IGCSE English 0510 · Common mistakes
Common mistakes in 0510 reading (Exercises 1–4)
Updated · by the Fahmazing team
Reading marks are lost less by not understanding the text and more by small slips in how the answer is given. Here are the most common ones and how to fix them.
Answering a different question
If the question asks why, your answer must be a reason. If it asks when, it must be a time. Check the question word before you write.
Why did the museum close early?
✗ Wrong: at 3 p.m.
✓ Right: because of a power cut
Free lessons: Question words: what is being asked · Exercise 1: short answers
Writing too much in short answers
Adding extra details can make an answer wrong if one of those details is incorrect. Give just the words the question needs.
Free lesson: Exercise 1: short answers
Note-making slips
- Writing a full sentence where a short note will do.
- Putting a point under the wrong heading.
- Repeating the same idea in two notes: it only scores once.
- Copying the heading words back as the note.
Free lesson: Exercise 3: note-making
Matching by words, not meaning
In Exercise 2 the statement and the text say the same thing in different words. A section that repeats a word from the statement is often a trap. Look for the same meaning.
Statement: which person was nervous at first?
Text A: "I was never nervous about the stage." (same word, wrong meaning)
Text C: "My hands were shaking before I began, but that soon passed." (same meaning: correct)
Free lessons: Exercise 2: multiple matching · Paraphrase: same meaning, different words
Picking the option that is only partly true
In Exercise 4 a wrong option can be true for someone else, true at a different time, or say more than the text does. The correct option matches the text completely.
Free lessons: Exercise 4: three-option multiple choice · Fact and opinion · Inference: reading between the lines