English Language: Grammar Precision and Comprehension
The English section is a threshold test: it checks whether you can spot a grammatical error, hold the argument of a passage, and arrange sentences into a coherent paragraph without losing time.
Question types
Error detection, sentence improvement, fillers and cloze, reading comprehension, para jumbles, synonyms and antonyms, idioms, spelling and phrase replacement.
Grammar that is actually tested
- Subject-verb agreement with "one of + plural noun" (singular verb), collective nouns, and each/every/either.
- Articles, and prepositions fixed to verbs: comply with, insist on, comprise (no "of"), prefer to.
- Tense sequence in reported speech and conditional sentences.
- Confusables: affect/effect, principal/principle, its/it's, lie/lay, complement/compliment.
Worked example
"One of the branch managers have submitted the report." The true subject is "one", not "managers", so the verb must be singular: "has submitted". The plural noun sits inside a prepositional phrase and cannot govern the verb, however close it looks.
Reading comprehension method
Skim the questions first, then read the passage; answer strictly from the text rather than from outside knowledge; for tone and inference questions, eliminate options that are true but not stated in the passage; for para jumbles, anchor on pronouns and connectors (this, however, therefore) rather than on content alone.
Traps
- Choosing a factually correct option that the passage never supports.
- Over-correcting a sentence that is already grammatical.
- In cloze, filling by feel rather than by checking the collocation with the surrounding words.