Quiz pub hub Q&A

Are you preparing for an English exam?

Do you want to measure your english knowledge?

Test your english knowledge with englishtestonline.net!

Exercises are similar to those in intermediate and advanced English exams.

Every test contains ten randomly selected question.

The test do not have a time limit, which allows you as much time as you need to complete the test. The goal of the test is the practice and gaining experience.

How to complete the online test?

Replace the ... with the correct answer/answers!

Check only the right answer (one or more). If you check a correct answer and a wrong answer that can't be accepted as a right answer for that question.

There is at least one correct answer among the offered answers.

The evaluation is done after each answer, so you can read the completed version (The replaced part is highlighted) of the sentence even if you selected the wrong answer

You are not satisfied with your grammar knowledge?

Use our gap filling exercise to increase your vocabular.

What will you practice?

Verb tenses

Present simple: I learn.
Past simple: I learned.
Future: I will learn.
Present continuous: I am learning.
Past continuous: I was learning.
Future continuous: I will be learning.
Present perfect: I have learned.
Past perfect: I had learned.
Future perfect: I will have learned.
Present perfect continuous: I have been learning.
Past perfect continuous: I had been learning.
Future perfect continuous: I will have been learning.

Common mistakes

When and which one to use?

remain or stay
like vs as
yet, still, already, anymore
explain or tell
all right vs alright
fewer or less
Their vs. There
actually or currently
borrow or lend
find vs found
for vs since

Irregular verbs

Verb	3^rd person singular present tense	3^rd person singular past tense	past participle	present participle
be	is	was	been	being
begin	begins	began	begun	beginning
bite	bites	bit	bitten	biting
break	breaks	broke	broken	breaking
buy	buys	bought	bought	buying
choose	chooses	chose	chosen	choosing
come	comes	came	come	coming
dig	digs	dug	dug	digging
do	does	did	done	doing
drink	drinks	drank	drunk	drinking
eat	eats	ate	eaten	eating
fall	falls	fell	fallen	falling
feel	feels	felt	felt	feeling
find	finds	found	found	finding
get	gets	got	got	getting
go	goes	went	gone	going
grow	grows	grew	grown	growing
have	has	had	had	having
hide	hides	hid	hidden	hiding
keep	keeps	kept	kept	keeping
know	knows	knew	known	knowing
lay	lays	laid	laid	laying
lead	leads	led	led	leading
leave	leaves	left	left	leaving
lie	lies	lay	lain	lying
lose	loses	lost	lost	losing
make	makes	made	made	making
meet	meets	met	met	meeting
put	puts	put	put	putting
read /ri:d/	reads	read /red/	read /red/	reading
ride	rides	rode	ridden	riding
ring	rings	rang	rung	ringing
rise	rises	rose	risen	rising
run	runs	ran	run	running
say	says	said	said	saying
see	sees	saw	seen	seeing
sell	sells	sold	sold	selling
set	sets	set	set	setting
sing	sings	sang	sung	singing
sit	sits	sat	sat	sitting
stand	stands	stood	stood	standing
stick	sticks	stuck	stuck	sticking
take	takes	took	taken	taking
teach	teaches	taught	taught	teaching
think	thinks	thought	thought	thinking
wake	wakes	woke	woken	waking

Tips for Preparing English Exams

Take online English classes

Online classes are great at any time because they are so convenient and usually much cheaper than traditional academy prices. However they can become even more convenient in the run up to an exam. Perhaps you need to brush up on some last minute topics but feel like you don’t have enough time; online classes would be ideal as you can have them whenever and wherever you want! If you don’t have time due to work or studying commitments you could have a class during your lunch break without even leaving the office! Perhaps you have a busy family schedule and just can’t find the time to travel to an academy, again, online classes are perfect because you can also do them from the comfort of your own home. Whenever you have a little spare time and an internet connection you can have an online class to help you with your exam revision. Break Into English offers 1 to 1 English lessons with highly qualified native teachers who are trained to prepare students for English exams and they offer free trial lessons!

