English Language and Literature: Precision Under Time Pressure
What to master
The English section tests grammar and usage, vocabulary, comprehension, and literary awareness. Grammar questions concentrate on subject-verb agreement, tense consistency, pronoun reference, parallelism, modifiers, and preposition choice. Vocabulary questions test both meaning and appropriateness in context. Comprehension rewards locating the sentence that answers the question rather than relying on general impression.
Reading comprehension method
Read the questions first, then the passage. For each question, return to the passage and underline the supporting sentence. Distractors are usually true statements that do not answer the specific question, or statements that overstate the passage. Reject an option that is plausible but unsupported.
Grammar traps
- Collective and indefinite subjects: words like each, everyone, and neither take singular verbs.
- Misplaced modifiers: an opening phrase must describe the subject that immediately follows it.
- Parallelism: items joined by and or or must share grammatical form.
- Dangling comparisons: compare like with like.
- Prepositions: learn them in fixed phrases rather than by logic.
Literature
Know major periods, genres, and the distinguishing features of tragedy, comedy, sonnet, and novel. Questions typically ask you to match a description of form or theme to the correct genre.
Worked example
Sentence: Walking to the office, the rain soaked my coat. The opening phrase describes the walker, but the subject is the rain, which cannot walk. Repair it by naming the walker as subject: Walking to the office, I was soaked by the rain. This modifier check is the fastest single habit for sentence-correction items.