English
The English section of the PAC Cadet Scholarship Exam tests reading comprehension, grammar, vocabulary in context, sentence correction and short composition. Questions are school-level but deliberately check precision, so a candidate who reads quickly but ignores grammar loses marks.
Core rules
- Comprehension: identify the main idea, supporting detail, inference and the writer’s tone. Answer only from the passage; outside knowledge is a trap.
- Subject–verb agreement: with neither…nor and either…or, the verb agrees with the nearer subject. Collective nouns take a singular verb when acting as one unit.
- Tenses: keep the tense sequence consistent; use past perfect for the earlier of two past actions.
- Articles and prepositions: learn fixed combinations such as depend on, good at, composed of.
- Sentence correction: check parallelism, pronoun reference, modifiers and double negatives.
Worked example
Neither the cadets nor the instructor ___ aware of the changed timetable. The subject nearest the blank is instructor (singular), so the answer is was. Many candidates choose were because cadets appears first; the nearer-subject rule settles it.
Traps that cost marks
- Applying the nearer-subject rule when the sentence uses both…and (plural verb needed).
- Choosing a vocabulary option that sounds advanced but does not fit the passage.
- Writing a composition with memorised slogans instead of a clear beginning, body and ending.
- Missing singular/plural shifts in pronouns: everyone … his or her, not their, in formal correction items.