If yes, then the following might be the most important article you will read, especially wrt VARC section.

Before I ventured into teaching VARC for CAT, I studied Pharmacokinetics where I learnt that in order to bring about a drastic change in the rate of a pharmaceutical process, we must alter the step that dictates the phenomenon the most. Trying to manipulate a step which has little significance would barely bring any perceptible change. Same, my friends, is true for your CAT preparation!! You are at, say, 70 percentile and wish to jump to 99+. How do you think you are going to make that big a jump? There are topics and subtopics in each of the three sections, but are all of them equally critical? If not then which are the ones on which your performance in the exam broadly rests? A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence. So let us look at some data to see the distribution of 34 VARC questions across different broad question categories - Reading Comprehension (RC), Critical Reasoning (CR), Grammar and Vocabulary, in that order.

(CAT '20 had 26 Qs in VARC instead of the usual 34 in the preceding 6 yrs as the total duration of the exam and consequently individual sections were reduced due to covid)

As is evident, the areas that have clearly dominated the VARC section of CAT in the recent years are RC and CR. One may accuse me of being selective in considering only previous 10 years' data, but the reasons for that are:

1. Recent trend has to be a parameter of relevance. I am sure that while preparing for your end-semester exams, you pick the end-semester papers of previous 4-5 years as your cornerstone, and do not worry what was asked 20 years back.
2. There has been remarkable consistency in the number of questions asked in CAT (100 in 3 hour test and 66 in 2 hour test) and in the individual sections (34 in VARC in 1 hour section and 24 in VARC in 40 minute) in the last 10 years, before which it is hard to find such consistency and thus difficult to observe any clear pattern.

One may also point out that I am focusing on only one exam wherein there is a multitude of other tests that do have quite a few, or perhaps a lot of, questions from Grammar and vocabulary sub-sections. Understand that CAT is the mother of all MBA entrance exams you would appear for, for no other exam acts as a gateway to so many and such illustrious colleges, including the elite IIMs. There is a reason the name of most of your study groups on Whatsapp and Telegram is CAT preparation and not MBA entrances preparation!

I discuss at length in my classes why CR, and especially RC, remain such darlings of CAT and the cornerstone for any test that wishes to ascertain your rationality, however, I will steer clear of that discussion here for the want of time. The point is VA in CAT, in the present context, is all about RC and CR. If I further breakdown CR, we see that almost all the questions asked under this broad category in the recent years are from 3 topics - Summary, Parajumbles and Out of Context.

So that brings us back to what we started with. Is what we are focusing on as important as much we are focusing? Are we sure we are not fixated on certain areas because we are good at them or because we find them interesting? You can be the stud who knows almost every word in the newspaper, but what would you do with that vocabulary if there are no questions where it is tested?

Think. Reflect. ADAPT.

With my 15 years of experience of teaching VA for CAT, and having scored over 99 percentile in VA section on many occasions, if there is one thing that I can say is sure to catalyse your accuracy and improve your comprehension in RC and most of CR questions (all in CAT), it is READING DIVERSE GENRES .

Whenever you read CAT RC passages (RCs), the single biggest factor that governs your comprehension of that passage is your familiarity with the field/genre to which that RC belongs. Understand that CAT makers do not write these passages themselves. These passages are basically excerpts taken from articles posted on internationally renowned magazines and websites such as time.com, nytimes.com, theguardian.com etc.

Now when we read or watch anything, we go for something of our choice. But imagine if one day you pick up something that belongs to an area totally unfamiliar to you. And that is what happens to you when you read RCs, basically articles, that lie outside the area of your interest. Why does that happen?

1. You DO NOT get to choose the RCs that would appear in CAT. You have to attempt whatever is thrown at you, which, as a matter of fact, is all luck!
2. RCs that you would encounter would be from diverse genres.

So what should you do? You must develop familiarity with all (or as many as possible) different genres. Read diverse articles from varied fields so that there remains no genre that you are alien to. To implement the above, I strongly suggest the following:

1. Read one novel every week.
It goes without saying that each novel should be from a genre that you have hitherto been unintroduced to.

2. Read the front page and editorial section of The Hindu newspaper.
Add Oped/Opinion (right next to editorial) to this after a month of beginning.

3. Read 1-2 articles every alternate day from aeon.co.
The website comprises carefully selected, and highly informative and diverse articles with CAT-level difficulty.

