How Amit Went from 6/25 to 21/25 in SSC CGL English by Mastering Just Three Grammar Forms in 45 Days

Balu Kandekar
May 28, 2026
0

 

Amit almost quit.

Six marks out of twenty-five. That was his English score in the SSC CGL 2023 Tier-1 mock — his eleventh mock in a row where English dragged his overall score below the cutoff. Maths? Solid. Reasoning? Strong. GK? Decent enough. But every single time, the English section ate him alive.

He'd stare at sentences like "The manager insisted on him _____ the report by Friday" and genuinely not know whether to pick completing, to complete, or completed. Three options. All looked right. All felt like traps.

Then Amit did something most aspirants never do. Instead of studying more grammar, he studied less — but with terrifying focus. He zeroed in on just three grammar forms: gerunds, infinitives, and participles. Forty-five days later, how Amit went from 6/25 to 21/25 in SSC CGL English by mastering just three grammar forms in 45 days became the story his entire study group wanted to hear.

This post breaks down his exact method — step by step. And if you're scoring between 5 and 12 in English right now, pay close attention. Your score isn't a talent problem. It's a strategy problem.

📌 Quick Answer

Amit improved his SSC CGL English score from 6/25 to 21/25 in 45 days by mastering three grammar forms — gerunds, infinitives, and participles. These three "verbals" appear in 8–12 questions per SSC CGL English section. By learning pattern-based rules, practicing with 500+ targeted questions, and using the elimination method on real exam sentences, he turned his weakest section into his strongest — without memorizing a single grammar textbook.

😩 Why English Keeps Destroying Your SSC Score

Let me guess your situation. Tell me if this sounds familiar.

You open a practice set. You breeze through Quantitative Aptitude. You handle Reasoning like a pro. Then the English section loads, and suddenly you're staring at sentences that might as well be written in code.

Here's what I hear from aspirants like you — almost word for word:

  • 😤 "I know basic grammar, but exam questions twist everything." You learned tenses and articles in school. But SSC CGL doesn't test textbook grammar — it tests your ability to spot errors hidden inside complex sentences.
  • 😤 "I can't tell the difference between a gerund and a present participle." Both end in -ing. Both look identical. But using one where the other belongs? That's a guaranteed wrong answer. And examiners know this confuses you.
  • 😤 "I study for hours but my English score doesn't move." You've watched 50 YouTube videos on "English for SSC." Each one covers everything. None of them go deep on anything.
  • 😤 "I keep second-guessing myself." You pick an answer. Then you change it. Then you change it back. Then time runs out. Sound familiar?
  • 😤 "English is the reason I miss the cutoff — every single time." Your overall score is 5–8 marks below the cutoff, and all those marks are bleeding from English.

I know exactly how that feels. I've taught thousands of aspirants who walked into my sessions convinced they were "just bad at English." They weren't bad. They were studying the wrong things in the wrong order.

But here's what most people get wrong...

They treat English preparation like a buffet — a little bit of everything. Tenses on Monday. Voice on Tuesday. Narration on Wednesday. Idioms on Thursday. By Friday, they remember nothing. The problem isn't effort. The problem is the complete absence of strategic focus.

🚫 4 Mistakes That Keep You Stuck Below 10/25

Before I show you Amit's method, you need to see why your current approach isn't working. These aren't obvious mistakes. They're invisible — which makes them dangerous.

Mistake #1: Treating Gerunds and Present Participles as the Same Thing

Both end in -ing. So aspirants assume they're interchangeable. They're not — not even close. A gerund functions as a noun ("Swimming is fun"). A present participle functions as an adjective or part of a continuous tense ("The swimming boy won"). SSC examiners specifically design error-spotting questions to exploit this confusion. If you can't tell them apart in under 5 seconds, you'll keep losing easy marks.

Mistake #2: Not Knowing Which Verbs Take Gerunds and Which Take Infinitives

This is the single biggest mark-killer. Some verbs demand a gerund after them (enjoy, avoid, mind, suggest). Others demand an infinitive (want, decide, hope, refuse). And some take both — but with completely different meanings (remember to lock vs. remember locking). There's no "logic" here. These are pattern-based rules, and you either know them or you don't. Guessing gives you a 33% chance at best.

💡 This exact pattern — which verbs take gerunds, which take infinitives, and which take both with a meaning change — is laid out in a single reference table in Chapter 3 of Gerunds vs Infinitives vs Participles: 500 Questions by Balu Kandekar. Once you see the table, you stop guessing forever.

