Preparation for competitive exams is no easy task. The approach and strategy should be well in place so that you can achieve maximum gain in limited time. Talking about CAT or Common Admission Test, the test is divided into various sections. Now the idea is to devote time to all sections because your collective scores hold a lot of importance. Reading Comprehension is an important segment that tests an individuals' ability to understand the language, his knowledge of words and how nicely can a examinee can understand the given passage. One can follow the given tips to improve their score in reading comprehension -
I. Improve your word power - It is essential for you to improve your word power in order to understand the passage thoroughly. Your entire answers depends on how well have you understood the passage. Having a grasp over difficult words will assist you to comprehend the passage in less time. This will not only help you save time but also help you to answer appropriately.
II. Refer to last year papers - The length of the passage changes from year to year but referring to the previous years papers will give you a fair idea about the difficulty level and type of passage that comes in exams. Also, this exercise will allow you to practice moire comprehensions.
III. Read newspapers, books and magazines - IT is really important for a CAT aspirant to go through books, newspapers and magazines and this helps a student to increase his knowledge domain and also aid in improving vocabulary.
IV. Improve your speed - The challenge for you is to complete your exam on time and also you need to answer correctly. Reading comprehension section may consume time, hence you should concentrate on the main words that are present in the sentence. This will enable you to understand the crux of the subject at a faster rate.
V. Mark important words - While reading the passage you can underline or mar the important words so that you can quickly summarize the comprehension. This will be beneficial to save time and get the hang of the passage. Also, when you are answering the questions, you can quickly go through these important words to write correct answers.
VI. Identify important parts - It is necessary for you to important parts of the passage that provides answers to a lot of questions. When you are a giving a section reading, you can just simply focus on these important parts which will provide a clear picture. You must answer the questions correctly therefore it is very important for you to know the important parts in a passage which gives answers to the questions.
VII. Time yourself - As you know that you must be quick in reading the comprehension but it is important for you to know the exact time limit as well. You should time yourself and read around 200-250 words in one minute. While preparing you must see whether you are able to do so or not and hence proceed accordingly.
Kaushik Kapoor, an alumnus of XLRI, is the Director at Erudite Educational Centre which is the best CAT coaching centre in Kolkata. Being a successful professional who is well versed on various issues related to the CAT exam, Kaushik is keen to help students who aspire to crack online CAT and get selected in a top B-School. He has been associated with the CAT examination industry for over a decade and is an expert on various online CAT test taking methods.