Remember, if it is worthy, it won’t be easy to get; if it is easy to get, it can’t be worthy. "The world is at Sharda University" and not at IIMs for a reason. Where do YOU want to land? If you seriously want to get into a top-of-the-charts B school, you must be mentally prepared to give your 100%, no less. We, at Aarambh, resolve to put in our most sincere efforts to see you through the various obstacles in your path to success, and expect you match us in that. Your choices and efforts today will decide your tomorrow. All the best! Let the game begin!!

Following is the list of the authors whose books/authors I suggest you read from now on. The idea behind reading these books is to choose the sequence in which you would want to read the books from different genres and to explore the areas that you have hitherto been either oblivious to or uninterested in. Take this as an opportunity to read some wonderful masterpieces rather than a drudgery being forced upon you. Performing it as a customary rite would prevent you from experiencing the pleasure of reading such accomplished and ingenious compositions. As Amir Khan rightly puts it in Three Idiots- The fright of a whip's lash does make even a lion sit on a chair, but we call him well-trained, not well-educated! Ultimately our aim is the same as yours- your selection at a reputed B-School! And I assure you that this exercise is imperative and well directed towards actualizing that goal. Obviously, you won’t find Chetan Bhagat or Paulo Coelho in my list of recommendations as the purpose behind reading here is edification, not just entertainment.

Happy reading!!! :-)

Novels-wise suggestions

• Dickens - Great expectations, Oliver Twist, David Coperfield, A tale of two cities
• Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice, Sense and sensibility
• Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights
• Jostein Garder - Sophie’s World
• George Orwell - Animal Farm, 1984
• Nabokov - Lolita
• D H Lawrnce - Sons and lovers
• George Bernard Shaw - Complete works
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Complete series of Sherlock Holmes
• Mark Twain - Adventures of Hucklebery Finn, Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• R L Stevenson - Kidnapped, Treasure Island
• Dostoevski - Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karmazov
• Bram Stoker - Dracula
• Mary Shelly - Frankenstein
• J D Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye
• Jules verne - Around the world in 80 days, Journey to the center of the earth
• Alexandre Dumas - The Three Musketeers, Count of Monte Cristo

Genre-wise suggestions

• Philosophy - Sophie's world by Jostein Gaarder (for beginners), The Republic by Plato (advance level), The Prince by Machiavelli (Philosophy+Politics, easy language)
• Politics - Any by Karl Marx, Freedom at Midnight, Discovery of India by Jawahar Lal Nehru
• Sports - Sunny Days by Sunil Gavaskar, Tale of a Tiger by Mak Pataudi
• Religion - Perfect questions perfect answers, Bhagwat Gita by A C Bhaktivendanta (Best, must read)

Author-wise suggestions

As explained in one of my earlier articles and during my classes, it is imperative that we read extensively and different genres if we truly intend to, and not just hope to or dream of, secure a stellar percentile in the VARC section of CAT, or any other aptitude test. One indispensable constituent of your daily reading diet must be The Hindu newspaper, more specifically its 3 pages- front page (page no. 1), Editorial (page no. 6) and Op-ed (page no. 7).

While we read the front page to add to our general knowledge and current affairs knowledge, which are tested in some non-CAT B School exams (IIFT, TISS etc.) and also matter in the second stage of selection (GD, WAT, PI etc.), we read the Editorial and Oped to enhance our familiarity with different genres which these two pages beautifully cover. Also, never break the flow of reading by looking up the meaning of a word over a dictionary while reading. You may mark a few of such difficult words and look up their meaning once you are done reading the page/s. And never look the meaning of more than 4-5 words in a day. The idea here is to understand the overall meaning of the article, not each and every sentence and definitely not every word we read. Also, do try to break every article into an Argument, clearly identifying the conclusion and the premises of it. Reading the article and not attempting to break it into an Argument renders the entire effort futile. It's alright though if you are unable to break every article into an Argument, but do try at least.

What to Read and How?

There are ONLY 3 pages of The Hindu that you need to read- Front page (page no. 1), Editorial (page no. 6) & Oped (page no.7). The Front page is to be read normally, as the purpose of reading it is to enhance our knowledge of the important events happening around us.

