PracticeRCPractice by source · Current affairs
Current affairs reading comprehension practice for CAT
The daily editorial is the most underused RC resource an aspirant already owns. Editorials and op-eds from quality newspapers and long-reads are built the way CAT VARC passages are built: a contemporary question, a clear position, evidence weighed against objections, and a tone you must read as carefully as the argument. That contemporary-argument reading is exactly what the exam favours. The catch is that reading the paper is not practice — testing yourself on it is. Paste a day's editorial into PracticeRC and turn it into a timed, scored RC set.
Why editorials build the reading CAT VARC rewards
CAT rarely gives you a story to follow; it gives you an argument to audit. A good editorial does the same in miniature. It commits to a stance in the first lines, supports it with a mix of fact and reasoning, concedes what the other side gets right, and lands on a judgement. The questions that dominate CAT RC — main idea, inference, tone and attitude, paragraph function — map almost one to one onto that structure. When you can say what an editorial argues, how firmly, and where it hedges, you are doing the precise thing the exam scores.
Op-eds add a second dimension the exam loves: voice. A columnist is rarely neutral, and separating what the writer reports from what the writer endorses — often signalled only by an ironic aside or a loaded adjective — is the same skill tone-and-attitude questions test. That is why the editorial page trains you far better than the front page. News reporting answers who, what, and when; CAT asks why and so what.
There is also a stamina benefit. Contemporary argument is dense but familiar in subject, so it lets you build reading speed and endurance without the extra load of an unfamiliar academic field. Once your accuracy holds on editorials, you can widen into heavier registers such as The Economist RC practice and denser academic subjects like history RC practice.
What to read, and what to skip
The rule is simple: practise on prose that argues, not prose that merely reports. From a daily paper or a long-reads site, reach for these:
- Lead editorials — the paper's own unsigned opinion. Compact, thesis-driven, and complete; perfect for main-idea and primary-purpose questions.
- Signed op-eds and columns — a named writer's argument, rich in tone and stance, ideal for attitude questions.
- Long-form analysis and explainers — multi-section pieces that weigh several forces, close to a full-length CAT passage with structure questions.
- Weekend essays and long-reads — the slower, more reflective register that shows up in CAT's humanities passages.
Skip straight news reports, live blogs, and result round-ups. If a piece could be summarised as a list of events, it has no argument to test and will not stretch your reading. For a wider shortlist of publications, see the best sources to practise RC.
Try a sample editorial-style RC set
The passage below is original, written in the compact, argument-forward register of a newspaper editorial. Read it under a timer, choose your answer, then check the explanation. This one is CAT-style with four options.
Sample passage
Every proposal to ban a technology in the name of safety carries a quiet assumption: that the harm it prevents is larger than the harm it creates by pushing the activity elsewhere. With ride-hailing curfews, that assumption is rarely examined. Cities that restrict late-night services point, reasonably, to accidents and disputes involving such trips. What they seldom count is what the passengers do instead — drive themselves after a night out, wait alone on unlit streets, or accept a lift from a stranger. A rule can look protective on the ledger it chooses to keep while worsening the risks it declines to measure. This is not an argument against regulation. It is an argument that a curfew justified only by the incidents it removes, and never by the ones it may quietly cause, has not yet earned the confidence its supporters place in it.
1. The author's central argument is that late-night ride-hailing curfews
- should be abolished because regulation of transport is always counterproductive.
- are justified because they reduce accidents and disputes involving late-night trips.
- may be judged too favourably when only the harms they prevent, not the harms they displace, are counted.
- are the safest available option for passengers travelling late at night.
Answer: C — The author's point is that a curfew's case is incomplete if it ignores the risks passengers take instead. (A) overstates the stance, which the passage rejects with "This is not an argument against regulation"; (B) states the supporters' view the author is questioning, not the author's own; (D) is the opposite of the passage's concern about displaced risk.
How to turn a daily editorial into a timed RC set
- Each morning, pick one editorial or op-ed that argues a position rather than reports an event.
- Paste the text or its URL into PracticeRC, choose CAT for four options, and generate the set.
- Solve against a timer — about 8–10 minutes per passage — as you would on the real exam.
- On every miss, name the trap: a reported view mistaken for the author's, an overstated stance, or an inference the passage does not support.
- Because a fresh test is generated each time, tomorrow's editorial is tomorrow's new drill — you never run out and never memorise.
That last point is the whole advantage over a fixed question bank. A finite bank gets exhausted and remembered; the news never does. One editorial a day, tested and reviewed, is a complete VARC reading habit on its own.
Make it a daily routine
"Read the paper every day" is common CAT advice that quietly fails, because reading has no scoreboard. You finish an editorial, feel informed, and never learn whether you grasped its argument or only its topic. A test closes that gap: forced to choose between two close options and then read why one was a trap, you find exactly where your reading was loose — and that is where the score improves.
Anchor it in a schedule you can keep. The daily RC practice routine lays out a workable plan, how to improve RC accuracy covers the review habit that turns misses into gains, and the RC strategy guide shows how it all fits together.
Frequently asked questions
Does reading current affairs help with CAT reading comprehension?
Yes, but the value is in the editorials and op-eds, not the news reports. Opinion writing makes an argument, adopts a tone, and anticipates objections, which is exactly what CAT RC tests. Straight news reporting rarely does, so it makes weak practice material. Test yourself on an editorial rather than just reading it.
Which is better for RC, the editorial page or the front page?
The editorial page. Front-page reporting answers who, what, and when, which CAT rarely asks about. Editorials, op-eds, and long-form analysis carry a thesis, evidence, and a stance, generating the inference, tone, and structure questions that dominate the exam. Pick the argument, not the update.
How do I turn a daily editorial into a CAT RC test?
Copy the editorial text or paste its URL into PracticeRC, choose CAT for four options, and generate. You get a passage-based test with instant scoring and a per-option explanation. Solve it under a timer of about eight to ten minutes to mimic real exam conditions.
Do I need to memorise current affairs for CAT RC?
No. CAT VARC tests reading, not general knowledge, and every answer must be supported by the passage itself. Current affairs is useful only as a steady supply of well-argued prose to practise on. Knowing the news background can speed up your reading, but never import outside facts into an answer.
Start with today's editorial
Paste any editorial or op-ed and get a CAT-style Reading Comprehension test with per-option explanations — free and unlimited.
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