Review past papers and complete practice papers

One of the best ways to revise for an exam is to look at past papers and complete practice papers. If you’re studying at an academy and need to pass their exams to move to the next level then ask your teachers if there are any practice papers available or for a review of the layout of the exam. The practice papers of many official English exam companies can be found online. One of the main companies that offer official english exams is ‘Cambridge English’ and many tips and advice can be found on this page of the Cambridge website. It’s one thing to know and understand the topics or grammar you will be tested on but you also need to study the layout of exam papers as sometimes this can be quite confusing. By accessing practice papers you know exactly what type of questions will come up, for example, multiple choice questions, essay style questions, missing word questions, and then when you sit the exam none of this will be a shock to you. f you understand the different sections of the exam you are preparing for you can split your revision time into manageable chunks. If you know there will be reading, writing and vocabulary sections you can dedicate a certain amount of time to each topic thus managing your time wisely in the run up to an exam. This also means you get some variety when revising which is great to keep your mind interested!

Write a Timetable

A timetable is a really useful tool to helping you to pass your exam. It provides a framework to the revision you need to do; it helps you to plan your time carefully; it is of great use in making you identify those areas on which you need to work. The best way to prepare a timetable is take a diary, or an excel worksheet, or even a hand drawn grid. Start from the day of your exam and list the days backwards from there. Next, on a separate sheet make a list of everything on which you might be tested. For those areas in which you are really confident, you need to do nothing as you can pass these areas already; everything else should be divided up between the time you have. Try to work for two to three short (say 40 minute) sessions per day. But remember to build in times for breaks. As you tick off the days on your timetable, a sense of achievement comes about which really helps your confidence. Of course, while a timetable is an excellent tool to use for preparation of exams, it is also a good way to organise your everyday study, to help you spread your workload.

Learn your Stock Phrases

Exams are about impressing the marker. Study is about becoming as competent as you can be. Little impresses more than the accurate use of a good phrase. There are certain phrases that you may need to ask in an exam, so learn them to enable you to use them easily without causing any stress. Phrases such as ‘Can you repeat that, please?’ and ‘Could you give me a moment to think?’ are good for oral tests, while linking phrases such as ‘On the other hand’ and ‘Under certain circumstances’ are the kind of phrases that might come up in your written tests.

Research the Exam Content.

Get to know what you must study, and what to set aside. Teachers don’t test you on full curricula. Sometimes, there will be omissions or lessons that won’t be featured in a test. Of all English tips, this is the most vital, especially for occasional exams (monthly and mid-year). You don’t want to study things that won’t be featured. That will harm your score in the long run. Ask Your Teacher. Get the information directly from your professor/instructor. You need to be extra sure of what’s included and what’s not included. And there’s a chance you’ll get misinformation if you ask a classmate. You can contact them by email or directly. In fact, we recommend heading to class to get the info!

Do Practice Tests.

If you’re getting an exam, use past exams to prepare yourself. Combine this point with the previous. Schedule consistent practice tests to see how well you do. This way, you adapt yourself to the question format of the exam. You also adapt yourself to answering in a way that gets you top scores.

Rest Well Before an Exam

Study a ton, but don’t overstress yourself. Too much stress will affect your performance. It’ll make you unable to study or absorb the content of your lessons. So here’s what you should do…

Things to do improve your English'

Make a List of Vocabulary

And learn it. A wide vocabulary is one of the most important aspects to acquiring your language. Not only does it help you to understand the questions you are asked, but it also makes for impressive answers. Once again, by looking through old work exercises and exams you can get to know the types of vocabulary examiners choose to use, and the words that look impressive in your answers. It is a strong study tip to find out the sort of vocabulary English assessment systems such as TOEFL or TOEIC use, and then make sure that you are familiar with them.

