10 Common Mistakes That Cost You Marks in English Exams

Mistakes You're Probably Making

After years of preparing students for English exams, there are patterns. The same mistakes appear exam after exam. The students who fix these gain 5–10% on their overall score.

Mistake 1: Not Reading Instructions Carefully

The question says "Write an article for a student magazine."

Many students write an essay instead. Articles and essays have different tones, structures, and expectations. An article should:

• Have an engaging title
• Address the reader directly ("Have you ever wondered...")
• Use a semi-formal, conversational tone
• Include rhetorical questions

An essay should:

• Be formal
• Present arguments objectively
• Avoid addressing the reader

Getting the text type wrong costs you marks on Task Achievement — even if your English is perfect.

Mistake 2: Poor Time Management

This is the most fixable mistake:

| Section | Common problem | Fix | |---------|---------------|-----| | Writing | Spending 50 min on Part 1, 30 min on Part 2 | Split evenly: 40/40 | | Reading | Getting stuck on one question | Skip and return. 1.5 min per question max | | Listening | Panicking after missing an answer | Move on immediately. Never look back during the audio | | Speaking | Giving one-word answers | Aim for 30-second minimum responses in Part 3 |

Mistake 3: Not Using Paragraphs

A wall of text automatically scores lower on Organisation. Even if your ideas are excellent, examiners struggle to follow them without clear paragraph breaks.

Rule of thumb: one main idea = one paragraph. Most exam texts need 4–5 paragraphs.

Mistake 4: Memorised Phrases That Don't Fit

"In this day and age" and "At the end of the day" appear in thousands of essays. Examiners know they're memorised.

Worse, students force these phrases into contexts where they don't fit:

✗ "In this day and age, pizza is my favourite food."

Use memorised phrases only when they naturally fit the context. Better yet, build your own vocabulary through reading.

Mistake 5: Ignoring Register

Register means the level of formality. Each text type requires a different register:

• Essay: Formal (no contractions, no slang)
• Article: Semi-formal (contractions OK, engaging style)
• Email to a friend: Informal (casual, personal)
• Report: Formal (impersonal, passive voice)

Mixing registers — like using "gonna" in a formal essay — immediately flags your writing as below B2 level.

Mistake 6: Leaving Blanks

In multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions, never leave a blank. Even a guess has a 25% chance of being correct on multiple-choice. A blank is always 0%.

Mistake 7: Writing Too Much

More words ≠ better score. If the task says 140–190 words, writing 250 words means:

• You wasted time that could be spent on the next task
• You probably included irrelevant information (which loses marks)
• You had more opportunities to make mistakes

Stay within ±10% of the target word count.

Mistake 8: Not Proofreading

Leave 3–5 minutes at the end of each writing task to check:

• Subject-verb agreement ("The students are" not "The students is")
• Article usage ("the environment" not "environment")
• Spelling of common words
• Tense consistency within paragraphs

Mistake 9: Underdeveloped Ideas

"I think social media is bad because it wastes time."

This is one idea in one sentence. For B2+, you need to develop it:

"Social media can have a detrimental effect on productivity. Many students report spending 2–3 hours daily scrolling through feeds when they could be studying. Furthermore, the constant notifications create a fragmented attention span, making it difficult to concentrate on complex tasks like exam preparation."

One developed idea is worth more than three undeveloped ones.

Mistake 10: Not Reviewing Previous Mistakes

The highest-value study activity is reviewing what you got wrong on practice tests. Keep an error log:

| Date | Mistake | Type | What I should have written | |------|---------|------|---------------------------| | Mon | "informations" | vocabulary | "information" (uncountable) | | Tue | missed "however" signal | listening | Listen for contrast markers | | Wed | no conclusion | writing | Always plan 4 paragraphs |

Review this log before every practice session. Within weeks, your recurring mistakes will disappear.

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