Verbal Ability = 3500 vocab words ?

One important and very common concept that i have heard from many of my friends and people here and there is that, to excel in the verbal ability section of entrance exams we should be absolutely thorough with the Flash cards, i.e. the meanings of the vocab words generally given by coaching centers or can be purchased from stationary shops. Many people recite as many as 3500 vocab words.

Do u really think you can mug up those words completely and even remember them properly to reproduce them at the required time ???

Sorry, I Disagree…

My CAT Score : 95.00 percentile (Verbal Ability 99.00 percentile)

If you know me, then you will surely be laughing your heart out after reading my VA score ,

I may be a good speaker, but i prefer using lucid language in comparison to jargons.

I have been preparing for CAT and other exams but trust me I didn’t even touch a single FLASH card. Actually speaking i did not have the courage and patience to hold on to so many words ( like and unlike many of you).

According to my experience, i would like to tell you all that the Verbal Section is not just about jargons. It has many other sections into it.

Let’s See:

1. Starting with RC i.e. Reading Comprehension

This section is similar to what you have been doing during your school times. But the difference lies in the kind of language they use, the hidden meanings, conclusions, and of course the type of passage. The passage can be related to any field like, informational, political, civic, biological, philosophical, etc….

Students generally fear this RC section.. True… If the passage is small enough students easily skim thru and get to answers. And the analysis shows that

Chances that Student attempts RC is INVERSELY proportional to the SIZE of passage.

Not to worry friends, don’t dare to miss this section, because you have all the answers in front of you.

2. Antonyms,Synonyms (possible jargons or words form respective passage)

3. Fill in the blanks

4. Complete the statement

5. And Para jumble, where you will be given 4-5 statements and you have to arrange them logically..

Coming back to Vocab issue.

I used to solve papers of previous year CAT exams or Model Papers from various coaching classes. I used to attempt the Verbal section.

Yes, you are guessing it right, i used to get many questions related to vocab wrong. But then analysis of paper and reading the solutions helped me improve on this and with time things improved and hence my score.

Once you are reading a statement, and u come across a new word, u don’t know the meaning directly, but in context of the statement you can make out the possible meaning and usage of that word.

I strongly believe in

“Practice Makes a Man perfect”.

So stop mugging up and try implementing the words. This will help you more.

I wish that success be yours…