Canary PAU English common mistakes
Canary PAU English · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Answering detail questions by matching a word from the question stem to the same word in the passage, then selecting that option without checking whether the surrounding sentence actually supports it.
Under time pressure, lexical overlap feels like evidence. Distractors in these tests are usually built by reusing the passage's vocabulary in a claim the passage does not make, so surface matching rewards exactly the wrong instinct.
What to do instead
For each option, go back to the passage and locate the sentence that would have to be true for the option to be correct. If you cannot point to it, reject the option. Train by writing the line number next to every answer you choose during practice, and mark any answer you chose without one as a guess.
Treating inference and 'the writer's attitude' items as free interpretation, choosing the option that matches the candidate's own opinion about the topic rather than what the text implies.
Inference questions do not label themselves as inference, and candidates who read quickly default to plausibility judgements about the subject matter. Personal views on topics like technology, environment, or education are strong and easily override the text.
What to do instead
Before looking at the options, write one short sentence stating what the writer thinks, in your own words, using only the passage. Then pick the option closest to your sentence. If an option is true in the real world but not stated or implied in the text, it is wrong by definition.
Losing the thread of referents across long sentences - not resolving what 'this', 'they', 'such measures', or 'the former' points to - and then answering a comprehension or gap item on a false reading.
Academic-style passages use long noun phrases and heavy pronominal reference. Candidates read for gist and skip the backward link, which is precisely where the meaning of the sentence is carried.
What to do instead
When you meet a referring word, stop and substitute the noun phrase it replaces into the sentence, reading it aloud mentally. Practise on paragraphs by underlining every pronoun and drawing an arrow to its antecedent before answering any question about that paragraph.
In multiple-choice cloze, choosing the option that 'sounds right' or is the most formal-sounding word, without checking the grammatical frame around the gap (preposition, verb pattern, countability, article).
Collocational memory is unreliable under exam pressure, and candidates often know a word's meaning but not its complement: whether it takes 'to' or 'of', an infinitive or a gerund, or a plural verb.
What to do instead
Read the whole sentence with the gap filled by each option in turn, and check the word immediately before and after the gap. Build a personal list of dependent prepositions and verb patterns (e.g. 'depend on', 'succeed in + -ing', 'prevent somebody from doing') and review it weekly rather than learning words in isolation.
In word-formation items, supplying a real English word of the wrong class or form - an adjective where a noun is needed, or a noun that does not fit the plural or abstract sense required - and stopping at the first derived form that comes to mind.
Candidates recognise the root and produce a plausible derivative, but do not check the syntactic slot. Prefixes that reverse meaning (un-, dis-, mis-, over-, under-) are also frequently missed because the base word already fits the sentence grammatically.
What to do instead
Before writing, identify what the gap needs: noun, verb, adjective, or adverb, and singular or plural. Then check whether the sentence's meaning requires a negative or intensifying prefix. Write the answer, re-read the full sentence, and only then move on.
In transformation items (rewriting a sentence so it means the same, starting from a given word), changing the meaning while achieving grammatical correctness - dropping a nuance of tense, modality, or agent - or leaving the given word unchanged in a way that breaks the required structure.
The task rewards structural control under a tight constraint, and candidates focus on producing a grammatical sentence rather than an equivalent one. Passive-to-active shifts and modal changes are the usual places where meaning silently drifts.
What to do instead
After writing the transformation, compare it with the original clause by clause: same time reference, same degree of certainty, same subject and agent, same negation. Then check the given word is used exactly once and that no words from the original that must be removed have survived.
Writing a composition that answers the topic in general terms without a clear position or line of argument - a list of related points rather than a thesis developed across paragraphs.
Candidates prepare topic vocabulary and memorised linking phrases, then try to deploy them, which produces fluent but directionless prose. The prompt's actual demand (discuss both sides and give an opinion, or agree or disagree) is often only skimmed.
What to do instead
Before writing, spend three minutes on a plan: one sentence stating your position, two or three reasons, and one counter-argument you will address. Underline the instruction words in the prompt and check your plan answers them. Every body paragraph should open with a sentence that advances the stated position.
Deploying memorised essay templates and advanced vocabulary regardless of fit, producing inflated phrasing, misused collocations, and paragraphs that do not connect to each other.
Template memorisation is a rational response to exam pressure, but markers penalise language that is not controlled. A misused low-frequency word costs more than a correctly used common one, and generic connectors ('Furthermore', 'In conclusion') do not create real cohesion.
What to do instead
Aim for accurate, plain academic register and use only structures you can control. Replace memorised connectors with content links: begin paragraphs by referring back to the previous idea. After drafting, delete any sentence you could not explain the purpose of, and replace any word you would not use confidently in speech.
Ignoring register and audience conventions: contractions, colloquialisms, rhetorical questions, and second-person address in a formal essay, or the opposite - over-formal phrasing in an informal task such as an email to a friend.
Candidates concentrate on grammar and ideas and treat register as decoration. The task rubric usually specifies audience and purpose, and register is assessed separately from accuracy.
What to do instead
Before writing, note the audience and purpose in the margin and decide three register markers: contraction use, pronoun choice, and level of formality in connectors. Do a final pass reading only for those markers, checking the opening and closing lines first, since that is where register errors are most visible.
Mismanaging time and revision: spending too long on the reading passage, then drafting the composition with no time to proofread, and submitting with subject-verb agreement, article, and spelling errors that the candidate can in fact correct.
Reading feels productive and open-ended, so it expands to fill the available time. Proofreading is the first thing dropped, yet it is the cheapest source of marks because candidates recognise their own errors when they re-read for them.
What to do instead
Fix a time budget before the exam and keep to it: allocate minutes per section and per composition stage (plan, draft, review). Reserve a final block for proofreading and read the composition backwards sentence by sentence, checking verb agreement, articles, plurals, and spelling, since reading in reverse defeats the brain's tendency to auto-correct familiar text.