What to Study for GATE English (Verbal Ability)

“Many students ask, ‘What’s there to study in English for GATE? Isn’t it easy?’

But the truth hits later — English looks simple, yet it silently decides ranks. Most mistakes happen not because the questions are tough, but because we ignore the basics. Understanding passages, spotting errors, choosing the right sentence… these small things turn into big marks. English isn’t hard — it’s just underestimated.”

 What to Study for GATE English (Verbal Ability)

Topics Must Covered

GATE English mainly checks understanding, logic, and clarity, not deep grammar.

1. Reading Comprehension (RC) – Highest Weightage

This is the MOST important section.
What to prepare:

• Understanding the main idea of a passage.
• Finding tone of the author (critical, informative, sarcastic, etc.).
• Identifying inference.
• Understanding contextual meaning of words.
• Paragraph structure (what each line contributes)

How to practice:

Read 1–2 RC passages daily
Solve GATE PYQs from 2010–Present

2. Grammar & Sentence Correction (Basic)

GATE tests functional grammar, not deep theory.

Topics to cover:

• Subject–Verb Agreement.
• Articles (a, an, the)
• Prepositions
• Modifiers
• Parallelism
• Tenses (only basic usage)

What they ask:

• Sentence improvement
• Error spotting
• Choose the grammatically correct sentence

3. Vocabulary – But NOT by memorising

GATE does NOT ask word meanings directly.

What to learn:

• Contextual meanings
• Synonyms & Antonyms

Words commonly used in academic passages:

• mitigate
• amplify
• depict
• infer
• obscure
• reinforce
• contradict
• imply

How to prepare:

Learn words through reading, not long lists

4. Critical Reasoning Skills

GATE tests logical English.

Topics include:

• Identifying assumptions.
• Strengthening/weakening arguments.
• Finding course of action.
• Logical structure of a paragraph.
• Which sentence completes the paragraph?

These appear in:

• Paragraph completion
• Sentence arrangement (Para jumbles)
• Argument-based questions

5. Para Jumbles & Para Completion

Very frequent in recent years!

Focus on:

• Logical flow
• Chronology
• Pronoun references
• Contrast words (however, although)
• Cause and effect

⭐ Your Daily Plan (Very Simple)

• 30 minutes per day is enough
• 10 mins – RC passages
• 10 mins – Vocabulary via reading
• 10 mins – Para jumbles / grammar correction

🔥 Resources (FREE & Best)

• GATE PYQs (must complete twice)

Some of the Notes I am providing here. 
I may include some of them later.  Visit the website later too. 

Hand Written Notes  👉👉👉 CLICK HERE 

501 Sentence Completion PDF 👉👉👊 CLICK HERE

( I thank you to the one who helped me in providing their notes.
I’m really grateful for your help.”)

Visit Later again in a few days for some more things... Just need some modifications.