Assessing Your Skills 😎 

The effective use of a variety of basic and complex structures will raise your speaking and writing skills. In addition, the more solid your understanding of grammatical structures, the more successful you will be in comprehending the reading and listening passages and responding to the tasks. Thus, a good grasp of grammatical structures will improve your overall communication skills.

Look at the Grammar Structures Checklist below. It lists the key topics in English grammar that students need to have a good understanding of in order to be successful in English and perform well on the English Proficiency Test. You will use this checklist in some of the exercises in this section. You can also use it to keep track of your progress.

Grammar Structures Checklist

⬜ 1. Word forms: Confusion between forms of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs (See Grammar Review: Word Forms)

⬜ 2. Incomplete sentences: Missing essential subject, verb, phrases, or clauses that complete the idea  (See Grammar Review: Clauses and Sentence Structure)

⬜ 3. Basic sentences: Missing parts of the sentence or incorrect word order  (See Grammar Review: Word Order)

⬜ 4. Joining parts of speech: Incorrect joining of nouns,  verbs, phrases, clauses, or sentences  (See Grammar Review: Parallel Structures)

⬜ 5. Subject/verb agreement: Confusion of singular and plural use between subjects and verbs  (See Subject-Verb Agreement)

⬜ 6. Verb-tense agreement: Confusion of the verb tense and the context of time  (See Verb Tenses)

⬜ 7. Noun-clause formation: Incorrect choice of clause marker, position of clause in the sentence, noun clause as subject/verb agreement, faulty relationship to independent clause  (See Noun Clauses)

⬜ 8. Adjective-clause formation: Incorrect choice of clause marker, position of clause marker, clause marker function within clause, or faulty relationship to independent clause  (See Adjective Clauses)

⬜ 9. Reduced adjective clause: Faulty reduction of adjective clause or incorrect verb form  (See Reduced Adjective Clauses)

⬜ 10. Adverb-clause formation: Incorrect choice of clause marker, faulty relationship to independent clause  (See Adverb Clauses)

⬜ 11. Reduced adverb clause: Faulty reduction of adverb clause or incorrect verb form (See Reduced Adverb Clauses)

⬜ 12. Nouns: Incorrect plural or singular form, or confusion of count/noncount forms (See Grammar Review: Nouns)

⬜ 13. Pronouns: Incorrect form or ambiguous referent  (See Grammar Review: Referents)

⬜ 14. Gerunds and infinitives: Incorrect choice of gerund or infinitive  (See Infinitives, Gerunds, and Infinitives and Gerunds)

⬜ 15. Active/passive sentences: Incorrect use or incorrect formation  (See Active and Passive Forms)

⬜ 16. Articles: Missing articles, incorrect choice of article, or unnecessary article  (See Grammar Review: Articles)

⬜ 17. Auxiliary words and modals: Missing auxiliary verb or modal, incorrect choice or incorrect word order  (See Auxiliary Verbs, Modals, and Grammar Review: Word Order)

⬜ 18. Adjective and adverb modifiers: Incorrect form, order, or position in the sentence  (See Grammar Review: Word Forms, and Grammar Review: Word Order)

⬜ 19. Comparatives and superlatives: Incorrect formation or incorrect choice  (See Grammar Review: Comparisons)

⬜ 20. Subject there and it: Missing when needed, used when unnecessary, incorrect verb agreement  (See Subject-Verb Agreement)

⬜ 21. Transition or connecting words: Not used when needed, used inappropriately, or incorrect choice  (See Grammar Review: Connecting Ideas)

⬜ 22. Prepositions: Missing when needed, used when not needed, incorrect choice  (See Grammar Review: Prepositional Phrases)

⬜ 23. Other problem areas:  ______________________________________