English for the Admission Test
What is tested
English items typically test grammar (parts of speech, tense, articles, prepositions, subject-verb agreement), vocabulary (synonyms, antonyms, one-word substitutions, idioms), sentence correction, and reading comprehension.
Grammar points to master
Subject-verb agreement: singular subjects take singular verbs; collective nouns usually take singular verbs. Tense consistency: past perfect for the earlier of two past actions. Articles: 'a' before consonant sounds, 'an' before vowel sounds, 'the' for specific reference. Prepositions: learn common collocations (depend on, consist of, capable of, interested in). Modals: 'must' for obligation, 'should' for advice, 'might' for possibility. Voice and narration transformations follow fixed patterns; practise converting active to passive and direct to indirect speech.
Vocabulary strategy
Learn synonyms and antonyms in pairs, and group idioms by theme. For one-word substitution, build a list of high-frequency items (e.g., 'omnipotent' = all-powerful, 'philanthropist' = lover of mankind). In comprehension, read the questions first, then scan the passage for the answer; never rely on memory alone.
Traps
Dangling modifiers, misplaced commas, ambiguous pronoun references, and 'not only … but also' parallelism. In comprehension, options that are true in general but not stated in the passage are wrong; the answer must be supported by the text.
Worked example
Choose the correct sentence: (a) 'Each of the students have a book.' (b) 'Each of the students has a book.' The subject is 'each', which is singular, so (b) is correct. Rule of thumb: when 'each', 'every', 'either' or 'neither' begins the subject, use a singular verb.
Practice habit
Read one short editorial daily and note three new words with their usage.