cut off in va
FOR VA SECTION-----
for clearing the cutoff in VA section , first of all, find out your strength(s). Is it RC, EU, parajumbles, sentence correction or something else? Then strengthen your strengths and look to score 100% marks in that.
As far as vocab is concerned, in CAT, it doesn't play that much of a role. But exams like XAT, FMS, IIFT, JMET etc have direct questions on vocab in the form of analogies, synonyms/antonyms etc. Set your priorities. I'd suggest look to improve your grammar and RC. Your vocab will improve a bit in the process.
About grammar and RC, the more you read, the better. Read newpapers, magazines, novels, anything you can lay your hands on, and consciously try to note the construction of sentences. Try to find the difference between good English and correct English.
Just by the way, VA can be a very scoring section. Instead of just clearing the cutoff, concentrate on making it your strong point. The bulk of your marks are going to come from VA as it is, it being a attempt-intensive section. So might as well increase the accuracy as well.
The importance of Reading Comprehension for CAT cannot be overstated. It is probably the highest scoring section in the CAT paper. If your RC skills are good you can score like mad in that section. Also keep in mind that the CAT paper will probably run for 30+ pages. If you are a poor reader it would take you about 2 hours just to read the questions, forget about answering them. Good RC skills are the key to belling the CAT. So how can one improve his/her RC skills? Only by regular and sustained reading of quality material.
All of us read only the subjects that interest us. However the CAT has passages from diverse subjects ranging from economics to engineering. In other words, just about anything under the sun. Thus the first hurdle to overcome is one's bias against particular subjects. One has to consciously work on developing interest in whatever he/she is reading. One should try to read atleast 3-4 quality articles a day. Some good sources are:
Newspapers: Probably the richest source. Most of us take them for granted and don't realise how valuable they are. I would recommend reading a good national newspaper daily. The best would be "The Hindu". It has the best articles in terms of language if not in terms of content. A close second would be "Indian Express". Its language is more down-to-earth than Hindu's but has awesome content. I am not terribly impressed with "Times of India" and the like. I would personally advise you to avoid them. They are tabloids published for the sole noble purpose of educating the average Indian about the glitterati and the chatterati. And when you are reading the newspapers don't stop with the sports page alone. Go through the whole paper and make sure you read the center page fully. In particular pay attention to the editorials. Do this for one month and you will observe how better a reader you have become. Keep doing this for the next six months
Magazines: Subscribe to one good weekly newsmagazine and one business magazine. I used to read the Outlook and Businessworld regularly. The best magazine for CAT prep would be the Frontline but I personally found it to be too boring. Way too boring. But it's awesome if you can stomach it!
Non-Fiction: Most articles that appear in the CAT are picked from non-fiction books. Suggested areas are Management, Science, Philosophy, Religion, Sports, Self-help, Biographies and Autobiographies of eminent personalities. Some good books/articles that I read:
What They Don't Teach You At Harvard Business School - Mark McCormack
A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking
Made In Japan - Akio Morito
The road ahead - Bill Gates
Business@the speed of thought - Bill Gates
Competing for the future - C.K.Prahlad
Swami Vivekananda's works
Harvard Business Review articles
Businessworld magazine's case studies
Fiction: Try to avoid mainstream pulp fiction writers. Instead try to go in for better quality fiction like Salman Rushdie, Naipaul, Erich Segal, Ayn Rand, Arundhati Roy, Tolkien, Lustbader. Frankly some of these authors are acutely irritating. But reading something you dislike is more useful than reading something you love
Comics: Ditch them!
It's also very important to have a good reading speed. My reading speed was one of my biggest strengths. When I started my reading speed was about 400 words per minute in the Hindu editorials. I was able to push it up to 600 wpm. When reading make a conscious effort to read faster. Also try to increase your eye span while reading. Eye span means the number of words one can read at one go. For poor readers it is just one or two words at a time. For great readers it is seven to eight words in one go. Newspaper columns offer good practice. Try to comprehend a line at a time and the eyes should only move vertically down and not horizontally
