TT Clerical Entrance common mistakes
TT Clerical Entrance · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Chooses an option that fits the topic of the stem but ignores a negative or limiting word in it such as NOT, EXCEPT, or BEST.
Under time pressure the eye reads the stem for key nouns and slides over small function words, so the brain quietly answers the positive version of the question.
What to do instead
Circle every NOT/EXCEPT/LEAST/BEST before looking at the options, then restate the stem as a positive sentence ('Which one is false...') and only then read the choices.
Matches a verb to the noun nearest to it rather than to the real subject when a phrase sits between them (e.g. 'The list of items ___ on the desk').
Everyday speech tolerates the mismatch, and the nearest noun is the most recently read word, so proximity overrides grammar.
What to do instead
Cross out the prepositional phrase between subject and verb, read subject and verb alone to settle the number, then test each option against that stripped sentence instead of against the whole sentence.
Picks a homophone or confusable word by sound (their/there/they're, principal/principle, affect/effect) without checking what job the word does in the sentence.
These pairs are stored as sound-alikes, and autocorrect in daily typing hides the distinction, so the ear accepts every candidate as correct.
What to do instead
Label the required part of speech for the blank first (noun, verb, adjective), then substitute each candidate and run a meaning test ('their' = belonging to them, 'there' = place, 'they're' = they are).
Chooses a vocabulary answer because the word is familiar or loosely related to the passage topic rather than because it fits the sentence's context clues and tone.
Recognition feels like knowledge, so unknown options are rejected on sight and the most familiar word wins by default without being tested.
What to do instead
Predict your own word for the blank from the clues (contrast words like 'but', cause words like 'because', overall tone) before reading the options, then pick the closest match and re-read the whole sentence with it in place.
Selects an option because it is true in real life or because it repeats wording from the passage, without locating the sentence that answers the specific question asked.
The passage's subject feels familiar, so prior knowledge fills the gaps, and echoed wording creates a false sense of correctness that stops the search early.
What to do instead
Before choosing, point to or number the exact line that supports the answer; reject any option you cannot tie to a line, including options that copy passage words but answer a different question.
In word problems, grabs the first two numbers in the text and applies the operation they seem to invite, ignoring qualifiers such as 'each', 'per', 'remaining', or 'in total'.
The story is skimmed for numbers rather than relationships, and the first plausible operation produces a number that appears among the choices, which ends the thinking.
What to do instead
Write a one-line equation with labelled units before computing (e.g. cost per pen x number of pens = total spend) and account for every number in the problem; any number without an assigned role signals a misread.
Miscalculates because digits are not aligned by place value, or accepts a result without any estimate check.
Handwritten working drifts right to left and decimal points are treated as decoration; once a produced number matches an option, checking stops.
What to do instead
Rewrite the working in a grid aligned on the decimal point, pad empty places with zeros, and before selecting, round both operands to check the order of magnitude of the expected answer.
Sorts names inconsistently, sometimes letter by letter and sometimes word by word, and places 'Ford' after 'Forder' or otherwise breaks the nothing-before-something rule.
Casual filing is done by first letters or by feel, and the two methods only diverge in cases that rarely come up in ordinary paperwork.
What to do instead
Commit to one rule and apply it to every item: compare letter by letter to the first difference, treat a space as nothing, and when all earlier letters are identical put the shorter name first.
Declares two codes or strings 'the same' after matching only the first and last characters, missing a transposed or altered character in the middle.
The eye fixates on the edges of a string and skips the middle at speed, and one confirmed match creates a strong expectation that the rest is identical.
What to do instead
Break each string into chunks of three or four characters and compare chunk by chunk from left to right, silently naming each chunk, before declaring a match or a mismatch.
Leaves general knowledge items blank or clicks a blind first guess on the first pass and never returns to them.
These items feel like pure recall with no method available, so they are abandoned in favour of questions that look workable, and the candidate often does not know whether blanks carry a penalty.
What to do instead
Apply elimination by category, period, and place, crossing out options from the wrong country, era, or field; flag rather than skip, and make a final guess only after that second elimination pass.