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Be confident. People can only correct your mistakes when they hear you make them.
Surround yourself in English. Put yourself in an all English speaking environment where you can learn passively. The best way to learn is through speaking.
Practise every day. Make yourself a study plan. Decide how much time a week you are going to spend studying and stick to it. Establish a routine.
Tell your family and friends about your study plan. Get them to push you to study and also don’t let them interrupt you.
Practise the 4 core skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening. They all need to be worked on for you to improve.
Keep a notebook of new words you learn. Use them in sentences and try to say them at least 3 times when you speak.
Visit EC’s free learn English website at least once a day and complete a lesson.
Memorisation of lists is one of the most common ways of learning vocabulary for a test. It's only a good exercise for short term studying because you often do not retain the information that you have learned for a test.
Use your body clock. If you’re not a morning person, study in the afternoon.
You will find words easier to remember if you try to remember an example sentence using that word rather the word on its own.
Plan to take a test. You’ll find that you work harder when you need to study for something.
Saying that, it’s better not to study just to take a test. Think of the bigger picture. What can you do when you have a good command of English? How will the quality of your life improve?
Give yourself a long term goal. Focus on working towards it.
Give yourself short term goals too and reward yourself when you achieve each one.
Create an atmosphere in which you want to learn, not because you have to. You’ll learn more when you’re learning because you want to.
Know what works best for you. Think about what methods have been successful for you in the past and stick with them.
Figure out how you learn. It can be by memorising, reading, speaking, summarising or other methods. Find out how you study best. It can be in a quiet place by yourself or with a group.
Get help! If you don’t understand something you’ve got to ask someone. Ask your teacher, classmates or friends for help.
Review! Review! Review! Make sure that you take the time to review things you have studied in the past.
It’s not a good idea to study on your own for more than 30 minutes at a time. Take regular breaks, get some fresh air and stretch your legs.
Don’t be in such a hurry to move up a level. Concentrate on the level you are at now.
Watch DVDs rather than TV. It’s better to use something that you can watch over again to catch information you might have missed the first time.
Watching TV only gives you the chance to hear something correctly first time. This is better for high level students. It can be great practice for speaking to native English speakers so you don’t have to ask them to repeat themselves!
Read graded readers. These books are especially written for your level. Read a whole novel. You can do it! You’ll feel great afterwards.
Children’s books have easier words and are a good alternative to graded readers.
Newspapers are a good place to find passive constructs. Read through an article and see if you can find the passive sentences.
Read for the general meaning first. Don’t worry about understanding every word, then go back and look up new words.
For a word you don’t understand in a sentence, look at the other words around it. They will give you a hint. Try to guess the meaning from the context.
Learn root words. They’ll help you guess the meaning of words. For example: scrib = write, min = small
When you learn a new word, think of all its other forms: Beautiful (adjective), beauty (noun), beautifully (adverb).
Learn prefixes (dis-, un-, re-) and suffixes (-ly, -ment, -ful), these will help you to figure out the meaning of words and build your vocabulary.
English, unlike Japanese or French, uses word stress. For new words, count the syllables and find where the stress is. Only one stress per word and always on a vowel. Two syllable verbs have a stress on the second syllable (beGIN). 2 syllable nouns (TEAcher) and adjectives (HAPpy) stress the first.
Use English whenever you can. It’s as simple as that!
Don’t translate into English from your own language. Think in English to improve your fluency. Talk to yourself…but not on the bus otherwise people will think you have gone crazy!
You can’t learn English from a book. Like driving a car, you can only learn through doing it.
The most natural way to learn grammar is through talking.
Keep an English diary or journal. Start by writing a few sentences a day and then get into the habit of writing more.
Why not start an online blog and share your writings with the world?
To become a better writer brainstorm as many ideas and thoughts onto paper without worrying about grammar or spelling. Then think about the structure. After that, write your piece using good grammar and spelling. Finally, read it through or give it to someone else to check for mistakes.
Keep an eye on your punctuation as it can totally change what you’re trying to say. Check out the difference in meaning between these two sentences: “A woman without her man is nothing” and “A woman: without her, man is nothing”.
Sing your heart out! Show the world your beautiful voice! Learn English songs and sing along with them to improve fluency and intonation… anyone for Karaoke?
Get a penfriend or use chat-rooms, forums and community sites. If you can’t speak to someone in English, this is the next best thing.
Shadow English CDs. Listen to a few sentences then repeat what you heard. Focus on the rhythm and intonation.
Have English radio on in your house. Even if you are not actively listening to it, you will still be training your ears.
Mirror CDs. Read out loud along with a CD. Again, this is great for intonation, pronunciation and rhythm.
Dictation. Listen to a CD or friend and write down what you hear.
Nobody likes to hear their own voice, but be brave and try it! Record your voice and listen to your pronunciation and intonation. It will help you to identify your problem areas.
Ask your helpful teacher if you can record his lesson. This is a great way to review. You can also listen to your teachers speaking speed and intonation.
Use an English/English dictionary as it will help you to keep thinking in English and not translating.
If an English/English dictionary seems scary, there are learner’s dictionaries for English students of your level.
Don’t become too reliant on your dictionary. Your dictionary should be an aid, not your main teacher. Try to guess the meaning of words rather than going straight for your dictionary.
Don’t give up! Stay positive! Sometimes you will feel that you aren’t learning quickly enough. Everyone feels like this, don’t worry about it. You’ll get there in the end.
Enjoy it! We learn more when we are having fun!
If you get nervous when speaking, take two deep breaths before you say something. You’ll speak better when you feel relaxed.
Keep yourself motivated by looking back at the textbooks and CDs you used in the past. You’ll be surprised at how easy they seem to you now! Congratulations, your level is improving!
You are never too young or too old to start learning English. Don’t make excuses not to learn. What are you waiting for?
Procrastination can stop you from being successful. To stop procrastinating, it's important you understand if your procrastinating is to avoid studying, or if it is your bad habit.
If you haven’t gotten the results you wanted yet, it’s not because you’re bad at languages, it’s because you haven’t found your own special way of learning yet.
Use resources which match your level. Don’t use texts/listening exercises which are too difficult or too easy. Use materials which challenge you but don’t frustrate you.
Don’t worry about making your accent perfect. It’s an important part of your cultural identity to keep your accent. Native English speakers enjoy hearing English spoken with an accent.
There are many types of English: British, American, South African and so on. None of these are wrong or not as important. English is English.
Instead, be aware of the differences in American and British English and use your words accordingly. For example: Elevator (US) / Lift (British).
Carry cue cards with you. These are small cards which you can write new words on. You can pull them out and look at them whenever you a free minute.
Use post-it notes and stick them around your home. You can use them to label things. Stick one on your pet dog!
You can’t ignore phrasal verbs (two words verbs), there are hundreds of them in English and they’re widely used. The more you focus on their meaning, the more you’ll be able to guess the meaning of new ones. You’ll start to recognise their patterns.
Use your intuition. Go with your gut feeling, you’ll be surprised how often your first guess is the right guess. Like we said before, be confident.
Gather your thoughts. Take a second to think about what you’re going to say. You know the grammar, but maybe you don’t use it correctly when you speak.
Meet new people. Make the effort to mix with English speakers in your town. You could join a club or go to bars where foreigners hang out. Buy one a drink, they love that!
Be the person to start conversations in English. Try to keep the conversations moving and use listening words (‘really?’ / ‘go on…’/ ‘what happened then?’) Don’t wait for others to speak to you. Get in there!
Debate. Discuss topics in a group. Each person should choose a viewpoint (even if you don’t agree with it) and debate it within the group. Make sure you get your point across. Learn to listen actively. Active listening will help in the classroom and it will help you get more out of, and contribute more to, group study sessions. Focus on the person who is talking. Don’t fidget or become distracted by other people or events. Concentrate on the speaker with your ears and eyes. Follow the movements the speaker makes in an effort to hear more. It may help to repeat what you hear others say in an effort to understand their thoughts.
It’s not enough to only learn English words. You can teach a parrot English words but that doesn’t mean it can speak English! You still need to have an understanding of grammar.
Verb tenses are used by English speakers to talk about the timing of actions. You might not have the same expressions in your own language. It’s important that you know these tenses and when to use them.
