How to Avoid Re-reading the Dense Passage in VARC


The Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) section of the CAT exam is often a time crunch, and nothing wastes precious minutes like getting stuck re-reading a difficult or dense passage.Dense passages are challenging, but top VARC mentors at RODHA have developed specific strategies to help you grasp the core ideas without getting trapped in the details.


Essential VARC Reading Strategy: How to Tackle Dense Passages 
Here are four crucial things that can help you avoid rereading those dense passages:

 1. Focus on the Examples (The Contrarian Approach) 
In general VARC preparation, mentors often advise students to focus more on the ideas and less on the explanations and examples. However, when dealing specifically with a dense passage, this advice is modified. In challenging, information-heavy passages, the examples can really clarify that idea for you. By pausing briefly to understand the examples provided by the author, you can anchor the abstract concept, allowing you to move forward without needing to revisit the full explanation later.

2. Decode the Tone and Transition Words 
Sometimes, you encounter sentences that feel heavy, and you simply don’t understand exactly what is contained within them. If this happens, don't stop; instead, focus on the tone of the sentences. It is important to pay close attention to transition words. Even if the specific content is fuzzy, the tone and transition words will give you a rough idea about the author's stance on that broad thing that is being elaborated. This understanding of the author's viewpoint is often sufficient for answering main idea or inference questions.

3. Read Paragraph Opening and Closing Sentences Carefully 
This is a fundamental technique that holds true for every passage you read in the CAT VARC section. You must read the opening and closing sentence of each paragraph carefully. A lot of the time, the opening and closing sentences pack good key ideas. By ensuring these structural markers are understood, you establish a solid framework for the entire passage, making the dense material in the middle easier to process contextually.

4. Build Locationational Retention and Read Explanations Faster 
One key insight is that a lot of the information that you’re worrying about while reading the passage may not even be important. Because of this, you should feel comfortable reading the explanations relatively faster. However, this speed must be coupled with a technique called locationational retention. You must build this skill so that you know where specific details were mentioned.  If a question specifically targets that detail, you can always go back to that part and now read it relatively more carefully. This strategy prevents the immediate, time-consuming re-reading of the entire passage.

These four focus areas will help you to not reread that dense passage. If you are looking to practice such dense passages and execute these strategies effectively.

 
Team RODHA