Most of the advisory online content you may have come across on this topic - "The importance of English Vocabulary for CAT preparation" will distil down to these three points:

• CAT is less about language proficiency and more about decoding the meanings of words and phrases you come across in context while reading the Reading Comprehension (RC) passages; summarizing paragraphs; and answering Verbal Ability (VA) questions such as Sentence Correction, Odd-Sentence out and Para Jumbles. A strong vocabulary enables you to decipher word connections for greater contextual understanding of the topic so as to accurately answer the questions in this section.

I took the Common Admission Test (CAT) nearly 2 decades back and I must admit that the preparation process was life altering. Despite being educated in an English medium school in Coimbatore and being rather fluent in the language; having graduated from one of the best commerce colleges from Pune; and getting some work experience under my belt, there was one thing which left me overwhelmed other than getting my mind back to apply itself on Quants. 

A Limited Vocabulary, is a limitation to your world!

It was the realization that my active English Vocabulary was shockingly limited, and there was a treasure trove of words and word clusters (idioms, phrasal verbs and collocations) out there that I was yet to be acquainted with which would enable me to comprehend, think and articulate myself better.  

The Game Changer: Reading Newspapers to stay abreast of the news and boost word power!

I admit I was never a bibliophile, and reading newspapers and magazines was only on a cursory basis. My deep reading was restricted to books that were part of my curriculum in school and college. That is when I inculcated the discipline of reading the editorials in The Hindu and The Times of India; underlining new words and phrases I came across; opening up and referring a dictionary; and jotting down those words and phrases along with their meanings and usage examples in a note book. 

An Unconventional Approach: Television Sit-Coms, Cricket Commentary, Hollywood Movies and Interviews

Back in the day, I'd consider every interview of Rendezvous with Simi Garewal as an English lesson, latching on to every single word that was spoken by the host and her celebrity guests on the show. I'd rent DVDs of F.R.I.E.N.D.S, watch the latest English movies in theatres and listen to the cricket commentary of the likes of Harsha Bhogle and Tony Greg, all with the intent of building my word power. 

I'd make a mental note of the new words I'd come across (had a better memory back then!!) and then jot them down into my notebook.

The Tangible Outcomes:

• Answer Reading Comprehension (RC) and Verbal Ability (VA) related questions with greater accuracy (helping me get a 99 percentile score in the VARC Section)
• Ability to express my opinions more creatively, coherently, and cogently making me sound more convincing during Group Discussions and Personal Interviews (GD/PI).
• Got placed in Deloitte from campus post MBA before going on to carve a career in Corporate Communications/ Public Relations crafting and pitching engaging stories and building narratives for corporates and individuals to connect meaningfully to their stakeholders.

Watch how it works on e-Newspapers and e-Magazine portals (having a Digital View option)

Glibzter English Vocab Magnet works on all Chromium-based browsers, and can curate English words and phrases for you from any online news portal content that is not behind a paywall (requiring you to subscribe to the media house). If you have an active digital subscription of the media house (e.g. The Hindu e-paper + digital; The Indian Express; TOI+; Magzter etc.), it would work on the premium content as well.

• Accelerated English Vocabulary expansion by reading online news articles.
• No hassle of jotting down new words and phrases in a notebook while you read. All your saved vocabulary gets saved in 'My Learning' page and exported into a Google Doc on your Google Drive.
• Create social proof of you using the newly acquired vocabulary by sharing a post using the new word or phrase.
• Take engaging contextual usage assessments in recorded speech, typewritten input, and MCQ format. 
• What's more? During your free time, turn your passive video watching into an English Vocabulary expansion exercise by turning on the subtitles/ closed captions (CC) in English. The extension would work on curating words and phrases from the videos you stream.

Article References: Careers360.com | Quantifiers CAT Academy | Byju's | CATKing

Disclaimer: Glibzter English Vocab Magnet is a life-long learning tool you plug-in to your daily digital content consumption to curate English words and phrases, their contextual meaning and how they were used in the source media - be it videos with English subtitles you stream or online English news articles and blogs you read. It complements your CAT preparation purely from an English Vocabulary acquisition and testing your contextual usage knowledge of the vocabulary you've acquired. It DOES NOT replace your study materials nor guarantee a high score.

Love to stay abreast of the news and current developments? If you are someone who discovers news online and explores websites for information, make it an English Vocabulary building experience by plugging in these Web Browser Extensions into your digital reading.

