How to English?

 I am a boy from a poor family and small town in Bihar, which nobody might have heard of. And while preparing for exams, I thought it is only English that will stop me from achieving my dreams of a public sector job. I changed this; I learnt English and I became what I wanted to be. I was approached by Crack it to share how I prepared for English, this surprised me. Here is my some words of advice for many like me who feel it is only English stops them from clearing that exam.

There were 2 friends who did not know English. They decided that they will learn English. Every day they used to meet at the bus stop to go to college which was a journey of 1 hr. Both them took pledge that throughout their to and fro journey they will always speak in English. When they started the other people laughed at them since as they used to speak in broken English. But both were strongly determined and continued doing this every day. After six months the same people who laughed at them realized that they were wrong as slowly and steadily their English started showing improvement. So my dear friend the way you work hard for Reasoning or QA same ways work hard for English and don’t give up. And I was one of those two boys who were determined to learn English.

Now let’s get one thing straight, there is no short cut for improving English. You can improve English gradually i.e. step by step. To improve your English, you need to change your attitude and mindset towards the language. The first thing to improve your performance in English section is to attempt easy and selective questions and attempt at least 80% questions to clear the cut off just in case you get a lot of wrong attempts. People who have a good accuracy in English may even attempt just 25/50 questions. As cut offs in English is never above 25 in any exam. Do intelligent guessing- eliminate 2, 3 options first and then u have the probability of getting the answer correct very high. Now the question arises, which question to attempt and what to leave? My personal opinion if you are weak in English, do the comprehension later as they consume a lot of time. Be prepared on other topics such as synonyms and antonym.

This app has helped thousands of our students, by having quizzes on various English topics.

Download Now!

Let’s now note down some important points for exams:

• Reading Comprehension: Here you can get 5-6 correct at least and if your vocabulary is weak then do not attempt questions on similar words till you are not sure of the answer.
• Cloze test is the solid part in English. A test is a passage with missing words given as blanks. Many students find this easy, try getting maximum marks as possible.
• Sentence Improvement and Error Detection: You will find many rules to master them. Learn them, it will help.
• If you are weak in English, try solving it as quick as possible to meet the cut off and concentrate heavily on your strengths.

These are 5 Tips which may be helpful in improving your English:

1. How to prepare: Vocabulary

• English Newspaper: Read news articles, newspaper editorials and every day you will be learning new words. Whenever you read the newspaper or any other English text read carefully looking at the usage of nouns, adjectives, prepositions, verbs and most important subject verb agreement.
• Write a news diary (or personal diary in English): This is one of the most helpful techniques which will not only help you in building vocabulary but also score extra points in the interview. Write out the news and do your own analysis. However, minding you- it is very difficult to do it every day without fail.
• Online chat: The closest thing to speaking for people who don’t have the chance to speak English is online chat, as you have to think and respond quickly, and the language is short and informal just like speech. All messages I write today are in English.

2. Grammar :

I would like to suggest if you are weak in English to start with basics in English Grammar like nouns, verbs, adjectives, tenses, articles, passage, punctuation, subject verb agreement, sentences and phrases. Please do not go into the depth of grammar as it will only confuse you. Once you understand the basics you can move on to harder things. It is important to note that in India, English has never been our first language but most of the people who qualify in English are not really good in grammar but they are used to the language. So u need to change your attitude by using English everywhere in place of your native language at least till the time you get command and fluency over the language.

3. Get in touch with someone who is good in English. Discuss your weaknesses and start practicing spoken English with him/her. Write various types of letters Formal and Informal, Essays on different topics. If you will practice then success is bound to come. But you need to have patience. Speak on a topic for 3 minutes every day and you will get results in a few days’ time.
4. For my preparation I used the objective English book by Thorpe and Thorpe. It’s a very good book for English section in competitive exams.
5. Always solve as many English questions as possible with time check and also your score at home from practice sets. The more you solve them the closer you will get to your success.

Lastly I would like to tell you friends it’s all a mind game when you lose you loose from your mind and when you win you win from the mind only so think positive and work hard. If u can do well in Reasoning, QA and GK then you can certainly do well in English……….

Believe in yourself and work hard, success will be yours.

(Team Crack it met this inspiring man, at a nearby bank. We cannot disclose his identity upon request.)

We recommend this app- Battle of Minds has thousands of questions on English, Verbal & Gk and also tells you your national ranking.