How to Ace Reading Comprehension for CUET 2026?

Overview: To ace reading comprehension for CUET English exam 2026, it is important to start early, read actively, practice regularly, manage your time effectively, and stay focused. Keep reading for 7 score-boosting tips on how to ace reading comprehension for CUET 2026. 

The Reading Comprehension questions for CUET assess your ability to understand, interpret, and draw conclusions from written passages. Over the years, the topic's difficulty level and number of questions have increased, and these unseen passages can be tricky and time-consuming. 

• In 2025, around 10-12 questions were asked only in Reading Comprehension, including 2-3 passages in each shift's paper. 
• It covers 3 types of passages: Literary, Narrative & Factual. 

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Note: The video is for 2025, but the content is also relevant for 2026. Any official changes will be updated here once confirmed. 

How to Ace Reading Comprehension for CUET 2026

The CUET exam for English is one of the main language papers required for admission to the majority of participating universities. Regarding the CUET exam syllabus, reading comprehension is one of the high-weightage chapters, and the difficulty level has also increased over the years. 

The English exam analysis 2025 for reading comprehension, included in the exam in various shifts, is given below: 

• There were around 10-12 passage-based questions. 
• The difficulty level of the passages was easy, with direct questions. 
• There were only 3 passages (1 factual & 2 story-based). 

However, in 2024, 2023 and 2022, the weightage of Reading comprehension was on the higher side. 

TOPIC NAME	2025	2024	2023	2022
RC Based	10-12	24	15	18

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7 Steps on How to Ace Reading Comprehension for CUET 2026

1. Improve your vocabulary

Reading comprehension is an essential part of CUET English syllabus. To begin with, understanding the meaning of the words you read can enhance your reading comprehension. To improve your vocabulary, you can -

• Take online vocabulary quizzes to assess your current level of vocabulary understanding.
• Use flashcards to quiz yourself on words you don’t know once or twice a week.
• Make a point to use newly learned words in verbal and written communication.
• Read editorials from The Hindu or Times of India to improve your ability to guess what a word means in a certain context.
• Make a list of unfamiliar words as you read and look them up in the dictionary.

2. Come up with questions about the text you are reading

While knowing how to ace Reading Comprehension for CUET, asking questions about what you are reading can help improve your reading comprehension by allowing you to become invested in the comprehension passage for CUET. You can ask the following questions while you read any poem or article-

• Why did the author begin the article or poem at that location?
• What kind of emotions or relationships are being reflected?
• Is there any main character or main message?
• Are there any themes that have consistently come up throughout the text? If so, what do they signify?

How to solve poetry comprehension in CUET?

1. Determine the theme by looking for hints in the poem's title or if there's any repitition.
2. Once you read the poem, try to understand its overall theme like to whom it is being addressed, message and tone.
3. Be mindful of the poem's physical structure and punctuation.

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3. Use context clues

The essentials of how to ace Reading Comprehension for CUET include you to try new techniques that add value to your preparation. For some, video lectures work, while for others, daily quizzes and preparation from CUET preparation books for English work. However, for both of these, the technique of using context clues is applicable. 

• Using context clues is a great way to understand what you are reading, even if you don’t know all the vocabulary being used.
• Context clues can be found in the words and sentences surrounding the word you aren’t familiar with.
• To use context clues, you can focus on the key phrases or ideas in a sentence and get the main idea of a sentence or paragraph based on this information.
• You can also look for nearby words that are synonyms or antonyms of the word you don’t know.

4. Look for the main idea

To effectively learn how to ace Reading Comprehension for CUET, you must know that the core lies in identifying the main idea of a paragraph or article, which can help you determine the importance of the article.

• Understanding what you’re reading is important and can help you better comprehend the author's message.
• When reading, pause every few paragraphs and see if you can decipher the main idea.
• Then, try putting the main idea in your own words for further understanding.

5. Write a summary of what you read

Just like solving CUET previous year question papers is an important part of your preparation phase, making short notes or quick summary of what you just read adds extra value and longer recall value.

• Writing a summary is a great way to increase your knowledge of what you have read.
• To summarise, you must decide what is important in the text and then put it in your own words.
• Summarising allows you to determine whether you truly understood what you have read and better remember it in the long term. 

6. Break up the reading into smaller sections

• Consider breaking it into smaller sections if you read longer or more challenging text.
• For example, you could read two paragraphs at a time and then pause to summarise what you just read in your mind quickly.
• Breaking up what you are reading can make you feel less overwhelmed and give you a better chance of truly comprehending the information in the text.

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7. Reading Comprehension Practice for CUET 

Your CUET preparation for reading comprehension is incomplete without practice and regular revision. Although you may find this part very easy, it can become quite challenging if taken lightly. 

• Pacing yourself is also an effective way to work on your reading comprehension skills. It allows you to set realistic goals for your reading practice and habits.
• This is especially true for books or other literature that you find challenging.
• Set a goal for yourself that you know you can meet each day. For example, rather than saying that you want to read an entire book in two days, say that you will read 2-3 chapters daily.
• This allows you to reach your goals and provides adequate time to process what you are reading between sessions.

CUET English Exam Details

Here's an overview of how the exam will look like: 

Particulars	Details
Total Questions	50
Questions to be attempted	50
Total Marks	250
Marking Scheme	5 marks for each right answer -1 for each wrong answer
Question Type	MCQ
Exam duration	60 minutes

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Key Takeaways

You will get many ways on how to ace Reading Comprehension for CUET 2026 for thorough preparation. 

• Develop a reading habit. Newspapers, editorials, magazines - anything that keeps you engaged and improves vocabulary.
• Underline key points, take notes, and summarize passages to boost an understanding of CUET comprehension passages.
• Anticipate questions and practice answering them based on the passage, not outside knowledge.
• Solve past year papers and CUET mock tests to get familiar with question formats and time management.
• Build a strong vocabulary. Flashcards, mnemonic devices - anything that helps you learn new words and understand context.