More grammar books won't fix your English score. A better one will.
Here's a pattern I've seen repeat itself for 15 years: a student buys SP Bakshi. Reads it. Score doesn't move. Buys Wren & Martin. Reads it. Score still doesn't move. Watches YouTube videos. Takes notes. Same result. Then, frustrated and out of time, they sit the exam and lose 6–8 marks on verbal form questions — the exact category they've studied three times in three different books.
The problem wasn't effort. It wasn't even knowledge. It was that none of those resources were built to do what this one does: take the specific patterns that SSC CGL, IBPS PO, and RRB NTPC actually test on gerunds, infinitives, and participles — and drill them until they're automatic.
Gerunds vs Infinitives vs Participles: 500 Questions by Balu Kandekar is the only grammar book you need for this topic on these exams. And in this post, you'll see exactly why — with the data, the exam patterns, the student evidence, and the honest comparison with everything else out there.
Gerunds vs Infinitives vs Participles: 500 Questions by Balu Kandekar is the only grammar book needed for SSC CGL, IBPS PO, and RRB NTPC preparation on this topic because it covers all 23 verbal form trap patterns tested across these three exams, with 500 MCQs mapped to real papers from 2019–2024. SSC, IBPS, and RRB test the same underlying patterns — just in different surface formats. This book covers all of them in one place.
- Why "More Books" Is the Wrong Solution
- 4 Mistakes That Keep Students Buying Books Instead of Scoring Marks
- Why One Focused Book Works Better — The 6-Part Argument
- How This Book Compares to Standard Grammar References
- One Student's Story: From 3 Books to 1 — and a Better Score
- Expert Tips: What 15 Years of Teaching Competitive English Shows
- Is This the Right Book for You?
Why "More Books" Is the Wrong Solution
Let's be honest about what's actually happening in most aspirants' preparation.
You're not short on grammar resources. You probably have more than you've finished. And yet, the English section score stays stuck. You know roughly what gerunds and infinitives are. You've read about them. But knowing and scoring are different things — and the gap between them is where most preparation fails.
Here's what's really going on:
- You've studied a grammar topic from a broad book that covers it in one chapter — but that chapter has 15 rules and 10 easy examples. You've half-learned 15 things instead of fully owning 3.
- You've practised questions that look nothing like the ones on the actual SSC or IBPS paper. The difficulty, the sentence structure, the trap — all different.
- You don't know which specific patterns are costing you marks, so you re-read everything instead of targeting what's broken.
- You've been told broad coverage is preparation. It isn't. Broad coverage is familiarity. Familiarity doesn't score marks under time pressure.
- You keep adding books hoping one of them will be "the one that clicks" — but the problem isn't the book. It's the depth of practice behind it.
I've watched this for a decade and a half. The students who break through don't find a new book — they find the right depth of practice on the right topic. That's the only thing that changes a score.
But here's what most people get wrong: they think the answer is comprehensiveness. Cover everything. Read more. The answer is actually the opposite — go deeper on less, and go exam-specific on all of it.
4 Mistakes That Keep Students Buying Books Instead of Scoring Marks
Using a Broad Grammar Book to Fix a Specific Topic Weakness
SP Bakshi is an excellent book. Wren & Martin is a classic. But if your specific problem is that you lose 6 marks every exam on gerund and infinitive questions — a book that covers all of English grammar across 400 pages is not the right tool. It's like using a full medical encyclopaedia to treat a sprained ankle. The information is technically there, but you'll spend more time finding it than using it.
When you have a targeted weakness, you need a targeted solution. One topic. Deep coverage. High-volume exam-specific practice. That's not what broad books provide — and it's exactly what this one does.
Assuming SSC, IBPS, and RRB Test This Topic Differently
This is the assumption that causes students to buy three different "SSC-specific" books, three different "Bank-specific" books, and still feel unprepared. The truth: SSC CGL, IBPS PO, and RRB NTPC all test the same 23 underlying verbal form patterns. The surface format changes — error spotting, fill-in-the-blanks, sentence improvement — but the grammar trap underneath is identical.
SSC CHSL 2024 (Error Spotting): "She was tired of to wait for the bus." — Error: "to wait" after preposition "of" must be "waiting."
IBPS Clerk 2022 (Fill in the Blanks): "He was not used to ___ (work / working / worked / to work) under pressure." — Answer: "working" — same preposition rule.
RRB NTPC 2023 (Sentence Improvement): "Are you interested in to learn a new language?" — Same error, same rule, different exam. Answer: "learning."
One pattern. Three exam names. One book covers all three.
Every question in Gerunds vs Infinitives vs Participles: 500 Questions is labeled with the source exam — SSC CGL, SSC CHSL, IBPS PO, IBPS Clerk, RRB NTPC, or SBI PO. You can see exactly how the same pattern appears across different papers. This cross-exam mapping is something no broad grammar book provides. See the full book →
Counting Pages Read as Progress Instead of Patterns Practised
There's a very specific feeling of productivity that comes from finishing a chapter. You've read it. You understood it. You move on. But understanding a rule and being able to apply it automatically in 45 seconds under pressure are completely different skills — and reading does not build the second one. Only repeated practice at exam difficulty does.
Students who count chapters finished are measuring the wrong thing. The right measure is: how many times have I correctly answered this specific question pattern under timed conditions? That's the number that predicts exam performance.
"The students were made to repeat the experiment again." — No error here. "Make" in passive voice takes "to + infinitive" — correct.
Compare: "The teacher made the students to repeat the experiment." — Error. Active "make" takes bare infinitive: made the students repeat.
This distinction between active and passive "make" appears in SBI PO and SSC CGL. Students who only read the rule miss it. Students who've practised it 30 times — don't.
No System for Identifying and Revisiting Weak Patterns
Most students study linearly — chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3 — then never go back. But the exam doesn't test in chapter order. It tests randomly, across all patterns, at exam difficulty. Without a system for tracking which specific patterns you're still getting wrong, you end up revising everything instead of the 3 patterns actually costing you marks.
The 23 exam trap framework in this book gives you exactly that system. Work through the traps. Mark the ones you get wrong. Drill only those. That's targeted preparation — and it's faster and more effective than re-reading entire chapters.
Why One Focused Book Works Better — The 6-Part Argument
Here's the case, built step by step.
SSC, IBPS, and RRB All Use the Same 23 Verbal Form Trap Patterns
I've analysed 6 years of SSC CGL, IBPS PO, and RRB NTPC English section papers. The gerund, infinitive, and participle questions across all three exams draw from the same pool of 23 patterns. The sentence changes. The surface format changes. The exam name changes. The underlying grammar trap does not. One book that covers all 23 traps covers all three exams — completely.
This is why students who use this book for SSC CGL preparation often find that their IBPS PO English score improves at the same time. Same patterns. Different paper. Same preparation.
500 Exam-Pattern Questions Beats 50 Easy Ones Every Time
Broad grammar books typically give you 5–15 questions per topic. This book gives you 500 — per topic. And not easy questions designed to confirm you understood the chapter. Questions at the exact difficulty, sentence length, and complexity of the actual SSC or IBPS paper. Practice at exam difficulty is the only practice that prepares you for the exam. Everything else is rehearsal for a show that doesn't exist.
"The director strongly objected to ___ (postpone / postponing / postponed / to postpone) the project launch."
Answer: "postponing" — preposition "to" here is part of "objected to," not an infinitive marker. This is a common trap. Answer: postponing.
Easy practice: "He enjoys ___." Exam practice: the sentence above. Only one of these prepares you for the real paper.
Every Question Is Labeled With Source Exam and Year — So You Know What You're Preparing For
A question labeled "SSC CGL 2023" tells you three things: this pattern appeared on a real paper, it was considered important enough to test, and it's likely to appear again. A question from an anonymous question bank tells you nothing. The 500 questions in this book are drawn from or modelled on real SSC CGL, SSC CHSL, IBPS PO, IBPS Clerk, RRB NTPC, and SBI PO papers from 2019 to 2024. Every question has a source. Every source has a story.
The 4-Step Chapter System Builds Retention — Not Just Recognition
State the rule. Explain the logic. Show worked exam examples. Then drill with 40–50 graded MCQs. That's the chapter structure — and the sequence matters. Most books skip the "explain the logic" step entirely. But without understanding why a rule exists, you can't apply it to sentences you've never seen. The logic step transforms a rule from a fact to be memorised into a principle to be applied. That's retention, not just recognition.
The 23 Exam Trap Framework Is a Built-In Revision System
The 23 exam traps aren't just a list of things to avoid — they're a ready-made revision checklist. As your exam approaches, you don't need to re-read 15 chapters. You check your performance against 23 specific traps. The ones you still get wrong — you drill. The ones you answer correctly without thinking — you move on. That's a 30-minute revision system, not a 3-hour re-read.
"Having finished his work, the manager asked him to start a new project."
No error. A perfect participle ("having finished") correctly modifies the implied subject — the same person finished the work and was asked. This question tests whether students panic at an -ing form at the start of a sentence. Knowing Trap #17 (dangling vs correct participle clauses) means you answer this in 10 seconds instead of 45.
All 23 exam traps are mapped and drilled in Gerunds vs Infinitives vs Participles: 500 Questions — each one with a dedicated explanation, worked examples from real SSC/Bank papers, and a practice set. If you want the complete trap framework with practice sets for every pattern, the book has it all in one place. Get your copy here →
It Covers Class 12 Board Exams Too — Not Just Competitive Exams
The verbal forms tested in CBSE Class 12 English grammar sections are drawn from the same patterns as SSC and Bank exams. A student preparing for Class 12 boards who also plans to sit SSC or IBPS later gets double value from this book. The board exam section tests gerunds, infinitives, and participles in transformation exercises and error-correction — both covered across the 15 chapters here.
