CAT VARC syllabus 2026

VARC is the first section and it sets the tone for the whole paper. 24 questions, 40 minutes, 72 marks. Get stuck here and you carry the damage into DILR with no way to make the time back. The full CAT exam pattern has the section order and marking.

Around 16 of the 24 questions come from reading comprehension. The remaining 8 are verbal ability, and almost all of those are type-in-the-answer.

VARC structure

The split moves by a question or two each year. The 16 and 8 division has held since 2021.

Reading comprehension

Passages run 400 to 700 words. CAT does not use textbook prose. It pulls from long-form journalism and academic writing, and the passage is usually arguing something rather than describing it. Expect the author to have a position, and expect at least one question about what that position is.

Where the passages come from

• Philosophy and ethics: moral reasoning, theories of justice, questions of free will and identity
• Economics and political economy: markets, inequality, development, institutional economics
• Sociology and anthropology: caste and class, urbanisation, kinship, ritual, the study of culture itself
• History and history of science: how a discipline came to think what it thinks
• Literary criticism and aesthetics: what art is for, how a form works, why a judgement holds
• Environment and climate: ecology, conservation policy, the politics of climate
• Psychology and behavioural science: cognition, bias, decision making

Business passages are rare. CAT is not testing whether you know management, and a commerce background gives you no advantage here. The subject is the vehicle. The reasoning is the test.

Question types

• Main idea or central argument: what the passage as a whole is doing
• Inference: what follows from the passage without being stated in it
• Specific detail: what the passage says about one point, usually with a paraphrase in the way
• Author tone and attitude: approving, sceptical, neutral, ironic, ambivalent
• Function of a paragraph or sentence: why it is there and what work it does for the argument
• Vocabulary in context: what a word means as used, not what it means in a dictionary
• Except and least likely questions: three options are supported and one is not

How the wrong options are built

The wrong answers in CAT RC are rarely false. They are true but out of scope, or true but too strong. Learning to see the difference is worth more than reading speed, and it is the single highest-return skill in this section.

• Out of scope: accurate about the world, unsupported by the passage
• Too strong: the passage said some, the option says all, or the passage said may and the option says will
• Half right: the first clause matches, the second overreaches
• Reversed: the right relationship stated the wrong way round
• Detail as main idea: a true supporting point offered as the central argument

When two options survive, the shorter and weaker one is usually correct, because CAT rewards what the passage can actually support.

Para jumbles

Four or five sentences given in random order, to be arranged into a coherent paragraph. The answer is typed as a sequence of digits, so there is no option list to work back from and no negative marking.

• Find the opener: the sentence that can stand without depending on anything before it
• Track pronouns, demonstratives and definite articles, which point backwards to something already named
• Identify mandatory pairs before attempting the full sequence
• Watch transition words, which fix a sentence relative to its neighbour
• Never leave one blank, since a guess costs nothing

Odd sentence out

Five sentences, four of which form a paragraph and one of which does not belong. Type the number of the odd one. Also TITA, also no penalty.

The odd sentence is almost always on the same topic. It fails on direction rather than subject, which is what makes this harder than it looks. Build the paragraph from the four that cohere and the fifth reveals itself.

Para summary

A short paragraph followed by four candidate summaries. The correct one keeps the argument and the emphasis. Two traps recur: summaries that are accurate but cover only part of the paragraph, and summaries that add a conclusion the paragraph never reached.

If the paragraph ends on a qualification, the summary that drops the qualification is wrong however well it captures the rest.

Para completion

A paragraph with the final sentence missing. Pick the sentence that closes it. This format appears in some years and not others, and it is the least predictable of the verbal ability question types. The correct option usually resolves the paragraph rather than opening a new line of thought.

What CAT no longer asks in VARC

No sentence correction. No fill in the blanks. No synonyms and antonyms. No idiom questions. No standalone grammar. These disappeared from CAT after 2014, and preparation books that still carry them are recycling an older paper. XAT verbal is the exam where grammar and vocabulary are still tested directly, so keep the two sets of material separate if you are sitting both.

How to spend the 40 minutes

A workable split is roughly 8 to 9 minutes per passage and 6 to 8 minutes on the verbal ability questions.

• Read all four passage openings before committing to one, which costs under a minute
• Start with the passage whose subject you find least alien, not the shortest one
• Answer the TITA questions before the last passage, since they carry no risk
• Leave a passage after two minutes if the argument has not resolved, and come back only if time allows

Most candidates who run out of time did so on a passage they should have skipped. Three passages read properly beat four read at speed.

Common mistakes

• Skimming for keywords, which works on comprehension tests and fails on argument-based passages
• Answering from memory of the passage rather than returning to the relevant lines
• Picking the option that sounds most intelligent rather than the one the passage supports
• Leaving TITA questions blank, which costs marks and saves nothing
• Reading every passage in the order presented

Frequently asked questions

How many questions are in CAT VARC?

24, worth 72 marks, in 40 minutes.

How many RC passages are in CAT?

Four, with four questions each, giving 16 of the 24 questions.

Is grammar asked in CAT VARC?

No. Direct grammar and vocabulary questions were dropped after 2014.

Are para jumbles TITA?

Yes, and so is odd sentence out. Neither carries negative marking, so always attempt them.

Is there negative marking in VARC?

Yes on the MCQs, at 1 mark. Not on the TITA questions.

Which section comes first in CAT?

VARC, always. The order is fixed.

How long are CAT passages?

Usually 400 to 700 words, with four questions each.

Does CAT ask vocabulary questions?

Only vocabulary in context inside a passage. There are no standalone synonym or antonym questions.

How many VARC questions should I attempt?

That depends on your accuracy, and any fixed number you see quoted online is a guess. Accuracy above 80 per cent on fewer questions beats volume with errors, because each wrong MCQ costs 1 mark.

Can I improve VARC in two months?

Reading speed moves slowly. Option elimination moves quickly, and that is where most of the available gain sits.