Every competitive exam that has ‘English’ as one of the topics to be tested on
will have at least 5 marks of ‘sentence correction’; maximum may range between
10-15 – and that’s a rare case. The English section, scoring, as most of the
people complain is tough-we say different. We say it’s the easiest!
Let’s see how we can tame the English section, starting with our first topic – correcting the sentences.
We’ve gone to classes, done our studies from books, mugged up all the grammar rules and bundled up everything into solving practice papers. Some of us may see progress in the number of correct ‘sentence corrections’ and some of us are still perplexed at the answer keys – how is that wrong? – is our often frustrated refrain. Time to try something different then!
Smart phones
We know most of the students have one.
Download a
dictionary, a good one, which has dictionary and thesaurus all rolled into one.
Whenever you come across a new word, make an effort to actually look up the
meaning, understand its usage (as every ‘decent’ dictionary will have sentence
examples), and re-read the sentence from where you had come across the new
word.
You’ll remember the meaning the next time you see the word.
How do learning new words help in sentence correction?
Well, if you’re given a sentence like – ‘She was killed by asphyxiation.’, you will need to know what is ‘asphyxiation’. Asphyxiation is the condition where a person is deprived of oxygen; it’s a synonym of suffocation. Can someone be killed ‘by’ suffocation? ‘Suffocation’ is a process; it’s not an article or a thing, like a dagger. Hence, one gets killed ‘of’ asphyxiation and not ‘by’.
Hence, learning word is important for sentence correction, plus you also get a healthy dose of vocabulary intake.
How do learning new words help in sentence correction?
Well, if you’re given a sentence like – ‘She was killed by asphyxiation.’, you will need to know what is ‘asphyxiation’. Asphyxiation is the condition where a person is deprived of oxygen; it’s a synonym of suffocation. Can someone be killed ‘by’ suffocation? ‘Suffocation’ is a process; it’s not an article or a thing, like a dagger. Hence, one gets killed ‘of’ asphyxiation and not ‘by’.
Hence, learning word is important for sentence correction, plus you also get a healthy dose of vocabulary intake.
Preparation - of Prepositions
There’s a thing called
perfect prepositions, some words will only go with certain prepositions. Learn
them.
Most sentence corrections confuse with the prepositions; for example ‘She
fell off the chair.’ is correct and not from.
Read
Read novels, magazines, Sunday Newspaper articles, editorials to improve
your knowledge of words and their usages.
Read anything that interests you,
only then will you learn and never forget. Even when you are reading
newspapers, articles or magazines to improve your current affairs knowledge,
pay attention to new words, sentences – how a certain idea has been put forth
in words.
Love English –Vinglish
Love English –Vinglish just like Sridevi in the movie, have a genuine
interest to learn the language; just doing it for the sake of clearing exams
will never help in the exams or in the long run, after all there is always the
personal interview which specially in any PSU Bank recruitment will be in
English.
Eyes, Ears and Mouth
Eyes, Ears and Mouth, always open for English! Read, hear and talk in
English as much as you can. It’ll only help you.
Elimination
Elimination is always the last resort, and should be used only and only if
nothing else works and I do not recommend this to anyone! If you’re stuck with
a particular question in exam, and you’re confused, eliminate those options,
which you know are definitely wrong. You’ll then have zeroed onto the right
answer.
Guesswork is highly injurious to the aggregate
mark’s health we should only go for elimination of wrong options to get the
right answer, if we are absolutely sure that the wrongs are wrong!
Lastly,
Lastly,
Don’t be afraid
Don’t be afraid of the ‘no correction required’ option. Only because it’s
a sentence correction question does not mean, the last option of ‘no
correction’ cannot be!
Some students never consider the obvious fact that a
sentence could actually need no correction. Hence, if you’re sure, and have
used all your English prowess and come to the conclusion that the sentence is
perfect and needs no correction, be brave, and hit the ‘no correction’ option!
Important thing to know - English is a very easy language; love it, it will love you back.
All the best with the sentence corrections!
Important thing to know - English is a very easy language; love it, it will love you back.
All the best with the sentence corrections!
