WHEN YOU'VE DEVELOPED CONSIDERABLE COMMAND OVER YOUR VOCABULARY, THE NEXT STEP IS TO HONE YOUR SKILLS IN READING AND COMPREHENDING COMPLICATED, LONG-WINDED SENTENCES. ARUN SHARMA PRESENTS A PLAN FOR DEVELOPING SENTENCE COMPREHENSION SKILLS

   Last week, we dealt with the basic level of language development, namely, studying words, and focusing on developing your active vocabulary, standard word usage, phrasal verbs, etc. The next level of language development is concerned with sentence and paragraph comprehension.
   Comprehension is, in fact, crucial when it comes to cracking the verbal section of the CAT. In the verbal and reading comprehension section, your ability to understand long complex sentences, and paragraphs containing these, can be seen to be the one defining skill that can turn around your sectional scores.

CONSIDER THIS PARAGRAPH THAT APPEARED IN CAT 2006:

"He has chosen a good year for his ideological offensive: this is the 50th anniversary of Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of Josef Stalin and the subsequent Hungarian uprising, which will doubtless be the cue for further excoriation of the communist record. Paradoxically, given that there is no communist government left in Europe outside Moldova, the attacks have, if anything, become more extreme as time has gone on. A clue as to why that might be, can be found in the rambling report by Mr Lindblad that led to the Council of Europe declaration. Blaming class struggle and public ownership, he explained, "different elements of communist ideology such as equality or social justice still seduce many", and "a sort of nostalgia for communism is still alive." Perhaps the real problem for Mr Lindblad and his rightwing allies in Eastern Europe is that communism is not dead enough - and they will only be content when they have driven a stake through its heart."
   If you count the number of words in the paragraph provided above, you will notice that it has 160 words in five sentences, which means the average length of sentences in the paragraph is 32 words per sentence. However, an average CAT aspirant may only be comfortable with up to 15 to 20 words per sentence. To add to this dilemma, students might be completely unfamiliar with the topic of the passage. It's no surprise then, that even English medium educated students, or students who have studied English throughout their lives, have a difficult time tackling this section. Hence, what you need to do is focus on developing your ability to understand longer sentences from complex and diverse topics. A good starting for you is to improve your understanding of content and language in the following areas:

Economics

Philosophy

Politics

Psychology

Socio-political issues

Biology and medicine

Sociology and civilisations

Art and culture

Science and technology

Since it might be impossible to read up on all the above mentioned subjects, a more feasible approach is reading short extracts (paragraphs and passages) from each of these areas. This exercise ensures you become more familiar with the typical style of writing style that you are likely to experience in the CAT and other aptitude exams.
(The author is an IIM Bangalore alumnus, CEO Mindworkzz, Tata Mc-Graw Hill's online CAT Training venture, and the author of a series of bestselling books on CAT by Tata Mcgraw Hill)