You should ideally read the entire newspaper.

CAT tests your basic understanding of English language. So, they ask questions from areas like reading comprehension, para-jumble or sentence rearrangement, critical reasoning, para-completion etc. Off-late they have stopped asking direct questions from Grammar and Vocabulary.

If I were to summarize it, the exam is trying to evaluate how well read you are.

Mugging up rules of grammar is of no help. Memorizing words from dictionary is again of no use. Practicing reading comprehension is of limited help. If there is one activity which is going to pay off massively in this section, that will undoubtedly be-READING. Read a lot from anything that you get your hands on! Read books- both fiction and non-fiction, newspapers, subscribe to some good magazines, read from good blog sites. If you read from diverse areas like politics, economics, sports, history, technology etc, your mind is trained to take inputs of all types and thereby you become good in reading comprehension and in other test areas as well. Your reading speed will increase and you will have a fair idea as to how authors construct their paragraph which will help you in para-jumble questions.

So, start reading and enjoy it!!

All the best!

Hi Shivani!

Great question.

It is a good practice to read the newspaper to prepare for CAT. This will help in several ways:

1. It will make you aware of the current events in the country and abroad

2. Equip you with information and figures on important dates, places, capitals of countries, abbreviations of important Acts, Organisations etc.. These can only be located if you read the newspaper thoroughly and not just the headlines.

3. You get to know new words and how to use them. As soon as you find a new word, quickly look up the dictionary to find the meaning and usage of the word. Try to maintain a record of these words/phrases in a notebook.

4. Reading the newspaper thoroughly often helps to form an opinion about important events of economic/social/environmental/political issues which is helpful in writing the essay in WAT. It will also help in aiding your answers during PI. Supplementary knowledge always helps.

5. The 'Comment' section or the editorial section of a newspaper is a very crucial section for CAT aspirants, especially for those looking to improve their verbal and writing skills. The section contains articles by experts in their domain who write about important ongoing issues in the country and society.

Just keep reading the newspaper and try to maintain a record of important dates/figures/ministers holding important positions/new words and phrases alongwith their usage.

Goodluck!

The page which is titled as 'Comment' is the editorial section.