Sentence Improvement Questions For SSC Exams

The SSC or the Staff Selection Commission exams take place every year for recruiting staff for various ministries, departments, and organizations of India's Government. The exam is conducted online across test centers in various cities. SSC came into existence in the year 1975 with the idea of centralizing the recruitment process for Group B and Group C posts to the various government bodies. 

Many aspirants desire to appear for SSC exams to get a prestigious Government job. For this to happen, the candidates must prepare themselves in several fields like logical reasoning, general awareness, quantitative aptitude, English, economics, statistics, and computer according to the various exams' syllabus.

Preparation For SSC English

English is one of the essential sections of competitive examinations like SSC CGL, SSC MTS, and SSC CHSL. Although this section is tricky, with proper guidance, one can easily score well in this section. Preparing for SSC English, one must go through the following topics:

• Grammar
• Vocabulary
• Passage comprehension
• Detecting and correcting errors
• Rearranging sentences
• Spotting errors
• Conditional sentences

Some preparation tips

The syllabus consists of several topics from which candidates can score easily, provided they understand the rules and practice them. Some important tips to boost the performance in the section are:

• One must get a clear concept of the subject and understand the basics before practicing mock tests.
• One should start with the comparatively more specific topics as it helps in growing confidence. 
• Candidates usually do not get much time during examinations, and hence it becomes vital to develop some tricks and shortcuts to solve quickly.
• After completing the syllabus, one must go through the previous question papers and give a few mock tests to sharpen up.

Study materials

Students can prepare themselves for the exam with the help of the following:

• Perfect Competitive English by V.K. Sinha
• Objective General English by S.P. Bakshi
• Quick Learning Objective General English by R.S. Aggarwal and Vikas Aggarwal
• Study Material by Guide Experts

Sentence Improvement

Sentence improvements are a part of various English comprehension tests of many competitive examinations like SSC. 

In sentence improvement, the question contains a sentence with a phrase underlined or bolded. Under the sentence, four options are provided as possible alternatives. The student has to look for the mistake in the bold or underlined portion of the sentence and choose the correct answer from the provided options to make the sentence grammatically correct. If the candidate feels none of the options are applicable, he should go for "no improvement".

To deal with these questions, the candidates need a stronghold on the rules of grammar, vocabulary, usage of phrases, and an idea of the errors commonly made. The types of improvements one should look for in these kinds of questions are:

• Agreement between the subject and verb
• Use of repetitive words in the sentence
• The need for modifiers
• Words used for comparison
• Use of confusing words or synonymous words with different spellings

How to do well in sentence improvement?

Candidates must be cautious while attempting these questions like these can be quite tricky. One can often score well in this section, which could be instrumental in doing well in the examination.

Here are a few methods through which one can boost their scores in this part:

• Firstly the candidates must read the question very carefully to identify the type of errors in the questions. Then, after identification, one should look to solve it himself without the help of options.
• When the options are very similar, the candidates should be extra careful and must not get confused. Often in such cases, the option which is unlike the others is the correct answer.
• In many cases, the candidate looks at the first option, thinks it as the correct answer, and does not even look at the other options. This is not a wise thing to do. Every candidate must go through all the other options as they may be more appropriate than the candidate selected at first glance.
• Often the candidate may be confused among more than one option. It is important not to get nervous in such situations and try for the hit and trial method. The candidate can place the options in the sentence and check if the sentence makes sense grammatically and logically. The option which sounds best must be chosen in such situations.
• The candidate can also opt for elimination if he can find all but one option irrelevant. But just as a precautionary measure, he should cross-check by putting that option in the sentence and see whether there is a meaningful sentence or not.

Conclusion

During the examination, the candidates do not have a lot of time as they have to answer a lot of questions in a short time. So they mustn't dwell on a question for long and move on to the next one. He can always come back to review this question later if time permits. The candidate needs to calm his nerves and not get too ahead of himself during the examination. He must deal with one question at a time and look to answer as many as possible correctly within the time limit. One must stay careful as wrong answers lead to negative marking. Mock tests are essential in this regard as it helps to gear up for such situations.

Attaining success in SSC exams is not an impossible task. One needs to follow a well-planned study routine and work sincerely by sticking to it. Hard work and the right focus is determined to bring success. Besides the right books and materials, one should also keep time for revision and mock tests to stay in touch with the old topics.

 Also Read: How To Learn English For Government Exams?