However, it is the Editorial and Oped pages that will actually enhance our comprehension. Read every article in Editoral and Oped pages using SAP (taught in the first 5 classes of my RC course) and after reading the article, break it into argument, or at least try to.

Learn SAP Reading

Dear students, watch just the first 6 classes of my Para-based Basics course to learn SAP technique to learn How to Read Effectively and then apply the same to Hindu Editorials and other articles you read.

Course Link: https://www.aarambhacademy.com/courses/lokesh-rc-125-cat-2025-practice-sets-688609feac0d1164eba3f6fc

What if reading these pages, especially the Editorial is hard?

The starting of ANYTHING is hard. So it is perfectly fine if you are able to break only 1 article into an argument. With time and practice, this number will go up and there will come a time when you will be able to break EVERY article into argument. And from there on, your VARC will start to fly!! For the time being, you can start with breaking Editorials to Arguments yourself and can also read-up how other students do it in our Telegram group where students break each editorial article into arguments. Also, you may refer to the previous Youtube sessions in which I have explained a Hindu editorial of that particular day:

How much time should it take me to read these 3 pages?

Let it take as much as time takes initially. The only way to increase your speed at anything is PRACTICE! So with practice, the time taken to read the 3 pages will come down. I know students who used to take 2-3 hours reading these 3 pages of The Hindu -) and eventually got to a point where they read all 3 in 30 minutes.

How do I know if my argument is correct?

There is no sure shot way to know. In fact the best option here will be that I break all 4 Editorial articles into Arguments and share it in the group so that all others can match their Arguments with mine. However, paucity of time makes that impossible for me. In recent past I used to daily break 1 Hindu article to Argument and I will re-start that in near future, but then again I would break just 1 of the 4 Editorial articles and you will still have the same uncertainty with the other 3 articles.

So, the best that you can do is to compare your arguments with that of others. That way you would get some measure of whether your view on an article is radically different than those of others. But most importantly, even if you are incorrectly breaking articles into arguments, you will eventually get better at it. And even if you correctly breaking articles into arguments, then too you will get better at it. How is that possible? Just think about a person who goes to park and runs there to shed weight. Regardless of whether his running technique and posture are correct or not, he will lose weight if only he just runs, no matter with what technique or posture. Similarly, I promise that your comprehension will improve if you do this exercise of breaking Hindu Editorials to Arguments, even if you get all 4 articles wrong everyday. So instead of worrying too much about whether you are correctly identified the arguments, just keep doing this exercise daily diligently. Also, I promise that once in a while I will break an article into argument and share the same in the group.

Should I read it online (soft copy) or from actual newspaper (softcopy)?

If you are a beginner, reading newspaper/novel for the first time, then I suggest start with Hard copy as you can feel the texture of the page while reading which makes the experience more real and authentic. You can shift to soft copy once you have developed the habit of reading and certain comfort with news articles.

Where to get The Hindu from?

Some of you students have recently expressed your concern about the availability of The Hindu newspaper. So, here are the options that you have

• Option 1. Subscribe to the physical copy of the newspaper- reading the newspaper in the traditional way. The dadaji style! This is the most effective way of reading, especially for all the newbies, as the experience of holding the newspaper in hand and to feel the texture of the paper is the authentic way of reading. This is how I began reading newspapers when I was in 7th grade. However, this may not be safe during the ongoing pandemic. Also, this option might not be available to some of you who put up in far off districts, as one student from Assam recently pointed out to me. Additionally. this will add some monthly financial burden which some of you may not be willing to take.
• Option 2. Subscribe to the e-copy of The Hindu, as I have. They charged me just Rs. 499 for an annual subscription. The millennial style! I can now read whatever news I want to on my 24 inches desktop monitor (I avoid reading over phone as it strains my eyes). This option is clearly way more economical than physical newspaper subscription and also, like option 1, supports honest and unbiased journalism. Besides, it is available to any person who lives at a place with internet connection, no matter how slow. Additionally, this method helps you get accustomed to reading articles over computer screen, something which eventually you will have to do during CAT, thus increasing your familiarity with the interface, which is important for those who are not used to reading on screen.
• Option 3. Download the pdf version of The Hindu daily from the websites and Watsapp/Telegram channels where it is shared daily. The Indian style! This option is best suited for those who absolutely do not want to pay. For all of you who would rather download Mirzapur 2 from Telegram group rather than subscribe to Amazon Prime! The only problem is that such groups may miss sharing the pdf one one odd day. Additionally, many of these groups eventually become inactive or are banned after a few months. But then then there always are new groups that keep popping up. Some such sites/groups which are working as on 28th Oct 2020 are Telegram

