PSLE English Paper 2 is the language use paper. It tests grammar, vocabulary, and comprehension through five components: Grammar Cloze (10 blanks, choose the correct word form from a word bank), Editing (12 sentences each containing one grammatical error to identify and correct), Comprehension Open-Ended, Comprehension MCQ, and Vocabulary Cloze. The iLoveTest PSLE English practice test focuses specifically on the grammar and editing skills that students find most challenging.
Grammar and editing together carry around 20–22 marks in Paper 2. These marks are highly retrievable with the right preparation — unlike comprehension, where marks depend partly on the difficulty of the passage, grammar errors follow predictable patterns that can be systematically learnt and drilled.
Which component loses the most marks? In our experience, subject-verb agreement and pronoun case errors account for the highest proportion of avoidable mistakes in the Editing component. Focus on these two areas first.
The verb must agree with its subject in number. A singular subject takes a singular verb; a plural subject takes a plural verb. This sounds straightforward, but PSLE questions are designed to make the wrong answer feel natural.
Collective nouns like team, class, committee, crew, and crowd are treated as singular in standard Singapore English. Write “The team is ready” — not “are ready”. Write “The committee has made its decision” — not “have made their decision”.
When a prepositional phrase sits between the subject and the verb, the verb must still agree with the original subject — not the noun inside the phrase. In “The teachers, as well as Mr Tan, are leaving”, the subject is “teachers” (plural), so the verb is plural — even though “Mr Tan” is singular. A useful technique: cross out the phrase between commas to reveal the subject and verb clearly.
Indefinite pronouns including everyone, nobody, someone, each, and either take singular verbs. “Everyone is invited” (not “are invited”). “Neither of the answers is correct” (not “are correct”).
Subject pronouns (I, he, she, we, they) are used as the subject of a verb. Object pronouns (me, him, her, us, them) are used as objects of a verb or preposition. The most common PSLE error involves compound objects, where students mistakenly use a subject pronoun because it “sounds more polite”.
A reliable test: remove the other person from the phrase and read the sentence alone. “Please let Mary and I know” — remove “Mary and” — “Please let I know” sounds immediately wrong. The correct form is “Please let Mary and me know”, because “me” is the object of the verb “let”. The same logic applies to “between you and me” (not “between you and I”), and “He gave the gift to Sarah and him”.
English prepositions follow collocations — fixed pairings with specific verbs, adjectives, or nouns — that cannot be deduced from logic alone. They must be memorised. The PSLE tests a predictable set of these collocations every year.
| Correct collocation | Common error |
|---|---|
| agree with someone | agree to someone |
| confronted with a problem | confronted by a problem |
| confident in or about something | confident of something |
| committed to doing (gerund follows) | committed to do |
| interested in something | interested about something |
Build a collocation list in your vocabulary notebook. Each time you encounter a new preposition pairing in reading, add it to the list.
A question tag reverses the polarity of the main statement. A positive statement takes a negative tag; a negative statement takes a positive tag. The tag’s auxiliary must match the tense and verb of the main clause.
The verb in the tag must use the same auxiliary as the main clause. If the main clause uses “has”, the tag uses “has/hasn’t”. If the main clause uses “will”, the tag uses “will/won’t”.
Use few with countable nouns: “few people”, “few opportunities”, “few mistakes”. Use little with uncountable nouns: “little water”, “little time”, “little evidence”. The same logic applies to fewer (countable) vs less (uncountable): “fewer students attended” but “less time remained”. Mixing these is one of the most common errors in both Grammar Cloze and Editing.
Some verbs take a gerund (verb + -ing) as their object; others take an infinitive (to + base verb); some can take either but with a change in meaning. The PSLE tests the gerund-after-preposition rule most frequently: whenever a verb follows a preposition, it must be in gerund form.
The Vocabulary Cloze component tests precise word choice in context. Four or five options may all seem plausible — the correct answer is the one that fits the exact meaning, register, and collocation required by that sentence.
Read the full sentence (and the surrounding sentences) before looking at the options. Decide what kind of word you need — is it a positive or negative word? Formal or informal? Does it describe an action, a quality, or a state? Then eliminate options that are close but slightly wrong. Common test pairs: discretion vs discrimination (discretion = careful judgement; discrimination = unfair treatment or the ability to distinguish); withstand vs endure (withstand = resist successfully; endure = suffer through over time); confront vs encounter (confront implies facing something directly and actively; encounter implies meeting unexpectedly).
Keep a vocabulary notebook and record new words in full sentences, not just definitions. Seeing a word in context helps you understand its register and collocation. Review the notebook once a week — spaced repetition is more effective than re-reading the same word repeatedly in one session.
Grammar Cloze · Editing · Instant feedback · No account needed
Take the Free PSLE English Practice TestSubject-verb agreement, pronoun case, preposition collocations, tense consistency, and quantifiers appear most frequently across both the Grammar Cloze and Editing components. These five areas account for the majority of marks lost in Paper 2.
Grammar Cloze is 10 marks in Paper 2. Editing is also typically 10–12 marks. Together these two components represent around 20 retrievable marks that respond well to targeted practice.
Wide reading is the most effective method. Keep a vocabulary notebook, review it weekly, and look up every unfamiliar word you encounter in reading. Write new words in context sentences, not just standalone definitions — context is what makes new vocabulary stick.
COPS stands for Capitalisation, Order (word order), Punctuation, and Spelling — a systematic checklist that gives students a structured method for checking each sentence in the Editing component, rather than re-reading looking for something that “feels wrong”.