Common Mistakes in SBI CBO English and How to Avoid Them?

English is a crucial section in the SBI CBO exam, yet many aspirants lose valuable marks due to avoidable errors. From misreading questions to choosing the wrong grammar rules, these small mistakes can have a big impact on your final score. Understanding where most candidates go wrong and learning how to avoid these pitfalls can boost your accuracy and confidence in the exam. With the right approach and focused practice, you can turn English into a scoring section.

Common Mistakes in SBI CBO English and How to Avoid Them

One of the main reasons candidates struggle with the SBI CBO 2025 English section is the lack of focused preparation on key topics such as reading comprehension, error spotting, and sentence correction. Many aspirants overlook the importance of mastering basic grammar rules and vocabulary, which leads to frequent errors during the exam. Below are some common tips that will help you recognize and avoid the frequent mistakes made in the SBI CBO English section. By following these guidelines, you can enhance your language skills, improve your accuracy, and increase your chances of scoring well in the exam.

Ignoring Basic Grammar Rules
Many aspirants overlook fundamental grammar concepts such as subject-verb agreement, tenses, and prepositions. This leads to frequent errors in sentence correction and error spotting questions.

Misreading the Questions or Passages
Rushing through reading comprehension passages or questions can cause misunderstanding of the main idea or details. This results in incorrect answers that could have been avoided with careful reading.

Confusing Similar Words and Phrases
Using incorrect words or confusing synonyms and antonyms often leads to wrong answers in vocabulary-based questions. Not paying attention to subtle differences in meaning can be costly.

Neglecting Time Management
Spending too much time on difficult questions leaves less time for others, forcing guesses or incomplete attempts. Poor time management is a major cause of low scores in the English section.

Skipping Practice on Error Spotting and Sentence Improvement
Error spotting and sentence improvement require practice to develop a keen eye for mistakes. Many candidates do not practice enough, resulting in missed errors during the exam.

Overlooking the Importance of Vocabulary Building
A weak vocabulary limits the ability to understand reading comprehension passages fully and to answer vocabulary-related questions accurately.

Making Careless Spelling Errors
Especially in online exams, careless spelling mistakes can cost marks. Candidates often lose points because they do not review their answers carefully.

Incorrect Grammar and Tense Usage for the English Section of SBI CBO

Grammar and tenses form the backbone of many English questions, and even strong candidates often slip here due to careless errors or lack of conceptual clarity. Questions on subject-verb agreement, tense consistency, modifiers, and prepositions are common in SBI CBO exams. Without regular practice, it’s easy to miss subtle grammatical cues, especially under pressure. Tips to Improve Grammar and Tense Accuracy:

• Revise basic grammar rules regularly, especially subject-verb agreement and tense consistency.
• Practice sentence correction and error spotting daily from trusted banking preparation sources.
• Watch out for tense shifts in paragraph completion and sentence rearrangement questions.
• Take mock tests to expose yourself to tricky grammar patterns and improve recognition.
• Review explanations after solving grammar questions to understand the logic behind each answer.

Skipping Instructions and Overlooking Keywords in SBI CBO English

Many candidates often rush through questions without carefully reading the instructions or identifying key words in the sentence. This leads to errors even when they know the correct concept. Instructions such as “choose the incorrect sentence” or “mark the not true option” are sometimes ignored due to time pressure. Similarly, in comprehension or cloze tests, ignoring context clues and keywords can change the meaning entirely. Paying close attention to these details can significantly improve accuracy. Tips to Avoid This Mistake:

• Always take 5–10 seconds to read the instruction line completely before attempting the question.
• Underline or mentally highlight keywords like “except”, “not”, “only”, or “most likely”.
• In comprehension questions, read the question first before the passage to know what to look for.
• In sentence-based questions, re-read the sentence once more if the answer seems too obvious.
• Stay calm and don’t let time pressure make you skip critical words.