GCE O/L English Language common mistakes
GCE O/L English Language · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
In unseen-prose comprehension, candidates lift a whole sentence from the passage as the answer to a question that asks them to explain in their own words, or they answer only the first half of a two-part question (e.g. 'What did the writer feel and why?').
Under time pressure, copying feels safer than rewording, and candidates read the question once, spot a keyword in the passage, and write the surrounding sentence without checking what the question actually demands. Two-part questions are treated as one-part because the second instruction is at the end of the line.
What to do instead
Train a two-step routine for every comprehension item: (1) underline the command word and count the parts of the question, numbering them in the margin; (2) find the relevant lines, then close the passage or cover it and write the answer from memory in your own words, keeping technical terms only. Check the answer against your numbered parts before moving on. Practise with paired questions ('state... and explain...') so the habit becomes automatic.
When writing a summary, candidates copy long stretches verbatim, include examples, quotations and the writer's figurative language, exceed the word limit, or write in the first person ('I think the main points are...').
Candidates do not distinguish main points from supporting detail, and they believe more content earns more marks. Copying is faster than compressing, and the personal opening is a school-essay habit carried over into a task that requires an impersonal, factual register.
What to do instead
Use a fixed procedure: read the passage twice, underline candidate points, then cross out anything that is an example, statistic, quotation or image, leaving only statements the passage could not do without. Draft each point as a short independent clause in the third person, join points with clear links, then count words and cut to the limit. Practise by summarising a 300-word passage in exactly 60 words and comparing your list of points against a model list, not a model paragraph.
In continuous writing, candidates produce a narrative with no clear climax or ending, or an argumentative essay that lists opinions without reasons or evidence, and they ignore the stated audience and purpose of the title.
Many candidates have memorised one 'good story' or a set of stock phrases and try to force the title to fit it. Planning is skipped because it feels like lost time, so the piece drifts and the conclusion merely repeats the introduction. Argumentative essays become lists because candidates have not been taught to build a claim-reason-evidence chain.
What to do instead
Spend three to four minutes planning before writing: for narrative, fix the turning point and the final image first, then build scenes toward them; for argument, write a one-line thesis and two or three reasons, each with an example or consequence, plus one counter-argument you answer. Check the title for the key words (audience, purpose, tone) and keep them visible. Finish with a conclusion that answers the title directly rather than restating the opening.
In directed writing, candidates write a letter without addresses, date, salutation or sign-off, use the wrong register (contractions and slang in a formal letter to a head teacher, or stiff formality in a letter to a friend), and omit the purpose and required details stated in the prompt.
Candidates treat directed writing as free composition and focus on content only. Register is not consciously controlled because most practice happens in one informal style, and the bullet points in the prompt are read once and then forgotten while writing.
What to do instead
Learn the skeleton of each format (formal letter: sender's address, date, recipient's address, salutation, subject line, body, closing, signature; report: title, audience, headings, recommendation; speech: greeting, purpose statement, points, closing appeal). Before writing, list the prompt's bullet points in the margin and tick each as you cover it. Decide the register in one line ('formal: no contractions, no slang') and reread only for register at the end.
Candidates make subject-verb agreement and tense-consistency errors inside complex sentences, especially when a phrase separates the subject from the verb ('The list of items were...') or when a sentence begins in the past and slips into the present.
Attention is consumed by generating ideas, so the verb is matched to the nearest noun rather than the head noun, and narrative writing encourages an unplanned drift into the present tense for dramatic effect. These errors are rarely caught because candidates do not reread for grammar.
What to do instead
Learn to bracket interrupting phrases to expose the head noun before choosing the verb, and drill a set of standard patterns (each/every, neither...nor, collective nouns, there is/are). In narratives, fix the base tense at the start and check every verb against it. Reserve the final three minutes of the exam for a grammar-only pass, reading sentence by sentence and checking each verb against its subject and the established tense.
Candidates use a narrow set of overworked words (nice, good, very, a lot of, thing, got) and misapply idioms and collocations, for example writing 'discuss about', 'comprises of' or 'according to me'.
Vocabulary is built by reading little and by translating idioms word for word from the first language, so collocations are guessed rather than known. Under exam pressure the most available word wins, and 'nice' or 'good' fits almost anywhere.
What to do instead
Keep a personal replacement table: for each overused word, record two precise alternatives with a model sentence (nice weather -> mild, pleasant; a lot of -> numerous, a great deal of). Learn idioms only in full recorded chunks with their grammar (discuss something, comprise something, in my view) and test yourself by writing sentences, not by copying definitions. In the exam, circle every 'nice', 'good', 'very' and 'thing' in your draft and replace at least half.
On poetry and media-text questions, candidates retell the poem's content or describe the picture instead of commenting on effect, and they identify a figure of speech without explaining what it suggests.
Candidates believe showing they understood the words is enough, and many have learned a list of device names without practice in linking a device to meaning and feeling. Media texts are read as information rather than as persuasive constructions.
What to do instead
Answer in a fixed three-part shape: what the writer does, the exact words that show it, and the effect on the reader ('The metaphor of the cage suggests the speaker feels trapped, which makes the reader pity him'). For media texts, ask who produced it, for whom, and what is emphasised or left out. When naming a device, always add 'which suggests...' before the full stop.
In editing and proofreading tasks, candidates change meaning instead of correcting errors, miss errors that do not sound wrong (missing apostrophes, comma splices, wrong homophones such as their/there, its/it's), or correct only the line they are told contains an error and ignore the rest.
Candidates read for meaning, and the brain silently repairs small errors, so proofreading from the top at normal speed finds almost nothing. Homophones are confused because spelling is learned by sound, and apostrophe rules are applied by guesswork.
What to do instead
Proofread backwards, sentence by sentence from the last sentence to the first, or read aloud slowly, so meaning cannot mask the error. Keep a personal error list from past work and check specifically for its items (apostrophes, its/it's, subject-verb agreement, comma splices, tense). In editing tasks, change only the faulty word or phrase and reread the corrected sentence to confirm the meaning is unchanged.
Candidates misread the question's command word, writing a description when asked to argue, a story when asked to inform, or answering 'Do you agree?' with a balanced essay that never states a position; they also ignore word limits and bullet-point requirements.
Command words (describe, explain, argue, discuss, summarise, advise) look similar and are not explicitly taught, and candidates under time pressure begin writing after reading only the first few words of the title.
What to do instead
Build a command-word table with one example answer opening for each (describe: 'The market was...'; argue: 'It is often claimed that... yet...'; advise: 'You should first...'). In the exam, rewrite the title in your own words in the margin and state your position or purpose in one sentence before starting. Check the word limit and the bullet points against your plan before writing the first paragraph.
Candidates run out of time because they spend too long on the comprehension passage and summary, leaving the composition unfinished or unproofread, and they write compositions far over the word limit.
There is no timed practice, so candidates do not know their own writing speed, and they treat the paper as one continuous task rather than a set of timed sections. Fear of the composition leads to postponing it.
What to do instead
Adopt a fixed allocation for the paper (for example, roughly a quarter for comprehension, a fifth for summary, half for the two writing tasks, and the remainder for checking) and rehearse it in at least three full timed papers. Learn your handwriting speed by counting words written in five minutes, then plan compositions to the required length. If time runs short, finish the composition's final paragraph before returning to polish earlier sections.