PSEB Class 12 General English common mistakes
PSEB Class 12 General English · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Answering unseen-prose questions by copying whole sentences from the passage instead of framing a direct answer, so the response contains the right words but does not actually address the question asked.
Candidates under time pressure lift lines verbatim because they believe quoting guarantees accuracy, and they have not practised converting passage language into a focused answer sentence.
What to do instead
Train a two-step routine: first underline the exact phrase in the passage that carries the answer, then rewrite it in your own words beginning with the question's key term (Who/Why/How). Practise ten short-answer items weekly, checking each answer against the question to confirm it responds to the actual prompt rather than merely repeating the text.
Missing inference and vocabulary-in-context questions because the candidate only searches for literal word matches in the passage rather than reading the surrounding sentence for implied meaning.
School practice often rewards direct retrieval, so students default to scanning for keywords and never learn to read the clause before and after a target word to infer meaning from context.
What to do instead
For every unfamiliar word in a practice passage, cover the dictionary and guess meaning from the sentence, then verify. Do inference drills where the answer is never stated verbatim: ask what the writer implies about a character's mood or a stated cause. Build a running list of context clues (contrast markers, examples, definitions in apposition).
Writing a formal letter that mixes registers, opening with 'Dear friend' or 'Hi sir' and closing with 'Yours lovingly', or omitting the sender's address, date and subject line.
Candidates memorise one letter template and reuse it for complaint, enquiry, application and editor letters alike, so the salutation, tone and closing do not match the purpose.
What to do instead
Keep a one-page format sheet distinguishing formal (Dear Sir/Madam, Yours faithfully; Dear Mr Sharma, Yours sincerely) from informal. Before writing, identify the letter type and its required components in the margin. Practise one letter of each type against a checklist: address, date, salutation, subject, three body paragraphs, closing, signature.
Producing a notice or report without the mandatory structural elements, such as a notice lacking the issuing authority, date and boxed format, or a report lacking a headline, byline and past-tense factual narration.
Notices and reports are short, so students treat them as paragraph writing and skip the conventions that examiners award marks for, having never compared a model notice with a model report side by side.
What to do instead
Learn the skeleton of each format separately: notice = name of institution, NOTICE heading, date, subject, body in third person, name and designation of issuer; report = headline, byline, opening who/what/when/where, factual body, conclusion. Write five of each at 50 words and self-mark against the skeleton before attempting longer versions.
Writing an essay or paragraph with no thesis and no paragraph divisions, so the piece drifts through loosely connected general statements and ends without a conclusion.
Candidates write whatever comes to mind in one block because they do not spend two minutes planning, and they fear that planning wastes exam time.
What to do instead
Spend three minutes on a skeleton: one-sentence stance, three supporting points, one example each, one-line conclusion. Write one paragraph per point with a topic sentence first. Practise timed 150-word essays using this plan, then check that each paragraph opens with a claim rather than a definition of the topic.
Choosing the wrong tense in gap-fill and transformation items, especially using present simple where present perfect or past perfect is required by time markers like 'since', 'for', 'by the time' or 'already'.
Students learn tense forms in isolation and never map time expressions to the tense they signal, so they translate the tense of their own language rather than reading the cue words in the sentence.
What to do instead
Build a cue-word table (since/for + present perfect; by the time/before + past perfect; tomorrow + future; every day + present simple) and drill twenty sentences per tense pair. For each gap, circle the time marker before choosing the verb, and justify the choice aloud.
Failing voice and narration transformation items by changing only the verb and leaving pronouns, place and time words untouched, e.g. converting 'He said, "I will come here tomorrow"' to 'He said that I will come here tomorrow'.
Candidates apply the tense backshift rule mechanically but forget the pronoun, adverb and demonstrative shifts that direct-to-indirect speech also requires, because they practise only the verb change.
What to do instead
Use a four-column shift chart (pronoun, tense, time word, place word) and transform each sentence column by column rather than in one leap. For voice, check subject-verb-object order and agreement after the change. Do ten narration items daily and tick each column before moving on.
Losing marks on sentence-structure items such as combining sentences, identifying clauses, or correcting run-ons, because the candidate rewrites the sentence and changes its meaning or introduces a new grammatical error.
Students treat these as creative rewriting tasks rather than controlled operations, and they lack practice in recognising main versus subordinate clauses and in using connectors like 'although', 'because', 'which' correctly.
What to do instead
Practise clause labelling: underline the main clause and bracket subordinate clauses in twenty sentences. Then drill sentence combining with a fixed connector list, checking after each attempt that the original meaning survives and that only one main clause remains. Compare your version with a model and note the difference.
Answering literature questions with a plot summary of the whole text instead of a point-driven answer that cites specific incidents, characters or lines relevant to the question asked.
Candidates revise by rereading the story rather than by preparing question-wise notes, so under exam pressure they retell the narrative from the beginning and run out of time before reaching the actual point.
What to do instead
Prepare a one-page note per chapter or poem: theme, main characters with two adjectives each, three key incidents with page-reference-free detail, and one quotable line. Answer past-style questions in four sentences: direct point, textual evidence, explanation, link back to the question. Never begin with the story's opening scene.
Treating poetry questions as prose, paraphrasing the poem's literal content and ignoring the poetic devices, tone and central idea the question asks about.
Students are more comfortable with narrative prose and have not learned to name and explain devices such as metaphor, personification, alliteration and symbolism, or to connect a device to the poem's meaning.
What to do instead
For each prescribed poem, build a device table: device, exact example, effect on meaning. Practise answers of the form 'The poet uses [device] in "[line]" to suggest [effect], which reinforces the theme of [theme]'. Also practise identifying the tone in one adjective and supporting it with two words from the text.