How to prepare for IIFT VARC?

VARC Ability & Reading Comprehension constitutes one-third of the IIFT question paper & Reading-Comprehension (RC) alone comprises about 45–50% of the VARC section. Moreover, the sectional cut-off is usually highest for this section. In order to ace IIFT, it becomes even more essential to conquer the RCs and thus increasing the overall IIFT percentile.

*Some tips for solving RC*

1. Good Vocabulary: — Having a good vocabulary is the most essential ingredient for RC. Of course, you don’t have to be “Shashi Tharoor” but struggling with vocabulary would hit you really hard. Imagine all the 3–4 RCs have words that you are hearing for the first time maybe, and then what would you do? Plus you never know, there can be questions separately on antonyms & synonyms of such new words. You will perhaps end up getting a lot of incorrect attempts, lesser sectional VARC score resulting in lesser IIFT percentile and then screwing up an entire IIFT attempt. Horrifying thought! Isn’t it? “So if you are a serious IIFT aspirant, your vocabulary has to be good!”

2. How to build a good vocabulary? The answer to this is “START READING”. It’s up to you what you read! You can start with your favorite novel, comic book or even your favorite sports or Hollywood column from any news feed. The key is to develop a reading habit. Once you develop this reading habit, you will surely come across new words that you are not familiar with. Then what you need to do is… Note down the new words & check for the meaning from the dictionary. It is way easier than mugging up all the dictionary words alphabetically. “Always try to understand the meaning of the new words, rather than simply mugging them up.”

3. Rule of 5 words per day: If you are a beginner, you can start with 5 new words per day. After you are comfortable with this process, you can increase it to 10 new words per day even. It’s important to keep revising the new words that you are learning, or else you end up forgetting everything. You can always revise while travelling or whenever you are free.

4. What to read?

Hindu Editorials are the best source of getting some quality reading content. Other sources like Aeon Essays, Guardian, Aldaily, Mint, TOI, Indian Express, The Economist, Economic Times etc. offer some great quality content as well. It’s on you. You can select any 1 or 2 sources out of these & develop the habit of reading articles for atleast 15 minutes to start with. Don’t just stick to 1 genre but try to read from different genres like philosophy, history, politics, arts, science, literature, GK etc. This is vital as we never know what surprises lie for us in the actual IIFT exam. This would not only be helpful to ace the VARC but also the GK section as well.

Don’t forget to check: Tones of Reading Comprehension (RC)

5. Practice RCs daily: At the end of the day, our target is to crack IIFT, not become English Experts right? So there is no point in reading if we don’t practice RCs daily. IIFT tests us on our ability of understanding the passage and how we think comprehensively about the same. Only reading articles & editorials won’t help, unless we start practicing and analyzing RCs. Solving 2 RCs per day is more than enough, but being consistent & doing it daily is what the challenge is!

6. How to Read? Read to seize the essence of the passage. Imagine yourself as the author and think according to his shoes. This helps in capturing the theme of the text. We win half the battle already by identifying the central theme. Next you have to take note of the flow of the key ideas and tone shifts if any. Once you are done through this, you are ready for answering the questions.

Also Read: Dealing with RC passages

7. Grammar, Parajumbles, Sentence completion: Apart from RC, these 3 topics are equally important as you will find a good number of questions from each of these topics. Clear all your grammar basics and make your concepts strong. Practice is the key. Start solving questions on each of these 3 topics & turn this section into your strength.

8. Synonyms, Analogy and Idioms: Building a good vocabulary & getting all your basics sorted in grammar is the key to ace these questions. The level of these questions is usually easy-moderate. So, it’s a scoring section & you can’t afford to miss it. Keep reading & practicing unless you nail this section!

9. Mocks: The best way to track your performance is by giving Mocks. Give atleast 1 mock per week & analyze your strengths & weaknesses for all sections. Keep working on your weak areas of VARC, until you win over it! Also take sectional VARC tests from time to time.

Also Read: Tips to crack IIFT

10. Believe in yourself: Don’t underestimate yourself. Practice consistently & don’t let your morale down. “Believe you can & you will succeed…”

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