Mistake #3: Ignoring Participle-Based Error Spotting Questions

Here's a dirty secret about SSC CGL English: dangling and misplaced participles appear in almost every exam session. Questions like "Walking down the road, the trees looked beautiful" — that sentence has an error (the trees weren't walking), but most aspirants mark it "No Error" because it sounds fine. These questions are free marks if you know the rule. Lost marks if you don't.

Mistake #4: Practicing Random Questions Instead of Categorized Ones

Most aspirants solve "previous year papers" without categorizing questions by grammar topic. So they see a gerund question, get it wrong, move on, and hit another gerund question 40 questions later — without ever connecting the dots. Pattern recognition requires clustered practice. You need to solve 50 gerund questions in a row, then 50 infinitive questions, then 50 participle questions. That's how your brain starts recognizing the underlying structure in under 10 seconds.

✅ Amit's 45-Day Method: 7 Steps to Master Gerunds, Infinitives & Participles

Now let's get into the exact system Amit used. Nothing theoretical. Nothing vague. Just the steps — in order.

Step 1: Learn the Three Definitions Cold (Days 1–3)

Before anything else, Amit memorized three one-line definitions until he could recite them in his sleep:

  • Gerund = Verb + -ing, used as a noun (subject, object, complement)
  • Infinitive = to + base verb, used as a noun, adjective, or adverb
  • Participle = Verb form used as an adjective (present: -ing, past: -ed/-en)

Simple? Yes. But 7 out of 10 aspirants can't clearly distinguish these three when pressed. Amit could — and that foundation changed everything.

Step 2: Master the "Verb + Gerund" vs "Verb + Infinitive" Lists (Days 4–10)

This is where the real marks are hiding. Amit created two flashcard sets:

Verbs followed by gerund ONLY: enjoy, avoid, mind, suggest, deny, practice, consider, risk, finish, keep

Verbs followed by infinitive ONLY: want, decide, hope, refuse, promise, agree, plan, expect, afford, learn

Then he tackled the tricky ones — verbs that take both but change meaning:

👉 SSC CGL 2023 Question: "I remember _____ (lock) the door before leaving."
Answer: locking (because the action of locking happened before the remembering — gerund for past actions).
If the sentence were "Remember _____ the door when you leave" → to lock (infinitive for future actions).

See the difference? This single rule appears in SSC exams almost every year. And most aspirants get it wrong because no one taught them the past vs. future distinction.

Step 3: Crack the Dangling Participle Pattern (Days 11–17)

Amit spent one full week on participle errors — specifically, dangling and misplaced participles. The pattern is simple once you see it:

👉 SSC CHSL 2022 Question: "Walking through the park, the flowers were beautiful."

Error: The flowers weren't walking. The participle phrase "Walking through the park" must modify a person — the subject immediately after the comma.

Correct: "Walking through the park, she found the flowers beautiful."

Amit's trick: "Read the participle phrase. Then ask: WHO is doing this action? That person MUST be the subject right after the comma." He used this one-question test on every error-spotting question involving -ing or -ed phrases at the start of a sentence. His accuracy on these went from 20% to 95%.

Step 4: Learn the "Preposition + Gerund" Rule (Days 18–22)

Here's a rule that's tested in SSC, Banks, and Railways — and almost no one teaches it clearly:

After any preposition, you MUST use a gerund — never an infinitive.

👉 IBPS PO 2022 Question: "She is interested in _____ (learn) French."

Answer: learning (not to learn) — because in is a preposition, and prepositions are always followed by gerunds.

More examples from exams:

  • "He is fond of reading" ✅ (not of to read)
  • "She insisted on going" ✅ (not on to go)
  • "They are good at solving problems" ✅

Amit created a simple test: "Is there a preposition before the blank? → Use gerund. Always." This single rule gave him 2–3 extra marks per mock test.

Step 5: Practice in Clusters of 50 — Not Random Sets (Days 23–32)

This is where Amit's approach diverged from 99% of aspirants. Instead of solving mixed question sets, he practiced in focused clusters:

  • Day 23–25: 50 questions on gerund identification and usage
  • Day 26–28: 50 questions on infinitive identification and usage
  • Day 29–31: 50 questions on participle errors (dangling, misplaced, incorrect form)
  • Day 32: 50 mixed questions combining all three

Why does this work? Because your brain needs repetition within a category to build automatic pattern recognition. Mixing topics too early is like trying to learn three languages simultaneously — your brain never gets deep enough in any one.

