FTCE GK common mistakes
FTCE GK · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Spends the first five or more minutes writing a broad 'hook' and background sentences, states a vague thesis like 'This is an important issue that affects everyone,' and then runs out of clock before the second body paragraph is developed.
Candidates default to the five-paragraph school-essay habits they practiced for years and underestimate how quickly a 30-minute keyboarded draft disappears when no plan exists.
What to do instead
Practice a fixed 5/20/5 split. In the first 5 minutes write only a thesis sentence plus two or three reasons and one opposing point. Spend 20 minutes drafting body paragraphs, opening each with a reason that names the thesis. Use the last 5 minutes for conclusion and proofreading. Start the timed draft with the thesis sentence itself, not a hook.
Argues only one side and supports it with generic claims ('studies show,' 'in today's society,' 'everyone knows') rather than one concrete, specific example.
Under time pressure, candidates reach for phrases that feel authoritative and never test whether the claim would convince a skeptical reader; many also believe conceding anything weakens their position.
What to do instead
Plan one paragraph that states the opposing view fairly and rebuts it with a specific example (a personal experience, a named current event, or a clearly labeled hypothetical). Replace every 'studies show' with a concrete instance the reader can picture.
Joins two complete sentences with only a comma ('The committee met on Monday, they postponed the vote') or strings clauses together with 'however' or 'therefore' and a comma, and also writes fragments such as 'Because the schedule changed.'
Candidates punctuate by ear and by pause length rather than by clause structure, and long sentences feel more academic so they avoid periods.
What to do instead
Run every long sentence through the two-clause test: cover each half and ask whether it can stand alone as a sentence. If both halves can, fix the join with a period, a semicolon, or a comma plus a FANBOYS conjunction - never a comma alone, and never a comma before 'however.'
Matches the verb to the nearest noun instead of the real subject when a prepositional phrase or parenthetical sits in between ('The box of old photographs were in the attic'; 'Each of the players have a locker').
The ear locks onto the last noun it heard, and the interrupting phrase is often plural while the true head noun is singular.
What to do instead
Before choosing a verb or pronoun, bracket out every phrase beginning with of, with, along with, including, or as well as, then find the head noun left standing and make the verb agree with it. In 'there is/are' sentences, look to the noun after the verb.
Selects the option that 'sounds right' in the ear instead of applying a rule, which produces errors with pronoun case ('between you and I'), dangling or misplaced modifiers ('Walking to the store, the rain began'), and commonly confused words (affect/effect, their/there/they're, its/it's).
Casual speech patterns and text-message habits have trained the ear on forms that are wrong in edited English, and informal speech rarely contains the complex clauses the test uses.
What to do instead
Memorize a short rule list and apply it mechanically: after a preposition use object pronouns; the noun right after an introductory comma must be the one performing the action; test affect as a verb and effect as a noun. Also verify a modifier by asking 'who is doing this?'
Chooses a statement that is true according to the passage but covers only one paragraph or one example when the item asks for the main idea, and chooses a detail that is never stated when the item asks for a supporting detail.
Under time pressure everything in the passage feels equally important, and candidates recognize familiar wording in a detail option and click it without checking scope.
What to do instead
Before reading the choices, write a seven-word summary of the whole passage. Then test each candidate by asking 'does this cover the entire passage, or only part of it?' True-but-narrow statements are the most common trap.
Answers from outside knowledge or personal opinion, or picks an inference stronger than the text supports (absolute words like 'always,' 'never,' 'proves' when the passage says 'often' or 'suggests'); with vocabulary-in-context items, picks the most common dictionary meaning rather than the meaning the sentence requires.
Candidates trust background knowledge on familiar topics and equate a plausible real-world conclusion with a supported one; for vocabulary they recall the primary definition and stop there.
What to do instead
For every choice, point to the sentence that supports it - if you cannot put your finger on a line, the answer is not supported. Reject options containing absolutes unless the passage uses them. For vocabulary items, substitute the choice back into the sentence and reread the whole sentence; the correct meaning will fit the surrounding context.
Spends five to eight minutes grinding on one hard item, leaving several questions at the end of the section unseen or rushed.
Candidates treat every problem as a personal challenge and do not realize that all items count equally, so one stubborn item can cost several easy ones.
What to do instead
Apply a two-minute rule: if no clean path appears, mark the item with the test's flag or review tool, enter a guess, and move on. Never leave a blank - there is no penalty for a wrong answer, so budget the final minutes to sweep back for flagged items and to confirm every item has a response.
Translates word problems into the wrong equation ('3 less than twice a number' written as 3 − 2x; percent-increase problems solved by taking the percent of the new amount; discount-then-tax steps performed in the wrong order) and never checks the result against the story.
Candidates scan for numbers and operations instead of reading the relationship, and they memorize percent procedures without a model of what the percent is being taken of.
What to do instead
Write a let-statement naming the unknown, then reread the sentence mapping each phrase to an operation in order. For percents, use multipliers on the original amount (a 20% increase means multiply by 1.20) or set the original to 100. After solving, substitute the answer back into the story and ask whether the size of the number is plausible.
Misses the qualifier in the question stem - answering what IS true when the item says NOT or EXCEPT, picking a value that is 'closest to' when an exact value was asked, leaving an answer in the wrong units, or solving for x when the question asks for 2x or for an angle's supplement.
Candidates read the stem once quickly, see the familiar quantity, and jump straight into computation; the last line of the question is the least-scrutinized text on the page.
What to do instead
Underline or circle the words NOT, EXCEPT, closest, approximately, and the exact quantity requested before beginning any work. On the final line of scratch work, write the quantity asked for in words, and confirm units match the stem before selecting a choice.