English: comprehension, grammar and punctuation
The English section of the ISEB Common Pre-Test is multiple choice and on screen. It contains a reading comprehension part, based on a passage that may be fiction, non-fiction or poetry, and a grammar, punctuation and spelling part in which you choose the sentence or word that is correct. Nothing is written out in full, so every mark depends on recognising the right option rather than producing language yourself.
Reading comprehension
Questions fall into recognisable kinds: retrieval (find a stated fact), inference (work out what is implied), vocabulary in context (what does clawed suggest here?), technique (why did the writer use this simile?), and whole-text questions about mood, purpose or the best summary. Always locate the evidence in the passage before looking at the options.
Grammar and punctuation
- Word classes: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, determiner.
- Clause structure: main and subordinate clauses, relative clauses beginning who, which or that, and phrases that contain no verb.
- Agreement and tense: singular subject with singular verb; keep tense consistent; standard English forms such as fewer with countable nouns.
- Punctuation: commas in lists and after fronted subordinate clauses, apostrophes for possession (the girl's, the girls'), inverted commas for speech, colons before lists, semicolons between two independent clauses, brackets and dashes for parenthesis.
Worked example
The sentence reads: The wind clawed at the shutters. Which word best describes the effect of clawed? Options: gently, violently, quietly, slowly. Clawed suggests sharp, repeated, aggressive force, and it gives the wind an animal quality - so violently. Slowly might fit a real wind, but it ignores the word's violence, which is exactly what the question asks about.
Traps that cost marks
Choosing an option that is true about the passage but does not answer the question asked. Missing a not or except in the question stem. Confusing adjectives with adverbs. Putting the possessive apostrophe in the wrong place in plurals. Guessing before re-reading the quoted line.