RBSE SS English Comp cheat sheet

Skim the passage once for the main idea, then read the questions; answers to factual questions usually follow the order of the passage.

Main-idea questions: choose the option that covers the whole passage, not one paragraph or one striking detail.

Inference questions ask what is implied but not stated; reject options that merely repeat a stated line.

Vocabulary-in-context questions: substitute each option into the sentence and test whether the surrounding clause still makes sense.

Tone and attitude questions hinge on adjectives and adverbs (e.g. 'fortunately', 'merely', 'unfortunately'); scan for evaluative words.

True/False and 'not mentioned' items: a statement is true only if the passage supports it directly; outside knowledge is not evidence.

Title questions: the best title names the topic plus the writer's angle, and is broad enough to cover every paragraph.

For summary or note-making tasks, retain only the key nouns and verbs of each paragraph and drop examples and repetition.

Formal letter format: sender's address, date, receiver's designation and address, subject line, salutation, body, complimentary close, signature - in that order.

Formal letters avoid contractions, slang and first-name address; use 'Yours faithfully' with 'Dear Sir/Madam' and 'Yours sincerely' with a named recipient.

Report writing uses past tense, third person and passive voice where the doer is unknown; it includes a headline, byline (place and date) and factual sequence.

A report answers what, where, when, who, why and how; it excludes personal opinion unless the report is explicitly an assessment.

A well-built paragraph has one topic sentence, supporting sentences and a concluding or linking sentence; each sentence advances a single idea.

Cohesive devices (however, therefore, moreover, on the other hand) signal the logical relation between sentences; choose the device that matches the relation.

Essay structure: introduction stating the stand, two or three body paragraphs each with a claim plus evidence or example, and a conclusion that restates without new arguments.

Word limits are part of the marking: a 100-word notice or 120-word letter should be within about 10 per cent of the limit, neither padded nor truncated.

Present perfect (has/have + past participle) links a past action to the present; use it with since, for, already, yet, ever, never - not with a finished past time like 'yesterday'.

Past perfect (had + past participle) marks the earlier of two past actions; the later action takes simple past.

Passive voice = form of be + past participle; the object of the active sentence becomes the subject, and the agent is kept with 'by' only if relevant.

Passive transformations preserve tense and number: 'They are building the bridge' becomes 'The bridge is being built'.

Direct to indirect speech: shift present to past, past to past perfect, will to would, can to could; also shift time and place words (now to then, today to that day, here to there).

Yes/No questions in indirect speech take 'if' or 'whether'; wh-questions keep the wh-word and drop the auxiliary in the reported clause.

Defining relative clauses take no comma and allow 'that'; non-defining clauses take commas and do not use 'that'.

Determiners follow fixed patterns: 'a/an' with singular countable nouns, 'the' for specific or already mentioned nouns, 'some' in affirmatives and 'any' in negatives and questions.

Prepositions of time: in for months, years and parts of the day; on for days and dates; at for clock times and 'night'.

For each prose chapter, record setting, main characters, central conflict and resolution; questions often target the turning point of the conflict.

Character questions require textual evidence: cite an action or a line of dialogue rather than a general adjective such as 'kind'.

Theme questions: state the theme as a full sentence about human experience, then support it with one incident from the text.

Narrator questions: identify whether the narrator is a participant or an observer, since this limits what the narrator can know.

Supplementary Reader answers should name the chapter and characters precisely; vague references lose marks even when the idea is right.

Value-based questions ask for a judgement plus justification; give the judgement first, then the reason from the text.

Quotation-based items test recognition of who said the line and in what situation; link the line to the speaker's motive.

Identify the form first: sonnet (14 lines), ballad (narrative stanzas), ode (address to a subject), lyric (short personal expression), free verse (no fixed metre).

Metre and rhyme: mark stressed and unstressed syllables; a line of five iambs is iambic pentameter, and the rhyme scheme is labelled abab, aabb and so on.

Figures of speech: simile uses like/as, metaphor states one thing is another, personification gives human qualities to non-human things, hyperbole is deliberate exaggeration.

Sound devices: alliteration repeats initial consonants, assonance repeats vowel sounds, onomatopoeia imitates sound, and these shape pace and mood.

Symbol questions: a symbol carries a meaning beyond the literal object; justify the reading with the poem's own wording.

Tone and mood questions look at diction and punctuation; exclamation marks and short lines quicken pace, long clauses slow it.

Poetic inversion changes normal word order for rhyme or emphasis; restore ordinary order before paraphrasing a difficult line.

Synonyms share core meaning but differ in connotation and formality; pick the word that fits the register of the sentence.

Antonym items often hinge on prefixes: un-, in-, im-, il-, ir-, dis-, non- and mis- all negate, but only some attach to a given stem.

Commonly confused pairs: affect (verb) versus effect (noun), principal (chief) versus principle (rule), stationary (still) versus stationery (writing materials).

Idioms carry a fixed meaning that cannot be guessed from the words; 'to let the cat out of the bag' means to reveal a secret.

One-word substitution: 'a person who speaks many languages' is polyglot; 'a place where bees are kept' is apiary.

Collocation decides the correct preposition or partner word: 'depend on', 'comply with', 'consist of', 'averse to', 'capable of'.

Word formation: noun to adjective by adding -ful, -less, -ous, -al or -ive; verb to noun by adding -ment, -tion, -ance or -age.