RBSE Praveshika English common mistakes
RBSE Praveshika English · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
In unseen comprehension passages, copying a full sentence from the passage as the answer to a short-answer question instead of answering in the candidate's own words or trimming to the required point.
Candidates fear losing marks and believe a copied line guarantees accuracy, so they paste whole clauses that contain the answer plus irrelevant material; examiners deduct for lifting and for answers that do not match the question's focus.
What to do instead
Practise answering with a short phrase or one clause built around the question word: underline the key words in the question, locate the exact sentence, then rewrite it in 10-15 words without copying more than a two- or three-word key term.
When asked for the meaning of a word or phrase as used in the passage, giving the dictionary's most common meaning rather than the contextual meaning.
Candidates memorise word lists with single meanings and do not reread the surrounding sentence, so a word like 'plain' or 'bear' is glossed with the wrong sense.
What to do instead
Before answering vocabulary-in-context items, read the sentence before and after the target word and substitute each candidate meaning back into the sentence; keep the one that preserves the passage's sense.
Choosing the wrong tense in fill-in and sentence-completion items by ignoring time markers such as 'since', 'for', 'ago', 'by the time', 'already', and 'last year'.
Tense is selected by feel rather than by rule, and candidates do not systematically scan for the adverbial signal that fixes present perfect, past simple, or past perfect.
What to do instead
Build a one-page signal table: 'since/for + present perfect', 'ago/last + past simple', 'by the time + past perfect for the earlier action', 'already/yet/just + present perfect'. For every tense item, first circle the time expression, then apply the table.
Omitting or misusing articles in short answers and letters, especially 'a/an' before vowel sounds and the zero article before uncountable or generic plural nouns.
Articles are absent or different in the candidate's first language, and article errors rarely block meaning, so they go unnoticed during self-checking.
What to do instead
Do a dedicated article pass on written work: check every singular countable noun for a determiner, test 'a/an' by sound not spelling (an hour, a university), and delete 'the' before general plurals and abstract nouns.
Converting active to passive (or the reverse) while keeping the original object or dropping the agent, producing sentences like 'A letter was written me' or losing 'by the author' when it is required.
Candidates move words mechanically without identifying subject, verb, and object first, so the object of the active sentence is not promoted correctly.
What to do instead
Use a three-step routine: label S-V-O in the active sentence, move O to the subject slot, then put the verb into 'be + past participle' matching the original tense, adding 'by + S' only when the agent matters.
In direct-to-indirect narration, forgetting to backshift the tense and to change pronouns, time, and place words (now to then, today to that day, here to there, this to that).
Candidates focus only on removing the quotation marks and the comma, treating narration as punctuation rather than a systematic transformation.
What to do instead
Apply a fixed checklist on every narration item: reporting verb, pronoun shift, tense backshift (unless reporting a universal truth), time/place shift, and question or command word order. Write the checklist order once and follow it every time.
In idiom and one-word-substitution items, guessing from the literal words (for example reading 'to let the cat out of the bag' as being about cats) rather than using the sentence context.
Idioms are learned as isolated phrases without example sentences, so the literal reading dominates under time pressure.
What to do instead
Learn each idiom with one short original sentence and its register, and in the exam substitute the idiom's figurative meaning back into the sentence to test whether it fits. For one-word substitution, group items by pattern (person, place, quality, fear of, killing of).
Writing a formal letter or application without the required layout: missing sender's address, date, subject line, or complimentary close, and using contractions and slang.
Candidates treat the letter as free composition and focus on content only, while marks are allocated for format and register as well as language.
What to do instead
Memorise one skeleton for a formal letter (sender's address, date, receiver's designation and address, subject, salutation, three body paragraphs, 'Yours faithfully/sincerely' plus name) and one for an application, then practise filling the skeleton with three different topics under timed conditions.
In paragraph and report writing, producing one long unstructured block with no topic sentence, no linking devices, and personal opinion in a report that should be factual.
Candidates have not internalised the difference between paragraph structure and report structure, and they write whatever comes to mind in the order it occurs.
What to do instead
Plan for two minutes before writing: one topic sentence, two or three supporting points with linking words (firstly, moreover, consequently), and a closing sentence. For reports, use a heading, a factual past-tense account, and no first-person opinion.
Answering prescribed textbook questions from general knowledge of the story or poem instead of citing specific characters, incidents, and lines, and confusing the poet with the speaker.
Candidates revise summaries rather than the texts, so answers stay vague ('the poet is sad about life') and cannot earn content marks.
What to do instead
For each prescribed lesson and poem, prepare a one-page card with character names, three key incidents with page or stanza references, central theme, and two quotable lines; for poetry, always distinguish the poet from the persona before answering.
In translation and functional English tasks, translating word-for-word and leaving the output grammatically wrong, or failing to match the register of notices, invitations, and short messages.
Candidates translate each word in sequence and do not reread the finished sentence, and they are unfamiliar with fixed functional formats.
What to do instead
Translate clause by clause, then reread the whole output for subject-verb agreement and tense before moving on. Keep a short list of fixed functional phrases (notices, invitations, apologies, requests) and practise producing each format in under five minutes.