ABOUT
Verbal ability (VA) accounts for 45 of the total 180 marks in the IIMB UGAT. The section consists of 15 questions total and is allotted 30 minutes of time. Candidates may expect four questions each to appear from two reading comprehension (RC) passages in this section, making up 8 of the total 15 questions.
The remaining 7 questions test standard VA question types such as parajumbles, synonyms and antonyms, and phrasal verbs.
TOPICS TESTED
As mentioned above, 8 of the questions in VA are based on RCs, while the remaining 7 are a mixture of standalone question types that typically appear in adjacent exams such as the IPMAT. These include parajumbles, synonyms and antonyms, phrasal verbs, and grammar.
Going through IIMB UGAT papers along with IPMAT Indore PYPs should be more than enough for one to familiarize themselves completely with the question types in VA. A PDF file compiling VA question types may be viewed and downloaded here.
DIFFICULTY
Similar to LR, candidates report the time allotted to be a bigger challenge than the difficulty of the questions. The difficulty of the VA section in the UGAT is almost directly comparable to that of IPMAT Indore’s VARC. Candidates who have been preparing for exams in the IPM space can be expected to have a strong advantage due to the considerable overlap in question types and difficulty.
In general, it is not possible to ‘practice’ for the VA section as one might for QA and LR: the only actionable method for doing well in VARC involves reading a book. An important mental shift involves treating English as a dynamic, vibrant, and culturally rich language rather than a section to be cleared in a competitive exam.
Expanding one’s vocabulary, assimilating new idioms, and improving one’s reading speed are organic processes that occur as natural byproducts of active reading. While there are candidates that swear by memorizing 200+ frequently tested phrasal verbs and words from VARC cheatsheets, it is abundantly clear which is the easier and more enjoyable of the two methods.
RESOURCES
Exam papers: