yeah absolutely right.. i also got doomed in it.. i think its all because of our negligence that avoid practicing precis..

Somehow english composition paper is almost based on precis, comprehansion and expansion. if someone has attempted this part well, he would surely get through the paper with top marks..

As u said, some of the areas in paper like idioms and pair of words are limitless and uncoverable with ease.. i think the most important day to day idioms and pair of words should b memorised only instead of all..