PNG Grade 10 English common mistakes
PNG Grade 10 English · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Answering comprehension questions with a single word or copied phrase instead of a full sentence that restates the question.
Under time pressure candidates treat short-answer items like fill-in-the-blank and assume the marker will infer the meaning; PNG Grade 10 papers usually award marks for a complete statement, so fragments lose structure marks even when the idea is right.
What to do instead
Practise the formula: subject + verb + the key term from the question. For 'Why did the villagers leave?' write 'The villagers left because...' rather than 'flood'. Do ten past-paper short answers this way and underline the restated key term each time.
Lifting whole sentences from the passage as the answer without adapting them, so the response does not actually address the question asked.
Candidates recognise a relevant-sounding sentence and copy it wholesale, mistaking textual proximity for relevance; this is common when the question uses synonyms rather than the passage's exact words.
What to do instead
After locating a candidate sentence, rewrite it in your own words and check it against the question word (who, why, how, what). If your rewritten sentence does not begin by answering that word, keep searching the paragraph.
Confusing inference questions with literal-recall questions, giving only what the text states explicitly when asked what is implied.
Many candidates have been trained to 'find it in the text' and do not distinguish 'state' from 'suggest' or 'infer'; they then lose the higher-order marks that carry more weight in the upper grades.
What to do instead
Highlight the command word in every question before reading. Build a two-column table for each passage: 'stated' versus 'suggested'. For inference items, write the evidence sentence plus one sentence of your own reasoning that links evidence to conclusion.
Writing sentences with subject-verb disagreement and inconsistent tense, especially in the third person and in narrative composition.
In PNG classrooms English is often a second or third language and Tok Pisin or a vernacular may be the home language, so plural -s and past-tense endings are dropped in speech and carried into writing; candidates also switch from past to present mid-narrative.
What to do instead
Do a dedicated editing pass on every piece: circle every verb, then check its subject for number and its time frame for tense. Keep a personal error log of the five agreement mistakes you repeat most and review it before each practice essay.
Producing run-on sentences joined by 'and' or commas, or the opposite, sentence fragments with no main verb.
Candidates write the way they speak, stringing clauses together with 'and' to avoid punctuation decisions; fragments appear when a subordinate clause beginning with 'because' or 'although' is left standing alone.
What to do instead
Apply the 'one main clause per sentence' test: find the subject and its finite verb; if either is missing, the group of words is a fragment. Break long strings at each new subject, using a full stop, semicolon or a subordinating conjunction.
Misusing apostrophes for plurals and omitting them for possession, and confusing homophones such as their/there/they're and its/it's.
These forms are pronounced identically and are rarely corrected in casual written communication, so candidates rely on sound rather than grammar; apostrophe rules are also frequently memorised as 'apostrophe before s' without the plural-possessive exception.
What to do instead
Learn the substitution test: expand 'it's' to 'it is' and 'they're' to 'they are'; if the expansion fails, use 'its' or 'their'. For possession, test whether the noun is singular or plural first, then place the apostrophe after the final letter of the owner.
Choosing vocabulary by sound-alike association or first impression rather than by meaning in context, particularly with synonyms and prepositional collocations.
Candidates match a word to a familiar-sounding option instead of checking the surrounding sentence; near-synonyms in English differ in register and collocation, which is hard to judge without wide reading.
What to do instead
For each unknown word, substitute every option back into the sentence and read it aloud; eliminate options that change the register or break a fixed phrase (e.g. 'depend on', 'interested in'). Keep a collocation notebook organised by preposition, not alphabetically.
Writing a composition with no clear plan, so the narrative loses chronology or the argument has no thesis and the conclusion merely repeats the introduction.
Candidates begin writing immediately to save time, then run out of ideas mid-piece and pad with repetition; without a plan they cannot see that the ending must resolve the situation set up in the opening.
What to do instead
Spend five of the allotted minutes on a skeleton: for narrative, a five-box storyboard (setting, problem, rising action, climax, resolution); for argument, thesis plus three reasons plus counterpoint. Write only from the skeleton and check the ending against the opening before submitting.
Ignoring the specified audience, purpose and format - writing an informal letter when a formal one is required, or omitting the required salutation, sign-off and paragraphing.
Candidates focus entirely on content and treat format as decoration, yet PNG composition rubrics allocate explicit marks to layout, register and mechanical conventions; the prompt's format instruction is often skimmed.
What to do instead
Before writing, note the three prompt cues (audience, purpose, format) at the top of your page and tick them off afterwards. Memorise the skeleton of a formal letter: sender's address, date, recipient's address, salutation, subject line, body paragraphs, complimentary close, signature.
Retelling the plot of a studied novel, play or poem instead of answering the question about character, theme or technique, and quoting without commenting on the quotation.
Candidates revise plot summaries rather than practising essay questions, so under exam pressure they reproduce the summary; they also believe a quotation speaks for itself and omit the analysis that earns the interpretation marks.
What to do instead
Answer in the pattern point–evidence–explanation: state your claim, give a short quotation or specific incident, then two sentences explaining how the language or event proves the claim. Practise converting plot summaries into thesis statements before writing any literature response.