English Language
English questions in this paper are functional: error spotting, sentence improvement, fill in the blanks with prepositions and articles, synonyms and antonyms, one-word substitutions, idioms and a short comprehension passage.
Rules that carry the most marks
- Subject-verb agreement: each, every, either, neither and everyone are singular, so they take singular verbs.
- Articles: a before consonant sounds, an before vowel sounds, so 'an hour' but 'a university'.
- Fixed prepositions: senior, junior, superior and inferior take 'to'; married to, composed of, different from.
- Tense sequence: after 'since' with a present perfect clause, use the past simple for the starting point.
- Passive voice: object becomes subject + form of be + past participle + by-agent.
Worked example
Spot the error: 'Each of the boys were given a prize.' Step 1, find the true subject: it is 'Each', not 'boys'. Step 2, 'each' is singular, so the verb must be 'was'. Corrected sentence: 'Each of the boys was given a prize.' The phrase 'of the boys' is only a prepositional modifier and never controls the verb.
Traps
- Being misled by the nearest noun instead of the real subject.
- Confusing 'affect', the verb, with 'effect', the noun.
- Reading idioms literally: 'to let the cat out of the bag' means to reveal a secret.
- Using 'since' with a duration; duration takes 'for', a point of time takes 'since'.