAT exam are:

Sentence completion
Paragraph completion
Paragraph jumbles
Irrelevant sentences
Phrasal verbs
Sentence correction
Critical reasoning
Fact, inference and judgment.
Since the CAT exam is known for springing up surprises, be prepared for a new question type to pop up from time to time. For example the irrelevant sentence questions which 1st appeared in 2011 and surprised everyone, have now become a regular feature.

As earlier talked about surprises, I would like to add that if you are well prepared for the above mentioned topics the VA section will be a smooth sailing for you even if there is a surprise question.

The key to solving VA accurately lies in a good command over vocabulary, a decent knowledge of grammar and a good grasp over sentence / paragraph decoding. For this, extensive reading and a good knowledge of words/vocabulary are the only options available.

Thorough practice of each question type and exposure to different levels of testing are a sure shot way of gaining confidence and achieving better levels of accuracy in the exam.

So start your preparation and break it into small goals for each topic.

Keep in touch with all the topics and keep upgrading your levels till the month of the exam.

ALL THE BEST!!!

Always with you!!

Meenakshi Upadhyay