NABARD Gr A: Descriptive English Time Management

NABARD Grade A 2021 Exam: The descriptive English section in phase-2 is highly challenging because of time limit and the number of marks allotted. The three types of questions will make up for a total of 100 marks. You just can’t afford to take this section lightly or it will surely reflect on your score sheet in the mains.  

Read this article for Do’s and Don’ts of Descriptive English writing section 

You can read the above article to understand the critical pointers to save 5-10 marks in this section.  

The today’s article will focus on how you should attempt the writing questions along with the discussion of crucial pointers for time management.  

Syllabus for English:

1. Essay – 40 marks

2. Precis Writing – 30 marks

3. Reading Comprehension – 30 marks

Total: 100 marks Time allotted: 90 minutes 

Time Management Tips for Essay Writing

Expected word limit – 350-400-450 words 

Weightage – 40 marks 

Time Allotment advised – 25-30 minutes 

The essay is the largest chunk of the section and you shouldn’t take beyond 30 minutes to finish writing your essay. And the mentioned time includes everything from writing, drafting, proof reading, etc.  

You can further divide your 30 minutes this way: 

• 2 minutes to make a rough draft
• 25 minutes for drafting the essay
• 2 minutes for proof reading – please do this because anybody can make typing mistakes despite being a grammar genius. Each mistake can make you lose 0.5 marks.

Time Management Tips for Precis Writing

Expected word limit – 150-170 words 

Weightage – 30 marks 

Time allotment advised – 25-30 minutes 

The marks this year has been increased for precis writing by 10 marks. Such a change makes precis writing an essential component of the descriptive English section. You should not be taking more than 17-20 minutes for writing a precis.  

You can further divide your 17-20 minutes this way: 

• Take about 7-10 minutes for reading the editorial thoroughly
• 7-10 minutes for writing answers
• 1 minute for proof reading

Time Management Tips for Reading Comprehension

Expected number of questions this year – 5 

Expected word limit – (60-90 words for each answer)  

Note: For every 1 mark you should write 10 words. So, if there is any change in the expected number of questions, then you should write accordingly.  

Weightage – 30 marks 

Time allotment advised – 25-30 minutes  

You can further divide your 30 minutes this way: 

• Take about 7-10 minutes for reading the passage thoroughly
• 15-20 minutes for drafting all the answers
• Take about 2 minutes for proof reading all the answers

Average writing speed per minute

For all the three questions you can depend upon the writing speed of 15-20 words per minute and that is not a tough task to accomplish if you practice consistently.  

Additional tips

The above approach should take 80-85 minutes to complete the entire section. However, you can take a break of 1-2 minutes just to relax, gather yourself, and for critical thinking.   

Don’t use laptop keyboards, use desktop keyboards for typing practice.  

Avoid these five mistakes while writing your answers:

• Grammatical, Typos, Spelling, Punctuation Errors
• Titles, Bullets, & Numbering
• Adherence to the Word Limit
• Monotonous and Repetitive Ideas, Points
• Insertion of quotations

Read more about these mistakes here

Conclusion

The overall time management for descriptive english section is very critical as it is a matter of 100 marks. And it is a high scoring section if you commit to the practice hours it needs. Keep taking mock tests and sign-up for free mocks if you haven’t already.

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