English is a rich, as well as complicated language. With tons, and tons of rules, exceptions, and conditional usages, English becomes intimidating soon. But, as it is important and has to be dealt with, it becomes paramount to use the right strategy for the right sections.
And, one of the sections that trouble students the most is error spotting in the verbal section!
What is Error Spotting?
Error spotting is the verbal section that checks students for the knowledge of grammar concepts. It can be from basic to advanced as well as form exceptions, and conditional English concepts. This section can ask students to check errors in sentences, passages, and even small excerpts.
Often, this is the section students struggle with most. The reasons are obvious. Complicated concepts, the presence of multiple concepts in one sentence, or excerpt, don’t know exactly what error can it be, lack of practice, and so forth!
But, it is also said that error spotting in English Grammar can be aced with optimum practice, tips, and the right strategy!
Let’s begin with how you can solve these questions, and then discuss the tips you will be needing to get this difficult, and challenging section in your next exam right!
How Do You Solve Spotting Errors?
Solving error spotting questions is difficult, and can also be the reason for your bad performance in tests sometimes. But, by following the right approach, you can win this challenging section as well, that too on time, with accuracy!
1. Identify the Error
The first step for solving error detection in English questions is identifying errors. And, this step is the most difficult. To ace this, Practice! Start from questions with easy, and obvious errors. This will train you to find errors that are on the surface. And, then slowly dive in and hit difficult, and challenging questions.
2. Think of the Correct Version and Alternatives!
Sometimes, error spotting questions doesn’t end at identifying errors. These require correcting them as well. For this, one has to think of the right alternative and chase the correct answer.
While thinking of alternatives can be difficult in the case of idioms, parallelism, subject-verb agreement, and noun, pronouns issues are quite simple for that! This is therefore always recommended to students to practice in this way as well.
3. Check Once Again
Getting error spotting questions right at the first attempt is way too difficult, and this demands you check your answer once you are done!
While checking, use the same, and different approach as well to hit and try the answer you did. And, don’t check with an impression that you have done it right. Check it with the eye of a critic, or an examiner. This would help you find alternatives, thereby getting more sure of your answer.
4. Attempt!
The last step for error spotting questions is to “Attempt”! While this might sound obvious, students who don’t know the answer feel perplexed here. They don’t even attempt if they feel unsure about the answer. But, that’s where you need to rethink!
Even if you are unsure, attempt the answer, and try your best to identify the error. But, if you are unable to, attempt the question at least. This would help you get some extra marks, and who knows if you identify the right answer even “under pressure”!
We know the process of doing error spotting questions precisely sounds easy. But, still, students struggle. Therefore, we have accumulated a list of tips to give you brownie points to attempt these questions precisely!
Error Spotting Tips in the English Language Section
Spotting errors is indeed a challenging section, and that’s where these tips can save you-
1. Know the Concepts First
Spotting errors needs basic knowledge first. The more clear you will be with your conceptual knowledge, the better you can be at spotting errors in English. So, to begin with, never start with questions straight away. Learn the concepts, right usage conditions, and also exception rules.
Once you know the rules, get familiar with how they can be tested in exams. Then, start practicing with easy error spotting questions. Slowly, increase the level of difficulty of the question. And, Bingo, soon, you’ll be getting better at spotting errors.
2. Practice Right!
If you are preparing for a certain exam, you need to attempt questions with a similar pattern!
It is no surprise how diverse question types there can be in error spotting exercises. And, according to the exam you are preparing for, the pattern can differ. Therefore, always practice from trusted sources where you can find questions similar to patterns you can get in exams.
This would elevate your chances of getting this section right that too keeping in check all error spotting rules.
3. Know What to Look For!
There are more English grammar concepts one can count. And, getting every concept at your fingertips can take years and years of practice.
But, your exam preparation certainly cannot wait for that long! That makes it important to “know what to look for!” And, there is only one way to achieve that viz. Practice!
Once you know what to look for in a sentence, or excerpt you can elevate the chances of getting that right.
4. Start from Basics!
The thing that makes error spotting challenging is the unsurety of the presence of a lot or just one error in a sentence. Then, what can a student do to achieve accuracy in the spotting error section?
It is advised that to get these questions right, start by checking basic errors, and then slowly up your game. The basic errors can be subject-verb agreement, nouns, pronouns, etc. Whereas the advanced, and complicated errors can be of idioms, phrases, parallelism, etc.
Examples of Error Spotting in English
Let’s learn some of the examples to get familiar with how error spotting works!
This is how parallelism works! Now, look at some more examples to understand better!
This is how spotting errors in English works. But, how can students master these?
That’s where a faculty that helps students and leads them to a better understanding of Grammar concepts jumps in. If you also want to get the best support, consider getting an education from GIIS, or Global Indian International school – CBSE school. The school follows international level education standards and ensures top-class faculty support to students of all needs.
Shakti Narang
Shakti Narang a great teacher to whom students know they can go with any problems or concerns or even to share a funny story.She is a pre primary and a founder teacher of GIIS Noida with the experience of more than 13 years. Her vision as a teacher is to instil the belief in her students that they can achieve anything and everything in this world by working hard towards their goal. She wishes to develop a comprehensive learning environment for every child and to give them happiness to keep them motivated. Its my pleasure to share that I have been awarded twice with IIHM Award for best teacher , Innovator award, Long service award , Employee of the month award..
