Is your English exam right around the corner too? If yes, then this article is good for you (read it). This article gives tips on how to study for the English exam with one week to go. Thanks to technological advancement, the English language is easy and has a lot of TV shows, movies, books, podcasts, and resources to master grammar from. Studying for an English exam in a week isn’t too difficult. In fact, one can easily score great marks by following these methods.
- English is more about practice than about studying lessons. Practicing essay styles, understanding the poems, plays, and stories along with fixing grammar is something that needs to be done regularly. If you are good at it, studying for the exam right a week before won’t pose a threat. Learn to manage time carefully and plan out how much time you would spend on getting better at it instead of pushing yourself to a conclusion that you aren’t good at it.
- Create a timetable and stick to it for the following week, but don’t forget to add breaks in between to keep your mind fresh and composed. For learning more about the English textbook, check out NCERT Books Class 11 English Snapshot PDF.
The English paper consists of 3 sections. Reading, Writing & Grammar, and Literature sections which have their own weightage.
Section A- Reading
Having a weightage of 25% of marks (20 marks), it aims at conceptual understanding, decoding, analyzing, interpreting, inferring, literary, conventions and vocabulary, summarizing, and using the right formats. The reading section consists of unseen passages/poems which are followed by a set of questions to be answered based on the inference drawn from the passage. If you have a hard time answering questions with stronger vocabulary, practice a few of the unseen passages beforehand. Read the unseen passage twice or thrice until you understand what’s it about. Then while answering the questions, ensure that the answer is written based on the passage. For improving vocabulary, read a lot of novels. It’s one of the great ways to understand the context easily and improving your word usage. Practice reading passages beforehand to improve your reading speed. Attempting this question can be time-taking if you don’t read often but don’t give more than half an hour (or 40 minutes) on Section A.
Section B- Writing and Grammar
Having a weightage of 37.5% of marks (30 marks), it aims at reasoning, creativity, appropriacy of style, using the right tone to deliver ideas, using the right format and fluency, inference, analysis, and evaluation. This section is divided into two halves- writing and grammar. The writing section expects creativity in writing letters, emails, stories, resumes, articles, etc. Because the writing section isn’t something that can be improved overnight, trying to prepare for it a week before the exam is useless. Instead, focus on the format of the above-mentioned question types and memorize them well. Getting the format right is crucial. Writing also requires a lot of practice to get better tones and improving the speed of writing.
The grammar section on the other hand is something that can be studied in one week. For many people who are fluent in English, grammar comes naturally to them because they can sense it when the sentences are off. Remembering all the modals, tenses, forms, etc can be time-consuming. Instead, watch a lot of English movies to gain more confidence in English. Examples of these questions can convert the following into reported speech, fill in the blanks with can, could, may, might, and must, read the headlines given below, and then complete the sentences that follow. Instead of memorizing all the rules at once (which are in abundance and would take forever to remember), use a grammar manual as a reference during practice as a tool to drill some of the rules (if not all asked in the paper) into your brain and helps remember to apply rules properly faster. There are several high-quality grammar books out there that could be suitable for you. If it feels like the grammar is a bit complex, review the basics again by practicing a lot of English grammar problems. They’ll not only improve your speed but also your accuracy and boost your confidence. Once you are done writing the answers, proofread them. If you think that the answer looks wrong, try to find an alternate answer or change up the answer a bit/ add more justification.
Section C- The Literature Textbook and Supplementary Reading Text Section
Like the writing and grammar section, this section holds a weightage of 37.5% (30 marks) as well. This section focuses on recalling, appreciating literary convention, inference, creativity, reasoning, and analysis. Devote some time every day to reading the textbooks because that’s going to help out a lot in answering the brief and lot questions, understanding the tone, feelings, styles used, and more. There are seen passages/proses which are followed by a series of questions that uses deduction/ recalling skills and one of the questions expects long answers which is impossible to write on without understanding what that poem meant. Read the lessons twice or thrice for the following week to get a good grip on them. Mark all the difficult words and learn their meanings. Spend a bit of extra time on poems/plays because they are often difficult to understand/have a deeper meaning hidden in between the lines. Practice how to draft answers in the week by taking mock exams two days before the exam and then focus on your stronger points, but also try to strengthen your weaker points if you have enough time. Else, just focus on the strengths and better luck next time.
