Let's be real. The Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) section of CAT, XAT and other MBA entrance exams can be really tricky. More so if English is not your strongest suit (Read: me). When I started my preparation, I kept staring at RC passages to try and make sense of what was being said. So if the VARC section is what scares you, fret not! With proper preparation strategy and hard work, you can tame the beast. Let me tell you how to go about it (or rather how I went about it).
To score well in VARC, one needs to:
- Have a good vocabulary
- Read through passages at a reasonably fast pace, while also being able to make sense of it
- Retain key ideas and points by the time one gets to questions
- Power through dense and dry passages that may not be of personal interest
- Keep a calm mind under pressure
Luckily, the key to achieving all of the above points rests in one thing - reading. But not just casual reading; one needs to read extensively, widely and avidly. Apart from solving practice RCs and mocks, it is crucial to include a good amount of daily reading in your preparation schedule. But what does one read?
To master your reading skills, keep the following pointers in mind:
- Read from a wide range of topics: This will help you get comfortable with topics that you are not especially interested in. Make sure to include a healthy bit of reading from all kinds of different topics.
- Read long passages: This will help you build stamina to read and solve one passage after the other while also retaining key ideas. Magazine articles are a good resource for long reads.
- Read good English: This one’s a no brainer. This will help you build up your vocabulary. Remember - it is impossible to learn the meaning of every word in the dictionary. The idea is to be able to get a fair bit of sense of what the author is trying to say with a particular word or sentence, in the given context.
To get you up and running, use the following list of reading resources to take your VARC prep to the next level. And remember, reading is the way (The Mandalorian would agree)!
Textbooks
| Name of the book |
Author |
Publisher |
| How to Prepare for Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension for CAT (9th Edition) |
Meenakshi Upadhyay and Arun Sharma |
McGraw Hill |
| The Pearson Guide to Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for CAT (2020) |
Nishit Sinha |
Pearson Education |
| Word Power Made Easy |
Norman Lewis |
Goyal |
Note: Not an exhaustive list.
Fiction and Non-fiction books
| Name of the book |
Author |
Genre |
| The Kite Runner |
Khaled Hosseini |
Fiction drama |
| Animal Farm |
George Orwell |
Fiction, Political Satire |
| Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance |
Robert M. Pirsig |
Philosophy |
| A Christmas Carol |
Charles Dickins |
Classics |
| The Old Man and the Sea |
Ernest Hemingway |
Literary Fiction |
| 1984 |
George Orwell |
Political Fiction |
| A Brief History of Time |
Stephen Hawking |
Science |
| A Gentleman in Moscow |
Amor Towles |
Historical Fiction |
| Future Shock |
Alvin Toffler |
Science Fiction |
| Tuesdays with Morrie |
Mitch Albom |
Non-fiction, Inspirational |
Note: This is by no means a definitive or exhaustive list. The goal is to read as much as possible and one can pick up any book that catches their interest.
Magazines, Newspapers and Websites
| Name |
What's it for? |
You might want to check out.. |
| Harvard Business Review |
Business & Economics |
To Keep Women in the Workforce, Men Need to Do More at Home |
| Fast Company |
Business & Economics |
New Balance unveils the world’s ugliest shoes |
| The Economist |
Business & Economics |
How to be the next Tesla |
| The Wall Street Journal |
Business & Economics |
Three Hard Lessons the Internet Is Teaching Traditional Stores |
| Mint |
Business & Economics |
How Covid created a new kind of CEO |
| Insights by Stanford Business |
Business & Economics |
The Productivity Pitfalls of Working from Home in the Age of COVID-19 |
| BBC Future |
Science & Tech |
Could humans have contaminated Mars with life? |
| Wired |
Science & Tech |
Scientists keep ignoring ugly plants. That’s bad |
| National Geographic |
Science & Tech |
An earthquake lasted 32 years, and scientists want to know how |
| Nautilus |
Science & Tech |
Schrödinger’s Cat When Nobody Is Looking |
| Sapiens |
Science & Tech |
Were Neanderthals More Than Cousins to Homo Sapiens? |
| Aeon |
Philosophy, Society, Art & Culture |
How to be a genius |
| Brainpickings |
Philosophy, Society, Art & Culture |
The Healing Power of Gardens |
| The New Yorker |
Philosophy, Society, Art & Culture |
The Cold War Bunker That Became Home to a Dark-Web Empire |
| Commonweal |
Philosophy, Society, Art & Culture |
Last Men and Women |
| Fifty Two |
Society, Art & Culture |
Labels |
| The Caravan |
Society, Art & Culture |
Works in Progress |
| The Walrus |
Society, Art & Culture |
Did Shakespeare Write His Plays? |
| The Drift |
Society, Art & Culture |
Art after Objecthood |
| The Hindu |
Opinions & Editorials |
Staying at home on planet earth |
| The New York Times |
Opinions & Editorials |
Why Spy Agencies Say the Future Is Bleak |
| The Guardian |
Opinions & Editorials |
We can mourn Prince Philip, but not the monarchy |
| Independent |
Opinions & Editorials |
The UK should be doing more to help India – sending vaccine supplies would be a start |
| The Atlantic |
Opinions & Editorials |
Why So Many Pandemic Predictions Failed |
| The Athletic |
Sports Opinions |
Ed Woodward at Manchester United: ‘Great marketing man, awful at football’ |
| History Today |
History |
The Power of the Pen |
| The New York Review |
Book Reviews |
Two Centuries of ‘The Guardian’ |
| LA Review of Books |
Book Reviews |
Simone Weil for Americans |
| Literary Review |
Book Reviews |
Sex was a Mystery to Him |
| London Review of Books |
Book Reviews |
Palestinianism |
Note: Some of these websites may require a subscription for unlimited access.
Other Resources
- Arts and Letter Daily
- Wordpandit
- Bharath's Reading List
Did I miss out on a useful resource? Let me know in the comments. Happy reading!