Reading comprehension is all about reading and comprehending textual passages. Reading comprehension constitutes more than 60% of the cat verbal ability section. This makes it is very important as well as scoring section of the verbal ability . Hence in order to score well in the verbal section you need to score well in the RC.
The last consecutive years RCs have been heavy and often revolved around history, philosophy , science and technology, business , sociology , economics, current affairs and so on . Today’s this section you need to build a reading habit.
The Scoring in the reading comprehension section depend on
– Good reading speed.
– Ability to understand and retain the context.
– Analyse the details and understand the tone of the author.
Now we will share some useful main resources for you for your reading and improvement for CAT as well as other management competitive exams.
- The Guardian.
The Guardian is the kind of language and words that the authors use to convey their stories to the readers. There is an automatic development of one’s vocabulary as well as general awareness. These type of articles are likely to feature in CAT, and one of the RCs in CAT 2005 was from this newspaper. - Mckinesy Insights
These articles require careful reading and understanding to grasp the base concept of the write-up. For instance, this article by McKinsey underlining the impact of Artifical Intelligence on the economy is of the type that can be expected in CAT and XAT Reading Comprehension sets. What’s more, you also get to learn the views of top analysts and strategists in the business – learnings you can use in your interview processes as well. - Aeon Essays
Aeon is a magazine of ideas and culture. They publish in-depth essays, incisive articles, and a mix of original and curated videos — free to all.It has articles related to all types of content that can be asked in VA-RC.It regularly updates article on daily basis. From the past five years some RC are taken from aeon essays,thus making a habit of reading articles daily from aeon will help you in cracking VA-RC. - The Atlantic
The Atlantic covers areas like politics, sports, news, health, technology, etc. They have various videos, magazines, Puzzle on various topics. - World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum prepares and compiles various in-depth reports on a variety of topics. This makes their articles/reports data-heavy, with a lot of information to process. The credibility and quality of articles is also very high. By reading the WEF articles, you can train yourself to read only the important material in a large article, and you can enable yourself to increase your reading speed and eye-span. You will also, simultaneously, educate yourself on various topics. - The Hindu
People read The Hindu for news. Aspirants read the newspaper for its Editorials. The Hindu editorials are legendary and are known for being highly informative with the complex vocabulary used by leading intellectuals and writers. There are also detailed interviews prior to the Editorials section, which can also serve as a source for RC practice .
Other Resources
These are also important resources that you must refer to in order to increase your reading speed and general awareness:
⦁ National Geographic – National Geographic Society invests in innovative leaders in science, exploration, education and storytelling to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world.
⦁ LiveMint – Financial news, Industry news
⦁ Blogs – You can also read blogs they provide good content and opinions. Some of the famous people blogs you can follow are Wall Street Oasis for finance, Hubspot for Marketing, Curious Cat and Freakonomics for Economics, Forbes, and Harward Business Review for Business and Quartz for Analysis.
⦁ Books- Books are the another sources of Reading Comprehension . You can read Animal farm , India Unbounded , business legends , the giver, 1984 ,the Zahir , the undercover economist , emotional intelligence , Indias struggle for independence , Atlas Shrugged etc.
⦁ Newspaper – While reading the newspaper focus on topics such as Social Science(History, Civics, Geography), Natural Science, and Philosophy/Psychology. Read Speaking Tree from Times of India , Newspaper daily. You can read newspapers like The Hindu, Economic Times, Times of India, Economist, etc.
⦁ TechCrunch – Startup News and Technology
Reading is the key to solve RCs , to ace the RC read as much as you can.