It won’t be wrong to say that the VARC section is based entirely on vocabulary. The section will become easy if you know all the words in the Reading Comprehension and other questions. The Reading Comprehension, in particular, tests your vocabulary-directly and indirectly. If the candidates wish to ace RC, it is important that they brush up their vocabulary.
1. RC tests Vocabulary
The Reading Comprehension tests your vocabulary-both directly and indirectly. While you get a lot of vocabulary based questions in RC, how much you understand the passage(s) itself depends on how well you decode the meaning of the words. This is because a passage is formed by nothing else but words. The words you use in your language will be easy to decipher but you will face problems when you encounter words not too often used. Such words might hamper your understanding of the passage. Therefore, you need to build your vocabulary and attain a decent level.
2. Know words, decode RC
Words are the building blocks of a sentence. A meaningful sentence is a combination of words placed in a certain order to create meaning. The more words you add to your vocabulary, the more sentences you will be able to understand. This comes handy while attempting RC, which is a combination of simple and complex sentences. The simple sentences might not pose problem for the average candidate but the complex sentences, made complex due to difficult words or sentence structure, will certainly pose a challenge.
3. Build Vocabulary, Save Time
The challenge before the candidates is to finish a particular passage within a time period that he sets for himself. A person with good vocabulary will be able to read and understand the passage easily, thereby saving time. On the other hand, a person with weak vocabulary will take longer to decode the meaning of the passage and answer the questions that follow. Time is of the essence in an exam such as CAT. A candidate must find ways to finish the sections in the specified time, without compromising on accuracy. A good vocabulary becomes crucial to achieve this objective.
4. Good Vocabulary=Good score in VARC
Good vocabulary leads to a good score in the VARC section. While the RC section tests the vocabulary with questions such as synonyms, antonyms, word meanings and comprehension, the other questions in the section, too, are based on vocabulary. For example, questions based on relationships, such as,
Vapid:_____:: rapid:swift
a. inspired b. turgid
c. wet d. insipid
Without knowing the meaning of these terms, the candidate is unlikely to understand the relationship between the words. The answer to this insipid. Just as rapid is another word for swift, vapid is another word for insipid. The section has many more such questions based purely on vocabulary. While in some cases, it might be possible to guess the meaning of the words by looking at the context, there will be questions where you will not be able to make any guess and will have to be sure of the meaning.
A good vocabulary, therefore, is the key to a good score in the VARC section.
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