19September 2026
Today’s poster
What to note today
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Study Material
VARC
VARC is the CAT and XAT section that candidates find hardest to improve, because it rewards reading habits built over months rather than formulas learnt in a week. It is also the section where a method makes the largest difference to a score.
These topics treat it as a set of techniques: how to read a passage under a timer, how to attack the non-RC question types, and how to reason about arguments rather than about facts. The English pages cover grammar and vocabulary, which VARC assumes rather than tests directly.
Current affairs · 19 September 2026
Today’s current affairs, checked at the source
Every item is dated, read on the conducting body’s or ministry’s own site, and written with the question it becomes. Read today’s items, take the quiz, or download the month as a PDF.
3 topics written
Read these in order
Each topic is a complete lesson — concepts, formula tables, worked examples and practice questions with explanations.
Weighting
Where VARC marks actually sit
A syllabus lists topics with equal visual weight, and no paper treats them that way. The table below collects what each VARC lesson records about the exams that examine it, so the reading order on this page can be checked against the exams you are actually sitting.
Counts are ranges observed across cycles rather than promises. The notification for your cycle is what fixes the paper, and a topic can move.
| Topic | Examined most in | Typical volume | Lesson |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading Comprehension Strategy | CAT VARC section; XAT Verbal and Logical Ability; GMAT and GRE Verbal | 16 questions across 4 passages | 22 min · 16 questions |
| Para Summary & Jumbles | CAT VARC section; XAT Verbal Ability; SNAP / NMAT / CMAT | 8 questions | 21 min · 16 questions |
| Critical Reasoning | XAT Verbal and Logical Ability; GMAT Verbal; CAT VARC | 5–8 questions | 22 min · 16 questions |
How to use the table rather than read it
Find the rows naming the exam you are preparing for, and study those first regardless of where they sit in the reading order above — the order on this page is pedagogical, built so each lesson can rest on the one before it, and it is not a priority list. Where a topic you are weak at also carries the highest volume in your paper, that row is the whole of your next fortnight.
Method
How to study verbal ability and reading comprehension
VARC is the section candidates most often try to fix with technique and most reliably fix with reading. Comprehension speed on unfamiliar prose is built by reading unfamiliar prose, and by very little else.
- Read demanding long-form material daily. Essays, criticism, science writing, history — from subjects you would not naturally choose. Familiar material does not build the skill the section tests.
- For each passage, identify the author’s position before answering anything. Most inference questions turn on it, and locating it explicitly makes the questions faster.
- Practise para jumbles and para summary as reasoning, not vocabulary. They test the logical structure of an argument, which is a different skill from knowing words.
- Track accuracy by passage type. Most candidates are consistently weaker on one kind — philosophy, science, economics — and knowing which lets you triage in the exam.
Why technique alone plateaus
Reading techniques help a candidate who can already read the passage comfortably. For one who cannot, they add a layer of process to a bottleneck they do not address. If your comprehension is slow, the fix is months of reading rather than another method.
Questions
VARC — FAQs
How is VARC different from a banking English section?
VARC weights reading comprehension and reasoning about arguments far more heavily than grammar, and the passages are longer, denser and drawn from a wider range of subjects. A banking English section rewards grammar accuracy and speed on short items; VARC rewards the ability to hold a difficult argument in mind and answer about its structure. Preparation that works for one is only partly transferable.
How do I improve reading speed without losing accuracy?
By reading harder material rather than more material. A page a day of dense argumentative prose — the kind that requires attention rather than the kind that flows — builds the capacity the section tests. Speed gained on easy text does not transfer to a passage on philosophy or economics, which is exactly what the paper sets.
Should I read the passage or the questions first?
For VARC, the passage first, once, properly — the opposite of the usual advice for shorter comprehension sections. The questions turn on the structure of the argument rather than on locating a stated fact, and skimming for keywords produces confident wrong answers on exactly the options designed to catch it.
How much time should para summary and para jumbles get?
More than most candidates give them, because they are technique rather than knowledge and improve quickly. Both test the same underlying skill — recognising the direction of an argument — and both have reliable methods: find the opening sentence and follow the connectives for jumbles, and identify the central claim rather than the most detailed sentence for summaries.
Read the concept, then test it the same day
Every topic ends with practice questions, and a full mock is the fastest way to find out which ones actually stuck.
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