Valencian Community PAU Foreign Language II - English (Lengua Extranjera II: Inglés) common mistakes
Valencian Community PAU Foreign Language II - English (Lengua Extranjera II: Inglés) · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Answering true/false or multiple-choice reading items by matching words that appear in the text to words in the option, without checking that the whole proposition is actually stated or contradicted in the passage.
Under time pressure candidates scan for lexical overlap and treat a shared keyword as proof; distractors in this exam are deliberately built from lifted vocabulary, so surface matching rewards the wrong option.
What to do instead
For every option, locate the exact sentence(s) that decide it and underline the operative words (quantifiers, negation, comparison, time). Then ask 'does the text assert this whole idea, or only share vocabulary with it?' Reject any option you cannot tie to a specific line, and mark the line number next to your answer.
Giving the main idea as a one-word topic or as a detail lifted from the first paragraph, e.g. summarising an article about urban cycling subsidies as 'bicycles' or repeating a statistic instead of the author's overall point.
Candidates confuse topic with thesis and often stop reading after the opening paragraph, so the conclusion or the final stance never enters their answer.
What to do instead
Read the whole text once before answering, then write a one-sentence thesis in your own words covering who/what + what is claimed. Check it against the title, the first sentence and the last paragraph; if your sentence would still fit a different article on the same topic, it is too general.
Treating an inference item as a comprehension item and choosing only what is literally printed, or conversely inventing a conclusion the text does not support.
Candidates are trained to 'find it in the text' and are not used to the small, licensed step beyond the words; others over-correct and import outside knowledge.
What to do instead
For inference items, identify the textual evidence and then state the minimal logical step (cause, attitude, implication) it licenses. Test it with 'would the author deny this?' If yes, discard. If the option needs information not in the passage, discard. The correct inference is the smallest step, not the most interesting one.
Losing track of what a pronoun or referring expression points to in a long sentence, e.g. assigning 'they' or 'this' to the nearest noun rather than to the actual antecedent.
Reference chains cross clause and sentence boundaries and candidates read locally, so proximity wins over grammar and meaning.
What to do instead
When you meet a reference word, stop and substitute each candidate noun phrase back into the sentence and check number, gender and sense. Confirm with the surrounding sentence. Practise by marking all pronouns in a paragraph and drawing arrows to their antecedents before answering.
Choosing a distractor that is a real English word but wrong for the slot, or forcing the base form of a word into a gap that needs a derived form (e.g. writing 'success' where 'successful' or 'unsuccessfully' is required).
Candidates translate from Spanish/Catalan intuition or recall the meaning of the root without checking the grammatical category the sentence demands.
What to do instead
Before choosing, identify the part of speech the gap requires (noun, adjective, adverb, verb form) from the surrounding determiners, prepositions and auxiliaries, then choose the form. For word-formation items, decide the category first, then apply the affix, and check spelling shifts (happy→happiness, succeed→success).
Ignoring collocation and register in vocabulary items, picking a synonym that is grammatically possible but not idiomatic (e.g. 'do a decision', 'strong rain', 'highly tired').
Synonym lists are memorised as equivalents without their collocational partners, and Spanish/Catalan collocations are transferred directly.
What to do instead
Learn vocabulary in chunks, not isolated words: record the noun with its verb and preposition (make a decision, heavy rain, deeply tired). In the exam, read the whole sentence and ask which option a native writer would actually use in this register, not just which is closest in meaning.
Shifting tense or aspect mid-sentence or mid-paragraph, e.g. starting in past simple and sliding into present perfect or present, or misusing past perfect where simple past is needed.
Candidates translate narrative tense from their L1 and do not anchor the timeline with time markers, so sequence is decided sentence by sentence.
What to do instead
Before writing, note the time frame and mark it with explicit adverbials (in 2019, since then, by the time). Then check every verb against that frame: finished past event = past simple; event before another past event = past perfect; link to now = present perfect. Do a final pass reading only the verbs.
Producing a written task that is short of the required word count, copies phrases from the input text, and covers only one of the points in the prompt.
Candidates run out of time, run out of ideas, or misread the task as 'write about the topic' rather than 'write this text, for this reader, covering these points'.
What to do instead
Spend two minutes planning: list every content point in the prompt and one idea for each; that list becomes your paragraph plan. Write the required number of words, use your own wording (paraphrase any input), and finish with a two-minute check that each prompt point is visibly addressed. Never lift whole sentences from the source.
Writing one long undivided block with no paragraphing, few linkers, and register that drifts between formal and colloquial (contractions and slang in a formal letter, or stiff formulae in an informal email).
Candidates focus on grammar and vocabulary and treat organisation as decoration; they also default to whatever register they use in class.
What to do instead
Use the genre's skeleton: greeting/opening, one paragraph per idea, closing. Deploy a small reliable set of connectors (however, therefore, in addition, on the other hand) at paragraph and sentence level, and match register to the stated reader: no contractions in formal writing, contractions and direct address in informal. Check the first and last lines against the required format.
Summarising or reformulating by copying the original sentences with a few words changed, or by dropping so much that the key information and the source's stance disappear.
Paraphrasing is treated as substitution rather than re-encoding of meaning, and candidates lack the structures (reporting verbs, nominalisation) to compress without lifting.
What to do instead
Read the source, cover it, and write the idea from memory in your own words; then compare and remove any run of more than three identical words. Use reporting frames (the author argues that, according to the study) and nominalise to compress. Keep the essential who/what/result and the original attitude; aim for roughly a third of the length while preserving all key points.