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Playbook

Vocabulary — Confusable pairs and word definitions

31 q across two thin subtopics — affect vs effect, principle vs principal, immediate vs imminent. Mostly handled by recognising the family.

questions in the bank
31
tagged HARD
3%
subtopic(s) covered
2
worked examples
1

When you’ll see it

Two near-identical words (affect/effect, principle/principal) or a stem that asks for a one-word definition.

How this question type works

31 q across the two thin Vocabulary subtopics. Both reward the same skill: knowing the precise meaning, not the approximate one. Confusable Word Pairs (20 q) tests 'pick the right one of two look-alike words for the blank'. Word Definition (11 q) tests 'pick the word whose meaning matches the given description'.

The work that pays off here is reading any standard confusable-pair list (affect/effect, accept/except, lose/loose, principle/principal, complement/compliment, stationary/stationery) and writing one sentence using each correctly. The bank rotates the same ~30 pairs.

Word Definition is essentially 'reverse synonyms'. Given 'a person who hates humanity', pick MISANTHROPE. The trap is the close-but-wrong option (MISOGYNIST = hates women, not humans).

The sub-skills

The rules and habits that decide whether you get this question right.

  • Master the top-30 confusable pairs

    affect/effect (verb/noun), accept/except (receive/exclude), lose/loose (misplace/loose), principle/principal (rule/head), complement/compliment (complete/praise), stationary/stationery (still/paper), discreet/discrete (careful/separate), elicit/illicit (extract/illegal), allusion/illusion (reference/false belief).

  • Definition → word: think 'specific not approximate'

    A definition tests the precise word, not a similar one. 'Fear of enclosed spaces' is CLAUSTROPHOBIA, not 'phobia of small rooms'.

1 worked example from the bank

Real past-year questions tagged to this playbook. Click to reveal options + solution.

Example 1VocabularyEASY
Directions : In the following items, a pair of words is provided. You are required to select the option that most appropriately describes the meaning of both the words and mark your response on the Answer Sheet accordingly.
Confident and Confidant.

[Q11 · Apr · 2025]

Traps to expect

Distractor shapes specific to this playbook. The page-wide Traps section covers the bank-level patterns.

  • Adjacent meaning

    PHILANTHROPIST (loves humanity) vs MISANTHROPIST (hates humanity) — same root, opposite meaning. Picking by half-recognition costs you the question.

  • Sound-alike with different meaning

    'imminent' (about to happen) vs 'eminent' (distinguished). One vowel away, different meaning.

Drill every vocabulary — confusable pairs and word definitions question

31 questions from the bank, scoped to 2 bundled subtopics.

Drill the 31 questions

Related playbooks

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