ESIC MTS common mistakes
ESIC MTS · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
In General Intelligence and Reasoning, spending more than about 90 seconds on a single seating-arrangement or puzzle set before confirming any arrangement, instead of first testing whether the clues are even mutually consistent.
Puzzle sets look solvable and candidates feel that abandoning one wastes the work already done, so they keep re-drawing the same diagram. Under a sectional or overall time limit this single habit can consume 10-15 minutes and starve the easy syllogism, coding-decoding and series questions that follow.
What to do instead
Before drawing, spend 20 seconds checking for a fixed anchor (a person in a stated position, a definite left/right pair). If no anchor emerges after two rounds of applying clues, mark the set and move on; return only after all single-step questions are answered. Practise with a stopwatch and log time per puzzle set to build the habit of cutting losses at 90 seconds.
Treating 'either/or' and 'neither/nor' conclusions in syllogism and inequality questions as ordinary conclusions, and marking them correct whenever the two individual conclusions look plausible.
The complementarity rule (two conclusions are jointly exhaustive and individually undetermined) is a formal condition, but candidates judge by intuition about the words. They also forget that 'either/or' requires both conclusions to be individually false, not merely possible.
What to do instead
Adopt a written two-step check: (1) can a Venn model make both conclusions false simultaneously? (2) do the two conclusions together cover every model? Mark 'either/or' only when the answer to (1) is yes and to (2) is yes. Drill 30 complementarity sets and write the rule beside each answer until it becomes automatic.
In General Awareness, guessing on current-affairs items from the last 6-12 months using only static textbook knowledge, and leaving them blank when unsure rather than eliminating options first.
Static preparation (polity, history, geography) feels productive and is easier to revise, so candidates under-invest in monthly current affairs and then freeze on questions about recent appointments, schemes, sports events and awards. Negative marking also makes them over-cautious.
What to do instead
Maintain a rolling 12-month current-affairs log organised by category (appointments, schemes, summits, awards, sports, obituaries, banking/economy) and revise it weekly. In the exam, eliminate on category logic (e.g. a scheme's ministry, a summit's host region) and attempt when two options are clearly out; skip only when all four remain equally plausible.
Answering General Awareness questions about constitutional articles, amendments and committees from vague memory of a number, without distinguishing between the article that guarantees a right and the article that provides a remedy or restriction.
Numbers and names are learned in clusters during revision and blur together under exam pressure; candidates recognise the topic but not the exact provision, and the options are designed to be near-misses.
What to do instead
Build a one-page table of high-yield pairs: article number, subject, and one distinctive keyword (e.g. remedy vs. right, amendment procedure vs. amendment of basic structure). Revise by covering the number column and reciting from the keyword, then reverse the drill. Add committees and commissions to the same table with their subject and year.
In Quantitative Aptitude, solving every arithmetic word problem by full algebraic setup (defining variables, forming equations) even for percentage, ratio and average questions that yield to one-line fraction or unitary methods.
School mathematics rewarded formal setup, and candidates trust it because it feels rigorous. But a two-equation solution takes 2-3 minutes where a fraction method takes 30 seconds, and the arithmetic section is scored on speed as much as accuracy.
What to do instead
For each topic, learn one shortcut and one base method: fractions for percentage, ratio-chaining for partnership and mixtures, the 'efficiency = 1/days' LCM method for time and work, and the successive-change formula for profit and loss. Solve 20 questions per topic with a timer, forcing the shortcut first and using algebra only as a fallback.
Approximating in Data Interpretation by rounding every figure before computing, then choosing the option closest to the rough estimate even when two options are close together.
DI sets present large tables and candidates fear the arithmetic, so they round aggressively to save time. When options differ by a few percentage points, the rounding error exceeds the gap and the answer is wrong despite correct method.
What to do instead
Round only the operands, never the comparison: compute the exact ratio or difference when the options are within about 5% of each other, and approximate only when options are widely spaced. Before computing, scan the options to decide which mode you are in. Practise 10 sets where you first label each question 'approximate' or 'exact'.
In Quantitative Aptitude, attempting the arithmetic/DI section in the order printed rather than sweeping the section first for the short, high-yield questions.
Candidates treat the paper as a sequence to be completed, and a hard DI set on the first screen can absorb 8 minutes. Because all questions carry equal marks, order of attempt directly determines score.
What to do instead
In the first 60-90 seconds of the section, mark each question A (under 45 seconds), B (about a minute) or C (long set). Clear all A questions, then B, and attempt C only with remaining time. Rehearse this sweep in every mock so it becomes the default entry behaviour.
In English Language, choosing an option because it 'sounds right' in cloze tests and sentence-improvement questions, without checking subject-verb agreement, preposition collocation and parallel structure in the full sentence.
Spoken familiarity overrides written grammar rules; candidates read only the blank and the option, not the surrounding clause, and miss mismatches such as a singular subject with a plural verb or an incorrect preposition after a verb.
What to do instead
Read the whole sentence before looking at options, and run a fixed checklist: verb agreement with the real subject, tense consistency, preposition pairing, pronoun reference, and parallelism in lists. For cloze, predict your own word first, then match. Log every error by rule type so revision targets the rules you actually miss.
In English Language reading comprehension, reading the passage first in full and then answering, and treating 'inference' and 'tone' questions as if they asked for a fact stated in the text.
School habit is to read everything closely; under time pressure this leaves too little time for questions and pushes candidates to pick an option that merely repeats a passage phrase rather than answering what is asked. Inference and tone items are deliberately designed to punish phrase-matching.
What to do instead
Read the questions first, then scan the passage once for location, then read closely only around the relevant lines. For inference and tone, reject any option that is directly stated as fact and any option that is extreme (always, never, only); prefer the option that requires one logical step from the text. Time each passage at 6-7 minutes.
Allocating study time by topic comfort rather than by marks and accuracy data, so strong areas are over-revised and weak areas (often DI, current affairs or grammar rules) are avoided until the final weeks.
Revising familiar material produces a feeling of progress, and mock analysis is often limited to checking the score rather than tagging each wrong answer by topic and cause. Without that data, the perceived syllabus never changes.
What to do instead
After every mock, tag each wrong and skipped question by topic and cause (concept gap, calculation slip, misread, time-out) in a simple sheet. Each week, give the two topics with the highest lost marks the first two study slots, and re-test them in the next mock to confirm the gain. Track accuracy per topic, not just overall score.