Preparing English Language for Government Exams

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Preparing English Language for Government Exams
English language plays a very determining part in
any government exam. If youre aspiring for any
such examination, you need to have a good command
over English language.
There are some examinations, where questions are
provided in Hindi or Regional languages also,
but the fact remains, that there is a separate
section in every exam where your knowledge of
English is tested. This section carries no option
for any other language, so you are kind of stuck
in it. To ease this difficulty, you need to lay
down special emphasis over your language
preparation so that you dont lose marks due to
lack of knowledge of English. Now, if youre
someone who is not too good at English or is
average in studies, you need not to worry. Just
follow some tips and keep up the hard work, soon
youll have the knowledge that you seek. So,
lets get started!
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• Grammar- Grammar is the main essence of any
  language and to know a language you must have
  command over grammar part. The day you realize
  that you need to prepare for English, the first
  step you should be doing is, to ace its grammar.
  To understand the question or to answer the
  question, you need to know about how sentences
  are formed and what they mean. Do not directly
  go for heavy-heavy books of grammar, start with
  basic school books. Start with learning Part of
  Speech, Tenses, Narration and Voice. At first
  learn the rules then try to apply them in
  practical life. Once you start getting familiar
  with the rules, focus on things like Modals,
  Prepositions, Adjectives, Gerund, and Infinitive
  etc. In a few months, youll notice a change in
  your orientation. You will have knowledge of
  rules and their application. Then you can try
  some standard books of grammar such as Wren
  Martin or S.P.Bakshi.
• Click here to learn Basics of English.
• Vocabulary- Once you get an idea about the
  grammar, you must go for Vocabulary. Start with
  learning the words which you use daily, try to
  know the name of things that you use daily. Grab
  any dictionary and try to learn as many new
  words as you can. But remember to revise and use
  those words, otherwise youll forget them soon.
  A very good source of learning new words can be
  newspapers. I would also suggest you to listen to
  English Songs, Podcasts and videos they
  introduce you with new meanings every day. Apart
  from this, you can search for specific pdfs of
  Vocabulary for your exam there are plenty of
  those available on the internet. A very standard
  book for Vocabulary is Word Power Made Easy by
  Norman Lewis. This book covers 85 of your
  vocabulary if you grasp a hold on it. Always
  prepare Synonyms and Antonyms for every word,
  some questions are asked on this part also.
• Bonus Tips- Every person has capacity of learning
  new words. Some find it difficult to retain a
  lot of words. Here are two things that you can
  do-
• Divide the words in negative or positive tone.
  For example- Optimistic, Sanguine, Buoyant etc.
  are words which denote something positive, whereas

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• Acerbic, Scanting, Vicious, Caustic etc. are the
  words which give negative tone. You can just
  remember the tone of the word. When such word
  comes in a passage, you can easily determine
  whether it is saying something positive or
  negative.
• (2) Try to learn root words, for example- such as
  Bene means good, Bio means life, Aqua
  means water and Mal means bad. Whenever any
  word starts with these root words, you will
  automatically get the meaning.
• Comprehension- In many exams, we see unseen
  passages and paragraphs for comprehension. You
  have to read the passage thoroughly and
  understand what it says. Then the passage is
  followed by some questions, which you
• have to answer. In these questions, they can ask
  you to give general answers
• or to give the title of the passage or they can
  ask meaning of some words. To attempt these
  questions perfectly, you need to practice
  comprehension daily. Buy any book for practice
  or check on internet for daily passages. Try to
  attempt them in as less time as possible. Read
  the passage thoroughly and then move to the
  questions. Do not miss the central idea as it
  helps you to decide the title. Watch English
  Movies for better understanding of context, it
  also helps.
• Spellings- Do not underestimate spellings in any
  examination. Sometimes questions are asked to
  correct the spelling, and the options are very
  confusing. To attempt such questions, you must
  memorize the spellings very well. Also, when you
  write subjective answers, you are judged by your
  spelling too. Bad spelling makes a bad impression
  upon the examiner.
• Newspapers- A lot of people would have suggested
  you to start your
• preparation of English language by reading
  newspapers. However, I would
• suggest that one must know the grammar and the
  vocabulary first, so that when you start a
  newspaper, you understand it better. As a
  beginner, start by some light newspapers such as
  Economic Times and gradually move towards The
  Hindu or The Indian Express. Look very carefully
  at the new words that you find in the newspaper,
  and learn how to create better sentence
  structure. Do not read too much in a day, read
  only that much which you can memorize in a day.
  Continue this for about 6 months, and youll see
  a drastic change in your English.

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• Write what you learn- When you learn a new word,
  or you learn a new way of sentence formation,
  always make short notes of that thing. Because
  when we write something, we memorize that thing
  even better. You can make some flash cards or
  you can write those words in a notebook. Either
  way, doesnt forget to write them.
• Shape your knowledge- Once you learn plenty of
  words, grammar and rules of English language,
  its time to shape your knowledge. You might be
• thinking, that How Ill shape my knowledge?
  Well! Recognize the area which requires work and
  revise the portion which you know the best. For
  example- if you have good command over grammar,
  but are weak in vocabulary, give less time to
  grammar and focus more on vocabulary. Make
• a routine and identify your strengths and
  weaknesses. Once you know that how much have you
  covered and how much is left, youll know how to
  cover those left things.
• Hopefully this article guides you in some way!
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