English
The English section tests formal grammar and vocabulary rather than literary knowledge: error spotting, sentence improvement, fill in the blanks, synonyms and antonyms, idioms, one-word substitutions and a short comprehension passage. Because the paper is used for a teaching course, a few items touch English pedagogy - the LSRW skills, the direct and communicative methods, and the structural approach.
Grammar rules that are actually tested
- Subject–verb agreement: with 'one of + plural noun', the verb agrees with 'one' (singular). With 'each', 'every', 'either', 'neither', the verb is singular.
- Prepositions after verbs and adjectives: differ from, comply with, consist of, capable of, prefer X to Y, superior to.
- Articles: 'an' before vowel sounds, not vowel letters - an hour, a university.
- Tenses in reported speech and conditionals: third conditional takes 'had + past participle' in the if-clause.
Worked example
'One of the students ___ absent today.' Options: are / were / is / have. The subject is 'one', not 'students', so the verb must be singular: is. The plural noun inside the prepositional phrase never controls the verb.
Traps that cost marks
- Double comparatives: 'more better' and 'most easiest' are always wrong.
- Confusing 'affect' (verb) with 'effect' (noun), and 'principal' with 'principle'.
- Idioms answered literally: 'to bite the dust' means to fail or die, not to eat dust.
- In comprehension, choosing an option that is true in general but not stated in the passage.
- In pedagogy items, mixing the direct method (no translation, target language only) with the bilingual method (judicious use of the mother tongue).