Galicia PAU English - First Foreign Language cheat sheet

The main idea is the one sentence that covers every paragraph; a true main idea cannot be supported by only one paragraph of the text.

Title-matching rule: reject any option that names a detail, a single character, or a topic the text mentions only in passing.

Text type signals the purpose: a first-person narrative with past tenses usually asks for a lesson or experience, not an argument.

Structure check: identify introduction, development and closing; the closing paragraph most often carries the author's overall stance.

Tone and purpose questions are answered from evaluative vocabulary (e.g. 'unfortunately', 'remarkably', 'at last'), not from facts alone.

If two options look correct, the better one is the broader statement that the other option logically supports.

Discourse markers ('however', 'therefore', 'in fact', 'on the other hand') mark the contrast or conclusion the global question usually targets.

A summary must not add information absent from the text and must not drop the element the text repeats most often.

Scan for the key noun or number first, then read the full sentence containing it; the answer is usually in that sentence, not the next one.

Paraphrase rule: the correct option almost never repeats the text's words; it rephrases them with synonyms or a changed word class.

Absolute options ('always', 'never', 'all', 'only') are wrong unless the text itself uses an absolute.

Inference must be forced by the text: if the conclusion needs outside knowledge, it is not a valid inference.

Watch scope words: 'some' vs 'most' vs 'all' and 'often' vs 'sometimes' decide between otherwise similar options.

Distractors commonly copy a word from the text into a statement the text does not make; check the whole proposition, not single words.

Negative and exception questions ('which is NOT stated') require verifying each option against a located line before choosing.

Pronoun and reference questions: trace 'it', 'this', 'they' back to the nearest preceding noun that agrees in number and makes sense.

Collocation pairs to memorise: 'make a decision', 'do research', 'pay attention', 'take part', 'keep in touch', 'draw a conclusion'.

Verb + preposition fixed pairs: 'depend on', 'consist of', 'result in', 'suffer from', 'insist on', 'apologise for', 'prevent from'.

After prepositions and after 'look forward to', 'be used to', 'despite', 'in spite of': use the -ing form, not the infinitive.

Conditionals: 1st if + present, will; 2nd if + past simple, would + infinitive; 3rd if + past perfect, would have + participle.

Reported speech backshift: present becomes past, 'will' becomes 'would', 'can' becomes 'could'; time words shift (now to then, tomorrow to the next day).

Passive formation: form of 'be' + past participle; keep the tense of the active sentence (e.g. 'they have built' becomes 'has been built').

Phrasal verb meaning is not the sum of its parts: 'give up' = quit, 'put off' = postpone, 'turn down' = reject, 'come across' = find by chance.

Word-formation suffixes: -tion/-ment/-ness for nouns, -ful/-less/-ive/-able for adjectives, -ly for adverbs, -ise/-ize for verbs.

Answer the prompt's exact task type: opinion, for-and-against, narrative, or formal email each has a fixed opening move and closing move.

Default length target for PAU-style tasks is 120–150 words; staying inside the range avoids penalty and forces concision.

Paragraph plan: one idea per paragraph, three paragraphs minimum (introduction, body, conclusion) for an opinion or for-and-against text.

Register rule: contractions and exclamations belong in informal texts; formal emails and essays avoid them and use full forms.

Formal email frame: 'Dear Sir or Madam,' opening, purpose sentence, request or action, 'Yours faithfully,' when the name is unknown.

Opinion essay frame: state the position in the introduction, give two supporting reasons with examples, restate the position in the conclusion.

Linkers by function: addition (furthermore, in addition), contrast (however, whereas), cause (because of, due to), result (therefore, as a result), example (for instance).

Sentence variety check: mix simple, compound and complex sentences; avoid starting three consecutive sentences with the same subject.

Capitalise proper nouns, nationalities and languages (Galician, Spanish, English), days, months, and the pronoun 'I'; seasons and school subjects stay lowercase.

Use the apostrophe only for possession or contraction: 'the student's book' (one), 'the students' books' (many), 'it's' = it is versus 'its' = possessive.

Comma rules: no comma between subject and verb; use a comma before 'but'/'so' joining two full clauses and after an introductory phrase.

Semicolon joins two related independent clauses; a colon introduces a list, an explanation, or a quotation.

Common misspellings to fix on review: 'because', 'beautiful', 'different', 'environment', 'government', 'interesting', 'necessary', 'recommend', 'successful', 'which'.

Cohesion check: every paragraph should open with a linker or a reference word ('this', 'such', 'these factors') tying it to the previous one.

Avoid repeating the same noun; substitute with pronouns, synonyms, or 'the former/the latter' to keep the chain clear.

Double consonants and silent letters in high-frequency words: 'accommodation', 'beginning', 'committee', 'knowledge', 'write/writing'.