General English for Pharmaceutical Sciences
General English for Pharmaceutical Sciences tests reading comprehension of scientific texts, technical vocabulary, and precise sentence interpretation. It is not a literature exam; the highest-value skill is extracting claims, evidence, and limitations from a passage.
Core rules
- Technical terms are often built from roots: bio- means life, tox- means poison, pharmaco- means drug, -lysis means breakdown, and -pathy means disease. Use context to fix meaning rather than memorizing isolated lists.
- Distinguish fact, hypothesis, and recommendation. May is weaker than does; contraindicated means do not use; an adverse event is not necessarily drug-caused.
- In inference questions, choose the option supported by the passage, not by outside knowledge. Avoid absolute words such as always, never, and proves unless the text is absolute.
Worked example
Passage: The formulation improved bioavailability in fed volunteers, but the effect was not replicated in the fasted state. Question: what is supported? Reasoning: the effect is condition-dependent. An option saying the formulation always improves bioavailability is wrong because the fasted result contradicts it. Improved absorption under fed conditions is defensible.
Traps
Choosing a true scientific statement that the passage does not make; confusing correlation with causation; translating word-by-word and missing negation; overreading significant as clinically important.