Reading Comprehension

Overview

Reading Comprehension (RC) is the highest-weight section of CAT VARC — typically 3–4 passages per exam, 3–6 questions each, totaling 16–18 questions of the 24 VARC slots. On GMAT, RC is equally central — 3–4 passages in Verbal, each with 3–4 questions. The passages are academic/analytical in style: business, social science, humanities, natural science. There are NO easy passages on CAT or GMAT; the skill is reading efficiently and reasoning precisely from the text.

Passage Types

• Analytical: Author presents and evaluates competing viewpoints
• Descriptive: Explains a phenomenon, discovery, or concept
• Argumentative: Author builds a case for a position
• Historical: Describes development or evolution of an idea/field

Question Types

The PQRST Reading Method

P — Preview: Read the first sentence of each paragraph to get the structure before diving in.

Q — Question focus: Read the first question before fully reading the passage. It tells you what to look for.

R — Read actively: Mark the main idea of each paragraph in your head (2–3 words). Note tone shifts.

S — Summarize: After reading, state in one sentence: "The author argues that…"

T — Target: For each question, locate the relevant part of the passage (don't rely on memory for details).

Answering Main Idea / Purpose Questions

• The correct answer captures the WHOLE passage, not just one paragraph
• Watch out for answers that are too narrow (only about one detail) or too broad (adds ideas not in the passage)
• Signal words: "primarily," "main," "central," "overall"

Answering Inference Questions

• The answer must be TRUE based on the passage — not just probable or possible
• Use the passage as the only source. No outside knowledge.
• Eliminate answers that go beyond what the passage states

Answering Tone Questions

• Look for evaluative language: words like "unfortunately," "remarkably," "problematic," "however"
• CAT passages often have a subtle tone — academic critical, cautiously optimistic, impartially analytical
• Eliminate extreme tones (hostile, ecstatic) unless clearly supported by the language

Common Mistakes

• Reading every word carefully (too slow for GMAT 1.75 minutes/question pace)
• Choosing an answer that sounds reasonable but isn't grounded in the text
• Picking a detail answer for a main-idea question (too narrow)
• Inferring too much: "the passage implies" must be a logical necessity, not a reader's interpretation

Exam Tips

CAT: 3–4 passages; each passage is dense. Aim to read each passage in 3–4 minutes and answer questions in 1–1.5 minutes each. Skip a passage if it's impenetrable — you can return.

GMAT: Allocate ~2 minutes per RC question (passage + question reading combined). Long passages (250+ words) give more questions — use the passage investment efficiently.

• Underline (on GMAT digital whiteboard) the topic sentence of each paragraph
• The answer to a "what does the author suggest" question is ALWAYS in the text — find it, don't guess
• For "except" or "all of the following are mentioned EXCEPT" — eliminate the four that ARE stated; the exception is your answer