How to Score 99 Percentile in CAT 2026 VARC Section

Among the three sections of CAT, VARC is the strangest one to prepare for. It is not that it is difficult — it is just that it is not easy to prepare for it either. Unlike QA and LRDI, where you understand concepts, practise problems, and track measurable progress, VARC asks you to do one thing: read. And read. And read some more. Which, let us be honest, is a boring task for most people.

This section becomes a particular challenge if you are in the afternoon slot of CAT. After a full morning and a heavy lunch, sitting down to read dense, abstract passages on philosophy or postcolonial economics while feeling lousy is a very real test of mental stamina — not just reading ability.

However, there is one genuinely interesting thing about this section that the other two do not offer. You are not mugging up formulas to forget them the moment the exam is over. The skills you build here become a part of you. The ability to read a complex argument, understand what someone is really saying beneath the surface, and form a precise view on it — that is not an exam skill. That is a life skill. Students who prepare seriously for VARC often come out of the process as fundamentally better thinkers and communicators. That is not a small thing.

With that said, let us break down exactly how to score 99 percentile in VARC — section structure, strategy, and preparation phase by phase.

This guide covers the VARC section in depth. If you are looking for a complete overview of all three CAT sections — including the 10-10-10 strategy, the full 3-phase preparation roadmap, and advice for non-engineers — start here: https://aptitude360.online/blog/cat-2026-preparation-strategy-for-beginners-a-step-by-step-plan-to-crack-cat-in-6-months

Breakdown of Past Year Trends in CAT VARC

The VARC section has 24 questions divided between Reading Comprehension (RC) and Verbal Ability (VA). The split is consistent year after year — RC dominates, and all VA questions are TITA (Type In The Answer) with no negative marking. The table below is based on official CAT question papers analysed across 2023, 2024, and 2025.

Source: IIM CAT Official Portal — question paper analysis across CAT 2023, 2024, and 2025 slots.

Chart 1: Distribution of 24 VARC Questions by Type (3-Year Average) 

Two things stand out immediately. First, RC accounts for two thirds of the section — your RC accuracy decides your VARC score more than anything else. Second, all 8 VA questions are TITA with zero negative marking. This means VA is free-attempt territory. You should attempt every single VA question in every mock and in the actual exam, regardless of how confident you feel. A blank TITA is a guaranteed zero. An educated guess costs nothing.

RC passages in CAT are sourced from Philosophy, Economics, Social Commentary, Science, History, and Literature — always from international journals and literary essays, never from school-level material. Philosophy and Economics passages appear most consistently and are the densest in terms of vocabulary and argument structure. This directly shapes what your reading practice should look like, which we will cover in the preparation section.

“Rohan, a student who appeared for CAT last year told us that the VARC section felt different from every mock they had taken. 'The first passage was on philosophy of language. I had no idea what was being argued for the first two paragraphs. The only reason I survived was that I had been reading Aeon Essays for four months. The topic was unfamiliar but the writing style was not.'”

How Many Correct Attempts in VARC Will Give You 99 Percentile in CAT 2026?

VARC has more questions than QA and LRDI, and the presence of no-negative-marking VA questions changes the math compared to the other two sections. Here is what the data shows.

The following is based on historical CAT score-percentile data and analysis tracked across student cohorts. For the official scaled score methodology, refer to iimcat.ac.in.

The RC accuracy bar: Getting 10 to 12 of the 16 RC questions correct means you can afford to get 4 to 6 wrong. That sounds manageable, but with 4 passages of 4 questions each, one badly chosen passage can cost you all 4 questions in that cluster. This is why RC passage selection is as important as LRDI set selection.

Always attempt all 8 VA questions: There is no strategic reason to skip any TITA question. Even a guess is better than a blank. Students who consistently attempt all 8 VA questions have a measurable floor advantage over those who leave any of them blank.

“Pooja, a student currently preparing for CAT 2026 told us that realising VA had no negative marking changed their entire approach. 'I was treating TITA questions carefully, like they could hurt me. Once I understood they were free, I started attempting all 8 every mock. Just that change added 8 to 12 marks to my VARC score across three mocks.'”

Two Approaches to Scoring 99 Percentile in VARC

Unlike QA and LRDI, VARC has a specific structural advantage: the VA section is entirely TITA and entirely free to attempt. This creates two very distinct strategic profiles, depending on your RC accuracy and reading comfort. Choose the one that matches where you are.

