Well, RCs are a bugbear for majority of the students and considering their importance, it makes sense to spend some time on this topic. With this article, we cover the essential tips that you need to keep in mind for your CAT RC prep.
1. Diversity in Reading and solving Passages
CAT has been known to ask passages from a diverse set of sources. This makes it vital for you to solve passages from different sources and be ready to face any challenges. Make sure you solve passages from the following areas:
- Arts, history and culture
- Sociology
- Philosophy
- Psychology
- Science and technology
2. Solve all previous year CAT RCs
One of the most unfortunate things for Verbal prep is that there is no standard text book for Verbal Ability. What this means is that you have little or no option in terms of purchasing a book for your prep. This problem gets particularly worse with respect to CAT RCs. This means that the best resource for RCs is still previous year CAT RCs. Make sure you solve each and every one of these.
3. Focus on understanding and not on speed
In general, the last 5 years have seen CAT feature RCs of short to moderate length. This essentially means that reading speed is out of the picture and what is more important is that you understand the passage.
4. This tip is a controversial one
Some of you might beg to differ here but this is something most people find useful. In general, you should go through the question stem before you actually solve a RC passage. This can come in pretty handy for you to zoom in on the relevant points while solving the passage. Make sure you do not pay a lot of attention to the options and a cursory glance over the questions statement is enough. Remember, this is only for focusing on any particular point that might be asked in the questions.
5. This one is a cliché.
Sorry for adding this but some things have to be done. You need to practice a lot of RCs. Make sure you solve at least 3 going into the last lap of your CAT 2016 prep.
This completes our summary advice for how to prepare for CAT RCs. This post will be followed by more such posts that will help you deal with RCs.
Also, there is a post on RC Note Making that you should most definitely explore. Read it here.
