General English: Accuracy, Vocabulary in Context and Comprehension
What is actually tested
General English sections reward control, not vocabulary display. The dependable areas are grammar accuracy (subject–verb agreement, tense consistency, articles, prepositions, pronoun reference, parallelism, misplaced modifiers), vocabulary in context (synonyms, antonyms, idioms, one-word substitutions), sentence correction and improvement, para jumbles, cloze passages and reading comprehension.
Where candidates lose marks
- Reading comprehension: options that are true in general knowledge but not stated in the passage, and options using absolute words such as always, never, only.
- Error spotting: sentences where grammar is fine but the verb–preposition pair is wrong; check the preposition before blaming the verb.
- "One of the + plural noun" takes a singular verb: One of the boys has left.
- Either, neither, each, everyone are singular; with neither…nor the verb agrees with the nearer subject.
- Para jumbles: the opening sentence usually carries no pronoun and no this/these reference - find it first.
- Improvement questions: pick the shortest option that preserves the original meaning; a smoother option that shifts meaning is a trap.
- Cloze tests collocation more than grammar: read the whole passage once for topic before filling any blank.
Worked example
"Neither the manager nor his assistants ___ available." The verb agrees with the nearer subject, assistants, so it is were, not was. The same nearness rule applies to either…or.
Rule of thumb
For any correction item, check in a fixed order: verb agreement → tense → article → preposition → pronoun. Most errors are caught by the first two checks.