You don't need to answer all 24 VARC questions to hit a strong percentile, and trying to is usually what wrecks your accuracy. CAT VARC preparation comes down to two decisions: which order to attack the section in, RC first or VA first, and how honestly you can separate the answers you're sure of from the ones you're guessing at.

Here's both, broken down the way they're taught in CATking's VARC sessions.

Know Which VARC Person You Are Before The Exam, Not During It

Some people can sit through a dense passage without losing focus. Others start strong and fade by paragraph three. Both are fine, but they call for a different opening 20 minutes, which is why CATking teaches two separate openings instead of one fixed method for everyone.

The logic is the same either way: front-load the section that plays to your strength while your focus is freshest, and use whatever's left on the section that drains you faster.

A Realistic Target: You Don't Need All 24 Right

If you can get 6 out of 8 questions right in the VA section (para summary and odd-one-out style questions, referred to internally at CATking as "OCs") and clean up on just one comfortable RC passage, you're already at roughly 10 correct out of 24. With a meaningful chunk of these carrying no negative marking, that combination alone tends to land close to the 95th percentile.

A Warm-Up Drill For Pushing Toward 99+

Once the basics are steady, CATking's mock-practice sessions build in a specific structure worth adopting:

Getting 15 to 16 questions right out of 24 using this rotation is roughly what a 99.99 percentile VARC run looks like. CATking has students run 5 sectional mocks specifically to test and refine this rhythm before trusting it in a full-length attempt.

The Accuracy Conversation Verbal Needs That Quant Doesn't

In Quant, the instinct is 100% accuracy on whatever you attempt. Verbal works differently. If you're torn between two options and can't clearly articulate why one feels right, that's a measured risk, not a random guess, and it's fine to take it, provided you know you're taking it.

The useful habit is tracking your accuracy separately across two buckets, questions you're confident about and questions you're taking a calculated risk on.

A combination like this, strong accuracy on your confident attempts plus a roughly even split on your calculated risks, works out to something like 14 correct out of 17 to 18 attempted questions, which tends to land in the 99th percentile range. What doesn't work is attempting a large number of questions with a flat 50-50 accuracy across the board, that's not measured risk-taking, that's guessing without a strategy.

A Bad Mock Doesn't Mean a Broken Strategy

Worth remembering when a mock goes badly: the actual CAT paper is typically less ambiguous than most mocks. That frustrating feeling of being convinced you're right while the answer key disagrees shows up far more often in practice tests than on exam day. An error rate above 50% on a rough mock isn't a sign your prep is falling apart, it's a mock behaving like a mock. Note it, adjust if there's a real pattern, and move on.

It Shows Up In The Actual Scorecards

This isn't just a theory that sounds good in a session. Students working through CATking's VARC strategy have posted percentiles like 98.76 and 99.19 in recent CAT attempts, with several others crediting the same RC-versus-VA framing and mock-analysis habit for a jump in their verbal score specifically, not just an overall improvement.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Should I attempt RC or VA first in the CAT VARC section?

It depends on your strength. If RC is comfortable for you, do it first (25 minutes) and use the remaining 15 minutes on VA. If long passages drain your focus, do VA first (20 minutes) and RC in the remaining 20.

Q2. How many VARC questions do I need to get right for a 95th percentile?

Roughly 10 out of 24, for example 6 out of 8 correct in VA-style questions plus one clean RC passage, can land close to the 95th percentile, especially given the no-negative-marking questions in that mix.

Q3. What accuracy rate should I aim for in CAT verbal ability?

Unlike Quant's near-100% accuracy target, VARC rewards separating confident attempts (aim for 90%+ accuracy) from calculated-risk attempts (around 50% accuracy is acceptable), rather than one blended accuracy number.

Q4. How do I improve my Reading Comprehension speed and accuracy for CAT?

A structured warm-up drill, summarizing single paragraphs before attempting full passages, alternating full RCs with paired-paragraph practice, and running regular sectional mocks, tends to build both speed and accuracy more reliably than reading randomly.

Q5. Is guessing okay in the CAT VARC section?

Measured, informed guessing, where you're torn between two options for a real reason, is different from random guessing. Tracking your accuracy on these calculated-risk attempts separately from your confident attempts helps you understand whether your instincts are actually reliable.

Q6. Why did my VARC mock score suddenly drop even though I was doing well before?

Mocks are often more ambiguous than the actual CAT paper, and a high error rate on one rough mock doesn't necessarily reflect your real preparation level. Review it for genuine patterns, but don't treat a single bad mock as proof your strategy has failed.

Q7. How many sectional mocks should I take to build a VARC strategy?

Around 5 sectional mocks is a reasonable starting point to test a specific approach (like the RC-VA split or the paragraph warm-up drill) and check whether your accuracy and timing are actually improving with it.

Q8. How does CATking help students improve their VARC score specifically?

CATking's VARC sessions build a personalized RC-versus-VA opening strategy for each student, layer in the paragraph warm-up drill during mock practice, and track confident-attempt versus calculated-risk accuracy separately, rather than teaching one fixed method to everyone.