Tips to do well in English – Improving Your Grammar

To many students, the two main ‘culprits’ that are stopping them from doing well in English are vocabulary and grammar. This is especially true for grammar, as it is the one that consistently causes loss of marks in both situational/continuous writing and comprehension. As with vocabulary, improving grammar needs time and effort, but the rewards go beyond school, as a good command of grammar will serve you well in your working life too! Here are a few suggestions to improve your grammar:

#1 – Consult a tutor

It can be difficult to understand some parts of grammar on your own, so it is better to seek help from tutors so that any wrong concepts can be corrected early and thus ensuring that you can lay a strong foundation for grammar. Hence, having a good tutor can be very helpful. Start Tuition has a pool of dedicated tutors to help strengthen your grammar. Check out our tutors here!

#2 – Do more practices

“Practise makes perfect”. This may seem cliché but it is true. Without practising, there can be no improvement, as these practices can help to integrate the correct grammatical uses into you and allow you to improve your grammar skills. Such practices can be obtained online or in print.

#3 – Read more and write more

Reading not only builds your vocabulary, but also improves your grammar! Most, if not all, books have to be proofread before publishing, so there should be very little grammatical mistakes. As you read, you are actually reinforcing the correct grammar in your mind, thus improving your grammar. Writing more will further strengthen this, as you are actually practising the correct use of grammar. This will allow you to use proper grammar in writing in a more fluid and natural way.

#4 – Read out what you have written during exercises

By reading out verbally (not in your mind) the sentences, you are actually proofreading. Sometimes, we are unable to realise our grammatical mistakes when we just read through our writing in our minds. Reading them out will help us to have a clearer picture, and to see if there are grammatical mistakes.

To improve your grammar takes time, but it is definitely time well invested. Having a good grammar not only means fewer mistakes (and hence fewer marks), but also makes your writing more pleasing to the examiners and hence improves your performance in exams!

Related to: English  For Parents  For Students  Study Tips