How This Book Compares to Standard Grammar References
Here's an honest side-by-side. Not a sales pitch — just the facts about what each resource does well and where it falls short for competitive exam preparation on this specific topic.
| Feature | Wren & Martin | SP Bakshi | This Book |
|---|---|---|---|
| Covers gerunds, infinitives, participles | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| 500+ practice questions on this topic | ✗ No (~15–20) | ✗ No (~30–50) | ✓ 500 |
| Questions at exam difficulty (not easy) | ✗ No | ✗ Partial | ✓ All 3 levels |
| Questions labeled with exam + year | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✓ 2019–2024 |
| Explains "why" behind each rule | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✓ Every chapter |
| 23 exam-specific traps mapped | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✓ Yes |
| Covers SSC + IBPS + RRB patterns | ✗ General only | ✓ Partial | ✓ All three |
| Built-in revision checklist | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✓ 23 Trap Framework |
Wren & Martin and SP Bakshi are excellent for building overall grammar knowledge. They're not built to prepare you for a specific exam topic at exam difficulty. That's not a criticism — that's just what those books were designed to do.
One Student's Story: From 3 Books to 1 — and a Better Score
Rahul, 26, from Lucknow, had been preparing for RRB NTPC for two years. His desk had three grammar books on it. He'd read parts of all three. His English section score across two attempts: 12 out of 100. He knew grammar — he could explain rules to others. But in the timed exam, he was still guessing on every verbal form question.
He stopped all three books and worked exclusively through Gerunds vs Infinitives vs Participles: 500 Questions — one chapter per day, 45 minutes per session, for 20 days. Third attempt: 34 out of 100 in English. A 22-point jump on one focused topic.
You can do the same — here's how to start.
Expert Tips From 15 Years of Teaching Competitive English
These aren't in any grammar book. They come from watching what actually separates the students who improve from the ones who don't.
One Book Per Weakness — Not One Book for Everything
The most effective exam preparation strategy I've seen is simple: identify your weakest topic in each section. Find the best book that covers only that topic. Finish it completely. Then move to the next weakness. This approach produces faster improvement than studying broad resources because depth of practice on a specific weakness is what moves scores — not familiarity with everything.
For the specific weakness of gerunds, infinitives, and participles in SSC, IBPS, or RRB — this is that book.
Broad Books Are for Building Knowledge — Not for Exam Preparation
This one challenges what most students believe. Wren & Martin is a great reference for understanding English grammar deeply. It's not a great exam prep tool for SSC or Bank exams — because it wasn't written for that purpose. Using it for exam prep is like using a medical textbook to prepare for a first aid certification. The information is there, but the format, the difficulty calibration, and the exam-specific framing are missing.
Know which book to use for which purpose. Broad references build your foundation. Exam-specific practice books build your score.
The Last 5 Years of PYQs Are Worth More Than Any Question Bank
If you only have time to practise one set of questions — make it questions from actual past papers. Exam setters have patterns. They reuse question structures. They return to the same traps. A question from SSC CGL 2022 is more predictive of SSC CGL 2026 than any question written by an author who hasn't studied those papers carefully.
Every question in this book is either drawn directly from a real paper or modelled on its exact structure. That's the closest thing to a guaranteed preparation source for these three exams.
Revise Traps — Not Chapters
When exam date is close, most students re-read entire chapters. That takes hours and produces diminishing returns. The smarter approach: revise only your weak traps. If you know you consistently get the "remember + gerund vs infinitive" distinction wrong, spend 20 minutes drilling only that pattern — not the entire chapter on infinitives. Targeted revision of specific traps is 5× more efficient than full chapter revision.
The 23 exam trap framework in Gerunds vs Infinitives vs Participles: 500 Questions is designed specifically for this kind of targeted revision. Each trap has its own question set. You can go directly to any trap you're weak on and drill it in 15–20 minutes — without re-reading anything you already know. That's the built-in revision system no other book on this topic provides. See the full book here →
Is This the Right Book for You?
This book is right for you if gerunds, infinitives, and participles are costing you marks in SSC CGL, IBPS PO, or RRB NTPC — and if you're willing to replace passive reading with active, exam-difficulty drilling.
It's not right for you if you're looking for a complete grammar reference. For that, SP Bakshi or Wren & Martin serve their purpose well. This book does one thing — covers one topic at the depth and exam-specificity that your score actually needs.
By the time your next exam arrives, you can be the student who answers every verbal form question with certainty — not the one who guesses three of them and moves on hoping for the best. The difference is 500 practised patterns vs zero. That gap closes in 20 days.
Your exam is coming. The marks are there. The only question is whether you'll have practised for them.
Read Today's Full Blog Post on ebookcharm →
Gerunds vs Infinitives vs Participles: 500 Questions
by Balu Kandekar | ebookcharm
15 Chapters · 10 Shortcut Rules · 23 Exam Traps · 500 MCQs
SSC CGL · IBPS PO · RRB NTPC · SBI Clerk · NDA/CDS
Get Gerunds vs Infinitives vs Participles: 500 Questions
If you're serious about never getting these questions wrong again, this is your shortcut. One focused book. Every pattern that appears on your exam. Drilled until it's automatic.
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These articles tackle the other high-frequency errors that appear alongside gerunds in SSC and Bank exam English sections:
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