Anglais
What the exam tests
The English paper assesses reading comprehension, language accuracy and written production. Expect a text followed by questions, grammar exercises (tenses, passive voice, reported speech, connectors) and a short essay or letter of 120–180 words.
Core rules
- Match the tense to the time marker: since/for with present perfect, ago with past simple, by the time with past perfect.
- In reported speech, shift tenses and pronouns and adjust time and place words.
- Passive: be + past participle, keep the agent with by only when useful.
- Link ideas with however, therefore, although, whereas; avoid repeating and/but.
- In writing, state a thesis, support it with examples and conclude.
- Read the questions before the text to target information; in a summary, use your own words.
Worked example
Choose between He has lived here since 2010 and He lived here in 2010. The first links a past start to the present, so present perfect; the second places the action in a finished past period, so past simple. In a question: How long has he lived here? Not How long does he live here?
Traps that cost marks
False friends (actually = in fact, not actuellement; eventually = finally); missing third-person -s; using will after when; writing an essay without paragraphs; exceeding the word limit; copying sentences from the text.