How can someone with no prior reading habit build interest in reading for VARC?
Reading for VARC becomes easier when you start with content you already care about rather than forcing yourself through dense editorials. The key is to rebuild your attention span first, then expand your range of topics gradually.
Start with Your Natural Interests
Pick subjects that genuinely excite you, whether that's cricket analysis, film reviews, music history, or gaming culture. Read long-form articles (1,000+ words) on these topics from publications like The Athletic, Pitchfork, or The Ringer.
The goal is to train your brain to stay engaged with a single piece of writing for 10-15 minutes without switching tabs. Once you can finish three such articles in a sitting, you're ready to branch out.
From Reddit, we learnt that candidates who began with sports columns on ESPNcricinfo or movie deep-dives on Film Companion found it far easier to transition to The Hindu or The Indian Express editorials after 3-4 weeks of daily reading.
Cut Out Attention Destroyers
Reels, Shorts, and TikTok-style content are the single biggest barrier to VARC improvement. These train your brain to expect dopamine hits every 15 seconds, making it nearly impossible to sustain focus through a 600-word RC passage.
Limit short-form video to 15 minutes per day, ideally after your reading session is complete. Replace doomscrolling time with one 20-minute reading block every morning, phone on airplane mode.
Build a Reading Routine
Consistency matters more than volume. Read two articles daily (one familiar topic, one unfamiliar) for the first month.
In month two, add a third piece from a category you'd normally skip: science (Quanta Magazine), economics (Livemint), or philosophy (Aeon). By month three, you should be comfortable with four diverse pieces daily, which mirrors the variety you'll see in CAT exam pattern + dates VARC sections.
Track your retention by summarising each article in two sentences immediately after reading. If you can't, you weren't focused enough. This self-check builds the active reading muscle VARC demands.
Recommended Sources by Difficulty
| Level | Publications | Why It Works |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | Scroll.in, The Ken, Caravan (lighter pieces) | Accessible language, narrative-driven |
| Intermediate | The Hindu (op-eds), Indian Express, The Wire | Editorial complexity, argument structure |
| Advanced | The New Yorker, The Atlantic, London Review of Books | Dense prose, abstract reasoning |
Start at beginner level regardless of your English proficiency. VARC tests sustained attention and argument mapping, not vocabulary alone.
Practice Alongside Prep
Once you've built 4-6 weeks of reading habit, integrate it with mock analysis. After each VARC section in your build a CAT prep plan, identify which passage types (abstract philosophy, scientific research, historical narrative) slowed you down.
Then deliberately read two articles per week in that genre outside of mocks. This targeted exposure closes comprehension gaps faster than random reading.
Pro Tip: From Reddit, we learnt that setting a "no-phone-before-reading" rule in the morning, even if it's just 15 minutes with coffee, builds the habit far more reliably than trying to squeeze reading into gaps between Instagram checks.