HOW TO SURVIVE AN "IDENTIFYING ERRORS" EXAM

What is "Identifying Errors?"

Identifying errors is a type of an exam where you will simply look for the errors in the sentences and correct them. You do not have to put out all the grammatical terms involved in those sentences nor explain why they became errors. You just have to find and correct them. Simple!

What's my problem with "Identifying Errors?"

This. Is. Not. SIMPLE. At least for me ... and for my classmates (???).

Identifying errors in exam has always been a problem to me. There are times when I have found out the WRONG words in a given sentence --- thanks goodness I was able to figure out that some words are wrongly placed in a sentence after how many "identifying grammatical error" quizzes I took online. Take note: "SOME" words. Meaning, I'm still wrong with the other ones. *sigh* And to think that I still have to CORRECT those wrong words to be able to produce an error-free sentence ... *double sigh*

The "identifying errors" exams that we had in our Grammar class was different from what I encountered in high school and in my earlier years in college. Usually, we just have to           (1) look for the wrong words in the sentence; (2) cross them out; (3) proceed on the next problem; then (4) wait for the checking of the papers in which the teachers will sometimes give the correct answer, in case you are the kind of student who really likes to learn.

In English tests such as SAT, the "identifying sentence errors" will just provide a sentence with five underlined parts. One of which is the "no error" that you can choose if you think the sentence is completely correct. Then, that's it. Proceed to the next question.

But in the exams that were given to us we had to first identify the errors and correct them which makes it more difficult.

So...


How to survive an "identifying errors" exam?


First. Read the sentence again and again. Of course you have to read it with comprehension. Reading English stuff especially when I do it loudly makes me think that I am a really good English reader, without even thinking that hey, this sentence might be containing grammatical errors. But yeah, just because the sentence sounds good to hear doesn't mean it is grammatically correct.

Second. Check the VPIMPS. The “VPIMPS” is an acronym for some of the most-commonly tested English grammatical errors. If you are really struggling with a difficult sentence and have more than one underlined portion that “sounds funny” to you, see if you can tie that funny feeling to a specific grammatical error. 

“VPIMPS” stands for:

• Verbs: Check the verb tense for logic and to make sure it agrees with the rest of the sentence.
• Parallelism: Is there a list or a series of clauses in the sentence?
• Idioms: Two-part idioms and prepositional idioms are very commonly tested.
• Modification: Is an adjective being used when an adverb is needed?
• Pronouns: They must have clear antecedents and agree with their nouns.
• Sentence structure: Is the sentence a run-on or fragment? Is there too much information in the sentence—or not enough?

Third. If you really can't figure out the error, skip it and proceed to the next number. Most of the exams, be it a short quiz, seatwork, midterms, or finals, have time limits. Of course you are not supposed to answer it the whole day and you still have many numbers to answer. Might as well go to the next sentence, skip if you can't really figure out the error until you finish all the given problems, then --- go back to your unanswered numbers until you finally answer all of them. 

Fourth. Inhale. Exhale. Breath. I know right! This kind of exam is. really. difficult.

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Additional Reference:

http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-09-25/sat-tip-identifying-sentence-errors-that-arent-obvious