How to improve your vocabulary for CAT

If you’ve ever read a CAT RC and thought,
“I don’t understand half the words here”, you’re not alone.

Vocabulary is one of those areas students often ignore—until it starts affecting:

• Reading comprehension
• Para jumbles
• Summary questions

But here’s the good part:
Vocabulary improvement is completely trainable.

You don’t need to memorize thousands of words.
You just need the right approach.

In order to get into a top B School, it is very important to plan and devote equal time and effort to all the sections. Students should prepare a correct study schedule keeping all the sections in mind and will follow it with complete dedication. Students generally find themselves concentrating more on Quants and DI, leaving little or no time for verbal ability. 

The vocabulary being one of the foremost important parts of verbal ability are some things that you simply cannot improve in a short span of your time. you would like to place in continuous efforts to enhance your vocabulary. an upscale vocabulary helps you to precise yourself in a better way and improve your language and literacy skills.

Here are a few tips which will help you to build your vocabulary-

Proven Strategies to Improve Vocabulary for CAT Exam

Reading Habit:

You can improve your vocabulary by reading a standard National Daily Newspaper or some good books regularly. This will just not help you to understand the meaning of the words but will also show their practical implications in the sentences.

Apart from this, regular reading helps in increasing your reading speed also as increasing your awareness about the present affairs. Students do complain that they find reading as boring except for the beginning , you'll start with some interesting news piece or some small book to grab your attention.

Read actively: when you hit an unfamiliar word, circle it, guess its meaning from context first, then verify. This context-guessing habit is the exact skill you will need during RC passages when you cannot look up a word.

Common mistake: Many aspirants read passively, eyes moving over words without engagement. Passive reading builds almost no vocabulary. Always read with a pencil (or a notes app) to mark unfamiliar words and always try to infer meaning from context before checking a dictionary.

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Using diversified ways:

Another way to improve the vocabulary can be starting watching some English television series or movies and take notes if required. Also, try to converse more in English and use the words which you have learned in your daily conversation. This will help you to retain and understand the meaning of the word for a longer time.

Use Visual Vocabulary:

Try to use visual vocabulary techniques to find out and memorize the words. to create your visual vocabulary pick a subject during which you're interested and check out to brainstorm all words associated with that topic. After writing all the words you'll create a visible icon on your own. This may assist you in remembering that word. you'll also list down words associated with a topic like travel, food, holiday, hobbies, etc. during this way you'll be ready to build your visual vocabulary stronger.

Learn a word a day:

Make it a habit to learn one word per day. This approach seems to be too rigid for some students, but it’s a very easy and almost negligible time-consuming technique to learn new words. And don’t forget to use that word in your conversation for better retention. Using those words in daily life will make you remember that else you will forget that word within days.

Phone Dictionary:

Earlier people use to carry a small dictionary with them to increase their vocabulary. But in today's era we all have mobile phones with us. So, Install an English Dictionary on your phone and make a habit to use it frequently throughout the day. While learning the meaning of the words also pay attention to the roots and pronunciation of the word. Also look at the Antonyms and Synonyms of that word. Most of the time the app shows both Antonym and Synonym when you search for the word.

Practice reading comprehension:

Reading comprehension is one of the major parts of the verbal ability section. The challenge which students generally face is the slow reading speed as well as unable to understand and interpret the comprehension majorly because of weak vocabulary. Practicing more and more comprehensions will help you to achieve speed in reading as well as to check how much you have progressed in terms of improving your vocabulary.

Also read: How to improve your logical reasoning skills for CAT

Mobile applications:

There are many applications available on play store and app store which provides you games to improve your vocabulary. You can install one such app on your mobile and start playing it whenever you get time. It will help you to improve your vocab in your free time in an interesting way. Some of the games are Word Jumble, Puzzle, Scrabble, Anagrams, Boggle, etc. Some of the other mobile apps for Vocabulary are PowerVocab, Word of the day Widget, Vocabulary.com, Word to Word, 7 little words, Word with friends, etc. 

Kindle:

Students have now become much more tech-savvy and that’s where kindle can help you to work on your vocabulary. Students now feel why to carry a book when it is available online. Kindle can cater to that need. You can buy or download an e-book and read it to build your vocabulary.

                       


Flashcards:

Always keep flashcards with you. They are pocket-friendly and whenever you get time, just take out those flashcards and start learning some new vocabulary. They have words arranged in alphabetical order so make target for every day and take these cards with you throughout the day. Also, don't forget to revise these flashcards frequently.

Vocab Notebook:

Make a notebook where you can write all the new words you learn daily. Try to write the meaning, the root word, Antonyms, and Synonyms all so that you can memorize it all once you are revising the meaning and words again you can also look at the other things altogether. By writing down the meanings and words will help you in memorizing them easily. 

Also Read : Get Free Study material for English Preparation

Board games:

A board game like scrabble gives you an opportunity to learn and use already learned words in a fun way. This provides you an interesting way to learn and implement what you have learned. Some of the popular board games to improve your vocabulary are Scrabble, Taboo, Boggle, Jenga, Apples to Apples, Upwords, Scattergories, Balderdash, Bananagrams, Funglish, Catch phrase, Last words, Word Connect, You have been sentenced, etc.

Mock test:

There are various mock tests available online which can help you to check your progress in terms of vocabulary building. A mock test on the verbal ability section generally consists of reading comprehension, grammar, verbal reasoning, critical reasoning, etc. which will help you not only to check for your vocabulary but also will give you confidence about the whole verbal ability section.

Join for giving mocks

All the tips mentioned above can help you to improve your vocabulary and please remember a good vocabulary will not only help you to crack MBA exams but also will help you to achieve other occupational success. So to build your vocabulary start learning new words, try using them in your daily routine, repeat those words often so that you can't forget them, Speak and talk in English as much as possible, watch videos of vocabulary while walking or when you are going to bed and Keep revising your notebooks.