Strategy 1: The Accuracy Approach — 3 Passages, High Accuracy

Best for: Students who find RC mentally taxing, tend to make errors when rushing, or have a reading profile that is stronger in some passage topics than others.

In this approach, you attempt only 3 of the 4 RC passages with full focus and aim for 85 to 90% accuracy within those 3. You either skip the 4th passage entirely or make quick guesses if time permits. All 8 VA questions are attempted regardless.

Why this works: A wrong RC answer costs you 5 marks net — 4 marks you could have earned, plus 1 mark penalty. One bad passage attempted carelessly can swing your score by 12 to 20 marks. Skipping a passage you cannot handle cleanly is not a loss. It is damage prevention. Students who adopt this approach typically find their mock scores become more consistent, even if the peak score is occasionally lower.

Strategy 2: The Maximum Attempt Approach — 4 Passages, Managed Accuracy

Best for: Students who are 4 to 5 months into preparation, read comfortably across multiple passage topics, and have demonstrated 70%+ RC accuracy across mocks consistently.

In this approach, you attempt all 4 RC passages but manage your time strictly — no more than 10 to 11 minutes per passage. You are comfortable enough to handle all topics and your accuracy is high enough that even a slightly weaker passage yields 2 to 3 correct answers rather than 0. All 8 VA questions are attempted regardless.

The risk: This strategy punishes inconsistency. If your accuracy drops to 60% across 16 RC questions, you will score lower than a student using Strategy 1 with 85% accuracy across 12. Before committing to this approach, check your last 5 mocks. If your RC accuracy has been consistently above 70%, Strategy 2 is your path. If it fluctuates widely, Strategy 1 is safer.

You can mix strategies: Many students use Strategy 1 for their first two passages (deep, careful reading) and Strategy 2 pacing for the remaining two (faster, more decisive). This hybrid is common among students who have one consistently strong passage type and two moderate ones.

“Heet, a student who cracked 99 percentile in VARC told us they spent the first three months of mocks using Strategy 2 and kept getting inconsistent scores. 'My mentor made me track RC accuracy by passage for four consecutive mocks. Turns out I was getting 3 or 4 wrong every single time in the philosophy passage. We switched to Strategy 1, I started skipping philosophy, and my score stabilised immediately.'”

How to Start Preparing for the VARC Section of CAT 2026

VARC preparation is a long game. Unlike QA where a concept can be understood in a few sessions, VARC improvement is measured in months. The earlier you start, the larger your advantage. Here is a phase-wise plan.

Phase 1: Building the Reading Foundation (Months 1 to 2)

The biggest mistake students make in Phase 1 is treating VARC like a subject to study. It is not. It is a skill to practise. Two habits need to be built simultaneously in this phase: a daily reading habit, and an active vocabulary habit.

The Daily Reading Habit

Start with one The Hindu editorial every morning. This is the single most important preparation habit in VARC. The Hindu editorial page covers Economics, Policy, Social Commentary, and occasionally Philosophy — exactly the domains that dominate CAT RC passages year after year. The writing style, sentence complexity, and vocabulary tier are a near-perfect match for what CAT uses.

At Aptitude 360, The Hindu editorial is not just assigned reading. It is the centrepiece of our VARC sessions. Every week, a recent editorial is discussed in class: we read it together, flag every unfamiliar word and dissect it, discuss what the author is actually arguing, and each student writes one sentence summarising the central point. This one exercise builds RC comprehension, author intent analysis, Para Summary skills, and vocabulary retention simultaneously.

Beyond The Hindu: Add one Aeon Essay per week (free at aeon.co/essays). Aeon covers Philosophy, Psychology, and Culture — the abstract domains that produce the hardest CAT passages. Familiarity with this writing style is one of the clearest differentiators between students who freeze on a philosophy passage and those who work through it steadily.

That said, The Hindu and Aeon are not the only path. Reading quality is what matters, not the source.

“Jatin, one of our students built an exceptionally rich vocabulary and a deep sense of author intent not through editorials or essays, but through classic English novels. Works by George Orwell, Charles Dickens, and Thomas Hardy were his primary reading material throughout preparation. His background was UPSC CSE with Philosophy as his optional, which meant he already had a broad understanding of diverse topics — History, Economics, Governance, Ethics, and abstract philosophical thought. His words: ‘The biggest challenge for me was never content. It was reading those long passages under stress and answering them within the time constraint. My UPSC background gave me the conceptual foundation. The novels gave me the vocabulary and the sensitivity to an author’s tone. I had to train myself to do what I already knew how to do — just faster and under pressure.’”

His case is a useful reminder: the goal is a reading mind, not a specific reading list. If classic literature, long-form journalism, or UPSC-level academic reading is already part of your life, build on that foundation rather than starting from scratch.

The Vocabulary Habit

CAT does not test vocabulary directly. There are no synonym questions or fill-in-the-blanks. But vocabulary is the hidden driver behind almost every difficulty in VARC. Slow reading speed, missed author tone, wrong inference answers, Para-Jumble errors — all of these trace back, at least partially, to vocabulary gaps.

Do not memorise word lists. Learn words in context. Every unfamiliar word you encounter in an editorial or RC passage should be looked up, understood, and noted with the sentence it appeared in. A vocabulary notebook — 10 to 15 new words per week from live reading — compounds into a significant advantage over 5 to 6 months.

VA Question Types — Phase 1 Introduction

Phase 2: Application and Accuracy (Months 3 to 4)

In Phase 2 you shift from building habits to applying them under exam conditions. The focus moves to RC question types, passage selection instinct, and locking your VA accuracy.

The Options-First Technique: Before reading an RC passage deeply, skim the 4 questions for that passage first. This tells your brain what to look for while reading. If 3 questions are about the author's view or inference, you know to read for argument structure. If questions are about tone, flag tone words as you read. This one technique reduces re-reading time significantly and improves first-attempt accuracy.

“Deepak, a student currently in Phase 2 of their CAT 2026 prep told us that the options-first technique felt counterintuitive at first. 'I thought reading questions before the passage would confuse me. It did the opposite. I knew what I was looking for, so I read with a purpose instead of just absorbing text and hoping something stuck.'”

Phase 3: Mock Test Intensive and VARC Strategy Locking (Months 5 to 6)

In Phase 3 the reading habit is built, the vocabulary is growing, and the question types are familiar. Now the routine is: give a mock, analyse the VARC section in detail, and lock your passage selection strategy. The goal is to stop improvising on exam day and start executing a plan you have already rehearsed 20 times.

The Kaizen Rule of Mock Analysis for VARC

How Aptitude 360 Helps You Build Your VARC Strategy

Most coaching treats VARC as the section you are either naturally good at or not. At Aptitude 360, we disagree entirely. VARC is the most teachable section of CAT — but only if the preparation is structured around the right inputs.

• The Hindu Editorial Sessions: Every week, a recent editorial is discussed in class — reading, word dissection, author intent analysis, and a summary exercise. Students who participate consistently show measurable improvement in RC accuracy within 6 to 8 weeks.
• Structured Vocabulary Building: Words are learned in context from editorials and RC passages, not from lists. Weekly revision drills using spaced repetition ensure long-term retention, not just short-term recognition.
• Strategy Profiling: We help every student identify which of the two strategies suits their RC accuracy profile. Switching from Strategy 2 to Strategy 1 at the right time is one of the most common score turnarounds we see in Phase 3.
• The Consistency Anchor: VARC progress is invisible in the early months. We keep students consistent during Phase 1 and 2 when the motivation to read one more editorial at 7 AM is at its lowest.
• Beyond the Percentile: The reading and articulation skills built during VARC preparation carry directly into WAT-PI-GD, where written communication and structured thinking are under the spotlight.

Conclusion: From Plan to Practice

The VARC section of CAT is not a test of whether you are an English person or not. It is a test of whether you have built the reading mind to handle dense, unfamiliar text — and answer precise questions about it under time pressure. Fourteen to sixteen correct answers out of twenty-four will put you in the 99th percentile. That is entirely achievable for anyone who starts early, reads consistently, and applies the right strategy on exam day.

Pick your strategy. Attempt every single TITA question. Read one Hindu editorial tomorrow morning. Do that every day for six months. The VARC score will follow.

See you on the other side of the percentile!

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Sources & References

• Official CAT Notification, Question Papers & Percentile Data: https://iimcat.ac.in

• Topic-wise question distribution is based on CAT 2023, 2024, and 2025 official question papers analysed across multiple slots.

• Score-to-percentile mapping is derived from historical CAT result data and student-reported scores compiled by our team.

• Recommended reading: The Hindu Editorial | Aeon Essays.

• Student insights are based on interactions with current and past CAT aspirants mentored through Aptitude 360. Names are withheld to protect privacy.