English has many irregular verbs. You should drill yourself on them.
Keep it up! If you take a break from speaking English, you will find that your level decreases and all your hard work has been wasted.
Don’t be put off by a bad test score. Sometimes students have the ability to pass an English test, but can’t communicate well with English speakers. If you can speak freely in English, you should be proud of yourself.
Remember that as long as you have tried your hardest, you have succeeded!
Learn English with a friend. You’ll have someone you can practise with and you can motivate each other to study.
Remember, the way we write English is not the same as how it’s pronounced. For example ‘Ough’ has over 6 pronunciations. Familiarise yourself the Phonetic Alphabet. It will help you correctly pronounce words in the dictionary.
Get used to the ‘schwa’ sound [ə] - an unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound. ‘Schwa’ is the most common vowel sound in English. For example, the 'a' in about and the 'u' in supply.
Keep in mind that it takes longer to improve when our level is high. Usually the fastest progress is made when we are beginners. Don’t think that you’re suddenly not learning anymore, it’s just a less noticeable progress.
Make sure that your English matches the occasion. It’s OK to use slang with friends but not in a business meeting. Decide in which situation it’s appropriate to use the words and phrases you have learned.
Textbook English is often different from the way we casually speak. To learn casual ‘slang’ watch movies.
Idioms can be difficult to memorise, but they are great fun to use and they’ll make your English more colourful.
When talking we usually link words together so that two words can sound like one. Simply put, we link words ending with a consonant sound to words beginning with a vowel sound (consonant > vowel). We link words ending with a vowel sound to words beginning with a vowel sound (vowel > vowel). Practise these to improve your listening and pronunciation.
Make use of the internet. It’s full of resources to help you learn: BBC Learning English ; learnenglish.ecenglish.com
Think about your strong and weak points. Write down which areas you want to improve on and work on improving them. Of course, don’t ignore your strong points. Congratulate yourself on how well you’ve done!
Unlearn your mistakes. You probably make the same grammar mistakes over and over again. Use English tests results as a study tool. Go over your mistakes and choose one or two that you want to focus on. Use your favourite grammar book to check rules.
Use the correct article (a/an, the). Be aware that there is more to this rule than a/an= non specific, the=specific. For example: A university (not an university because it begins with a consonant sound). An hour (not a hour because the ‘h’ is often silent).
For fluency, try image training. Before you go to that restaurant think through what the waiter is likely to say to you. Think of what phrases you are going to use.
Much communication comes through body language and gesture. These can be different between cultures and countries. For example, the two-fingered "V" for victory symbol is fine palms-out. If you make it with you palm facing toward you, you'll offend a British person. It means…well, you ask a British person and find out for yourself!
The easiest one - Sleep! You’ll learn more after a good night’s sleep. You’ll be able to concentrate more.
Take an English course in an English speaking country.
If you studying abroad, mix with people from other countries not only people from your own country. It’s not a good idea for you to live in a shared house with people from your own country. Enjoy a more cultural experience by spending time with other nationalities.
Have you thought about getting a job or doing an internship abroad?
Get yourself a qualified teacher. Who wants to learn wrong things?
Nobody can learn all of the English language. No need to worry about trying. A useful shortcut to learning is that in English we have lots of words that have the same pronunciation, but a different spelling and meaning. For example, ‘come here’ has the same pronunciation as, ‘I can hear the birds’. You might find it easier to build vocabulary by knowing the different meanings.
Once you have a basic level of English explore the different ways you can say the same thing. This makes your English more interesting to the listener and it shouldn’t be too difficult for you because you already know the basics. For example, how many ways can we say, ‘Goodbye' in English?
When you are on your English course, be prepared for your class. Do your homework as soon as possible and hand it in on time. Review your notes and your last lesson a few minutes before the class. Doing this will refresh your memory and you'll be warmed up for lesson.
Don't get distracted in class. Focus on the lesson, don't stare out of the window. Don't be late, arrive a few minutes before the start of the lesson. Don't sit next to people who won't speak to you in English. Switch off your phone. Be organised, remember to take your textbook, notebook and pen.
Find a comfortable, peaceful place for quiet study. You need somewhere where you can focus 100%.

Dave ... to that tennis club for weeks.