English Language and Communication Skills: Rules and Register
Grammar earns reliable marks
Most English items test a small set of rules. Revise subject–verb agreement, tense consistency, articles, prepositions, conditionals, reported speech, active and passive voice, and modifier placement. Learn the irregular cases: 'one of the boys is', 'neither of them is', 'the number of students is' versus 'a number of students are', and collective nouns treated as singular when acting as a unit.
Vocabulary and expression
For synonyms and antonyms, learn words in families and note register-formal, neutral, informal. Idioms should be learned as whole units, never word by word. In comprehension, read the question before the passage, locate the relevant sentence, and paraphrase in your own words. For précis and composition, prefer plain, accurate sentences to ornate ones that risk grammar errors.
Communication skills
Formal letters, emails, notices, reports, and presentations follow conventions: clear subject line, purpose in the first paragraph, organised body, courteous close. Active listening and constructive feedback are frequent conceptual questions.
Traps
Watch for dangling modifiers, pronoun ambiguity, double negatives, and false friends that sound similar but differ in meaning. In sentence-correction items, choose the option that fixes the error with the smallest change, not the most elegant rewrite.
Worked rule
In 'One of the boys ___ absent', remove the prepositional phrase 'of the boys'; the subject is 'One', so the verb is 'is'. This deletion test resolves most agreement questions quickly.