How to pass the paper of English Language of BA Exam of Punjab UniversityThe paper of English Language (Compulsory) is one of the hurdles for majority students in qualifying the exam of BA/BSc in Punjab University. In 2012 BA/BSc exam about 40% of the student qualified the exam. Majority of the remaining 60 % who failed the exam were those students who couldnt pass the paper of English Language (Compulsory). Students may pass the other papers of exam but unfortunately they fail the paper of English Language.

Remember there is no shortcut to success, hard work is the only key to success. I will here try to explain basic things considering syllabus (course) of English Language Paper of BA, which needs to be focused on by every student to qualify the paper of English Language.Syllabus of English LanguageThere are two papers of English LanguagePaper- A PROSE AND POETRYA selection of Modern Essays : By prof. Sajjad SheikA New Anthology of English Poetry : By Prof. Shoaib Bin HassanA selection of Short Stories and One-Act Plays: By Dr. Nasim RiazThe Old Man and the Sea: Ernest Hermingway

Paper Format of PaperA Ques No 1. Explanation with reference to context from poetry and One act Plays (3 out of 5)Ques No 2. Questions on Essays from A selection of Modern English Essays (3 out of 5)Quest No 3. Questions on Poems from A New Anthology of English poetry (3 out of 5)Ques No. 4 Questions on Short Stories from A selection of short Stories and One Act plays (3 out of 5)Ques No 5. Questions on Novel The Old Man and the Sea (3 out of 5)Paper B GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITIONPaper B Format. There are 6 QuestionsQues No 1. Essay with outlines of 300-350 wordsQues No 2. Comprehension and prcisQues No 3. Letter or ApplicationQues No 4. Idioms and phrase VerbsQues No 5. Correction of sentenceQues No 6. Translation from Urdu to English/Dialogue Learn the very minimum basics of English Language Foremost requirementYou should atleast know the very basics of English Language or the commonly used Grammar of English Language. These are English paper and to be attempted in English so your sentences should be free from grammatical mistakes. Its better you should have good command on elements of grammar, Tenses, Active and passive Voice, Direct and Indirect Narration, but if you have not learn all of them, then you should atleast learn tenses, so that you can know the correct structure of common sentences and proper usage of forms of verbs in sentences. Without tense you cannot even think of passing English Language Paper. Tenses help you in both papers in writing answers in correct English but it may also directly help you in the question i.e. translation from Urdu to English in Paper-B and correction of sentences in paper-B. Preparation for Paper A For paper-A specific books of prose and poetry are included in syllabus. All these books should be read many times as much as possible considering the available time for preparation. Questions are asked on the essays (lessons) and short stories in these books so you need to know the basic ideas in these short stories and essays so that you can answer correctly whatever is asked in them. There is novel on the name of The old man and the Sea, few questions are also asked in this novel, you should know this whole story properly. Besides them there is one book of poetry comprising of some poems. Explanation on the verses with reference to context is asked in paper, so along with translation you should know the explanation as well. It is also better that you know the name of the poet of the verses (poetry) asked in paper so that you can mention it in reference to context. For Paper A you should proper knowledge of the short stories, essays, novel and poetry. Paper A checks both your written English as well as how much knowledge have you retained from the reading of these books.Preparation for Paper B Paper B tests your general ability of written English. Your sentence should be grammatically correct. You have to write an essay of about 300-350 words on one topic which test both your written English as well as your creativity. For this you should be a creative person who can originate ideas about a topic but if you are not good in essay writing, then its better you select a topic which is most easy for you in given topics and just written few ideas (sub-headings) about the topic on a rough sheet and try to elaborate it as much as you can.A paragraph is also given for comprehension and prcis where you have to re-write the paragraph in short form including all the ideas. You can improve writing prcis with a little practice. Questions are also being asked on paragraph which can be answered by the same paragraph carefully.For Letter and application question you should learn the correct format of letter and application. Each part of the format of letter and application has its specific marks. So writing letter or application do write it according to the format.Idioms and verb phrases should be learnt. The last two questions correction of sentences and translation of urdu into English as earlier mentioned needs good command on atleast tenses. Sentences may have errors of usage of proper verb, singular and plural nouns, use of adjectives or any other parts of speech which student needs to correct.