Telangana High Court Examiner common mistakes
Telangana High Court Examiner · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
In the Telugu section, reading a passage once and answering from overall impression, then missing questions that hinge on a single suffix or verb ending (for example confusing చేయలేదు with చేయలేదా, or missing a negative imperative).
Candidates who studied Telugu informally read for gist; the exam tests precise grammar and comprehension, and the difference between a statement and a question, or affirmative and negative, is often one character. Under time pressure the eye supplies the expected meaning rather than the printed one.
What to do instead
For every Telugu comprehension passage, do a second pass with a pen: underline the verb ending of each sentence and mark negatives (లేదు, కాదు, వద్దు) and question markers (ఆ, గా). Practise 10 short passages a week where you write a one-line Telugu summary before looking at the options, and drill sandhi/samasa splits separately.
Treating the English section as general reading and choosing the option that 'sounds right', especially in error-spotting, fill-in-the-blank, and idiom questions, without checking subject-verb agreement, preposition collocation, or article use.
Everyday English tolerates loose grammar, so the ear accepts incorrect options. Options are deliberately written to sound plausible, and test-setters exploit common Indian-English collocations (e.g. 'discuss about', 'married with') that are wrong in standard usage.
What to do instead
Build a personal error log of 50 high-frequency collocation and preposition pairs and revise it weekly. For error-spotting, apply a fixed checklist to each sentence in order: subject-verb agreement, tense consistency, pronoun reference, article, preposition, word order. Do 20 cloze items a day and justify the rejected options in writing.
In Arithmetic, reading the question once and starting calculations immediately, so that unit mismatches (metres vs km, months vs years, simple vs compound interest) and 'find the wrong/except' instructions are missed.
The section is time-pressured and candidates believe speed comes from starting fast. In reality most lost marks come from misreading the requirement, not from slow computation, and the trap options are built on the misread value.
What to do instead
Adopt a two-line routine before any calculation: write down (a) what is asked and in what unit, and (b) the given quantities with units. Underline 'not', 'except', 'approximate' in the question. For interest and speed problems, write the formula with units before substituting. Time yourself at 45 seconds per problem only after accuracy reaches 90% untimed.
In Reasoning and Mental Ability, attempting every question in serial order and sinking five or more minutes into one seating-arrangement or puzzle set, leaving easy series, coding-decoding and odd-one-out questions unattempted.
Candidates treat the paper as a linear test of knowledge rather than a scoring exercise, and puzzles feel close to solution so abandonment is psychologically hard. The result is that high-yield quick marks are lost to low-yield ones.
What to do instead
Do two passes: first pass 20 seconds per question, answering only what resolves immediately and marking the rest; second pass on flagged items with a hard 90-second cap per puzzle set. Practise with a stopwatch and record per-question time to learn which puzzle types you personally should skip.
In Computer Knowledge, memorising menu paths and shortcut keys from an old guide and answering questions about Word/Excel features that have changed (e.g. where 'Save As' or 'Track Changes' lives, default file extensions, or the difference between a formula and a function) from memory of an older version.
Study material is often recycled and version-agnostic, while the exam reflects current Office suites. Candidates also confuse similar-sounding terms (worksheet vs workbook, formula vs function, copy vs cut) and guess.
What to do instead
Study from a current syllabus-aligned source and verify each feature on an actual machine: open Word, Excel and a browser and physically locate the ribbon tabs, dialog boxes and shortcut keys you are memorising. Maintain a one-page glossary of confusable pairs (worksheet/workbook, function/formula, save/save as) and test yourself on definitions rather than clicks.
In Indian Constitution and Polity, memorising article numbers and schedules as isolated facts without the amendment, landmark case, or federal principle attached, so that applied questions ('which schedule deals with anti-defection', 'which article covers writs') are answered by guesswork.
Coaching notes and short guides reward rote recall of numbers, and candidates assume the exam only asks direct 'which article' questions. Applied and comparison questions then expose that the concept behind the number was never understood.
What to do instead
For each key article or schedule, build a four-column card: number, subject, one landmark case or amendment, and one current example. Revise by covering the number and recalling it from the subject and case, not the reverse. Add a weekly 20-question applied set mixing articles, schedules, amendments and writs.
In Court Procedures, describing the sequence of a civil or criminal matter loosely ('filed, then hearing, then judgment') without naming the correct stage, provision, or limitation period, and confusing civil and criminal terminology such as plaint vs complaint, plaintiff vs complainant, summons vs warrant.
Candidates prepare procedure from general reading and newspaper reports, which compress stages and use terms interchangeably. The precise vocabulary is rarely used in daily life, so the distinction is never learned.
What to do instead
Draw the procedural flow for a civil suit and a criminal case side by side on one sheet, labelling each stage with its Order/Rule or CrPC/BNSS provision and the limitation period. Learn the paired terms as flashcards (plaint/complaint, plaintiff/complainant, decree/order, summons/warrant) and write a one-page summary of each flow from memory weekly.
In Legal Drafting and Record Keeping, writing answers in narrative prose instead of the required format, omitting the cause-title, court name, section under which the application is made, verification, or prayer, and using vague verbs ('requesting you to do the needful') instead of precise operative language.
Candidates are used to essay-style answers from general exams and have never drafted an affidavit, plaint or application by hand. They also underestimate how heavily format, headings and mandatory clauses are marked.
What to do instead
Memorise skeleton templates for the five most likely drafts (plaint, written statement, affidavit, application, vakalat) with every mandatory heading. Practise writing each in full within 10 minutes, then self-mark against a checklist of headings. Replace vague phrases with operative verbs and always include the prayer and verification clauses.
In General Knowledge and Current Affairs, relying on last year's monthly compilations and general headlines, so that questions on Telangana-specific schemes, appointments, awards, sports and state budget/legislative developments are answered from vague recollection.
Candidates treat current affairs as a bulk-reading task and revise old PDFs, while the exam draws on the 6-12 months before the paper with a strong Telangana focus that national compilations under-cover.
What to do instead
Maintain a rolling 12-month one-page log with fixed columns (date, event, state/national, source) and update it weekly from a state newspaper plus one national source. Revise only the last 8 months in the final month, and self-test with 25 mixed questions weekly, marking any item you cannot date.
Planning the paper as one continuous attempt with no sectional time budget, so that the Telugu and English comprehension passages consume the middle of the exam and the Constitution, Court Procedures and Computer sections are rushed or left blank in the final minutes.
Comprehension feels productive and has no natural stopping point, and candidates never rehearse the full paper under exam timing. Without a pre-set sectional allocation, the sections with the highest accuracy per minute are the ones sacrificed.
What to do instead
Before the exam, fix a written sectional time budget based on mock data (e.g. minutes per section) and one 'abandon' rule per section. Take at least three full-length timed mocks with the exact section order and record where time overran. In the real paper, note the clock time at each section boundary and move on when the budget expires, returning only in the final review pass.