English Language
What is actually tested
The English section rewards precision over vocabulary display. Expect reading comprehension (often with an inference or tone question), cloze tests, error detection, sentence improvement, para jumbles, single and double fillers, word usage and odd-one-out, and paragraph completion. You need comfort with subject-verb agreement, tense and sequence of tenses, prepositions, articles, parallelism, misplaced modifiers, pronoun reference, and connectors signalling contrast, cause and addition.
Traps that cost marks
- Options that are grammatically clean but change the meaning of the original sentence; in sentence improvement, compare against the original first.
- In para jumbles, ignoring pronoun and connector clues ('this', 'however', 'therefore') that create mandatory pairs. The opener is usually a general statement, not a sentence beginning 'He' or 'This'.
- RC options that are true in the real world but not stated in the passage. Answer only from the text.
- Extreme wording ('always', 'never', 'all') in inference and tone questions.
- Double fillers where one blank is easy and the other is a collocation trap: 'take a decision', not 'do a decision'.
Rule of thumb
Fix the skeleton before judging style: locate the main subject and main verb, then check each clause has one. In 'One of the officers who ___ present', the relative pronoun refers to 'officers' (plural verb), while the main verb after 'one of the' stays singular.
Worked example
'Neither the manager nor his assistants ___ available.' The verb agrees with the nearer subject, 'assistants', so the answer is 'were'.