English Language and Grammar
The English section checks accuracy rather than vocabulary size: tense and subject-verb agreement, articles and prepositions, active-passive, direct-indirect speech, error spotting, cloze passages, synonyms-antonyms, idioms and one-word substitutions.
High-yield rules
- Agreement: 'One of the + plural noun' takes a singular verb; 'The number of X is', but 'A number of X are'.
- Neither/either, not only/but also: the verb agrees with the nearer subject.
- Tense: since/for with present perfect; past perfect for the earlier of two past actions.
- Articles decided by sound: an hour, a university, an MLA.
- Prepositions to memorise: comprise (no 'of'), discuss (no 'about'), married to, prefer to, capable of.
- Passive: object becomes subject, verb becomes be + past participle, agent with 'by'.
Worked example
"One of the officers ___ (have/has) submitted the report." The head word is 'One', which is singular; the phrase 'of the officers' only modifies it and cannot change the number. Answer: has. The same logic gives 'The number of applications is rising' but 'A number of applications are pending'.
Traps that cost marks
- Proximity trap: a plural noun sitting immediately before the verb pulls candidates towards a plural verb.
- Confusing 'since' (point of time) with 'for' (duration).
- Collective nouns: 'The committee has decided' when acting as one body.
- Choosing an idiom's literal meaning instead of its established sense.
- In error spotting, rejecting a sentence that is actually correct because it 'sounds wrong'.
Practice method
Read each option back into the sentence and test one rule at a time - agreement first, then tense, then preposition. For cloze items, predict the word before looking at options.