Step 6: Use the "Function Test" for Every Tricky Question (Days 33–38)

Amit developed a 3-second mental test for any confusing -ing word in an exam sentence:

  1. Can I replace it with a noun? → It's a gerund. ("Swimming is fun" → "Football is fun" ✅)
  2. Is it describing a noun? → It's a participle. ("The running boy" → running describes boy)
  3. Is it part of a continuous tense? → It's a verb form, not a gerund or participle. ("He is running")

👉 SSC CGL 2024 Question: "_____ (Hunt) deer is prohibited in this sanctuary."

Answer: Hunting — because it's the subject of the sentence (functions as a noun = gerund). Most aspirants who don't know the Function Test would stare at this for 30 seconds. Amit solved it in 5.

📗 If you want all these techniques — the verb lists, the Function Test, the preposition rule, plus 500 categorized practice questions with detailed explanations — laid out in one place, Gerunds vs Infinitives vs Participles: 500 Questions by Balu Kandekar walks you through each one step-by-step. It's the exact resource Amit used during Days 23–38 of his preparation.

Step 7: Simulate Exam Conditions with a Timer (Days 39–45)

The final week was all about speed. Amit solved 25 English questions in 15 minutes — strict timer, no pausing, no second-guessing. He tracked three metrics:

  • Accuracy — aim for 80%+ on gerund/infinitive/participle questions
  • Speed — under 35 seconds per question
  • Confidence — how many answers he was sure about (not guessing)

By Day 45, his numbers: 21/25 accuracy, 28 seconds average per question, and confident on 19 out of 25 answers. That's not just an improved score. That's a transformed test-taker.

📊 Mini Case Study: From Panic to Pattern Recognition

Name: Amit S. (name changed) | Exam: SSC CGL 2023 Tier-1

Before: Consistently scored 5–8/25 in English across 11 mock tests. His biggest weakness: error-spotting questions involving verbals (-ing and to + verb forms). He'd spend 45–60 seconds per question and still get them wrong. His overall mock score averaged 118/200 — the cutoff was 140+.

The Shift: Amit stopped studying "English grammar" and started studying only gerunds, infinitives, and participles for 45 days. He used categorized question sets, memorized verb lists, learned the Function Test, and practiced dangling participle identification daily.

After: His English score jumped to 19–22/25 across the next 6 mock tests. His overall score crossed 148/200. The gerund/infinitive/participle questions — which used to be his worst nightmare — became his fastest and most confident answers.

Key Insight: "I didn't become better at English. I became surgical about which English to study." — Amit

You can do the same — here's how to start.

🧠 5 Expert Tips from a Grammar Coach

I've spent years watching students struggle with verbals — and watching them break through. Here are the insider tips I share with my best-performing students.

💡 Tip #1: Don't Memorize Rules — Memorize Verb Lists

Grammar rules are abstract. Verb lists are concrete. You don't need to understand why "enjoy" takes a gerund. You just need to know it does. Flashcards beat textbook explanations every time for this specific topic. Spend 10 minutes a day on verb lists for two weeks. You'll know 80% of them by heart.

💡 Tip #2: The "To" Trap — Not Every "To" is an Infinitive

This is my hot take, and most grammar books get this wrong by omission. In sentences like "I look forward to meeting you" or "She is used to waking up early," the word "to" is a preposition, not part of an infinitive. So it takes a gerund after it. This catches even advanced students off guard. The test: if you can replace "to" with "towards" and the sentence still makes sense, it's a preposition → use gerund.

💡 Tip #3: Perfect Participles Are Exam Gold

Most aspirants learn present and past participles. Very few learn the perfect participle ("Having finished the work, he left"). SSC examiners love testing this — especially in sentence rearrangement and error spotting. The rule: when one action is completed before another, use "Having + past participle" for the first action. Miss this, and you'll pick the wrong sentence structure every time.

💡 Tip #4: Use the "Bare Infinitive" Cheat Code

After make, let, see, hear, feel, watch — use the base verb without "to". This is called the bare infinitive. "She made him cry" (not to cry). "I saw her leave" (not to leave). This rule appears in SSC CGL error-spotting questions at least once per session. Free marks if you know it.

💡 Tip #5: Your Error Log Is More Important Than Your Score

After every practice set, don't just check your score. Categorize every wrong answer. Was it a gerund error? Infinitive? Participle? Preposition-related? After two weeks, you'll see a clear pattern — your "mistake fingerprint." Fix that fingerprint, and your score takes care of itself. Amit's fingerprint? He kept using infinitives after prepositions. Once he fixed that single pattern, he gained 4 marks instantly.

📗 Speaking of error logs and pattern recognition — Gerunds vs Infinitives vs Participles: 500 Questions includes categorized question sets organized exactly this way: gerunds only, infinitives only, participles only, then mixed. Plus detailed answer explanations that tell you why each option is right or wrong — so you build your own pattern database while practicing.

