Verbal ability interview questions

I look at the rest of the sentence for clues, such as a contrast word like "despite" or a result word like "so". Then I guess a simple meaning and test it in the sentence. For example, in "The explanation was so lucid that everyone understood it", the result tells me lucid means clear.

The opening phrase has no one doing the walking, so it seems to describe the computer. A correct version is "Walking into the room, I noticed the computer was switched off" or "When I walked into the room, the computer was switched off."

I read the question first, then the passage, and then go back to the exact line that answers it. I only choose an option that the passage supports, even if another option sounds true in real life. For main idea questions, I pick the option that covers the whole passage.

In most workplace writing, "affect" is a verb meaning to change or influence, and "effect" is a noun meaning the result. For example: "The outage affected 200 users" and "The effect of the outage was a spike in calls."

I use short sentences with one idea each and common words instead of idioms. I put the main point or request in the first line. For example, instead of "Kindly touch base at your earliest convenience", I would write "Please call me before Friday."

I note new words with the full sentence I found them in, so I remember how they are used. I review the list once a week and try to use one or two new words in my own writing. Reading work-related articles regularly gives me words I will actually need.