CAT 2026 VARC Strategy: Achieving 99+ Percentile
Assuming the CAT 2026 format remains similar to recent years (2-hour duration), Reading Comprehension (RC) will dominate the Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) section, accounting for approximately 16 questions (70%) of the total. This section fundamentally tests your comprehension skills, placing less emphasis on rote vocabulary or advanced grammar. The critical initial step is developing reading retention.
1. Building Comprehension and Retention
The best way to exercise your mind for comprehension is to start reading articles from reputable sources and summarizing them mentally. You can begin with English newspapers like The Hindu or Economic Times, or online platforms like Aeon or Al-daily to get accustomed to long, complex passages.
A significant advantage can be gained by utilizing curated resources:
Reading Practice: Read 1 to 2 articles daily from the 250 Genre-wise Reading Articles by iQuanta. These are available in the Reading Materials Section here: Free CAT Preparation Study Material.
Targeted Practice: Practice 3 RCs per day. Use Past CAT RCs for this, accessible here: CAT 2026 Course Previous Year Questions. Supplement this practice with the iQuanta CAT Course, VARC Section.
Result: Within two months, dedicated reading will significantly improve your ability to retain the majority of points from an article, complementing your past paper practice effectively.
2. Approach to Reading Comprehension Passages
The most conventional and recommended approach is to read the whole passage first before looking at the questions. However, to find what works best for you, you should experiment with all three methods during mocks: reading the entire passage first, reading the first couple of paragraphs and then solving questions, or reading all questions before reading the passage.
The core challenge is absorbing and understanding the text. To overcome the risk of forgetting key information mid-passage:
Initial Tactic (Early Prep): Note down the important highlights of each paragraph while reading. This helps create a better structural map of the content in your head, aiding recall.
Advanced Goal: As your retention skills improve with consistent practice, you will naturally stop needing this note-taking trick.
3. Strategy for Attempting Questions
Success in RC questions relies on careful reading and rigorous elimination.
Elimination is Key
In most questions, you will be able to eliminate two options, leaving you with two confusing, similar-looking choices. In such cases, trust your comprehension and choose one of the remaining two options based on your best judgment.
Analysis is Crucial
After a test, during analysis, always read the explanation for the answer, whether you got it right or wrong.
If you selected one of the final two options but got it wrong, you were "half-correct," and you should understand the subtle difference in the explanation.
If you eliminate the correct answer early on, it signals an issue with either careful question reading or complete passage comprehension, which demands more focused practice on reading skills.
Avoid Assumptions
The cardinal rule is to leave all assumptions behind. Disregard anything you know about the topic outside of the passage. The author's words are the only truth you must follow. Read the question extremely carefully to ensure you understand precisely what it is asking, avoiding careless mistakes that involve assumptions about the scope (e.g., confusing "2nd lowest marks in the class" with "2nd lowest marks among these 4 friends").
4. iQuanta CAT 2026 Course Offerings for VARC
The iQuanta CAT 2026 Full Course is designed to cover every aspect of VARC preparation:
Engineer’s Module: Exclusively for students extremely weak in English and Grammar, this module offers video lectures on all VARC topics, including 40 videos on RC and videos focusing on grammar and communication.
Niche Content: You gain access to 60+ videos with 30 hours of VARC niche content curated specifically for CAT.
Live Sessions: The course includes 32 Application Sessions (20 focused on RCs) and 20 Conceptual Live sessions.
RC Practice: In each Application RC Session, 4 or 5 passages are covered, supplemented by detailed video solutions and instant doubt clarification. Special focus is placed on the elimination of incorrect options.
Extensive Material: The preparation involves 3–4 months of rigorous practice followed by Mocks and Sectionals. In total, the course offers a massive volume of practice, including 260+ RCs and around 500 VA Questions covered in class.
Crash Course: The included Crash Course focuses on Critical Reasoning (CR) and RCs at an enhanced speed, covering an additional 75 RCs.
In case you want all RCs to practice at once, you can opt for iQuanta IIM ABC Course too, which has 500 RC Sets with detailed solutions.
5. Final Tip
Try to dedicate 30-45 minutes daily to reading articles or newspapers. Once you feel comfortable, start integrating Past CAT RC Practice. This, combined with explanatory RC videos and rigorous practice, will fine-tune your comprehension and easily secure you a 99%le. The entire program is backed by 24x7 doubt-solving assistance.
The important part is to start now. Details and registration for the CAT 2026 Full Course by iQuanta (New Batch starting soon) can be found here: iQuanta CAT 2026 Course
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