CAT is separated into 3 major sections and the first section in the CAT exam is Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (RC). In this section on Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), the RC questions for CAT 2019 absorb 70% share. Out of the total 100 questions separated in three sections in CAT exam, VARC made up of 34 questions and out of them 24 questions are RC Questions for CAT 2019.
RC for CAT Exam: Look before you vault over
Before exploring on how to prepare Reading Comprehension for CAT, we should be aware of composition and share of Reading Comprehension Passages for CAT in the CAT 2019 Exam pattern which looks similar to CAT previous year Reading Comprehension section.
Reading Comprehension for CAT Exam: Sectional structure
The CAT exam now begins with the Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension as the first section instead of last section. The RC questions for CAT 2019 play an vital role to achieve high sectional score as well as in improving the overall CAT percentile. The composition of Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for the CAT 2019 is as below:
| RC Questions for CAT 2019 | Sectional Composition |
| Section Name | Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) |
| Total VARC Questions | 34 |
| Number of Reading Comprehension Passages for CAT | 5 |
| Type of RC Passages for CAT | 3 Long RC Passages; 2 Short RC Passage |
| Total questions Based on Reading Comprehension passages for CAT | 24 |
| Bifurcation of RC Based Questions | 6 Questions follow each Long RC passage (Total 18 questions); 3 questions follow each short RC passage (Total 6 questions) |
| Type of Questions Based on RC Passages in CAT | MCQs |
| Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension Time to attempt the complete section | 60 Minutes |
| Marks for Each Correct Answer | +3 |
| Negative Marks for Each Wrong Answer | -1 |
| Difficulty Level of RC passages | Moderate to tough Reading Comprehension Passages |
| Number of Reading Comprehension questions with No-Negative Marking | Nil |
Reading Comprehension Questions for CAT: Number & Type
Sample RC Passages followed by questions and answers can help more to understand the question structure and right way to answer the RC based questions.
| Reading Comprehension passages for CAT | Number of questions | Type of Questions |
| Long Passage-1 – Usually moderate based on facts | 6 | MCQs with 1/3 Negative Marking |
| Long passage-2 – Moderate to difficult with rich vocabulary – more literary and opinion based | 6 | MCQs with 1/3 Negative Marking |
| Long passage-3 – Difficult-based on abstract topic/opinion based/literature based, may contain too many unknown vocabulary words | 6 | MCQs with 1/3 Negative Marking |
| Short passage-1 – Moderate to difficult; business-economy/geography based | 3 | MCQs with 1/3 Negative Marking |
| Short passage-2- sometimes difficult with difficult words; based on historical facts, opinion, future plans | 3 | MCQs with 1/3 Negative Marking |
| Short Passage-3 – may be more difficult than other two; usually on Abstract topic | 3 | MCQs with 1/3 Negative Marking |