CAT 2025: Daily reading habits to boost VARC score for MBA admission

But the truth is the single most powerful way to improve your VARC percentile is reading.

Not tricks, not formulas -just reading.

And I don’t mean random article or newspaper reading, but structured, purposeful reading that trains your brain the way CAT expects you to think.

So, let’s discuss what, how and how much to read to ace your VARC section.

CAT 2025: Why reading

CAT’s VARC isn’t a test of English grammar – it’s a test of comprehension, logic, and comfort with dense text.

Every RC passage is like a speed-reading and reasoning test combined. You’re asked to read 1,500+ words across 4 RCs and interpret abstract topics under time pressure.

Here’s what data from past papers shows:

– ~70% of the VARC section is Reading Comprehension.

– Most questions revolve around tone, inference, or critical reasoning, not vocabulary.

– Top VARC scorers have one thing in common – they read daily.

Reading consistently improves three critical skills:

1. Comprehension depth – You start understanding the author’s structure, tone, and hidden argument faster.

2. Retention and concentration – You stop rereading lines because your brain stays engaged longer.

3. Speed without loss of accuracy – You process complex information quickly and correctly.

So, reading is a skill that develops slowly, but when mastered, it does wonders. It will also help in your MBA/Work where you have to read a lot of text-heavy case studies, articles and reports, and make sense out of it. 

CAT 2025: What to read 

Now, the big question: what exactly should you read?

The mistake many aspirants make is reading only “CAT-like” articles. But CAT passages come from a mix of humanities, economics, science, sociology, philosophy, psychology etc. Also, CAT passages are a mix of easy-to-read passages and difficult-to-read passages, so both need to be taken care of.

Therefore, you need variety – not comfort.

You don’t need 10 different websites or 5 newspapers.

You just need 3–4 reliable sources and a clear plan to read from them daily.

Here’s a simple list 

 Pro tip: Choose topics you don’t naturally enjoy.

Because CAT will test your reading under discomfort, economics if you’re from science, literature if you’re from engineering.

CAT 2025: How to read 

Most aspirants think reading means finishing the article.

No – reading for CAT means active reading – reading to understand structure and intent.

Here’s how to do it effectively 

Step 1: Scan the article first- read it once without stopping
Note the topic, tone, and paragraph flow.

Step 2: Read slowly and think.
Ask: What is the author trying to say? What is the central idea? Are there contrasting viewpoints?

Step 3: Summarize every 2–3 paragraph in your mind.
This helps you track the flow — exactly what CAT expects you to do in RCs.

This will take maximum 30 mins per article – Start slowly with 10-15 mins of reading time and then increasing as you get practice

Over time, this trains your brain to auto-summarize while reading, so when you face RCs, you won’t get lost halfway through.

You can also practice reading CAT-style questions after reading an article — pick one from a mock RC and test whether you understood the argument right.

CAT 2025: How much to read 

As mentioned, you don’t need to read for 3 hours a day. Consistency matters more than volume.

Start with 20–30 minutes daily in early prep months and increase to 45–60 minutes as you get closer to mocks. During the final phase, alternate between full RC practice and free reading.

The goal isn’t just reading more; it’s reading regularly enough to make dense text feel normal.

If you read even one long article (1,000–1,500 words) daily for the next 90 days, that’s 90,000+ words – equivalent to 60 full RC sets worth of comprehension training!

Reading helps beyond VARC 

Here’s the best part – reading doesn’t just improve VARC. It improves:

– Your concentration in DILR, because your attention span expands

– Your logical clarity in QA, because you read and process faster

– Your interview skills later, when you can discuss diverse topics fluently

Reading is the one habit that compounds — it gives results across sections and even beyond CAT.

(The author is a CXO and co-founder of Supergrads by Toprankers)