Guidelines Archives - Answering Exams

Rules of Precis Writing

Following are the rules of precis writing.

1) Read the given passage carefully at least three times in order to be able to grasp what the writer has said.

2) Underline the important points to be included in your precis. A point is important if it is intimately connected with the main subject and if it is essential for a clear exposition of the theme.

3) Use your own language in the precis. While words and phrases from the original may be used in the precis. Whole sentences should never be lifted out of the original to be included in it.

4) The precis should be roughly one-third of the original passage. Always prepare a rough draft first and count the words. If you find that it is too long, shorten it by removing what seems essential and by condensing phraseology. If it turns out to be too short, read the original to see what more can be added to the precis.

5) Examples, illustrations, and comparisons should be left out of the precis. Figures of speech should be removed and the ideas expressed in clear, direct language.

6) Your own comments on the ideas of the precis are absolutely forbidden. Do not express any opinion, favorable or unfavorable, about the ideas in the original passage.

7) Be very careful about the language you write. Mistakes of Grammar and spelling are penalized as much in the precis as in other forms of composition.

8) See that your precis is a readable piece of English and that its ideas can be understood even by a person who has not gone through the original. This is very important.

9) Your precis should be connected whole. As such it should not be divided into paragraphs. ( THIS RULE DOES NOT APPLY TO VERY LONG ORIGINAL PIECES OF WRITING SUCH AS THOSE SET IN COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS).

10) Don’t use the direct form of speech in precis. If the author has written in the first person pronoun using “I” and “my”, you should write in thethird person pronoun: “he” and “his”.

How To Write Essay In Exam

Mostly CSS aspirants question about how to write an essay in the exam, first of all, aspirant have to know about the topic of the essay and what reveals the topic it is? but unfortunately, aspirants don’t have the analytical ability if he or she has great knowledge, experience and vast feedback about that then must write with care and expand with unique quotations.
Basically, one should have to make strategies for best essay and to adopt points that create positivity for the examiner. One would have to adopt this for the best,
1-Prolonge,

2-Feedback,

3-Characteristics,

4-Critical Analysis,

5-Critics Views,

6-Conclusion. In these basic headings you can use maximum subheadings with details but with your analytical approaches have been used for an authentic essay.

How to Solve Analogies/Related Pair of Words Mcqs:

How to Solve Analogies/Related Pair of Words Mcqs: HOW TO SOLVE ANALOGIES: To answer Analogy question, start making up a “test sentence” that expresses how the two words in the question are related. Then try to insert the words from each choice in your test sentence to see which pair makes the most sense. To understand the concept better, consider the following example:

CRUMB : BREAD ::
A. Candle : Light
B. Fire : Spark
C. Hillock : Mountain
D. splinter : Wood
E. Milk : Butter
First find the relationship between the given pair of words, and then look for the pair of words among the answers that has the same relationship.
A CRUMB is a very small piece that falls from or breaks off from a piece of BREAD. In choice (D), splinter is a very small piece that breaks off or splits away from a piece of wood. None of the relationships between the two words in the other choices is similar to the relationship between CRUMB and BREAD, for example,

Candle emits light; it is not a small piece of a candle.
Spark can cause fire. Fire is not a piece of spark.
Hillock and mountain has a relationship of small and large.
Milk is what butter is made from, but butter is not a small piece of Milk.

STRATEGIES TO SOLVE ANALOGIES MCCQS:
Explanation of the preceding example gives 3 clues:

You must know the meaning of the words.
You should be able to express the relationship between the two words in the question in a test sentence.
You should be able to express the relationship, in correct answer, by using the test sentence for substituting the words.
Eliminate the wrong choices so that you will have less choices to decide the correct answer.

ELIMINATE WRONG CHOICES AND GUESS:
In case, you don’t know the correct answer, eliminate any choices that you know are wrong and guess from those remaining.

How to Improve English Language for CSS / PMS Exams?

Improving English language is imperative for success in CSS. Not only that the very initial couple of papers – English Essay and Précis & Composition – filter out most of the candidates not well versed with English writing skills, the candidates are also required to attempt all papers in English language. Having a good English grammatical foundation is indispensable in this regard.

The best way to improve understanding of English grammar is to study and acquaint oneself with rules of English grammar. A very useful book to learn basic rules of English grammar is ‘English Grammar in Use’ by Raymond Murphy. It contains grammar rules with exercises to help you find out and correct your mistakes.

Read any popular book on CSS English. It helps candidates prepare for examination by focusing specifically on English Précis & Composition paper. Following guidelines would help you improve your writing skills:

Reading:

Read, read, and read is the rule for improving your writing skills. Give at least a couple of hours daily to reading books.

Quality Books:

Try to read books written by foreign authors who are native English speakers.

Articles:

Regularly read articles on topics of your interest.

Newspaper:

Reading newspapers regularly is a must.

News:

Try to follow English news bulletins. It would enrich your current affairs vocabulary.

English-only:

Make a habit and read English, write English, converse in English. It would automatically enable you to start thinking in English.

Notes-making:

Take notes while reading articles or listening to current affairs programmes.

Dictionary:

Maintain a personalized dictionary. Note down words that you find interesting and write their synonyms as well. This habit would give you a useful collection of words and phrases to be used in your scripts.

Chat Rooms & Blogs:

Try to engage in chat forums. In such forums, you have to respond quickly which sharpens your thought process. Moreover, you learn from others’ argumentation.

Public Speaking:

Always look for chances to speak in a group or in front of class. It helps you as you prepare yourself for such occasions and rectify your mistakes through internal feedback.

Revising your write-ups:

Make a habit of editing your scripts. Take help of dictionary and thesaurus and do not hesitate to substitute your phrases and words with more suitable ones. Even if you have to re-write the whole script, do it.

Guidance:

It is important to get your work checked by someone well versed with basic rules of English grammar.

Constructive Criticism:

Always be open to positive criticism for there is always a room for improvement.