If words aren't highlighted, then users who install such extensions can select words, phrases (word clusters) or entire paragraphs using their cursor, and clicking the extension's brand icon (or right-clicking the selected word/s and then clicking the extension brand icon) to trigger a desired functional feature.

Let's now get down to exploring the best Chrome extensions to aid you in English Vocabulary expansion while reading online media content:

Reverso facilitates cutting edge AI-powered translation of web page content in 25+ languages. Beyond web pages, the translation feature also works on emails and chats. 

While it doesn't highlight words on the news article page, you can save your favorite words and expressions manually along with the sentence from the text in which you found them.

Why choose Reverso?

• Has a reader for distraction free reading (by inserting text or web page), along with proprietary content.
• Works on major video streaming platforms with each word in the subtitle made clickable.
• Automatic detection of word clusters (idioms and phrasal verbs) enabling you to expand your selection and adding to the vocabulary list.
• Premium subscription at US$ 11 per month (~ ₹ 1050)

Functions like Reverso and other Chrome extensions in this space, with the Web reader being its differentiator. You import a news article into the web reader, and start collecting words and phrases you come across.

Why choose ReadLang Web Reader?

• Enables translations across a wider range of languages.
• Interesting practice formats of 'Blitz' (MCQ based questions), Mastery (Typewritten inputs) and Classic Flashcards.
• Readlang works with YouTube videos by displaying a synchronized interactive transcript below the player rather than traditional overlaid video subtitles. As the video plays, words highlight in real-time, and you can click any word for instant translations or save them as flashcards.
• Premium feature pricing of US$ 6 per month (~ ₹ 570)

Rememberry is the smart tool for effortless language learning. Simply translate a word or phrase while browsing and turn it into a study card with a single click.

Why choose Rememberry?

• Spaced repetition for optimal efficiency where you choose your study mode: Text-based, Audio-based, or Typing practice
  
• See reverse translations to gain deeper context
  
• Mobile App with AI tools to instantly generate custom decks, and practice through dialogues and dynamic exercises
• Affordable Monthly Pricing of US$ 3.50 (~ ₹ 340)

This is a Chrome extension that works on web pages, local PDF files, and video subtitles like YouTube, TED, and Netflix.

Why choose Burning Vocabulary?

• Saved words automatically light up whenever you see them on other websites.
  
• Collated words in the Vocabulary Calendar which shows words you marked day by day. 
• Export and import vocabulary (JSON/ CSV file formats).
• The most affordable browser extension with yearly subscription of US$ 19.99 (~ ₹ 1900).

HighVocab is a vocabulary builder and English learning extension for you if you are taking competitive exams like IELTS, TOEFL, GRE improve their English vocabulary while browsing the web. 

Why choose HighVocab?

• Hand-curated dictionary of 50,000+ English words 
• Discover new words based on themes of your interest CEFR level etc.
• Improve your Writing skills where you can use the browser extension to polish your sentences, based on tone after inputting the context (say an email you have to respond to). Hits home like Grammarly! 
• Get audio pronunciation of the word you select in the online article.
• While it does not work on video subtitles, it has an iOS and Android Mobile App. 
• One of the most affordable monthly subscription plans at US$ 2.99 (~ ₹ 285)

Glibzter has developed this as an AI-powered web browser extension that acts as a 'Digital Magnet' identifying, highlighting and extracting the most high impact English words and phrases from news portals you read. It opens a web app where these identified words and phrases are presented to you for your selection, learning and assessments that test both your lexical as well as contextual usage knowledge.

What makes Glibzter English Vocab Magnet most suitable for you?

Ease of Identification: English Words and Phrases get highlighted on almost 9 out of 10 online websites, making it easy for you to select them for learning and practice.

Safety: 2-Step Permission Authorization Process to protect your private sensitive data. The browser extension reads the page content only if you give it 2 explicit permissions. This also helps you save on your monthly credits usage making it a digital tool that is safe with a token usage and cost optimization feature.↳

Multi-modal Usage: It works on both Video subtitles and online website content in English including E-newspapers and E-Magazine portals.

Learning Effectiveness: While it doesn't have flashcards, it promotes learning in the form of highly engaging assessments requiring speech and typewritten inputs besides MCQs. It helps you document all your saved English words and phrases with their meanings (either in English or in your native language), and sentence usage in the online article you read. Even the qualitative feedback you get during the assessments are documented for your learning.

Value-driven Pricing: Monthly subscription plans start at US$ 3.00  (~ ₹ 249)

• Ease of Usage
• Effectiveness Quotient
• Degree of Engagement 
• Value at the Price Point