🎯 Your Turn: Start Your 45-Day Transformation

Let's cut to the core.

Amit didn't become a grammar genius. He didn't study for 8 hours a day. He didn't buy a ₹5,000 coaching course. He did something far simpler and far more effective: he identified the three grammar forms that carry the most weight in SSC CGL English — gerunds, infinitives, and participles — and he mastered them with focused, categorized practice over 45 days.

That's it. That's the whole strategy.

By the time your exam arrives, you could walk into that hall knowing that every -ing form, every to + verb construction, every dangling participle question is a guaranteed mark in your pocket — not a coin flip.

The question isn't whether this method works. The question is whether you'll actually do it.

📘 Ready to Master Gerunds, Infinitives & Participles?

If you're serious about never getting these three grammar forms wrong again, Gerunds vs Infinitives vs Participles: 500 Questions by Balu Kandekar is your shortcut. For just $11.99, you get categorized question sets, verb reference tables, the Function Test framework, and 500 exam-focused practice questions with detailed explanations.

👉 Grab Your Copy on Amazon

Your future self — the one who clears the cutoff — will thank you.

Start today. Not tomorrow. Not Monday. Today. Forty-five days is all you need. 💪

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the difference between a gerund and a present participle?

A gerund is a verb form ending in -ing that functions as a noun in a sentence (e.g., "Running keeps me fit"). A present participle also ends in -ing but functions as an adjective or forms continuous tenses (e.g., "The running water" or "She is running"). The key test: if you can replace the -ing word with a regular noun and the sentence still works, it's a gerund.

Q: How many questions on gerunds, infinitives, and participles appear in SSC CGL?

Gerunds, infinitives, and participles typically account for 8–12 questions (directly or indirectly) in the SSC CGL English section of 25 questions. These appear in error spotting, sentence correction, fill-in-the-blank, and sentence improvement questions. Mastering these three forms alone can improve your English score by 6–10 marks.

Q: Can I improve my SSC CGL English score in just 45 days?

Yes, 45 days is enough to see a significant improvement — if you focus on high-impact topics. Instead of trying to cover all grammar, target gerunds, infinitives, and participles with categorized practice. Students who follow a focused 45-day plan typically improve by 10–15 marks in the English section.

Q: Is the eBook "Gerunds vs Infinitives vs Participles: 500 Questions" worth $11.99?

If gerunds, infinitives, or participles are costing you marks in exams, this eBook pays for itself with the first 2–3 extra marks you gain. It contains 500 categorized practice questions with detailed explanations, verb reference tables, and pattern-recognition frameworks. It's designed specifically for SSC, Bank, and Railways exam aspirants — not general grammar learners.

Q: Who is the eBook best suited for?

The eBook is designed for Class 12 students and competitive exam aspirants preparing for SSC CGL, SSC CHSL, Bank PO, IBPS, and Railways exams. It's ideal for anyone who scores below 15/25 in English and wants a focused, practice-heavy resource for the three most-tested grammar forms.

Q: What is a dangling participle and why does it matter in SSC exams?

A dangling participle is a participle phrase that doesn't logically modify the subject of the sentence. For example, "Walking down the road, the trees looked beautiful" is incorrect because "the trees" weren't walking. SSC CGL and CHSL exams frequently test this error in the error-spotting section. Learning to identify dangling participles can help you answer 2–3 additional questions correctly per exam.

Q: How to master gerunds, infinitives, and participles for competitive exams?

Start by learning clear definitions and the Function Test (noun = gerund, adjective = participle, after preposition = gerund). Then memorize verb lists for gerund-only and infinitive-only verbs. Practice in categorized clusters of 50 questions per topic before mixing. Finally, simulate exam conditions with timed practice. This method, followed consistently for 45 days, can take your score from single digits to 20+.

Q: Do Bank PO and IBPS exams also test gerunds and infinitives?

Yes, Bank PO, IBPS PO, and IBPS Clerk exams regularly test gerund and infinitive usage in error detection, sentence correction, and fill-in-the-blank questions. The patterns are nearly identical to SSC exams. Mastering these forms gives you an advantage across multiple competitive exams simultaneously.

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Balu Kandekar

Balu Kandekar

Hello I am Balu Kandekar the founder of https://egrammaro.blogspot.com/ .com. I am a blogger . The website https://egrammaro.blogspot.com/ is created to help the students as well as the teachers. Here we discuss many topics in English grammar. This will help you to improve your English grammar. You can do the exercises on the website. You will use it on your own or with your students. We are so delighted to help you learn English!

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