Spelling
What spelling items actually test
Most spelling questions ask you to spot the one misspelled word among four, or the one correctly spelled word among near-misses. That means the exam rewards pattern recognition, not a memorized list.
High-yield patterns:
- ie/ei: i before e except after c (receive, perceive), plus the classic exceptions (weird, seize, leisure).
- Consonant doubling: double the final consonant before a vowel suffix when a one-syllable word ends consonant-vowel-consonant (stopped, committed), and when a longer word stresses the last syllable (admitted, occurred); no doubling when the stress stays earlier (benefited, targeted).
- Silent e: drop it before a vowel suffix (noticing, arguing) but keep it before a consonant suffix (noticed, argument).
- Report vocabulary: judgment, acknowledgment, occurrence, admissible, harassment, separate, definitely, recommend, maintenance, liaison, conscientious, existence.
Traps. Sound-alikes (their/there/they're, principal/principle, stationary/stationery, complement/compliment) and possessives versus plurals (officers' statements vs. officer's statement vs. officers). Also watch forms that are common in casual writing but wrong in a formal report, such as alot and irregardless.
Worked example. Which is correct: occurrence, occurence, occurrance, ocurrence? Start from the verb occur: it ends consonant-vowel-consonant and stresses the last syllable, so the r doubles before a vowel-initial suffix (occurred, occurring, occurrence) and stays single before a consonant-initial one. Occurrence is the only choice that follows the rule.
Rule of thumb. Say the base word, then apply the suffix rule mechanically instead of trusting how the word "looks."