What the English section tests
Prelims has 30 English questions in 20 minutes; Mains has 40 in 35 minutes. Both are only in English. SBI's booklet describes the test as covering "grammar, vocabulary, sentence completion, synonyms, antonyms, comprehension of a passage, etc."
In practice, three skills decide your score: reading speed with understanding, a working grasp of grammar rules, and vocabulary in context. Every question type below draws on these three.
Reading comprehension
RC usually carries the biggest block of questions. Passages are often on economy, banking, technology, environment or social issues.
- Read the questions first (not the options). Know what you are hunting for.
- Read the passage once, at steady speed, noting the main idea of each paragraph in two or three words on your rough sheet.
- Answer fact-based questions first, then inference and tone questions, and vocabulary questions last.
- Stay inside the passage. An option can be true in real life and still wrong if the passage does not say it.
Error detection
You are given a sentence split into parts and must find the part with a grammatical error. Most errors come from a small set of rules:
- Subject-verb agreement: "One of the managers are on leave" should be "is", because the subject is "one".
- Tense consistency: "He said that he will come" should be "would" after a past reporting verb.
- Articles: "She is a honest officer" should be "an", because "honest" begins with a vowel sound.
- Prepositions: "He is senior than me" should be "senior to me".
- Pronouns: "Between you and I" should be "between you and me".
- Comparatives: "more better" is wrong; use "better".
Method: find the subject and verb first, then check tense, then articles and prepositions. Most errors show up in that order.
Single and double fillers
Read the full sentence, decide what kind of word the blank needs (noun, verb, adjective) and what tone (positive or negative), then look at options.
Example: "The bank decided to ______ the loan after the borrower failed to repay for six months." A blank after "to" needs a verb, and the context is negative. Among options like "sanction", "recall", "approve" and "extend", only "recall" fits.
For double fillers, solve the easier blank first and eliminate options that fail it. Often only one or two options survive.
Para jumbles and cloze tests
Para jumbles
- Find the opening sentence: it introduces the topic and does not begin with a pronoun ("He", "This", "Such") or a connector ("However", "Therefore").
- Look for pairs: a sentence ending with a name is often followed by one starting with "he" or "she"; "first ... then" or "problem ... solution" shows order.
- Use options. Once you know the first sentence and one pair, check which option matches.
Cloze test
- Read the whole passage once before filling anything. The theme decides tone.
- Check each word against the words just before and after the blank (collocation): "take a decision" or "make a decision", "heavy rain" not "strong rain".
Newer question types
Recent papers mix in less familiar formats. They follow the same three skills, so do not panic when you see them.
| Type | What to do |
|---|---|
| Word swap | Two highlighted words are in each other's place. Read the sentence with each pair swapped and check meaning and grammar. |
| Phrase replacement | Replace a bold phrase with the correct one or choose "no improvement". Grammar first, then meaning. |
| Column-based / match the column | Join a part from column I with one from column II to make a correct sentence. Check grammatical fit before meaning. |
| Misspelt words | Find the wrongly spelt word. Keep a list of commonly misspelt words (accommodate, occurrence, guarantee, privilege). |
| Connectors (Mains) | Choose the word that joins two sentences: "although" for contrast, "therefore" for result, "moreover" for addition. |
| Odd sentence out (Mains) | Find the sentence that does not belong in a paragraph about one idea. |
Building vocabulary that sticks
- Learn 10 to 15 words a day from what you read, not from random lists. Write each word with the sentence where you found it.
- Learn words in families: "benevolent, benefit, benefactor"; "malign, malicious, malfunction".
- Revise the week's words every Sunday. Words you do not revise are gone in a month.
- Learn common phrasal verbs and idioms for Mains: "call off" (cancel), "put up with" (tolerate), "a blessing in disguise".
A 45-minute daily English routine
| Minutes | Task |
|---|---|
| 15 | Read one editorial; write a two-line summary and note new words |
| 10 | One RC set, timed |
| 10 | One set of error detection or fillers |
| 10 | One para jumble or cloze set, plus a 5-minute review of mistakes |
Aim for at least 85% accuracy before you push for speed. In English, careless reading costs more marks than lack of knowledge.
Grammar rules to revise every week
- "Each", "every", "either", "neither" take a singular verb: "Each of the clerks has a login."
- "The number of" takes a singular verb; "a number of" takes a plural verb.
- "Hardly" and "scarcely" are followed by "when", not "than": "Hardly had he arrived when it rained."
- "Unless" already carries a negative; do not add "not" after it.
- Use "fewer" for countable nouns and "less" for uncountable ones: fewer customers, less cash.
Questions about this
How many questions come from reading comprehension?
In recent papers, usually around 7 to 10 in Prelims and often more in Mains. SBI does not fix the number, so it can vary by shift.
Can I write the English section in Hindi?
No. English Language in Prelims and General English in Mains are offered only in English.
How can I improve English in 3 months?
Read one editorial a day, practise one RC and one grammar set daily, learn 10 to 15 words in context, and analyse every English mistake in your mocks.