The PDF version of The Hindu is shared on my Discussion Group Daily morning between 5 to 6 am and students break articles to argument all day here:
https://t.me/+37fG1V1EoB00NTY9

Imagine it’s a cold evening in December and your little heart is desirous of a strong coffee. So you venture out to the nearby CCD, but find it closed. Do you drop the plan to savour your sumptuous coffee or do you go to the next cafe? If you are motivated enough for the beverage, you would not mind going ahead to the next restaurant that you know serves coffee, despite the apprehension that it may too be shut or may be a little pricier or a little far. The simple question one needs to ask himself is - how many of these shops can be shut or be too expensive or too far? If you want a cup of coffee, you will get it provided:

1. you have a reasonable amount of money (ability)
2. you are willing to walk some (effort and motivation)
3. you are wise enough to realize that what eventually matters is the coffee, not the cafe (wisdom)

Replace coffee with an MBA seat at a worthy college, and various cafes with the different entrance exams that are there. Does the above example seem more relevant now? Understand that all you want is one seat at a good B-school , and that which exam that seat comes from shouldn’t matter! Ask a lover if it matters to him where he met his love, or a loyal drunkard the place or material in which he would like to be served liquor or a die-hard football fan whether he would prefer soft copy or hard copy of the ticket to the FIFA World Cup final. The answer would be same - It doesn’t matter! Harivanshrai Bachchan has captured this thought most beautifully and succinctly in the below stanza of his poem which I occasionally recite in my classes.

जो मादकता के मारे हैं
वे मधु लूटा ही करते हैं
वह कच्चा पीने वाला है
जिसकी ममता घट प्यालों पर
जो सच्चे मधु से जला हुआ
कब रोता है चिल्लाता है

Back in 2011, when I was assigned my first batch for CAT, where half the students were elder to me by a year or two, there was a student named Abhishek Shrivastava. Despite his above-average intelligence and whatever hardwork he could manage to put in (after his 10-hour workday at office which was 20 km from his home), he could manage a CAT percentile in 80s. His attempt at almost all other exams met similar fate. However, GMAT clicked, and that landed him at ISB, Hyderabad. So does it matter to Abhishek that the college he eventually got was the only good college that he could convert or, for that matter, the only worthy college that he could secure a call from? No. It is irrelevant now. Had he got 99%ile in CAT and done equally well in all other entrances, he would have still been at ISB, and happily so. There are numerous similar stories that I can recount where some student got to NMIMS, Mumbai or SIBM, Pune or IIFT, Delhi or TISS, Mumbai where that college was the only star call the student had.

So stop fretting about how your CAT did not go as well as you would have liked or prepared. LIFE IS UNFAIR . PERIOD. Get used to it. However, it is NOT ALWAYS UNFAIR . So bad luck, illness, anxiety etc can play spoilsport in one, two or maybe three exams, but not beyond that. Just as a person in the coffee example may not find what he is looking for at a few shops, but eventually he surely will, you too would find success in some or the other exam provided you have put in effort and have common sense/basic intelligence.

Understand that results are never in your hands, and it invariably happens that 1-2 papers go wrong, and we have no control on which ones those 1-2 will be. However, if one has prepared well, then this misfortune can strike in 1 or 2 or maximum 3 exams. The good news is that we have atleast a dozen worthy exams and all we need is to crack one exam that will pave our way to a desirable MBA college. Which exam gets us to that college should not be a worry. I read somewhere that many a time in life we are so busy looking at and mourning for the door that closed on us that we do not realize that four others opened for us in the meanwhile. So stop cursing your stars for CAT and aim at the next exam in front of you, for only the first battle is over, not the war. Pull yourself back up, gather your armory and prepare for the next battle. Get on with the preparations for the rest of the exams, especially XAT, NMAT, IIFT and SNAP. All this while, keep reminding yourself of the fact that all you need is one seat in any one decent college.

Fun Fact : The writer missed his own CAT in 2018 because his bus to Delhi was cancelled and there was no viable alternative to reach the test center in Delhi in time. The writer hopes that his story doesn’t resonate with that of anyone else here.