The sentence improvement section is one of the trickiest yet mark-fetching segments. Aspirants who have a thorough knowledge of grammar rules can ace this section with ease. Therefore, a proper preparation strategy can help aspirants to score well in this section of the CDS exam.

CDS Exam Pattern 

The CDS exam pattern comprises 3 major sections:

1. English
2. General Knowledge
3. Elementary Mathematics

English is a crucial subject and majorly covers the following:

1. Antonyms
2. Sentence improvement
3. Comprehension
4. Synonyms
5. Word substitution
6. Ordering of sentences
7. Spotting Errors
8. Selecting Words
9. Ordering of words in a sentence

Sentence improvement and error spotting sections are scoring units but would need practice and a polished understanding of grammar rules.

Tips for scoring well in the Sentence improvement section:

• One must be well-versed in grammar rules to tackle these questions with maximum accuracy easily.
• Examine the tone of the following phrase or sentence. It might be optimistic, pessimistic, sardonic, critical, or analytical. After a thorough examination of the situation, one may readily identify the wrong element of the phrase.
• You cannot always get sentences with errors. Often, the statement has no errors, but the sentence is grammatically accurate. Try to limit your proclivity for constantly identifying and correcting flaws. You can also choose “no correction necessary” at times.
• Before you do anything, use elimination. This is the simplest strategy that can be simply applied to any scenario. If you can’t find the specific mistake, remove it.

Check other relevant English language topics given below-

Grammar rules to learn for Sentence improvement sections:

• Subject-verb agreement

If two subjects are connected by neither-nor, either-or, not only-but-also, nor, or, none but, and so on, the verb will agree with the subject closest to it.

Before considering your alternatives, attempt to fix the problem on your own, make use of your grammatical knowledge and try to find it on your own. This will strengthen your understanding of the commonly misused subject-verb combination.

• Eliminate confusing sentences

Try to reduce alternatives by identifying silly mistakes used to mislead the examinee. Sometimes answering a question is tough, but removing mistakes saves a lot of time.

Examine the statement for redundancy. Look for words that may be deleted without affecting the sense of the phrase.

• Do away with Modifier confusion

Single-word adjectives should come before the word they modify, while adjective phrases or clauses should come after the word they modify. This will solve the modifier confusion in a sentence.

• Concentrate on vocabulary, spelling, and perplexing terms such as stationary vs stationery,’ ‘assent/ascent/accent,’ ‘advice/advise,’ ‘adapt/adept/adopt,’ and so on. 

These terms sound similar but have diverse meanings and applications. Check to see what it has been used for and in what parts of speech it has been used, for example, ‘advice’ is a noun while ‘advise’ is a verb.

• Check for Parallelism in the sentence

Faulty parallelism can often confuse aspirants with varied meanings.

Parallelism mistakes are widespread in statements that involve a series, a list, or a comparison. Through logical linkage between phrases, parallel structures assist in ensuring clarity/readability in the sentence.

How to attempt sentence correction questions in CDS Exam?

1. Understand the theme of the sentence and its structure. Ask questions about the actual meaning of the sentence and perceived meaning. Based on what the question demands, correct the sentence with the necessary changes.
2. Read the sentence and try to analyse the correct answers before looking into the given choices. You can better identify the error sentence without the options too. Sometimes options can confuse you. With regular practice, you can identify the sentence structure better.
3. If you can’t discover the proper solution for the statement, try eliminating the incorrect choices. If an option appears to be accurate based on the supplied question, examine for grammatical/structural errors by examining the phrase as a whole, that is, without comparing it to the question.
4. Reading your choice back into the sentence will help you decide which response best expresses the meaning of the phrase and will keep you from making thoughtless mistakes.

Questions on Sentence correction/improvement for the CDS exam

Q1. Can you tell me why did you not tell the truth?

(A) Why did not you tell

(B) Why you did not tell

(C) That why did you not tell

(D) No changes

Ans. B is the correct answer.

Q.2. If the cab would have started on time, she would have reached office on time.

1. If the cab would have started on time, she had reached office on time.
2. If the cab would have started on time, she would have reached the office on time.
3. If the cab would have been started on time, she had reached office on time.
4. If the cab had started on time, she would have reached office on time.

Ans- (D) is the correct answer.

Q.3. The renowned Birla’s family is divided on the property.

1. The renowned Birla family is divided on the property.
2. The renowned Birla family is divided for the property.
3. The renowned Birla’s family is divided into properties.
4. The renowned Birla family divided on the property.

Ans- (A) is the correct answer.

For more variation in sentence correction questions in English grammar asked in various competitive exams, check out the Previous Year Question Papers PDF with Solutions. 

It is critical to go through the sentence correction questions and guidelines provided above. This will benefit candidates not only in their objective verbal ability section but also in descriptive areas such as reading comprehension, essays, letter writing, and so on.

One of the most common mistakes students make is beginning their preparation for the Combined Defense Services test without fully knowing the CDS syllabus and exam pattern.

Knowing the CDS Syllabus in depth is vital since it limits preparation and helps to strategize the study strategy, which is the key to success in any test.

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