Bihar STET English: Which Grammar Topics Matter Most? A Topic-wise Breakdown of 2,583 Questions

BSEB does not publish a topic-wise blueprint for the English paper, so candidates guess. We tried to replace the guess with data. We took a compiled set of 2,583 previous-year English MCQs from teacher-eligibility and recruitment exams (KVS, EMRS, NVS, state TGT and PGT papers and similar) and sorted every question by topic.

An honest caveat before the numbers. These are not Bihar STET questions. They come from exams that test the same grammar and usage skills for the same kind of teaching post, and the Bihar STET Paper 1 syllabus lists those same skills. The topic labels were assigned by page position and keywords, so treat the shares below as a reliable guide to emphasis, not an exact blueprint.

The result

Within those families, the single biggest topics were fill in the blanks (545), tenses and verb forms (259), voice change (246), synonyms (200), idioms and phrases (197), prepositions (158), sentence improvement (149) and reported speech (135).

What this tells you

1. Vocabulary is the largest block, and it is the most under-prepared. Almost three in ten questions test word knowledge. Unlike grammar rules, vocabulary cannot be crammed in the last week. It needs daily exposure, so start in week one, not week six.

2. Fill in the blanks is a grammar test in disguise. One in five questions is a blank, and each blank depends on a rule: a tense, a preposition, a modal, a conjunction, subject-verb agreement. Strong rules make these items quick. This is why we recommend learning rules before doing volume practice.

3. Voice and reported speech are the best marks per hour of study. Together they are 15 percent of the questions, and both follow rules that fit on a single page. A student who masters the tense-shift table in reported speech and the active-passive pattern for each tense can answer almost every item reliably. Our rules and worked examples post covers both.

4. Prepositions and error spotting reward pattern memory. Collocations such as angry with a person and angry at a thing, or prefer X to Y, repeat across papers. Keep a one-page list and read it every day.

5. Punctuation and parts of speech are small but quick. About 4 percent combined. Learn the semicolon, colon and dash rules once and you will rarely lose a mark.

How to split 100 marks of English prep time

Use these as rough proportions of your English study hours, not as rigid rules:

• Vocabulary: 30 percent, in short daily sessions
• Sentence correction and error spotting: 25 percent
• Voice, reported speech and tenses: 25 percent
• Mixed fill-in-the-blanks and timed sets: 20 percent

Adjust after your first mock test. Weak topics need more time regardless of their share.

Watch the syllabus wording

The official list names sequence of tenses in connected speech, reported speech in extended texts, non-finites, passive voice, punctuation, prepositions, cohesive devices, phrasal verbs, conditional clauses and subject-verb agreement. Extended-text reported speech and connected-speech tenses mean you may see a short passage or dialogue instead of a single sentence. Practise with two- and three-sentence passages, not only single lines.

Practice every topic in this analysis on Pareeksha

The Bihar STET English series has 25-question timed sets for this: one set family per topic, from Fill in the Blanks (22 sets) down to Phrasal Verbs (1 set), plus 102 mixed sessionals that follow the same topic proportions. Each set is a fixed paper, so you can compare your attempts over time. The exam page has the pattern and syllabus in one place.

These questions come from previous-year questions of comparable teacher exams (KVS, EMRS, NVS and state TGT/PGT papers) on the same topics, not from Bihar STET papers themselves.

Next steps

Start with the syllabus and exam pattern, then pick one family at a time: reported speech and passive voice, error spotting and sentence correction, vocabulary and idioms. The 60-day plan puts it all on a calendar.